The NBA playoffs are about having your best players perform at the biggest moments, and if a crucial piece is missing, you can be had by a lower seed.

Welcome to Hads-ville.

Garnett and Ginobili are key components of championship ballclubs. Components that are not available in the postseason. Their absences have left their teams vulnerable to younger, hungrier underdogs who would like nothing better than to close the coffin on their more decorated rivals.

Hours after No. 7 seed Chicago won at a Big Ticket-less Boston to open the 2009 playoffs, Ginobili wore the expression of a helpless spectator behind the bench as his San Antonio teammates were dominated down the stretch by a sixth-seeded Dallas team playing its best Basketball of the season.

Dallas 105, San Antonio 97.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was hardly interested in discussing Ginobili one hour before the game, and for good reason.

Ginobili isn't playing, and the Spurs cannot concern themselves with inactive players when the season is on the line. There are more important matters - like winning playoff games - to worry about.

But by game's end, Ginobili's presence was like the big elephant in the room; an Argentinean elephant with a stress fracture in his foot. An injury that prevents him from providing a needed spark off a bench that's in dire need of a defibrillator.

"We're getting used to not playing without Manu, but we're all going to have to step up,'' said Roger Mason Jr. "We know no one person can replace him because he's an all-star."

The Spurs have all-stars in Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, and those stars played their roles with a combined 51 points. But they can only do so much. Quite simply, San Antonio got next to nothing from its bench. The Dallas reserves won the scoring battle off the pine, 39-14, while a kid named J.J. Barea gave Parker all he could handle in the second half.

Barea, who would be the best Basketball player ever to come out of Northeastern University if not for the late Reggie Lewis, took the ball and scored with it after getting the second-half start. Not only did he account for 11 of Dallas' 13 points in a crucial stretch of the fourth quarter (with nine points and an assist), but he also befuddled Parker on defense, drawing a pair of offensive fouls.

"I thought he was flopping,'' a frustrated Parker said after the game.

If Parker wants to talk about a flop, he need not look far. Try your team's bench, Tony. From the start of the season, we knew depth would be a problem for this team, given its advancing age and the lack of athleticism off the bench. And even when Ginobili returned from ankle surgery, the lack of bench production was still a major issue.

Now that he's a non-factor, the Spurs better find help from somewhere because there will come a time in this series when Parker and Duncan aren't clicking. Then where will the points come from?

Drew Gooden? He started well but was a spectator down the stretch.

Ime Udoka? He was too busy trying to help hold down Josh Howard, who scored 25 points on a bum ankle.

Bruce Bowen? Doesn't play a lot these days and never scored much when he did . Kurt Thomas? Please.

Meanwhile, the Mavericks got 10 points and 11 rebounds from center Erick Dampier and 14 points from reserve forward Brandon Bass, who always saves his best games for the Spurs.

So what's Pop's answer? Well, he can be thankful that after Game 2 on Monday, the Spurs and Mavs won't play again until Thursday in Dallas, giving Duncan ample time to rest those sore knees. Pop has already intimated he will play Duncan 40 minutes per night and now that the homecourt advantage has switched to the Metroplex, he has no choice but to hope those old legs hold up.

And now that Dallas has landed the first blow in what's almost certain to be a seven-game series, Popovich will have to find a way to get more production from players not named Parker and Duncan. Michael Finley and Mason did give him 32 points, but those performances turned out to be wasted on this night.

Losing a playoff opener can leave a bitter taste, and while Pop doesn't need the guy who invented Trident sugarless gum to tell him 4 out of 5 teams that win the first game of a best-of-seven end up winning the series, his Spurs must accomplish two goals if they are to win this series:

First, they must stop Dallas' bench.

And second, they must find one of their own.

cgolden@statesman.com; 912-5944