NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS This time, no Nelson; Spurs win

San Antonio went to the line 28 times in the first half and made its first 24.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Referee Joey Crawford ruled Game 2 with a quick whistle and a hasty heave. By the time San Antonio's victory over Dallas finally ended, Mavericks coach Don Nelson had been long gone for quite some time.
Nelson was ejected by Crawford in the first quarter of a tempestuous game that went San Antonio's way early and decisively. The Mavericks cut an early 28-point deficit down to eight in the fourth quarter but got no closer, and the Spurs tied the Western Conference finals at one game apiece with a 119-106 victory.
Setting the tone
"You had to know the referees were going to come in here and try to establish themselves and say: 'None of that garbage, no complaining,' " San Antonio's David Robinson said.
Apparently, that message never got relayed to Dirk Nowitzki, whose second foul with 7 minutes, 39 seconds remaining in the first quarter set off a sequence of technicals and ejections by Crawford.
After his second foul, Nowitzki turned to Crawford to complain. The notoriously quick-tempered Crawford immediately gave him a technical. Stephen Jackson made the ensuing foul shot to give the Spurs an 11-7 lead, and Nelson took a risk by leaving Nowitzki in the game.
With 4:49 remaining in the first, Ted Bernhardt whistled Nowitzki for his third personal -- a questionable call as Nowitzki defended Malik Rose under the basket. That forced Nelson to remove Nowitzki from the game, and Nelson was gone himself with 2:46 to go in the quarter after he tried to engage Crawford in a staredown.
The Spurs went to the line 28 times in the first half, making their first 24.
The score was 69-44 at halftime, and the second half consisted of little more than waiting to see if any more individual technical fouls would be called -- none were -- and whether the Mavericks could make an improbable comeback with assistant coach Donnie Nelson running the team. They couldn't.