Physically, all members of the Spurs’ “Big Three” had no problems after returning to action Thursday against the Boston Celtics at the AT&T Center.

Power forward Tim Duncan, who missed the previous four games with a sprained left ankle, said the injured joint felt good and presented no problems.

Point guard Tony Parker, who sat out Monday with a bruised left patella, had no residual pain.

Shooting guard Manu Ginobili, who sat Monday with a left thigh contusion, said his leg felt a little weak, but didn’t hurt.

What did hurt was the team’s fifth straight loss, a 107-97 defeat that further eroded the Spurs’ lead over the Lakers in the Western Conference standings, and Ginobili struggled to accept a subpar game he said wasn’t linked to the injury he suffered Monday in Memphis.

“It didn’t hurt,” he said. “My left leg was a little weak. It didn’t figure as much, but it felt good. Can’t complain.”

Ginobili also was puzzled by the fact he did not get to the foul line for the first time this season in a game in which he played more than 30 minutes.

“I think I should have gone a couple times,” he said. “It just didn’t happen. But I attacked the rim. It hurt me, also, that I couldn’t make a shot. The defense wasn’t really worried about my shot.”

MCDYESS RELIEVED: Starting center Antonio McDyess felt his left foot roll when he stepped on Ginobili’s foot with 8:21 left in the third quarter and immediately jumped off his other foot to take his weight off the joint.

Though he limped to the locker room with trainer Will Sevening in tow, he was able to return to the game with no ill effects.

“I didn’t think it was real bad when I did it,” he said, “but I was afraid it was going to swell up worse than it did. Once they checked it out and retaped it, I knew I was going to be able to come back to the game.”

McDyess was relatively certain he would suit up tonight in Houston.

“It’s just a little sore,” he said afterwards. “It’s nothing serious, just a little tweak. The initial pain was a lot worse, but it went away. I’ll ice it on the plane and keep the swelling down. I’m pretty sure it will be OK.”

BAD TIMING: Rookie guard Gary Neal followed Monday’s 3-for-14 shooting performance in a loss to the Trail Blazers with a 4-for-12 game against the Celtics, then promised to keep shooting.

“All you can do is stay in the gym and keep working and hope it’s a short slump and not a prolonged one,” he said. “You’ve got to keep shooting when the shots are there.”

PERSONALLY SPEAKING: Celtics star Kevin Garnett, who scored 20 points, said Boston’s players took umbrage at the fact Spurs coach Gregg Popovich “rested” four starters on Monday.

“We know they rested their stars and were prepared for this game,” Garnett said. “We took this personally. They are the best team in the league. If you don’t come in here and play, they’ll treat you like the worst team in the league.”

DAYTON, Ohio - Matt Dickey and North Carolina-Asheville injected a little customary March drama into the NCAA’s new-look tournament.

Dickey led a late run that brought overtime, and J.P. Primm hit five free throws and had a decisive steal in the closing seconds Tuesday night, sending UNC Asheville to an 81-77 victory over Arkansas-Little Rock in a dramatic “First Four” opener.

“We don’t have any quit in this team,” UNC Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach said.

The Bulldogs (20-13) will play Pittsburgh, the top seed in the Southeast, on Thursday in Washington, D.C.

UNC Asheville pulled it out with a tournament-worthy performance by its best player. The Bulldogs led for only 51 seconds in regulation, before Dickey asserted himself. He scored 14 of the Bulldogs’ last 18 points in regulation, including a 3 with 10.5 seconds to go that tied it.

“I hit one in the corner and it was a good time for it to fall,” Dickey said.

Primm and Dickey had 22 points apiece.

Alex Garcia-Mendoza matched his career high with 21 points for Arkansas-Little Rock (19-17). The Trojans played overtime without Solomon Bozeman, the Sun Belt’s player of the year who fouled out in the final minute of regulation. He finished with 18 points.

Each year, the tournament turns into a big stage looking for a star. Dickey became the first to take the spotlight.

The shooting guard asserted himself with nine minutes left, leading the late surge that culminated in his 3-pointer from the left corner. Matt Mouzy missed a 3 at the buzzer, sending it to overtime.

There were five lead changes in overtime, the last coming on Primm’s two free throws that made it 78-77 and put the Bulldogs in position to win yet another overtime tournament game in Dayton.

The Bulldogs also opened the tournament in Dayton in 2003, when they became the first Big South team to win an NCAA tournament game. They went overtime to beat Texas Southern 92-84 in a one-game play-in for the 65-team field.

UNC Asheville received a key to their city last week for making it to the NCAA tournament, something they’d done only one other time in school history.

Imagine what kind of greeting they can expect back home now.

Players had trouble sleeping the night before they got on their charter flights - a first for most of them - and headed to Dayton to become a footnote to NCAA tournament history. They were the opening act in the “First Four” - four games over two days at the University of Dayton Arena, part of an expanded 68-team field.

And they did it with a few tournament-worthy moments: Unexpected 3s, no-look passes and overtime drama.

“We’re playing really good now and it feels good to go to the second round,” Dickey said.

Both teams had a leading player coming off an MVP tournament. Dickey averaged 19.7 points during the Big South tournament. Bozeman got the same honors in the Sun Belt, hitting a 3-pointer with 1.5 seconds left that brought the championship.

With the Trojans needing another big shot on Tuesday, he could only sit and watch.

The NFL and the NFL Players Association agreed to seven consecutive days of negotiations, a league source told NFL Network insider Albert Breer on Thursday, and the sides also will allow mediation in their labor dispute.

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, an independent U.S. government agency, will oversee negotiations in Washington D.C., beginning Friday, two weeks before the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players’ union expires.

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While negotiations could last seven days, they might go just a few days, sources on both sides cautioned, according to NFL Network insider Jason La Canfora. The fact that a schedule has been carved out is a positive sign, but the arc of these kinds of talks generally is up and down, and deals are usually struck at the last possible minute.

“It is a day-by-day, hour-by-hour thing,” one union source said.

Added a league source: “If nothing is being accomplished, no one, especially (the mediator), wants to waste their time.”

Both sides pointed to last week’s negotiation breakdown, as well as them being unable to make it through two days of talks without incident, as a sign of what still must be overcome. But returning to the negotiating table and involving a third party provides the potential for gains to be made.

After FMCS held separate discussions with representatives from the league and the union, director George H. Cohen said both sides agreed to have the agency mediate. However, that mediation isn’t binding.

Cohen said in a statement that the negotiations will be conducted “under my auspices.” He is no stranger to sports mediation. He was involved in Major League Soccer’s talks with its players’ union, and a work stoppage was avoided last year.

Cohen also has worked with the players’ associations for Major League Baseball, helping end the 1994-95 strike as a consulting attorney, and the NBA, and he was an advisor to the NHL players’ union before joining the FMCS.

“Due to the extreme sensitivity of these negotiations and consistent with the FMCS’s long-standing practice, the agency will refrain from any public comment concerning the future schedule and/or the status of those negotiations until further notice,” Cohen said.The FMCS website says it “provides free mediation services in contract negotiation disputes between employers and their unionized employees. All the parties have to do is make a request.”

The FMCS also became involved in negotiations during the 2004-05 NHL lockout, and a 2005 dispute between the U.S. Soccer Federation and its players.

NFL players expect the league owners to lock them out if the CBA expires March 3 without a new agreement.

In a statement, NFLPA spokesman George Atallah said: “The NFLPA has always focused on a fair collective bargaining agreement through negotiations. We hope that this renewed effort, through mediation, will help the players and owners reach a successful deal.”

NFLPA president Kevin Mawae told The Associated Press in an e-mail: “Any time that both sides of negotiations can get together, whether through conventional means of bargaining or mediation, to come to an agreement that can benefit all parties, it is a good thing.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told The AP in an e-mail: “We are now in mediation.” The league also switched an owners meeting from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on March 3, to Chantilly, Va., on March 2-3.

News of mediation could be a positive sign after several months of infrequent negotiations. It also comes just three days after the NFL filed an unfair labor practice charge against the NFLPA with the National Labor Relations Board. Monday’s filing said the union “consistently has failed to confer in good faith” during negotiations for a new contract and the union’s “conduct amounts to surface bargaining and an anticipatory refusal to bargain.”

Aiello told The AP the mediation wouldn’t have an effect on the league’s NLRB complaint.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay recalled the last CBA negotiations in 2006, a deal the owners opted out of in 2008.

“Since the last time, things have broken off and guys have gone their separate ways,” Irsay said Thursday. “I remember that happened the last time, and (then-commissioner) Paul Tagliabue ended up texting (union chief) Gene Upshaw and said, ‘Why don’t we get back together.’ So you never know when something positive can happen and something good can get done.”I don’t have a strong anticipation something will get done before (March 3), but I think it’s possible.”

The biggest issue separating the sides is how to divide about $9 billion in annual revenues. Among the other significant points in negotiations: the owners’ push to expand the regular season from 16 games to 18 while reducing the preseason by two games, a rookie wage scale and benefits for retired players.

“Our ultimate goal is a new CBA,” Atallah wrote Thursday on his Twitter feed. “I will not discuss any details about the next set of negotiations. We are observing a strict media blackout.”

However, some players commented moments after the announcement of mediation.

“NFL and NFLPA agreeing to meet with a federal mediator is a real positive step,” Minnesota Vikings offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie said on his Twitter account. “Let’s see if he can get them to make actual progress.”

Added player agent Drew Rosenhaus: “Exciting news to see the NFLPA & the Owners talking again through the mediation process — a productive step in the right direction!”

The Minnesota Vikings removed the interim tag from head coach Leslie Frazier’s job title on Monday.

Frazier, who replaced Brad Childress after the latter’s firing in November, earned the full-time job after leading the team to a 3-3 record down the stretch.

CAPTIONBy Bruce Kluckhohn, US Presswire

“We are thrilled that Leslie Frazier will continue to lead this football team,” Vikings owner Zygi Wilf said. “Our players and entire organization have great respect for Leslie. He has a vast knowledge of the game, both as a former player and as a coach, and he has a terrific way with those who play for him and work with him.”

Frazier led the Vikings through a tumultuous end to the season that included three straight weeks of games that were relocated or rescheduled by snow. It was on his watch that QB Brett Favre’s streak of 297 consecutive games started ended because of injury.

He steadied a squad that had floundered to a 3-7 start after entering the season as a Super Bowl favorite.

Vikings president Mark Wilf said Frazier’s composure was a factor in retaining him. “He has a strong presence in the locker room and is an excellent leader, as demonstrated during some of the recent challenges we have faced,” Frazier said.

Frazier was the Vikings’ defensive coordinator before being elevated to head coach.