Mavericks Give Spurs a Problem

This time, it was the San Antonio Spurs who couldn’t make the play at the end. Just like that, their title defense could be in trouble.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 21 of his 27 points from the foul line, including a go-ahead pair with 7.9 seconds left, and the Mavericks withstood two last-gasp chances after that to beat the Spurs, 104-103, on Saturday night in Dallas to take a 2-1 lead in their second-round series.

Tim Duncan had a season-high 35 points and 12 rebounds but fouled out with 1:05 left.

The fourth quarter provided the back-and-forth heavyweight bout expected from teams that won 63 and 60 games this season.

For the first time in the series, and at the most crucial point thus far, both were at their best at the same time -- until the very end, when San Antonio’s Robert Horry botched a handoff to Manu Ginobili, caroming the ball out of bounds across midcourt.

“I don’t know what happened,” Ginobili said. “Someone tipped the pass from Robert. It was an unfortunate play.”

Dallas’ Jerry Stackhouse went to the line with two seconds left, missed the first, then intentionally missed the second, hoping time would run out. But he missed the rim, giving the ball to San Antonio out of bounds for one last chance.

“I tried to hit the back rim and would up not hitting anything,” said Stackhouse, who missed the potential winning shot at the end of Game 1. “I just overshot it.”

Brent Barry heaved the ball from in front of the Dallas bench to the lane, but Josh Howard was there to disrupt it, setting off a wild celebration.

After losing Game 2 by 22 points, the Spurs shook up their starting lineup, with Barry replacing Ginobili. But they fell behind by 13 in the second quarter.

Cleveland 86, Detroit 77 -- LeBron James scored 15 points in the fourth quarter and got his second triple-double of the postseason for the Cavaliers, who trail the Pistons, 2-1, in their second-round series.

Getting his only rest at halftime, James finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and four steals at home.

Anderson Varejao, Cleveland’s mop-haired forward, added a career-high 16 points and Flip Murray, starting in place of Larry Hughes, had 13 for the Cavaliers, who were 11 for 15 from the floor and nine for nine from the free-throw line in the fourth.

The Cavaliers played without Hughes, who was with his grieving family in St. Louis after the death of his 20-year-old brother, Justin. Born with a heart defect, Justin Hughes had a transplant in 1997.

Richard Hamilton scored 22 points, Chauncey Billups 20 and Ben Wallace had 13 rebounds for the Pistons, who shot only 39%.

“We knew we couldn’t lose Game 3 at home,” James said. “That would have dug us too big of a hole to get out of.”