The pain was bad enough already. The Mavericks had seen a nice lead disappear and fallen behind by double figures. At home, no less.

Then the sight of Dirk Nowitzki clutching his left knee and pushing himself off the floor with the other arm hurt most of all. Losing the home-court advantage to the San Antonio Spurs was simply salt in a very, very deep wound.

The Spurs took a hard-fought 96-83 victory Friday night at American Airlines Center as their defense overwhelmed the Mavericks, who were incapable of rebounding or stopping the Spurs on a consistent basis.

San Antonio leads the best-of-7 Western Conference finals series, 2-1. Game 4 is Sunday at American Airlines Center (7:30 p.m., TNT)

Nowitzki, who was having a sub-par game, crashed to the floor with 8:30 to play in the game when he came down on Manu Ginobili's foot. Nowitzki's knee buckled, and he had to be carried off the floor by teammates. It was determined he has a sprained left knee. He did not return, and his status for the rest of series is unknown, although coach Don Nelson said he does not expect Nowitzki to play in Game 4.