NBA Playoffs : Blackman Puts Out Denver’s Lights

DALLAS — With a place in the National Basketball Assn.’s Western Conference championship series in Dallas’ sights, it was Rolando Blackman, not high-scoring Mark Aguirre, who got the ball in the clutch.

Blackman scored nine consecutive points in the fourth period to lead the Mavericks to a 108-95 victory over the Denver Nuggets Thursday night.

“I wanted the ball in my hands,” Blackman said. “I live for those situations. The plays down the stretch were designed to get me the ball and try to make chances to score.”

Dallas, which beat the Nuggets, 4 games to 2, in their best-of-seven series, will play the winner of the Lakers-Utah Jazz series.

“He’s just a clutch player,” Dallas guard Derek Harper said of Blackman. “He’s been doing it since he was in the league. You can see it in his eyes. He loves those situations.”

Aguirre, who led the Mavericks during the regular season with an average of 25.1 points a game, finished with just 4 points.

“Blackman had the hot hand,” Denver Coach Doug Moe said. “He is just a great clutch player. Dallas played good enough to win.”

Dallas Coach John MacLeod said he went to Blackman in the clutch because of what he learned when he was coaching the Phoenix Suns.

“I’m glad he is in a Mavericks’ uniform,” MacLeod said. “When I was at Phoenix, we would try to figure out ways to defend against him, and we weren’t successful.”

Blackman and Sam Perkins each had 23 points for the Mavericks, who had never before gone past Game 6 in the Western Conference semifinals.

Alex English had 34 points for the Nuggets, who played their third straight game without Fat Lever and Jay Vincent, both out with injuries.