by Mike Monroe, STAFF , San Antonio Express-News

Determined to prevent another second-half explosion by the 2007 MVP, McDyess made sure all his teammates were ready for a Nowitzki surge.

"You can't overlook that," McDyess said. "I think when the fourth quarter came, we all made a conscious effort to help out on him and make it hard for him."

By game's end, Nowitzki had scored 29 points, but he needed 27 shots and 10 free throws to get them.

"We used a lot of different guys (on Nowitzki)," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "I thought Antonio did as good a job as you can do against a Hall of Fame player. Some other guys took their turns, too."

Matt Bonner and Richard Jefferson were the defensive co-conspirators on Nowitzki, but the bulk of the chore fell to McDyess.

"I just tried to crowd him, make him work for his shots and not give him any easy looks," McDyess said. "I know he gets a lot of shots and comes off a lot of screens. I just wanted to be up on him as close as possible without fouling and make it as tough as possible."

Compounding McDyess' problems when Nowitzki got more aggressive going to the basket: The injury absence of Tim Duncan, which left the Spurs short-handed on the frontline.

One shall return: After playing their second game without All-Stars Duncan and Tony Parker, the Spurs are likely to get at least one of them back in the lineup for Saturday's game against Oklahoma City, Popovich said.

Popovich wouldn't say which of his All-Stars he expects to play or whether it is possible both may get back on the court.

Retiring type: Mavs coach Rick Carlisle isn't shedding tears for Bruce Bowen, the former Spurs defensive ace who retired after he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in a deal that brought Jefferson to the Spurs .

"At some point, a guy has got to retire," Carlisle said. "... Is it a little weird? Probably, yeah, because he's been a big part of the culture here, on the one hand. On the other hand, the guy just had a tremendous career."

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