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| Dallas Mavericks |
Dallas Mavericks News - Monta Ellis is headed to his first Game 7 and DeJuan Blair gets a chance to play his old team in San Antonio one more time after all.
Ellis scored 12 of his 29 points to lead a fourth-quarter comeback that also got an energetic boost from Blair in his return after getting suspended, and the Mavericks forced a deciding game in their first-round series with top-seeded San Antonio, beating the Spurs 113-111 on Friday night.
Tony Parker matched Nowitzki with 22 points to lead the heavily favored Spurs, who are stuck in a tossup series after they won all four games against the Mavericks during the regular season and had a 10-game winning streak against them after taking the opener.
The only other time these teams played a Game 7, Nowitzki had an improbable three-point play to force overtime in San Antonio in 2006. Blair had plenty of time to think about Game 6 after watching the previous game alone in his hotel room in San Antonio.
Danny Green had 17, matching his total for the first five games of the series combined, and Tim Duncan had 16 points and nine rebounds.
Carter finished with 13, and Jose Calderon had 12 points and six assists.
Game notes
The Spurs were 25-0 on the road when leading after three quarters before this game. The Mavericks had seven turnovers in the second quarter, and the sloppy stretch helped the Spurs cut an 11-point deficit to two at 41-39. Dallas had seven more turnovers in the third, when a six-point lead turned into a five-point deficit. Mavericks C Brandan Wright did not play for the first time in the series after playing a series-high 26 minutes in Game 5 when Dallas pick-and-roll defense was shredded.
