NBA Scores And More: Spurs A Breath Too Late Against Mavs, Heat Hold On Against Bulls

Dirk Nowitzki returned after missing four games recovering from knee pain, but it was Jason Terry who carried the Dallas Mavericks through the second half and overtime, scoring a game high 34 points and driving Dallas to a 101-100 win over the San Antonio Spurs Sunday night.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich relied on his bench to score the entirety of the Spurs final 51 points in the game, covering 19:41 of game time. Popovich rode the bench that had worked hard to erase an 18-point Maverick lead and put the Spurs ahead by as many as nine points in the fourth quarter.

Gary Neal, Danny Green, Tiago Splitter, James Anderson and Matt Bonner all played out the game while Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and company sat out. Neal was especially active, scoring 13 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter, leading an assault from three point range that showed the bench crew making 7-8 from long range.

The Spurs bench was more active, moved the ball quicker and, most importantly, made their shots where the starters couldn't get as much to fall. At the apex of their run, up nine with five and a half minutes to go, the fatigue of having to make a run of that nature was starting to show.

Dallas, meanwhile, was working Dirk back and, while Nowitzki did collect 13 rebounds in his 37 minutes, his shot was just a bit off, managing only 10 points on 5-14 shooting. The crux of the Mavericks' production, especially in the second half, fell on Terry's shooting touch. Terry outscored his teammates 22-18 in the second half, driving inside to score and making tremendous shots of curl routes around screens.

As time ran down on the game, the Spurs had a chance to put it away, but Splitter missed a free throw that would have put the Spurs up five with 37 seconds to go. After a Rodrigue Beaubois quick two, the Mavs dug in on defense. Neal drove the ball to the hoop, but Beaubois was there to make a play on the ball and Dallas took possession with seven seconds left.

Eschewing a time-out, Terry raced the ball up the court while the crowd got loud. JET ducked underneath a couple of players and rose up on Neal. It's a shot and a place on the floor that anybody who has seen Jason Terry play, in Atlanta or Dallas, could have foresaw. Terry let his jump shot go and saw it swish through the net with 0.5 seconds left, leaving the game to overtime.

Or so you thought. Little did anybody know that in 0.5 seconds you could create 5 minutes of hushed silence, but that's just what Danny Green did. Green took the inbounds pass, spun, and cashed it in for the win. That was the ruling, but on replay review, you could see that just a fraction of a second before the ball left Green's fingers, the light went off. If there had been 0.7 seconds left, Spurs win, but there was 0.5, so overtime and Dallas and all of its fans exhaled.

Even though his crew was gassed, Popovich left his second squad in to try and take out the relieved and comparatively spry Mavericks in the extra period. True enough, the Mavericks got an offensive rebound on the first possession and Vince Carter, who had a solid 22 points, gave Dallas the lead. Anderson answered with a three for the Spurs, but Nowitski shook off some rust and hit a floater to grab the lead back.

Tired or not, the Spurs reached back for one last push. Splitter hit a couple of free throws to give the Spurs the lead for the last time and Danny Green made it a three-point lead with 78 seconds left. Nowitzki answered with a basket, and after Matt Bonner missed an open three, there was Terry scoring his 31st and 32nd points on a pass from Dirk, giving the Mavericks the lead for good.

Down the stretch, the Spurs turned the ball over and Terry knocked down a pair of free throws to make it three points in Dallas' favor. Then it was Neal's turn to make a quick basket, but instead of letting him go, Shawn Marion fouled Neal as the ball went through the hoop, giving San Antonio a chance to tie the game.

Neal, who had been so instrumental in the comeback, bricked the free throw and the Spurs quickly fouled Ian Mahinmi. The Dallas center went to the line with a chance to stretch the lead to three but he missed both free throws and the Spurs called timeout.

One more chance for the battling bench of San Antonio to win the game. Out of the timeout, the ball found Matt Bonner 23 feet from the hoop with his back to the goal. Someone was supposed to be coming to take the ball and likely head to the hoop, but they weren't fast enough and Carter poked the ball free from Bonner's grasp.

As the ball headed out of bounds, Green saved it and instead of running out of bounds himself he ran into the official. While it looked like he may have double dribbled, they played on and Green shot a 27-foot three that clanged off the rim and time expired.

For more insight on this classic, check out Mavs Moneyball and Pounding the Rock.

Chauncey Billups has enjoyed decades of success playing basketball in Colorado. A three-time Mr. Colorado in high school and a college star in Boulder, Billups was also a Denver Nugget on two separate occasions, leading the Nuggets to the Western Conference Finals in 2009. When he was traded to the New York Knicks last season as part of the Carmelo Anthony deal, Billups was saddened to leave his home town, all the more so because he was just a pawn in that blockbuster deal. When Billups was then waived by the Knicks in December under the league's amnesty rules, it was yet another blow to his pride, and he briefly considered retiring. The Los Angeles Clippers, who claimed him off of amnesty waivers, are glad he didn't.

Billups scored a season-high 32 points Sunday night in his return to the Mile High City to help lead the Clippers to a thrilling 109-105 victory. In the final three minutes, he made a three-pointer (his sixth of the game) to tie the score at 99, and seconds later converted a traditional three-point play to give the Clippers a 102-99 lead. Then with 18 seconds left and the Clippers clinging to a two point lead, he drew a charge from Nene to seal the win. The Denver crowd, so used to seeing Billups' clutch play work in their favor, could only moan in disbelief.

The Clippers as a team made a season-high 14 three-pointers on the game and they needed every one of them. The Denver defense paid special attention to Blake Griffin, and held him to a subpar 17 points on 7 for 16 shooting. (Griffin managed to contribute in other ways as well, with 13 rebounds and a career-high four blocked shots.) With so much attention focused on Griffin in the paint, the Clippers were able to find some open looks on the perimeter. They finished the game 14 for 30 on three-pointers. Chris Paul was more aggressive on offense than he has been since returning from injury, scoring 25 points on 9 for 19 shooting, and contributing three of those crucial three-pointers.

As they have all season, the Nuggets used a balanced effort on offense, led by Nene (18 points), Danilo Gallinari (17), and Andre Miller and Al Harrington (16 each). Denver is one of the deepest teams in the league, and in some ways this game became a question of whether the Nugget reserves could build a lead big enough to hold off the Clipper starters. Whenever Paul and/or Griffin went to the bench, Denver would immediately go on a run -- but the Clippers would come storming back when their stars returned. A 12-1 Denver run spanning the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth (and occurring while Griffin and Paul were resting) gave Denver their biggest lead of the game at 10 points. But with their big guns back on the floor, the Clippers immediately went on a 10-0 run of their own to tie the game again. It remained tight the rest of the way, setting up Billups' heroics.

This was a crucial road win for the Clippers, who had previously won only a single game away from home. The win boosts L.A.'s overall record to 11-6, while Denver drops to 14-6, 7-3 at home.

For more on the Clippers, visit beautiful Clips Nation. To read up on the Nuggets, head over to Denver Stiffs.

Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum combined for 84 points on 56.9 percent shooting -- 33-59 on field goals -- to guide the Los Angeles Lakers to a 106-101 road win over the feisty Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday night. After dropping four straight road games, amassing a pitiful 1-7 record away from home on the season and falling out of the Western Conference playoff seeding, the Lakers' big three unwound those painful knots by scoring 80 percent of their team's points and closing out the game with a dominant 12-2 run late in the fourth quarter. Why they ever needed a late run to close out the Timberwolves is another story.

The Lakers had complete control of the game for most of the night, but they did create some excitement down the stretch. In fact, LA trailed for a total of 26 seconds and never by more than two points, but those rare Minnesota leads came in the fourth quarter after the Lakers blew an 18-point third-quarter lead. Pau carried the team early with 14 of his 28 points coming in the first quarter, then Kobe hit four threes in the third quarter (on his way to a game-high 35-points and 15 rebounds) to help grow the advantage to double-digits.

Wolves head coach Rick Adelman opted to employ a 2-3 zone for most of the second half to try and slow down the Lakers' potent frontcourt, but that freed up Kobe to take advantage of single-coverage. The zone did help the home team get back into the game, as L.A. only scored 18 points in the paint in the second half and let the Wolves get back into the game with a dry spell from outside, but the Lakers' trio got things back on track and closed the game out by scoring 24 of the team's 27 points in the final period.

Minnesota never found a stroke from outside, shooting just 38.5 percent on the night as a team, but they crashed the boards effectively, got out in transition and took excellent care of the basketball to compensate. Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic each grabbed seven offensive rebounds and helped the Wolves secure a 32-to-10 advantage in second-chance points. Love finished with a team-high 33 points and 13 rebounds on the night.

The weirdest facet of the game emerged in the turnover numbers. Minnesota is a young team that gets reckless with the basketball on most nights -- holding an average of 16 turnovers per game, which is 7th worst in the NBA -- but they only turned the ball over four times as a team against the Lakers. Ricky Rubio still pushed the ball in transition too, as he dished out eight assists without committing a turnover and helped the Wolves create a 16-0 advantage in fast break points. Turnover machine Michael Beasley also limited himself to a single turnover while notching an impressive 18-point, 12-rebound double-double, even if he still did have his less judicious moments.

For all their timely put-backs on the glass and good decisions on offense, Minnesota's dreadful outside shooting prevented them from ever completing the comeback. After fighting back to gain a 94-93 lead with 3:19 remaining in the game, they missed five straight jumpers (one of which Anthony Randolph managed to tip in) over the next three minutes and fell behind by nine in the process. The most exciting moment of the final 20 seconds came when Beasley flashed the "Kobe System" symbol after a fairly meaningless steal and made three to help set the 106-101 final score.

The Lakers improved to 2-7 on the road and 12-9 overall, while the Timberwolves fell to 5-7 at home and 9-11 on the season. To put the loss into perspective for Minnesota, consider this little nugget from the game preview at Canis Hoopus, which is unfortunately still just as relevant after the game:

How long has it been since the Minnesota Timberwolves defeated the Los Angeles Lakers? It was a double overtime win for the Good Guys in which Kevin Garnett had 26 points and 17 rebounds and our starting lineup included Mark Blount, Marko Jaric, Troy Hudson and Ricky Davis. 8 of the 19 players who were involved in that game are no longer in the NBA.

That was March 6th, 2007...

Minnesota has now lost 16 consecutive head-to-head matchups against the Lakers. They do get three more chances to break the streak this season -- a pair of road games at the Staples Center on Feb. 29th and Mar. 16th, and one more home matchup on Mar. 9th.

For more on the Timberwolves, check out Canis Hoopus. Lakers information and analysis is available at Silver Screen And Roll.