Mistakes Eclipse Terry's Big Game

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It was Jason Terry's best game of the series.

But his mistake at the worst possible moment is what we'll remember.

Terry went right at Phoenix point guard Steve Nash for the first time. Terry came close to putting himself on equal footing with the man he's trying to replace.

But not close enough.

He certainly wasn't close enough on the shot that sent this game into overtime and eventually sent the Mavericks into the playoff night with a 130-126 loss.

"It's something I'm going to think about all summer, all next year," Terry said. "It's something that's going to haunt us.

"It's something that's going to make us strong."

Less than six seconds remained in regulation with the Mavericks clinging to a three-point lead. Nash had the ball in his hands above the 3-point line. Terry inexplicably dropped off Nash to plunge into the lane, leaving the league's Most Valuable Player wide open for the 3-pointer than sent the game into overtime.

"We didn't want to give up any 3s," Mavericks coach Avery Johnson said. "We would have preferred that.

"He just backed up too much. If he [Terry] didn't foul him, we didn't want to give up the 3-pointer. We didn't want Nash to touch the ball. It just didn't happen.

"Unfortunately, we had a couple of breakdowns there, and Nash made us pay."

Just like he did all series.

One day earlier, forward Dirk Nowitzki talked about how the Mavericks wouldn't have made it out of the first round if it wasn't for Terry.

It didn't appear Nowitzki was all that complimentary as the Mavericks went to the bench to prepare for overtime. The All-Star forward was screaming at Terry for his mistake and had to be calmed down by assistant coach Del Harris.

Terry also missed three shots in the final 3:29 of regulation to put the Mavericks in a difficult spot.

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