Dallas ? There were no referees around Thursday, an off day in the Western Conference finals. Accordingly, nobody got too upset.

A day after the technical foul-fest known as Game 2, the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs insisted they wouldn’t let the officiating get to them in Game 3 tonight.

In a series tied at one game apiece, the officiating has been the hot topic — and the debate has had a personal twist. The person people were wondering about after Game 2 was referee Joey Crawford.

The notoriously quick-tempered Crawford called four technical fouls in the first quarter of San Antonio’s 119-106 victory, ejecting coach Don Nelson with two quick technicals during a timeout.

“I thought Joey was playing for a championship last night,” Dallas guard Nick Van Exel said Thursday. “It’s over with. Let’s stop talking about it so you don’t get me fined.”

Players and coaches are not allowed to publicly criticize referees, so the easiest thing for them to do Thursday was to steer clear of the controversy.

NBA vice president of operations Stu Jackson, who oversees the referees, did the same.

“We’re not commenting on it,” Jackson said. “I don’t have a reason why we’re not commenting.”

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he received 750 e-mails concerning the officiating by the time he went to sleep Wednesday night and had another 500 awaiting him when he awoke. A common theme: Why does the NBA assign playoff games to referees whose personalities affect the way the game is called?

Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki walks away from referee Ted Bernhardt, right, after being charged with a foul. Nowitzki had three fouls Wednesday in the first quarter of Game 2 of the Western Conference finals against the Spurs in San Antonio.

In the case of Crawford, an NBA referee for more than 20 years, every NBA player and coach is well aware of his quick fuse and confrontational personality.

And when Nelson walked to the center of the scorer’s table and stared at Crawford during a first-quarter timeout, Nelson had to know that Crawford would take the bait and eject him.

“I know fully what Nellie was doing,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said, refusing to elaborate.

Cuban said the reason why Nelson was staring at the referees was because he was upset by the officiating of Ted Bernhardt, who had called a questionable third foul against Dirk Nowitzki midway through the first quarter.

As the Mavericks players yelled at Bernhardt from the bench, Bernhardt yelled back at them — both as he ran past them, and as he stood along the baseline while play was ongoing, Cuban said.

“I think we were way too emotional about the officiating,” Nowitzki said. “I thought everyone should’ve left it alone. We’ve got to do a better job of focusing on playing basketball.”