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Running on empty Undersized Mavs fade under strain of Dirk's absencePosted: Monday May 26, 2003 2:25 AM
DALLAS -- Mavs fans were hoping for another Willis Reed. They would have settled for J.R. Reid, Robert Reid or maybe even Rex Reed. They got none of the above, and now Dallas’ hopes of reaching the NBA Finals are as thin as a reed. Hobbled by a sprained left knee, Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki did not play in Sunday’s Game 4 of the Western Conference finals. Much to the disappointment of the 20,000-plus at American Airlines Center, Nowitzki did not hobble out of the tunnel in uniform like Reed famously did for the Knicks in Game 7 of the 1970 Finals. "I wanted to play. It’s frustrating," said Nowitzki, who watched helplessly from the bench in a red sweater and blue jeans as Tim Duncan and the Spurs rolled to a 102-95 win and a 3-1 series lead. "If we would have won, it would have been 2-2 and the whole thing would have been wide open." Whether Nowitzki would have been enough to lift the Mavs over the Spurs is debatable, but there’s no question his absence made a difference. Dallas played hard all game, actually building a 52-47 lead at the half. But Mavs stars Steve Nash, Nick Van Exel and Michael Finley didn't get enough help from their teammates in the second half. "[Dirk] is a very good on the inside and his versatility causes a lot of problems for other people and opens things up for everyone," Nash said. "He’s also a great defensive rebounder. We missed him in a lot of ways tonight." Without Nowitzki and 7-foot-6 Shawn Bradley to provide some interior resistance, Mavs coach Don Nelson opted to double-team Duncan on the catch in Game 4. Duncan finished with a relatively modest 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting. But his patience and passing skills helped set up Spurs teammates Tony Parker (25 points) and Emanuel Ginobili (21 points) for scads of easy layups and wide-open jumpers. Meanwhile, Nash and Van Exel seemed to get worn out late from having to chase Duncan around the court. Their fatigue seemed most evident during a key 16-2 third-quarter run by the Spurs. During the debacle, Nash and Van Exel combined for six turnovers and missed several inside shots while trying to shoot over Duncan. "Our little guys really had to do a lot of running around," Nelson said. "We were double-teaming Duncan on all his catches. To do that your small players really have to work… I think they’ll sleep well tonight." Other than tweaking his double-team strategy and starting Van Exel, Nelson didn’t try any crazy schemes to compensate for Nowitzki’s absence. When a fire alarm went off an hour before the game, forcing an evacuation of the arena, some joked that Nellie might have pulled off the stunt in hopes of getting the game postponed. It turned out to be a false alarm, set off by some smoke from a small grease fire in a kitchen deep inside the arena. Now, thanks in part to Nowitzki’s absence in Game 4, it’s the Mavs chances that appear to have gone up in smoke.
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