season with the Spurs winning in five games. Little was made during this series, as the Spurs won their first NBA championship only two years before. The Mavericks, run by a trio of Steve Nash, Michael Finley, and Dirk Nowitzki, had just defeated the Utah Jazz despite not having home-court advantage and were only starting to meld into a title contender. The two teams met again in 2003 in the Western Conference Finals. Both the Spurs and the Mavericks had 60-win seasons and reached the Western Conference Finals after defeating the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings, respectively. Despite having the best season of their history, the Mavericks fell in six games to the Spurs. The rivalry took on a new meaning in 2005 when, near the end of the regular season, Don Nelson would resign as head coach of the Mavericks, apparently satisfied with the state of the team, and hand the coaching reins to former Spur Avery Johnson, the point guard of the 1999 NBA champion Spurs team who hit the game-winning shot against the New York Knicks. Since Johnson was coached under Spurs' Head Coach Gregg Popovich, he would be familiar with most, if not all, of Popovich's coaching style and philosophy. During the 2005 offseason, Michael Finley, waived by the Mavericks under the amnesty clause, joined the Spurs in search for the elusive title. During the 2006 playoffs the two rivals met again. San Antonio won the first game at home 87–85. The Mavericks got revenge the next game, winning 113–91 and evening the series up at 1–1. The Mavericks then won a dramatic Game 3 by a single point, 104–103. Though Manu Ginóbili could have made a game-winning basket with five seconds on the clock, he committed an error, allowing the ball to bounce away from him with one second remaining. Dallas won a tightly-contested Game 4 123–118 in overtime. The Spurs proceeded to avoid elimination by taking Game 5. In the final seconds of the game, Jason Terry was seen punching former teammate Michael Finley under the belt, leading to his suspension for Game 6. He was sorely missed as the Spurs won, taking the series back home for a Game 7. In the crucial Game 7, with 2.6 seconds to go, Nowitzki converted a three-point play to force overtime. Manu Ginóbili, who fouled Dirk on the play, had just given San Antonio