By Mike Fisher -- DallasBasketball.com
      Don Nelson danced one step ahead of a familiar partner, and because of his moves, his Mavs bulleted up the standings to within one step of the Spurs.
      Nelson and his Thursday night opposite number, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich, know each other so well that they could almost choreograph each other’s grooves. Therein existed the challenge for Nellie, who had the jitterbug trophy and an eventual 115-91 victory in his hands well before Spurs superstar Tim Duncan departed midway through the third quarter with a thigh contusion.
      "I guess it helped that Tim Duncan was out for a while, but I think we really did the job,’’ said Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki, aware that his club was up 64-57 when Duncan went down. “We got some easy baskets on some easy looks and we were able to do the things we wanted."
      Boy did they, thanks to Nellie guiding them gracefully around the dance floor in this crucial Midwest Division meeting at American Airlines Center. Some chronological examples from ‘the biggest game of the season’ that turned into ‘one of the biggest blowouts of the season’:
      GAMEFACE A few Mavs players seemed so loose before tipoff that it appeared to be an act, a way of psyching themselves into a just-another-game mindset. Steve Nash was tops in this department, playing grab-ass with TNT’s Doug Collins and others along press row just moments before the start of the game.
      Nellie? No grab-ass. Afterwards, he said, ‘Well, I didn’t see that (lopsided outcome) coming. I worried about the game after watching San Antonio play the last three or four ballgames. They’ve been playing at a really high level and I thought we would have our hands full.’’
      It showed in his pre-tipoff gameface. Hewas all business – and his players followed suit.
      Said Michael Finley: “Every game is a crunch game for us. … it's a playoff-type atmosphere.’’
      That was Fin’s mouth moving. But those were Nellie’s words.
      FINLEY ON PARKER The TNT gang reportedly credited Michael Finley with being Dallas’ best defender, a notion that could not have occurred to them from watching 50-plus games this year. But maybe the notion came to them when Nellie decided to start Finley covering lightning-quick Tony Parker, the wise-beyond-his-years point guard.
      It seemed like a dubious move for Finley, though a neat one for guard mate Steve Nash, unchallenged by his assignment to cover offensively inept Bruce Bowen (less than seven points a game in more than 32 minutes per). The logic: Allowing Nash, without much backup help on this roster, to stay fresh for the offensive end.
      Did it work? Nash – who got even more rest when he sat out the first six minutes of the second quarter) repeatedly beat Parker off the dribble on offense, scored 15 points and contributed nine assists.
      DUNCAN’S DISCOMFORT ZONE ‘The Big Fundamental’ scored 22 points with 17 rebounds, and he did it in just two-and-a-half quarters. But it would have been much worse had the Mavs not done such an effective job pushing him out of the paint to get his entry passes, and inviting him to shoot jumpers from beyond his 15-foot range. Scott Williams started and was especially effective here.
      THE HALFCOURT PRESS Again, some Finley-related unconventional wisdom. Parker’s ballhandling vs. Fin picking him up at three-quarters court? Absurd. … but effective. Nellie sprang this on the Spurs late in the second quarter after a made free throw. It popped up five more times in the game, once resulting in Fin forcing a Parker turnover. (That occurred with nine minutes left in the thirdand the Mavs up 59-53; not coincidentally, after another Popovich timeout, it was Finley, riding his own momentum, who hit a 3 for a 62-53 edge). A perfect example of an unusual wrinkle – maybe even an illogical wrinkle -- that worked because it caught the Spurs off-guard.
      EARLY OFFENSE It’s impossible for Dallas to do consistently when Nash isn’t on the floor. But the Mavs are starting to realize that while a grind-it-out half-court offense will be a nice weapon in the playoffs (and Antawn Jamison will be a centerpiece of it, when the time is right), this group reaches its greatest heights when it runs at every opportunity. The Mavs totaled 17 fast-break points to San Antonio’s six, with Nash leading the break masterfully and Finley having one of his best games ever in terms of making ball-handling decisions on the run.
      Said Antoine Walker, also a contributor in the middle of the break: “It was fun. We got out and ran and we were the aggressors tonight, very aggressive on the defensive end. We had active hands and rebounded the ball well in that quarter. We got out and ran and got ourselves easy opportunity baskets.’’
      NO WASTED POSSESSIONS Well, OK, there weren’t no wasted possessions; the Mavs committed a bloated six turnovers in the first quarter, almost all the result of having moved the ball inside and then crumbling because of Duncan’s defensive presence. But beyond that, there was a clear focus on not giving up chances. Two notable examples:
      1) Mavs are up 48-44. Spurs have the ball for the final possession of the first half. This is a situation where a skillion times a year, an NBA defense just keeps riding the wave, going with the status quo. Not Nellie. Nellie quickly shifts Dallas into a zone, which collapses on Parker and forces another turnover with 2.8 seconds left. Oh, 2.8 seconds left, another opportunity to do the basketball version of the NFL’s kneel-down – but no. Despite the ball being inbounded 60 feet from the basket, Dallas gives it a try, Dirk handling the long-distance catch and long-distance shot. No, it didn’t go, but it would help set up the mentality of a later shot that would. …
      2) End of the third quarter, just a tick left, and Finley receives the outlet pass. The right guy, the right try. … and his half-court launch swishes through at the buzzer! The shot gave Finley his game-high 30 points, it gave the Mavs a 46-point third quarter, it gave Dallas its 94-76 lead, and it gave the Mavs the feeling that maybe it’s worth executing properly on every possession.
      "That's not really me," said Finley of his very brief statue-like pose after the make. "But I felt it was a good time to do that. The fans deserved it."
      THE SUMMARY That’s four straight wins for Dallas, and 17 of the last 21. It’s also a 3-0 record over Midwest rival San Antonio, meaning Dallas has clinched that season series. … for the first time in 14 years! Minnesota is still on top of the Midwest, but now the Mavs are just a half game behind the Spurs for second.
      "It's a big win for us, not only within the division but also within the conference overall because they are ahead of us," Finley added. "To get a win against them gets us closer to a higher seed and, more importantly, it gave us the advantage if it comes down to a series against the two teams."
      San Antonio may be going for a bit now without the hobbled Duncan, a star on any night, but a guy who took the wrong step here. Dallas, meanwhile, will be strutting its stuff under the direction of choreographer Don Nelson, the star of this night.
      “We followed our game plan, whether we were man-to-man or zone,’’Nellie said. “I thought the guys made the adjustments that we needed to make.’’
      OK, coach. But I thought you made the adjustment the Mavs needed to make.