Dallas 89, San Antonio 101  //  34-6  //  1st in the West

Now that’s how a victory against a short-handed Dallas Mavericks team should go. Little resistance, plenty of garbage time.

Honestly, there’s not much that can be said about this game regarding the two teams. Without Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavs aren’t the Mavs, and no reasonable conclusions can be drawn from the match-up. In a game like this, once it’s clear that the Spurs are the superior team on the court, the game becomes less about the opponent, and more about the Spurs. In essence, you’re playing against the game, against yourself, and against mistakes, striving for an ideal that is impossible to achieve but drives you nonetheless. It becomes about execution on both ends of the court, passion, intensity, and intelligence; about playing the game “the Spurs way”, whatever that means for that team.

On all accounts, this game was a success. The offense was crisp and efficient through three quarters, scoring 85 points every which way. Every extra pass was made, every shot open and in the flow of the offense. On defense, the same. Nothing came easy for Dallas, as we allowed them no free points and no second chances, holding them to 61 points through three quarters (as the game was more or less decided by then, the 4th quarter can almost be disregarded entirely in terms of overarching team performance and trends, that’s how good the first three quarters were).

D. Clarke Evans/NBAE/Getty Images

DeJuan Blair had a particularly strong game, showing off the entirety of his offensive repertoire. His passing was superb, netting 4 assists on picture perfect interior passing that had Jeff VanGundy gushing. He even unleashed a few long jump shots–something he has been working on very hard but hasn’t really felt comfortable doing during games yet–connecting on two of them. And his work around the rim gobbling up offensive rebounds and putback lay-ups was as strong as ever. If we can get this Blair more consistently, look out.

Nowitzki or no Nowitzki, this may have been our most complete game of the season. As the season rolls into the 2nd half, it’s nice to see the team challenging itself and continuing to grow, playing great on both ends of the court for longer and longer stretches of games. We all know the regular season is a march towards perfecting the team and fine-tuning for the playoffs. Games like tonight’s game are very important steps on that very long journey.