Having disposed of the Mavericks, the Spurs can now turn their attention to another Texas rival.

Sunday's win over Dallas moved the Spurs into a tie with the Rockets in both the Southwest Division and Western Conference playoff races. The two will meet a final time Sunday in San Antonio.

Even though the game is almost a week away, when ABC focuses its national cameras on the showdown, it's quite possible only a half-game will separate the teams. That's because, between now and then, the Spurs will visit Orlando and then host the Clippers and Timberwolves. Winning two of three should be easy.

Meanwhile, the Rockets' next two games are at home against the Kings and Timberwolves. Expect a sweep.

Sunday's meeting figures to mean more to the Spurs than the Rockets. That's because Houston has won two of the first three in this year's season series, so the Spurs must win in order to prevent the Rockets from gaining the key tie-breaker edge.

The winner will then have 2 1/2 weeks to catch New Orleans atop the division, but that's another story.

SPURS 88, MAVERICKS 81: The Spurs needed a win over the Mavericks on Sunday, but they didn't need it this way.

San Antonio used a 19-0 run that bridged a painful injury suffered by Dallas star Dirk Nowitzki to erase a 12-point deficit and run off with an important victory.

The loss will make it almost impossible for the Mavericks to catch the Spurs in the standings over the final 12 games. San Antonio (47-23) is now three games up on Dallas (44-26), and also holds the tie-breaker advantage based on a 3-1 win in the season series.

And then there's Nowitzki's injury -- an unidentified lower-left-leg problem that will require an MRI. Early word was that the Dallas star could have to sit out all or more of the remainder of the regular season.

The Spurs trailed by 12 in the third quarter before the game-changing, 19-0 run. They took the lead for good one possession after Nowitzki fell hard to the court after trying to block a shot.

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