Spurs oust Mavericks to set up tilt with Lakers
By Jaime Aron
The Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO — Despite all the
barbs the Los Angeles Lakers have
thrown, the San Antonio Spurs
haven’t fought back.
Now they’re going to get their
chance.
Tim Duncan had 32 points and 20
rebounds as San Antonio cruised
past the Dallas Mavericks 105-87
Monday night, sending the 1999
champion Spurs to the Western
Conference finals against the de
fending champion Lakers.
“This is the series everybody
wanted,” Duncan said. “I don’t
know if we wanted it. ”
The showdown, which starts Sat
urday in San Antonio, will be the
first conference finals pitting the
two previous NBA champions since
1985. It’s only the fifth such
matchup in league history.
This one comes with some bag
gage to it. Lakers center Shaquille
O'Neal called the Spurs a WNBA
team last summer, and coach Phil
Jackson has said San Antonio’s title
deserves an asterisk because it came
in the lockout-shortened season,
“It’s a good series to hype up, isn’t
it?” said San Antonio's David
Robinson, the target of some harsh
words in O'Neal’s recent book.
“They’ve been playing great basket
ball, their best of the year, and our
level of basketball has been ex
tremely high. This is exciting. No
question this is a big series. ”
After blowing a chance for a
sweep Saturday in Dallas, the Spurs
made it clear from the start of this
game that they wanted to prepare
for the Lakers and not go back up I
35 for a sixth game.
Duncan and Robinson threw
down dunks for San Antonio’s first
two baskets and a three-pointer by
Danny Ferry put the Spurs up by
double digits within eight minutes.
The Spurs, who trailed by 17 ear
ly in losing Game 4, made 15 of their
first 20 shots and led by at least 11
for the final three quarters.
“You could tell from the moment
everyone walked in this morning
that everyone was extremely fo
cused,” said Antonio Daniels, who
set his playoff high with 19 points
and nine assists.
Dallas, which had won four
straight elimination games this
postseason, didn’t have the energy
— or accuracy — to come back.
Except for Dirk Nowitzki, who
scored a career-high 42 points and
had 18 rebounds, the Mavericks re
sumed the inept shooting that cost
them the first three games of the se
ries. Michael Finley missed 16 of 17
shots and Dallas was 0 for 11 on
three-pointers.
“Worst game of my life,” Finley
said. “Being that it was the biggest
game of my life, I didn’t give my
team a chance."
Dallas, which in the first round
became the sixth team to win a five
game series after losing the first two,
became the 64th team unable to
overcome an 0-3 deficit in a seven
game series.
But the Mavs can feel good about
their best season in 13 years. They
won 53 games and upset Utah in the
first round.
“It’s a disappointment to end the
season on a blowout,” said Nowitz
ki, who had his fourth game with at
least 30 points this postseason, the
first in a loss. “But maybe it’s better
than ending on a one-point loss.
That’d be even more frustrating.”
O'Neal will make things tougher
on the inside than Dallas’ thin tan
dem of Shawn Bradley and Calvin
Booth. Shaq’s Lakers, who wrapped
up a sweep of Sacramento Sunday,
split the season series with San An
tonio 2-2.
But the Spurs have home-court
advantage against Los Angeles and
they’re 5-0 at the Alamodome this
postseason. The home fans were al
ready looking forward to the next
round by chanting “Beat L.A.!” in
the final minutes against Dallas.
Steve Kerr, who won several titles
playing for Jackson, doesn’t expect
his former coach to fan the rivalry’s
flames.
“He might kill us with kindness
to change things up a bit,” Kerr said.
Another trait San Antonio will car
ry into the Lakers series is its regular
season ability to blow out opponents.
After winning an NBA-best 40
games by at least 10 points, the
Spurs have won six of their seven
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postseason games by at least 13
points. Their average margin over
Dallas was 15.5.
This is the sixth time the Spurs
have made the conference finals.
They faced the Lakers in 1982 and
‘83, losing both times. San Antonio’s
only NBA Finals appearance was in
1999, when it beat New York for the
championship.
Game notes: The last time the
Western Conference finals featured
the two previous champions was
Los Angeles-Milwaukee in 1972.
Boston, the 1984 champ, and 1983
champ Philadelphia met in the East
finals in ‘85. The other conference
finals meetings between the last two
champions were Boston-Philadel
phia (’58) and Minneapolis
Rochester (’52). The ‘52 and ‘58
matchups were during the era of
two rounds of playoffs. ... After
making 18 of 19 free throws in
Game 4, Dallas missed three of its
first 11. ... Although San Antonio
has made six conference finals, this
is only the fifth in the West. The
Spurs played Washington in the
Eastern Conference finals in 1979.
Sports brief
Colorado takes 2-0 series lead
in NHL Western Finals
DENVER — On one end of the
ice, Patrick Roy continues to make
critical saves. On the other end,
Roman Turek is simply becoming
a critic.
Roy stopped 28 shots and the
Colorado Avalanche got three goals
from unlikely offensive sources as
they took control of the Western
Conference finals with a 4-2 victo
ry over the St. Louis Blues on
Monday night.
“They scored three goals, but
they were pretty lucky goals,” said
Turek, who faced only 15 shots.
“We had two nice goals, but they
scored three lucky goals and they
won.”
Turek, who had been steady in
the first two playoff rounds, vent
ed his frustration after defensemen
Ray Bourque and Adam Foote
scored on long slap shots and
Shjon Podein burned him with a
nice move to complete a- 3-on-2 in
the third period.
Podein’s goal with 6:39 remain
ing proved to be the game-winner
as the Avalanche took a 2-0 series
heading into Game 3 in St. Louis
Wednesday night.
“Being up by two games really
puts the pressure on the Blues
right now,” Colorado captain Joe
Sakic said. “We all know what
happened the last two years in
Dallas, so we don’t really have to
talk too much about it. We knew
how important this game was.”
The Avalanche won Game 1 of
the conference finals each of the
past two years only to lose Game 2,
and ultimately the series, to the
Dallas Stars.
Since moving from Quebec to
Colorado in 1995, the Avs have
won all eight series after taking a 2
0 lead.
“I know that being down 2-0 is a
tough hole,” St. Louis coach Joel
Quenneville said. “But we go
home and get some momentum
back. We need to get a win under
our belt.”
Roy has prevented the Blues
from getting any momentum. He
has allowed just six goals in the
last six games, making the most
difficult saves look easy.
“I’m impressed, very im
pressed,” Avalanche coach Bob
Hartley said. “It seems that he’s
playing with a tracking device out
there.”
The Associated Press