"Two days earlier, he had been obliquely called a dog in public and probably heard worse in private.

All along, Spurs forward Richard Jefferson tried to chalk it up to the heat of the postseason.

"Everything is going to be intensified, everything is going to be overanalyzed," Jefferson said. "You go from one day being a hero to the next day being a zero. That's just the way it is."

In the Spurs' crucial 102-88 victory over the Mavericks in Game 2 on Wednesday, Jefferson got to enjoy how the other half lived.

Branded a goat or a dog or who knows what other kind of animal after his Game 1 struggles Sunday, Jefferson responded with 19 points and seven rebounds to help the Spurs even the Western Conference first-round series at the American Airlines Center.

For the second postseason in a row, the Spurs and Mavericks are tied at a game apiece. This time, the series shifts to San Antonio for Game 3, set for Friday.

Tim Duncan had 25 points and 17 rebounds and scored four straight baskets after Dallas carved what had been a 20-point deficit to five with 6:56 to go. Manu Ginobili added 23 points, and Tony Parker had 16 — none of this was far removed from what that trio produced for the Spurs in Game 1.

It was Jefferson, however, who answered the most pressing Game 2 question: Which former dog would have his day?

Two days earlier, Jefferson was a notable no-show in the Spurs' 100-94 loss, scoring four points on four attempts. When coach Gregg Popovich told the media that unidentified players had played "like dogs," it wasn't hard to read between the box score lines.

Two days after practically being force-fed Alpo, Jefferson was a different animal in Game 2."