quot;It wasn't a tough loss,quot; Popovich said Friday, a day after the beatdown that handed Dallas a 2-1 edge in the best-of-7 series. quot;A tough loss to me is, both teams play their ass off, and somebody makes a shot with one second left on the clock that's contested. That's a tough loss.quot;

quot;Last night was just more of an embarrassing kind of loss.quot;

Indeed, the Spurs could not have been more embarrassed in Game 3 had they accidentally shown up to the American Airlines Center in only their underwear.

Riding a crest of home-court energy, the Mavericks jumped them from the get-go, leading by as many as 12 points in the first quarter, 19 in the second, and 35 in the third.

When it was over, Dallas settled for a 21-point victory - a 42-point swing from the Spurs' triumph in Game 2 - and had limited the Spurs to a franchise playoff scoring low.

A day later, Spurs forward Bruce Bowen called it the most disheartening playoff loss he had ever been a part of, going so far as to say he thought the team had betrayed its championship past.

quot;That shellacking we took was totally disrespectful to the Spurs, as far as what we've been,quot; Bowen said. quot;We want to make amends for that.quot;

In a pivotal Game 4 this afternoon in Dallas, the Spurs will be fueled, if nothing else, by a fear of humiliation.

As they convened for a postmortem practice session Friday at SMU, the Spurs did not talk much about Xs and Os alterations for Game 4. The only adjustment they plan to make is one of attitude.

quot;We have to play with a lot more energy,quot; point guard Tony Parker said. quot;That's it.quot;

The Mavericks are expecting the Spurs to be better today than they were in Game 3. They could hardly be much worse.

Dallas outplayed the Spurs at both ends of the court, so thoroughly that early in the third quarter, Popovich called quot;unclequot; and benched his starters. It was a reversal of Game 2, in which the Spurs bounced back from a Game 1 defeat to trounce the Mavs 105-84.

quot;Both teams have responded very well to losing, and very poorly to winning,quot; Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said.

If there's any consolation for the Spurs, it's that they've been here before.

In last year's Western Conference semifinals against New Orleans, they dropped games by 18, 19 and 22 points, and still won the series in seven.

Thursday's loss wasn't even the Spurs' most lopsided playoff defeat of the past 12 months. That came in a 30-point blowout against the Lakers in Game 2 of last season's conference finals.

The Spurs responded to that humiliation with a crushing 103-84 victory in Game 3. Today's potential bounce-back game, however, carries two significant differences: The Spurs are not at home, and they don't have Manu Ginobili.

It was Ginobili who propelled the Spurs to their only victory in the conference finals with a 30-point night.

quot;We've been through it, but this is a whole different team,quot; said Tim Duncan, who set a career postseason low with four points in Game 3 against Dallas. quot;Individually, we've been through some ups and downs. We're just trying to pull this team through it.quot;

This Spurs team is a proud group, populated by players used to playing for championships.

To the proud, shame can be a powerful motivator. The way the Spurs talked Friday, it will be again in Game 4.

quot;The great thing about this game is you have another opportunity,quot; Bowen said. quot;We're disappointed we came out with the effort we did. That's incentive enough for everyone to come out with an even better effort.quot;