Showboating

NBA Headlines

MVN - a Dallas Mavericks blog

Week in Review: Hobbled Dirk Still Delivering

By Joe Boikess | April 7th, 2008

E-mail | Print | Share

How quickly things can change in the mercurial Western Conference. At this time last week, I wasn’t too confident with the Dallas Mavericks’ chances of playing into May. After all, Dirk Nowitzki was still out nursing his high ankle sprain, and it seemed unlikely that he would be able to return quickly enough to dig this team out of the hole near the bottom of the West playoff picture.

That all changed on Wednesday with Nowitzki’s surprising return. His start against the Warriors boosted the Mavs to a dominating win and temporarily put the team’s worries on hold - for about a day. That’s all the time they had to celebrate the big win, as they had to travel to Los Angeles to play the Lakers on Friday night. It looked like the momentum gained from the win over Golden State had carried over, as the Mavs came out and played an excellent first three quarters of basketball. Then the fourth quarter came, and all the doubts surrounding the Mavs’ recent inability to finish games reared their ugly heads. Despite a solid game from Nowitzki (27 points off 13-for-19 shooting), Dallas was unable to stop both Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol in the fourth quarter. With Dallas up by three points with 1:29 remaining, the Lakers finished the game on a 9-2 run to win by four.

Sunday’s game was a much different story. In Phoenix, the Mavs trailed for most of the game. After Shaquille O’Neal’s made 10-footer to open the fourth quarter, the Suns held a 13-point lead and seemed to have the game well in hand. Then thanks to both excellent team (Suns scored only nine points in the fourth quarter) as well as individual defense by the Mavericks (especially from Kidd and Nowitzki, who combined for three key steals in the fourth), the Suns didn’t score for the next eight minutes. Meanwhile, the Mavs converted 16 straight unanswered points to take a three point lead with about four minutes remaining. From that point on, Nowitzki simply took the game over. His incredible stumbling 16-foot jumper with just over 30 seconds left sealed the comeback win.

Even though Dallas wasn’t able to sweep this week, they definitely did their part to show that (a) they can win on the road, and (b) even a physically limited Nowitzki can carry this team to big wins. They also thickened the cushion between themselves and both Denver and Golden State in the standings. Things are definitely looking up, as the Mavs are slated to face Seattle (twice), Portland and Utah (in Dallas, thankfully) next week. Here’s hoping this positive momentum continues into the playoffs, where anything can happen.

Record: 3-1 (season: 48-29, 7th in West, 4th in Southwest)

ESPN.com Power Ranking: #9 (Last week: #15)
NBA.com Power Ranking: #10 (Last week: #15)

Player of the Week: Dirk Nowitzki - Let’s see, Dirk makes a surprise comeback after only 10 days of rest to score 18 points in a blowout win over the hated Warriors, puts in an efficient 27 points in a close loss to the Lakers, and drops a clutch 32 points while playing solid defense down the stretch to help his Mavs blow past the Suns. I’d say that makes him worthy of some recognition.

Little General Quote of the Week:

“Kidd’s defense on Nash was outstanding. We like to be a team that gets stronger with its defense in the fourth quarter. We haven’t been able to get to it. Tonight, we were fortunate to play some serious defense in the fourth. We contested all of their shots, and we didn’t give them too many second shots.”

- Johnson, on the Mavs’ lock-down defense late against Phoenix (via DMN)

This Week (full schedule):
Tue. 4/8 vs. Sonics
Thu. 4/10 vs. Jazz
Sat. 4/12 @ Blazers
Sun. 4/13 @ Seattle

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 1:53 pm and is filed under Week in Review, Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Avery Johnson, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Seattle Supersonics, Utah Jazz, Golden State Warriors, Portland Trailblazers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Week in Review: Hobbled Dirk Still Delivering”

Maverick says:

April 7th, 2008 at 2:23 pm

Great come back win yesterday. Great character win. I am starting to get a feeling that the team is gelling with Kidd at the PG. I was against the trade, but it’s the past and have to play with the cards you are dealt, and they are not bad cards.
Looks like the Mavs will face either the Lakers or the Spurs in the playoffs. I would rather face the Lakers.
I know, I know, who wants to face Kobe since he had a quiet game (thanks to great D from Eddie Jones) last week and the Lakers still won, but Dirk was also playing on 1 healthy ankle and Mavs almost won, if not for a Dirk turnover late in the game.
Lakers have been winning close games that could have gone either way. They have no shot altering center, and their defense leaves a lot to be desired, if the Mavs just execute down the stretch, they should win the series in 6.