DALLAS – With precisely 7:45 remaining in the fourth quarter of Game 3, and the Mavericks already frantically petitioning for a knee transplant donor to replace Dirk Nowitzki’s badly sprained left one, NBA and TNT officials began filing out of the Western Conference playoff series.

Guess the rest of us can go home, too, at least until the Finals begin, because we all now know how this is gonna turn out. If the defensively deficient, skate-boarding Mavs couldn’t vaguely contain terminally efficient Tim Duncan (the league’s overdue to revise its Top 50 list), or Tim Conway, for that matter, with their 6-11 franchise forward, imagine how helpless and hopeless they’re bound to be minus Nowitzki.

In fact, the Mavs already were down a dozen when Nowitzki hit nothing but Manu Ginobili’s foot after retrieving a rebound (How dreadfully ironic. Last September in the World Games it was the other way around; the rookie guard severely sprained his ankle on Nowitzki’s foot in the semis. Though Argentina beat Germany, it lost to Yugoslavia for the title. Ginobili limped for eight minutes before giving in to the pain and wound up missing the first two months of this season).

Moreover, the Spurs were in the process of squashing (37 second-half points, a bunch of ’em late in the fourth vs. San Antonio’s sanitation crew) Dallas’ opulently acclaimed transitional game.

Defense wins championships declared the Pat Riley-indoctrinated, tape-watching, move-studying Bruce Bowen, who clamped down at first on Nowitzki (1-for-7 at the outset), then harassed Michael Finley (4-11), Nick Van Exel (6-15) and Steve Nash (4-9), depending on whom Gregg Popovich needed neutralized. Raja Bell, a double-digit scorer in four of the previous seven games (14 Friday on 6-10 FGs), will know he’s being taken seriously when he, too, becomes Bowen’s assignment.

At any rate, now the Mavs are down (2-1 going into today) and on their way out. That is, as long as overconfidence doesn’t victimize the Spurs.

“Hey, they better not take us lightly,” said Don Nelson, telling the Dallas-Fort Worth faithful the real score. “Last I looked we’re still playing this weekend. That’s more than Annika can say.”

No, not everyone in the Alamo City is celebrating the postgame news (you kind of figured Dirk wasn’t in good shape when the first update was provided by Walter Cronkite) that Nowitzki probably won’t play today and perhaps miss the remainder of the series.

“That’s terrible!” David Robinson said. “I realize that’s a strange reaction from someone on the opposing team, but that’s the way I feel. Dirk’s worked too hard to have his season end like that, and I want to beat them at their best, not in a weakened condition.”

If it were anybody else spouting those words, I would’ve immediately reached for a barf bag. But this guy, as we all know, is sickeningly sincere. Whenever I’m around the Spurs, I always try to stay as close to Robinson as the referees will allow on the long shot that some of him will rub off on me.

Nelson, as you recall, instigated Hack-A-Shaq after employing the same sorry strategy years before on Larry (Mr. Mean) Smith. Doing what comes naturally, he continues to muck up the flow and spirit of the game (yeah, yeah, I know, the object is to win) by attempting to exploit Bowen’s substandard free throw shooting. His percentage from the line was lower in the playoffs (.423) than from 3-point range (.510) going into Game 3; likewise for the regular season: .404 and a league-leading .441, respectively.

Bowen conscientiously practices the uncontested 15-footer but rarely is fouled in games, with 89 attempts this past season. Meanwhile, he bagged an acceptable 5 of 8 in Game 1 and flushed 5 of 6 in Game 3. Incredibly, the entire Mavs’ team, the same jump-shooting outfit that was given 50 looks in Game 1, only visited the welfare line six times, making four, both franchise playoff lows.

“If they want to continue to let me get more comfortable from the line, I’m all for it,” Bowen said sardonically.

In closing, you can look at this series, and Game 3 in particular, two ways: There are an awful lot of fools who didn’t vote for Duncan as MVP; or Nowitzki should’ve gotten a lot more votes.

Duncan’s so good he would’ve made Michael Jordan look good as a GM. So good he even got the cutting Malik Rose (1-for-10) on the scoreboard with an artful bounce pass. For a while there, I suspected Rose of betting against the Spurs.

By the way, I love the fact that David Stern reinstituted the territorial draft without clueing in the rest of the league.

Does Elgin Baylor ever actually leave Secaucus, or do they just freeze him in a back room of NBA Entertainment, then bring him to room temperature in time for the lottery?