Coach Can’t Get Mad as Mavericks Get Even

Jason Terry wasn’t bringing it and neither was Josh Howard and as for Erick Dampier, he wasn’t coming out early again, even if he fouled out in the first five minutes.

After 48 hours with Coach Avery Johnson in their ears following their Game 3 loss, the Dallas Mavericks were only too happy to see the Phoenix Suns on Sunday night, taking a 21-point lead, withstanding a spectacular 48-point explosion by Steve Nash, winning, 119-109, and tying the second-round series, 2-2.

“Just a Western Conference shootout,” Johnson said. “We’re just trying to figure out something that works against this team. ... We got 36 points off our bench. They got three. We like what we’re doing.”

It has been a memorable first postseason as a coach for Johnson, who replaced Don Nelson with 18 games left in the season and won 16 before the playoffs started and the hits started happening.

Game 1 vs. Houston -- Johnson has to be restrained from going after the officiating crew after the Mavericks’ loss to the Rockets.

Game 6 at Houston -- After the Rockets tie the series, 3-3, Johnson rails at the lack of attention given to his team’s comeback from an 0-2 deficit to a 3-2 lead, amid the controversy surrounding Rocket Coach Jeff Van Gundy.

Game 1 at Phoenix -- Johnson literally throws his body in front of a Sun fastbreak, going onto the floor to protest a call, finding himself in the middle of the action and getting a technical foul.

Game 3 vs. Phoenix -- Johnson goes off at the disrespect he says referees show for Dirk Nowitzki.

On the positive side, Johnson has given the Mavericks a new edge. On the other hand, Johnson has been vibrating like a tuning fork all postseason.

“I think Del [Harris, assistant coach] is helping there,” Johnson said. “We have this four-step level and I have to operate, not too much at the highest level. So he’s calmed me down quite a bit now when I turn it up and I really get on the team, they seem to respond better, instead of always being at this high feverish pace.”

Harris, the former Laker coach, says the first step is the conversational, the second instructional and the third is correctional or even reprimanding.

“Fourth is the go-crazy level,” Harris said, laughing. “And Avery tended to operate more on levels three and four. I just told him, ‘Step five, you could land in jail.’ ”

Giving up 119 points and getting beaten by 17 in Friday’s Game 3 did nothing for Johnson’s serenity, and his players heard all about it. Chief among them was Dampier, who got in foul trouble once more and played only 13 minutes.

“He’s playing tonight,” Johnson said before the game. “He can foul out in the first half but he’s playing tonight. ... You know what, it’s been a learning experience for me in that situation. He gets two fouls and the traditional thing is for the coach to go, ‘Oh, I better get him out, I need him for the whole game.’ ... So you take him out and he sits over there and eats popcorn.”

It has been an exciting postseason for Dampier, too. It was Johnson, who played with him at Golden State, who recommended that the Mavericks sign Dampier, who got a $73-million deal but still played like Erick Dampier, averaging 9.2 points and 8.5 rebounds.

Outscored, 107-19, by Amare Stoudemire in the first three games and criticized by Johnson, Nowitzki and Shaquille O’Neal, the embattled Dampier was back Sunday with 13 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks. In a crowning indignity for Stoudemire, he outscored Dampier only 15-13.

Without Joe Johnson, all five Sun starters played more than 40 minutes Friday, but Sunday, Quentin Richardson got his third foul early in the second period and had to come out.

With Dallas defenders sticking with their men when Nash drove, Stoudemire and Shawn Marion didn’t get their usual assortment of shots and Jim Jackson looked like the 34-year-old he is.

The Mavericks hope to wear down the thin Suns and Sunday, they did it with Jerry Stackhouse coming off the bench to score 22 points and reserve Darrell Armstrong coming in to hound Nash. The Suns’ bench went 29 minutes, with Leandro Barbosa going 22 and scoring all three of the reserves’ points, while missing six of his seven shots.

Nash went 44 minutes and made 20 of 28 shots but the burden exacted its toll. He turned the ball over nine times and at the end of his 23-point third quarter, he dribbled the clock out by accident.

Now it’s back to Phoenix. If Johnson can stay out of the way of the Suns’ fastbreak, anything can still happen.