PHOENIX - The team connection that brought the San Antonio Spurs through the first round of the playoffs never made it to the U.S. Airways Center for the first appearance in the second round against the Phoenix Suns. Shooting errors became a serious problem for a team that fought to find its rhythm, eventually losing to the Suns, 111-102.

Fresh off four days rest after finishing the Mavericks off in San Antonio, Tim Duncan, George Hill, Manu Ginobili, Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess took to the court to face off against Phoenix. The Spurs struggled straight out of the gate, completing just two baskets in the first four and half minutes compared to the Suns’ five baskets and single free throw.

Steve Nash haunted San Antonio early in the quarter, firing off a three-pointer just before the Spurs came back to narrow the Suns’ lead to 19-14 with 4:06 left, thanks to contributions from McDyess, Duncan, Ginobili and Jefferson. Ending a six-point Phoenix scoring burst, Tony Parker and George Hill stepped up to take the offensive lead for San Antonio, adding four points apiece to end the first quarter, Phoenix 31, San Antonio 22.

New confidence took over the Spurs, who charged into the second quarter answering each Suns basket, beginning with a much-needed three-point-play from Parker. Coming in off the bench, Matt Bonner and DeJuan Blair were each able to add a basket to cut Phoenix’s lead to six points just two minutes into the quarter.

Ginobili made two free throws and a basket were a flash in the pan just before the Suns came charging back on an 11-1 scoring spree lasting four minutes. Down 48-34 with three and a half minutes left in the quarter, Ginobili made a huge three-pointer to jump-start San Antonio’s offense. Free throws from Ginobili and Hill paired with a two-point floater by Parker brought the Spurs back within ten points from Phoenix, a spread they were able to maintain to the end of the half; Phoenix 57, San Antonio 47.

Coach Gregg Popovich managed to fully resuscitate the Spurs’ offense during halftime, giving the team the chance to develop its first lead of the game just four and half minutes into the third quarter. Single baskets from Hill, Ginobili and McDyess narrowed the Suns’ lead further to just six points. While Nash worked to recover his team’s disappearing lead, Ginobili added another five points for the Spurs before rebounding off a missed Suns’ basket. The rebound was passed down the court to Jefferson, who got it to Duncan for a basket that diminished the lead to four points, bringing San Antonio back within range of taking over.

A third three-pointer from Ginobili following two baskets from Parker gave San Antonio its first lead of the game with 7:26 left in the quarter. Phoenix refused to allow the Spurs to enjoy the lead for long, finishing the quarter on a 12-4 run to take back the home court lead yet again; Phoenix 85, San Antonio 75.

Turnovers were a large problem for either team, but San Antonio were unable to make them work to their advantage. A quick Phoenix turnover early in the fourth went absolutely nowhere, resulting instead in a Keith Bogans foul on the way to the San Antonio basket. Less than a minute later, Bogans was able to make two shots, including the final San Antonio three-point basket of the night, bringing the Spurs back within nine points of the Suns.

It would be nearly another two minutes before San Antonio would make their mark on the scoreboard with a basket, giving Phoenix time to put themselves twelve points ahead of San Antonio with 7:03 left in the game. Baskets from Duncan and Ginobili contributed to a 13-0 San Antonio burst to put the Spurs within a single point of the Suns, ended by an Amare Stoudamire basket. Much like the fans watching in the Central time zone, the team was tired and let go of the game a few minutes early, ending Phoenix 111, San Antonio 102.

The ‘Big Three’ had a big game as the only Spurs to reach double digits; Ginobili and Parker led the team in scoring with 27 and 26 points respectively, while Duncan added another 20. Duncan had 11 rebounds, followed by McDyess with seven and Ginobili with five. Ginobili had five assists, Duncan had four, and Jefferson and Parker each added three.

Shooting problems plagued San Antonio, who only made 38-of-83 field goals but managed 22-of-31 free throws. The team had nine offensive rebounds, 38 rebounds, and 35 bench points.

The Spurs will try to take down the Suns again in game two in Phoenix on Wednesday night.

At the beginning of every playoff series, one question always seems to come up; who's going to be the X factor. As if one player alone can dictate the outcome of the series. Sure, a player can come in and change the outcome of a game, but that's just one game. You need four to get to the next round.

There are a handful of Spurs who's play could help decide the outcome of this series. Manu Ginobili has always had his way with the Suns, which usually leads to a Silver and Black victory.

George Hill is another possible X factor. He proved last round that he can hit big shots and play both ends of the floor at a consistently high level. When he's on, the Spurs are seemingly unstoppable. Richard Jefferson could also be an X factor type player because he gives the Suns a lot of match up problems.

But we Spurs fans know the Phoenix Suns. We know what's needed to stop this team. That's why my X factor for this series is the Spurs' transition defense. If we can stop their run and gun offense and slow it to a half court game, this will be a short series.

The Spurs defense has been inconsistent all season, but we finally had a chance to see what the Spurs are defensively capable of against the Mavericks. And it was a thing of beauty. They harassed the Mavs, clogging the passing lanes, taking Jason Kidd out of the series.

Meeting another hall-of-fame point guard this round, it's obvious that the Spurs need to shut down Steve Nash to determine the tempo of the game. And that's what is most important when playing the Suns, dictating the tempo, and forcing the Suns to play in the half court.Once in the half court, the Spurs will need to focus on stopping Nash and his pick and rolls with Amare Stoudemire.

There are plenty of players on this roster who could be an X factor in the series. Plenty of players that could help push the Spurs back to the Western Conference Finals. But one player isn't going to win this series by himself. It'll take the whole team, and a commitment to defense to get through this round. And if we stay commited to the defensive end, the Spurs might win a couple more rounds after this.

If there was ever a must win, game six was it. And thankfully, the Spurs came through with an incredible victory. With so much on the line for game six, it was obvious that Popovich would give Blair limited minutes, and with Tim Duncan playing 43 minutes, that's exactly what happened. Blair played five minutes in game six, finishing four points and no rebounds. He was two for three from the field.

Blair entered that game at the 3:42 mark in the first quarter for Duncan. Right away he was aggressive, attacking the basket and making a right handed hook shot over the taller Dirk Nowitzki. On the next Dallas possession, J.J. Berea missed a lay-up and Hill grabbed the rebound and started running. Leading the fast break was none other then Blair. However, Hill dished it to Parker for the lay-in, but Blair would have been their to clean up the trash.

Blair and Parker worked the pick and roll nicley throughout the game. Parker fed Blair the ball off a beautiful pick and roll but Blair missed the easy lay-in and fouled Nowtizki on the rebound. Duncan then came in for Blair with 56 seconds left in the first.

With 5:16 left in the second, Blair would come in to give Duncan a rest. Parker and Blair worked the pick and roll to perfection leading to a Blair dunk and Nowitzki on the new DeJuan Blair poster. Blair was then replaced by Richard Jefferson. He didn't play a minute in the second half, except for that last 16 seconds when Pop put him in to secure rebounds.

For a rookie in his first playoff series and playing limited time, Blair did a great job. He was instinet energy off the bench and helped spark the Spurs in key moments, while giving Duncan valuable minutes on the bench. For the series, he averaged 4.2 points and 4.3 rebounds in nine minutes per game. He only played a total of 54 minutes through the entire series, but he still collected 14 offensive rebounds, which is only four less the Brendan Haywood, who played 139 minutes. He collected twice as many offensive rebounds as Nowitzki who only had seven in the 233 minutes he played.

Now, the young rookie out of Pitt will be up against the high flying offense of the Phoenix Suns. Blair has played well in the three meetings this year against the Suns. In three games against Phoenix this season, Blair is averaging 10.6 points and seven rebounds while shooting 51 percent from the floor in 15 minutes per contest.

With one playoff series under his belt and the butterflies gone, Blair looks to have a great series against the Suns. It'll be interesting to see if he gets more minutes the round. But no matter how many minutes Blair plays, we know he will do his best every second he is on the court.

In last season's playoffs, the San Antonio Spurs were ousted by the Dallas Mavericks in five games in the first round. This time, the Spurs returned the favor, booting the Mavericks in six games. A Dallas team that hoped for a championship this season after adding key pieces (Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood) at the trade deadline last February.

During the 2009 NBA playoffs against the Mavericks, the Spurs had Tim Duncan and Tony Parker and little else. Oh how things have changed in a matter of one season.

While Manu Ginobili and George Hill provided the additional firepower the Spurs needed, two unsung heroes from the opening round of the 2010 playoffs were Antonio McDyess and DeJuan Blair. These two players impacted the series without lighting up the scoreboard. They did it with grit, hustle and determination.

McDyess' effectiveness can't be truly justified. Dirk Nowitzki torched the Spurs on offense as he averaged 26.7 points on 54.7% shooting from the field in six games. But McDyess battled and defended Nowitzki to the best of his abilities for the entire series. In other words, he made Dirk work for his points. He did that while also doing a good job on offense, he averaged 6.7 points and 7 boards while shooting 54.1% from the field in six games against the Mavericks.

Blair on the other hand was effective in his limited role. He managed to average 4.2 points and 4.3 rebounds (2.3 on the offensive end) in just 9 minutes of playing time. How many NBA players can produce with such little playing time?

Most players will require the ball in their hands and will need to log a lot of minutes to make an impact to the game. Blair? He gets the job done by diving for loose balls, grabbing rebounds and scoring on tip-ins and put-backs. He made a difference despite being a rookie and an undersized big man.

Yes, the Spurs needed their offensive game clicking to match the Mavericks' firepower on offense. But they also relied on McDyess' and Blair's defense and hustle to get it done.

In Game 4, Blair provided some instant offense and timely rebounds as he helped the Spurs preserve a seven point lead going into the final period. They won that game by three points 92-89. Blair's line for the game -- 7 points, 7 boards (5 offensive) on 3-4 shooting from the field. He also added an assist, a block and a steal without a single turnover in just 12 minutes of playing time.

Then in Game 6, McDyess grabbed a crucial rebound in the fourth quarter and made two clutch baskets down the stretch as the Spurs clinched the series in six games. As a result, the Spurs will move on to the next round beating a much talented and stronger opponent.

In the end, the series was won by team effort, but much credit should go to McDyess and Blair for doing their part. As the Spurs goes deeper into the playoffs, they will need every bit of McDyess' interior defense and veteran savvy and Blair's energy and hustle off the bench.

Facing another talented and familiar foe in the Phoenix Suns, let's hope that both Blair and McDyess will continue to make a difference for the Spurs.

Our partners at AccuScore.com, picked the Spurs over the Mavericks in the first round. I got to say, next time I may need to pay attention to the statistical breakdown. So after I incorrectly predicted the outcome of the Spurs surviving the first round, I have to give credit to AccuScore.  Check out their Spurs vs. Mavericks series analysis recap.

By AccuScore.com

In our NBA First Round playoff preview we actually favored San Antonio (50.8%) to beat Dallas despite the Mavs being the heavy betting favorite, and the popular pick of the ESPN experts.  The +10.1% difference between AccuScore’s probability and the betting line probability was by far the largest of any of the other first round playoff series.  Every other series had under a 5% difference so in terms of making a strong pick in the first round of the NBA playoffs AccuScore’s was definitely San Antonio over Dallas.

San Antonio Spurs' rookie forward, DeJuan Blair, has been named to the NBA All-Rookie second team.  Congratulations to Blair.

The NBA All-Rookie Second Team consists of New Orleans’ Marcus Thornton (31 points), San Antonio’s DeJuan Blair (30 points), Oklahoma City’s James Harden (22 points), Minnesota’s Jonny Flynn (22 points) and Detroit’s Jonas Jerebko (22 points).

However, how does Chicago Bulls' Taj Gibson make first team over Blair?  Seriously!

The San Antonio Spurs approached game six with the right attitude and mentality, as a result; they dispatched the Dallas Mavericks in six games and moved on to the next round where they will face the Phoenix Suns in a Western Conference Semifinals match.

However, it wasn't easy. The Spurs tried to pull away early building a lead as much as 22 points in first half only to see it evaporate in the second half when the Mavs made their run.

Dirk Nowitzki had a spectacular night scoring a game-high 33 points, Caron Butler did his share on offense with 25 points and rookie Rodrigue Beaubois added 16 points for the Mavs but it wasn't enough.

The Spurs got payback and they've done it with a total team effort. But how did they Spurs won the series? Let's checkout these stats.

87 - The Spurs won every game in this series when the Mavericks scored less than 100 points.

40 - The Spurs dominated the post, outscoring the Mavs 40-32 inside the paint.

31 - The Spurs had a 31-15 advantage in free throw attempts for the game but only converted 19 including 1-7 from Tim Duncan . Translation: they need to work hard on their foul shots as they go deeper into the playoffs.

26 - Manu Ginobili scored 26 points in this game clincher after scoring just 7 points in game five.

17 - Tim Duncan scored 17 points on 17 shots from the field and the Spurs outscored the Mavs on the fastbreak 17-10.

7 - Matt Bonner grabbed 7 boards and scored 4 points in just 12 minutes, Tony Parker had 7 rebounds and 8 assist, Richard Jefferson only scored 7 points in 31 minutes of action and Keith Bogans went scoreless in 7 minutes.

0 - Antonio McDyess scored 8 points with 6 rebounds and one block without committing a single turnover in 25 minutes of playing time.

What Next?

Before this series started, I predicted that the Spurs would win over the Mavericks in 6 games. On Thursday night, as the series moves back to San Antonio, the Spurs have the chance to do just that. But why did I post a question that might contradict my prediction?

The answer is simple. The Spurs had a great opportunity of finishing this series in five games in Dallas but failed to do it. With their season on the line, the Mavs did a great job of being the aggressor and played like a team with nothing to lose.

The Spurs on the other hand came out flat right from the start and conceded the game half way into third quarter instead of putting more pressure on a Mavericks team that was on the ropes.

As Manu Ginobili said after Game 5 "We're upset at the way we approached the game, it's something we'll learn from. I hope that's how we take Game 6, because we don't want to come here [in Dallas] for a Game 7."

That statement by Manu pretty sums up how this series might go, if the Spurs are not able to close it out in San Antonio. Then anything can happen in Dallas on Saturday. Something that the Spurs must avoid.

Winning game five in Dallas doesn't necessarily mean that Mavericks have turned the tide in their favor, but they did manage to stay alive and probably have the momentum going into Game 6.

Make no mistake about it, the Spurs are still in control of this series and have another chance of wrapping it up in San Antonio. But something was troubling in game 5. One team showed more resolve and hunger, while the other seems to go through the motions knowing that they'll live another day.

Nonetheless, the Spurs still have Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker -- the main core that has won three championships.

However, they'll need help to get it done. Richard Jefferson has to play the way he played in games two and four and George Hill has to stay solid.

Also, the Spurs should have a collective effort on defense to stop the Mavericks' balanced attack on offense.

For the Spurs to close out this series, they've got to have the right mentality and match the Mavericks' energy and level of play. They should impose their will as they did in games two, three and four.

In game five, the pace clearly favored the Mavs and the Spurs allowed it. Going back in San Antonio, the Spurs should focus on one thing; win and they'll advance to the next round and approach the game like it will be their last.

What do you think? Will the Spurs close it out in six games or will the Mavericks extend this series and force a game seven in Dallas?

After an inspiring game four performance, it seemed like DeJuan Blair would get some extra minutes in game five. And he did, playing more minutes in game five then any other game this series.

But he didn't play 14 minutes and 24 seconds because of his game four performance, he played them because apparently every Spur player forgot to pack their game with them on their trip to Dallas. Blair's stat line for the game: eight points, eight rebounds, four of them offensive, one assist and a turnover.

Blair checked in for the first time with 3:09 left in the first quarter for Tim Duncan and immediately fouled Jason Terry. After collecting a rebound off a Dirk Nowitzki miss, and then a Tony Parker turnover, he fouled Terry again, sending him back to the line.

But Pop kept Blair in and he started the second quarter. Early, he missed a hook shot, but on the next Spurs possession he got his lone assist on a Tony Parker jump shot. Two Dallas possessions later, he fouled Brendan Haywood who was unable to connect on both free throws.

Less then a minute later, he fouled Haywood again, collecting his fourth foul in less then six minutes. Haywood went one for two from the charity strip and Duncan came in to replace Blair. He had one two defensive rebounds, one assist and four fouls.

In the fourth quarter, with all our key players on the bench, and Pop waiving the white flag, this was an excellent opportunity for Blair to get some valuable playing time. And that's what he did, making the most of his time on the court, even though there was no real shot of a comeback.

Blair came in at the 8:14 mark in the fourth, replacing Matt Bonner and was aggressive from the get go. He completed a three-point play after a J.J. Barea foul. Then, after a missed Bogans three, he collected his first offensive rebound, kicked it back out, and then collected his second offensive rebound in one possession after another missed Bogans three, but was blocked by Haywood on his way up for the score.

After a hard DeShawn Stevenson foul, Blair went one for two from the line. Blair collected his third offensive rebound of the quarter after a Roger Mason miss, and went up strong, scoring his seventh and eighth point. On the next Spurs possession, Blair missed a layup, but grabbed the offensive rebound, his fourth of the quarter, and went back up but missed the basket.

Blair seems to play better and better as the series continues. He has a knack for crashing the offensive glass and its evident with him collecting four in the final period. But I would like to see Blair get some minutes when it matters to see how he reacts in huge situations.

We know he can ball when the white flag is up, but with the game and series on the line, which Blair would show up?

The four fouls in six minutes Blair, or the four offensive rebounds in one quarter Blair. With the momentum shifted back in favor of Dallas, don't expect a lot of minutes from Blair in game six, a must win.