Spurs at Mavericks
The San Antonio Spurs have suddenly hit a bump in the road as home-court advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs is just out of reach, and the Dallas Mavericks will be trying to improve their postseason chances when the Texas teams meet Thursday in Dallas. San Antonio had its franchise-record 19-game winning streak snapped last Thursday against the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Spurs dropped their second game in the last three Tuesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves. San Antonio still had a comfortable 3 1/2-game lead over the Thunder for the top spot in the West entering Wednesday and, with just four games left, should be able to wrap up the No. 1 seed for the third time in the last four years in the coming days.
The Spurs will be without six-time All-Star point guard Tony Parker, the team’s leading scorer (16.8) who was diagnosed with a sprained facet joint in his back Monday. Parker scored a team-high 23 points in a nine-point Spurs' victory at Dallas on Dec. 26 and came back with 25 points two weeks later in a 22-point win against the visiting Mavericks. Dallas has gone 28-15 since then and entered Wednesday in seventh place in the West, two games clear of the ninth-place Memphis Grizzlies with three games left.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, TNT
ABOUT THE SPURS (60-18): Kawhi Leonard has seen his numbers rise in each of his first three NBA seasons and has shown a similar upward plane this season, most recently matching his career-high with 26 points Sunday in a 20-point victory against the Grizzlies. Since returning from a 14-game absence due to a fractured bone in his hand Feb. 26, Leonard is averaging 14.7 points and shooting 46.9 percent from 3-point range, compared to 11.6 points and 32.7 from long distance before the injury. In the last five games Leonard has played even better, shooting 60.7 percent from the floor while combining for just five turnovers.
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (48-31): Dirk Nowitzki enters the matchup with a similar hot hand, shooting 59.3 percent from the floor while averaging 24.4 points in the last five games. He scored 25 points in the first meeting with San Antonio this season, but was held to a season-low eight points the second time around, shooting 3-for-14 from the floor. Boris Diaw was the main defender on Nowitzki that night and you can expect coach Gregg Popovich will go with the same matchup.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Dallas C DeJuan Blair spent his first four seasons with San Antonio before signing with the Mavericks last summer after losing minutes to Diaw and Tiago Splitter.
2. The Mavericks' final two regular-season games are against the Phoenix Suns and Grizzlies, two of the four teams fighting for the final three playoff spots in the West.
3. Fifteen different players have made at least one start for the Spurs this season.
PREDICTION: Mavericks 100, Spurs 97