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Nowitzki, Mavericks seek to tie series vs. Warriors

Apr 25, 2007 - 1:23 PM Golden State at Dallas 9:30 pm EDT Western Conference first round Game Two

DALLAS (Ticker) -- Superstar Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks won 67 games this season. None of them came against the eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors.

The Mavs need to rectify that if they hope to get even in their first-round Western Conference playoff series on Wednesday.

The Warriors have won six straight meetings, dating to last season, and seven of the last eight overall. Golden State was the only team to sweep the season series from Dallas in 2006-07.

Baron Davis scored 19 of his 33 points in the third quarter as the Warriors posted a 97-85 victory in the series opener on Sunday.

"Our defense was allowing us to get stops and get a couple of fast breaks and open things up in our transition game," said Davis, who had 14 rebounds and eight assists. "We can come down and play in transition, not so much the fast break, but just play early and quick, we get a lot of shots."

Mavs coach Avery Johnson inserted Devean George in the starting rotation to match up with the quicker Warriors, but the strategy did not work.

"It was something that we've evaluated every time we play them, our fives just could not keep up," Johnson said. "They start two point guards, two twos and a three. They put us in a really big bind and we just haven't been able to make them pay on the offensive end when we come down the floor."

Dallas simply needs a better game from Nowitzki, the NBA MVP candidate who made just 4-of-16 shots and finished with 14 points.

"Early I had some good looks," Nowitzki said. "We missed tons of layups in the first half. Instead of a tied game, we should have been up at the half by a couple of points."

Golden State's Stephen Jackson was also huge for Don Nelson, a former Mavs coach, in Game One, scoring 23 points and connecting on 3-of-7 from the arc.