By Chuck Cooperstein
The Mavericks live to fight another day because their star player refused to let them lose. There has never been an athlete in Dallas sports history, who has been has unappreciated for his brilliance as Dirk Nowitzki has been. Indeed, there has never been an athlete who has ever played professional sports in Dallas, who is as accomplished in his sport (And yes, that includes ANY Cowboy) as Dirk Nowitzki has been. So it was more than just a little gratifying to me to see him go nuts again against the Nuggets in scoring 44 points (19 in the fourth quarter) to send this series back to Denver for Game 5 tomorrow night.
The series of jumpers, drives, and free throws had the Nuggets completely befuddled. But, of course, they have had no clue as to how to stop Dirk the entire series. Dirk is averaging 35 in the series. THIRTY-FIVE. The Nuggets tried to double him a little more last night, but in the end reverted to their default strategy of having Kenyon Martin trying to guard him. And has been the case the entire year (Except for one game in March when Dirk shot 7-23) Martin simply can't do it. It helped that Chris Andersen came down with a case of stomach flu and couldn't go, but Andersen, while playing Dirk better than just about anyone that Denver has, likely wasn't going to be able to deny an incredibly determined performance.
And that determined performance carried over to the entire team. They were in danger of getting run out of their own building falling behind 14 points in the second quarter. The Nuggets had it going their way, killing it from behind the arc, and getting fast break points off long rebounds and run-outs, as well taking full advantage of every Mavericks miscue scoring 20 points off nine turnovers in the first half. But the game changed when Carmelo Anthony and Antoine Wright got tangled up underneath. From that point, the officiating crew of Steve Javie, Marc Davis and Joe DeRosa, who had been willing to let the guys play (As opposed to the Game 3 which blew the whistle from the start and never stopped), decided to put everything on DEFCON 5 lockdown. And what followed were a series of seven technical fouls called and two flagrant fouls. All together, there were 58 fouls and 85 free throws shot (After 61 fouls and 89 free throws shot in Game 3). The fallout being that the game slowed down to the point where the Mavericks could regain a foothold. The Mavericks do want to uptempo it, but they can't get out and go like Denver does. So, in a bizarre way, all the extracurriculars really favored the Mavericks.
Plenty will be written and said about Dirk and he deserves it all. But Josh Howard was toughness personified playing on those two horrible ankles in producing his first double-double of the post season with 21 and 11. And JJ Barea had his best game of the series with 10 points in 17 minutes. His dribble penetration from the perimeter really helped the Mavericks offense get unstuck after they had started so slowly.
It was an amazing, tense, and intense atmosphere in the American Airlines Center. Most of it great. Some of it... Well, not so great. What was happening in the stands around Kenyon Martin's family, and around Carmelo Anthony's girlfriend was totally uncalled for. It led to the surreal experience of trying to keep track of what was going on behind me in the stands, as well as what was happening out on the floor. And as exciting as this weekend has been, there should be enough going on out on the floor to warrant everyone's full attention, and not have to worry about the families of the opposing team.
Goodness. Given what this series has already given us. I can only imagine what it will be like inside the Pepsi Center in Denver on Wednesday night. Can't wait to see it.
