It was a clinic of Dirk Nowitzki step-back jumpers — usually off one foot from the mid-range on Tuesday night in Dallas. The Mavs needed vintage Dirk if they were going to have any chance of surviving Kevin Durant‘s 43 points. But Rick Carlisle‘s team won it down the stretch and Nowitzki hit the dagger from deep with a minute left in OT to seal a 128-119 win.
Dirk was only 11-of-23 on the night, a far cry from his Olympian efficiency during the 2011 Finals run (seriously, go look at some of shooting performances in the Western Conference Finals against a still-maturing OKC). But his clutch shooting in the fourth was the only antidote to KD, who scored a game-high 43 on 15-for-27 from the field.
Still, up five with a little less than a minute to play, Dirk hit the decisive basket when the pass swung to him and he knocked down the triplet before KD could get there in time.
Still, we gotta give it to the 2014 NBA MVP, Kevin Durant. KD had no qualms taking on the task of guarding Dirk down the stretch, but it was Shawn Marion who tried stopping KD on the other end.
While on offense, Dirk handled Durant’s Go-Go Gadget arms easily enough, perhaps because the only guy over 6-9 that can shoot nearly as well as Durant is Dirk. And while Nowitzki is close to retirement and induction into Springfield, we hope to see a couple more years of that pretty step-back before he’s all said and done.
The Mavs are even with Phoenix (both are 42-29) for the final spot in the West (Memphis is a half game up for the 7-seed with one less loss), so they need every win they can get. This was a big one on Tuesday night, and it’s largely thanks to the man who has been doing it for the last 15 seasons.
What do you think?
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