Spurs Run Over Mavericks 107-89
DALLAS – Devin Brown sparked a fourth-quarter spurt with two three-point plays and two dunks, helping the San Antonio Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks 107-89 Monday night to spoil the pseudo-coaching debut of Avery Johnson.
Johnson, the hand-picked successor of Dallas coach Don Nelson, ran the game as if the job was already his. Nelson was there, too, but offered only suggestions. This was the first of about six such training sessions Nelson has planned.
Tim Duncan made jumpers on San Antonio’s first two possessions and the Spurs were up by at least 10 for most of the first three quarters. After the lead peaked at 63-48, Dallas got within 69-65 going into the fourth, but couldn’t get any closer.
Brown’s first layup and free throw restored a nine-point lead, and his second three-point play capped a 10-0 run that made it 88-71 with 7:20 left. The Mavericks finally scored, but Brown answered with a breakaway dunk.
Brown scored 14 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter. Beno Udrih also had 16 off the bench, while Duncan had 20 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks. Tony Parker scored 17 and Manu Ginobili added 11.
San Antonio won its fourth straight, doing it again with offense as well as its league-leading defense. The Spurs followed a season-high 109 points against Utah with their second-most points. And after holding the Jazz to 10 points in the first quarter of their last game, the Spurs held Dallas to 14 in the opening period.
Dallas lost for the fourth time in six games. The Mavs are 3-5 since opening the season 7-1 and already have lost three home games after dropping only five all of last season.
The Mavericks were done in by a season-worst 22 turnovers, including five each by Dirk Nowitzki and Erick Dampier. The poor ball movement also was evident in their paltry 10 assists. They also played lousy defense much of the game, with all seven of Parker’s baskets coming on layups.
Nowitzki led Dallas with 21 points, 13 rebounds and a team-best four assists. Josh Howard scored 17, Marquis Daniels had 15 and Jason Terry 10.
Nelson picked this game to begin breaking in Johnson because he knows the Spurs so well after having played there most of his 16 seasons, including starting on their 1999 championship club. He remains close with Duncan and San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich.
As they took their seats for tipoff, Johnson deferred to Nelson, giving him the main coach’s seat on the bench. They swapped after three possessions. Old habits die hard, though: Nelson was the first off the bench to argue a questionable foul against Dallas, and he stayed up longer and yelled louder than Johnson. Nelson also seemed to be biting his lip to keep from talking during the first few timeouts.
Johnson developed a close bond with Nelson and other top members of the organization while with the club in 2002 and ’03. The Mavs began grooming him for a second career in 2002 by making Johnson an assistant coach after leaving him off the playoff roster.
He signed this summer to be a player-coach but retired in the preseason to focus strictly on calling plays, not running them. He’s often in charge of practices, and he coached a preseason game when Nelson and assistant Del Harris were ill. Johnson said that experience helped prepare him for this game; that one also was against the Spurs.
Notes:@ This was Dallas’ third 20-plus turnover game after having the fewest turnovers in the league last season. … Although Johnson was in charge, the game still counted as Nelson’s 864th career loss. … Jerry Stackhouse showed that he can still run and jump quite well, chasing down Parker on a breakaway to cleanly swat away a layup.