Playing Dirty

It's one of the best rivalries in professional sports: The San Antonio Spurs, the NBA champions every other year, and the Dallas Mavericks, who would love to be the champions one of these years. The Mavericks thought they had toppled their longtime adversary in 2006, when they beat them on the road in Game 7 of the second round of the NBA playoffs, but the Mavs couldn't finish off the Heat and stumbled out of the first round against the Warriors last year as the Spurs went on to win another title. So they kind of have the upper hand in this rivalry, just like Duncan has the upper hand against Dirk and Parker has the upper hand against Harris and, well, you get the point. But the Mavericks do seem to play well when the pressure's off, so it's likely they might give the Spurs an early-season defeat. Just don't plan for that 2008 championship parade. Or, to paraphrase Pulp Fiction's The Wolf: Let's not start sucking each other's Ginobilis just yet. The Mavs face the Spurs 7 p.m. Thursday at the AAC. For more information, log on to ticketmaster.com.
Thu., Nov. 15, 7 p.m., 2007