Mavericks at Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs are among the best teams in the NBA. Lately, they may be the most inconsistent. San Antonio will try to find its form Thursday when it hosts the Dallas Mavericks. After winning three straight by an average of 28.3 points, the Spurs lost at home to Portland by 30, posted a solid win over high-powered Oklahoma City and then suffered a 24-point loss at lowly Minnesota on Tuesday while forwards Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard stayed home.
While San Antonio struggles to regain its footing without All-Star guard Tony Parker in the lineup, the Mavericks continue their climb toward playoff contention. Dallas has won four straight after a 115-108 victory at Milwaukee on Tuesday and trail the Los Angeles Lakers by 2 1/2 games in the race for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Vince Carter scored 13 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter of Tuesday's victory, which gave the Mavs a 3-0 mark on their four-game road trip.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, TNT
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (30-33): While Carter was solid in the stretch run Tuesday and Dirk Nowitzki stood out at the start (17 of his 19 points came in the first half), Dallas also got a nice contribution from rookie swingman Jae Crowder. Starting in place of the injured Shawn Marion, Crowder had 14 points -- one shy of his season high -- and a person-best eight rebounds. Marion has missed three straight games due to a sore left calf. He remains day-to-day. The Mavericks are 7-3 without Marion in the lineup. They've won each of the last six without their top defender.
ABOUT THE SPURS (49-16): Playing the second half of a back-to-back, coach Gregg Popovich elected to leave Duncan and Leonard behind when the team traveled from San Antonio to Minnesota late Monday night. The players were officially diagnosed with sore knees, but sitting players in situations such as this is nothing new to Popovich. Matt Bonner (two points in 19 minutes) made his second start, Stephen Jackson (14 points) made his fourth and Cory Joseph (15 points) his fifth. The Spurs shot 35.4 percent from the floor and were outrebounded 49-39 in falling to 5-4 since a 16-1 stretch.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. San Antonio has won the first three games of the four-game series by an average of 23 points.
2. After this one, Dallas plays eight of its next nine games at home.
3. In keeping with the Spurs' inconsistency, C Tiago Splitter went 9-for-11 from the field in the win over Oklahoma City but was 1-for-10 against Minnesota.
PREDICTION: San Antonio 100, Dallas 94