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DALLAS -- With stubble on his cheeks and resignation in his voice, Dirk Nowitzki didn't look or sound anything like a dominant player determined to prevent one of the most embarrassing, stunning upsets in NBA history.
Johnson
Nowitzki
Maybe he was sapped by the long flight back from Oakland and film session that immediately followed. Or perhaps the listless appearance was just further proof of how much the Golden State Warriors have flustered Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks while winning three of the first four games in this first-round series.
Whatever the reason, the expected league MVP talked Monday about being ready to shrink from the spotlight even more than he already has in Game 5 Tuesday night.
"I got to take what they give me and they don't really give me a lot," said Nowitzki, who is averaging 20 points and has yet to score more than 23. "So I've got to make other stuff happen -- help out on defense more; hit the glass harder, as hard as I can, get some extra possessions; if I have a shot, try to knock it down and if I don't, move the ball and let someone else make a shot."
Nowitzki rarely boasts. Talk of "fitting in" is more typical than predicting a big game.
Yet would Michael Jordan talk about passing more when his shot wasn't falling? Did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar focus on rebounds when his sky hook was missing the mark? And how many les did their I'm-going-to-score-no-matter-what at udes produce?
The answer is enough to explain why coach Avery Johnson was angered by Nowitzki's comments, which are typical of his at ude throughout this series.
"I'm tired of hearing about how they've taken him out of his game and any lack of confidence. You're just not supposed to have that, all right," said Johnson, perhaps team's most intense player even though he's no longer playing.
"I wasn't the best of players and didn't have the best of skills, but you were not going to shake my confidence. We need all of our players to be confident, to be resilient, to be persistent and that's what I want to see tomorrow. If I don't see it at shootaround, I'm going to be highly upset ... because I need to have it going into that game tomorrow night. We've got to be confident and really sure about what we're doing."
And if he doesn't see it?
"We'll figure something out," Johnson said. "We'll figure something out."
Nowitzki proved he's capable of taking over a big game during last year's playoffs. After leading Dallas past San Antonio in a tense, second-round series, he pushed the Mavs past Phoenix in the conference finals by scoring 50 points in Game 5 of a tied series, then took over the second half of the next game, clinching a spot in the NBA Finals.
The Mavericks wound up losing to the Miami Heat, but came back so focused this season that they won 67 games, among the most in league history -- and 25 more than the Warriors, who needed a 9-1 finish just to make the playoffs.
Dallas had winning streaks of 17, 13 and 12 games, so three in a row to win this series certainly isn't asking for much, except for one nagging detail: Golden State is 6-1 in the head-to-head series, including the game that ended the Mavericks' longest winning streak.
Only eight teams in NBA history have overcome 3-1 deficits. If Dallas can't become the ninth, the Mavs will be the third No. 1 seed knocked out by a No. 8 and the first since the opening round became a best-of-seven series.
Nelson
"We have a great deal of respect for the Dallas Mavericks," said Warriors coach Don Nelson, who was a big part of building Dallas into a championship team over the last 10 years. "If any team can come back from this, it's them."
Phoenix pulled off the comeback from 3-1 down last year in the opening round against the Los Angeles Lakers. Detroit did it as a top seed in 2003.
"Dallas won't give up," Golden State's Jason Richardson said. "We still have work to do."
The Warriors aren't likely to roll over, either. They've been the aggressors in every game, with Baron Davis providing the skill and Stephen Jackson the toughness. The Mavericks' only win came in the game Davis and Jackson were ejected from.
Nowitzki was plenty passive in Game 4 Sunday night. He seemed reluctant to shoot at times, like when he gave up an open look from about eight feet to pass to a covered teammate closer to the rim. Then in the closing minutes he shot an airball on a 3-point try.
"They really go smaller and really sit down on my legs, don't let me put the ball down on the floor the way I want to and get to my spots," Nowitzki said.
Teammate Jerry Stackhouse accused reporters of putting too much emphasis on Nowitzki.
"It's not on Dirk," he said. "You guys have made Dirk the save-all for us. We haven't. He's a part, a big part, of what we do. When teams do something to take away a big part of you, the onus is on everyone else to step up."
Despite a reputation for playing little defense, the Warriors have yet to allow anyone to score 30 points, while getting at least that many from one of their players every game.
"As long as we believe in ourselves," Davis said, "we will be all right."
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2854688
It saddens me that Dirk can't find within himself what he has had the entire time. He proved, at least to me, that he was worthy in the 2006 playoffs (sans the finals) and a number of times during the regular season.
Nevertheless, I'm fairly confident that he'll regain his groove.
GO MAVS!
If you guys don't come back to win this series. You might want to see what you can get for Dirk he is clearly never going to be the same.
I agree. I'm stunned to hear a guy talk like that. Even if you harbor doubts on the inside, you can never let your opponent know how much they've gotten inside your head.
Perhaps it is my reluctance to accept that one of my all-time favorite players will never be the same, but I think that this is a temporary slump. I feel that Dirk subconsciously knows what he's capable of but has merely lost sight of it for the time being.
If Dirk manages to nab a great game tomorrow, I am certain that he will be cured of whatever is causing him to doubt himself. From that point on, it'll be a straight path to the Western Conference Finals where we'll see if we can take on the Spurs as well as we did last postseason.
Cap room aside if Boston gave you their first right now would you do it? Could be Durant or Oden?
Ugh. I guess I'd have to do it in that situation. It would be a greater benefit for the team over the long run (though I'd take up a rooting interest in Boston as a result).
That said, if we get out of this hole and Dirk gets out of his slump, then I'm 100% for keeping him.
Oh yeah that would be a huge thing for him.
If you go for the lottery pick, you're going to have to start from scratch again. None of those two guys will give championship caliber ball in the first few years, and the supporting cast for the Mavs will be aging fast (Terry,Stack,George).
And about the article:
"With stubble on his cheeks and resignation in his voice, Dirk Nowitzki didn't look or sound anything like ..."
That's how you clinically detect a chronic choking-itis.
dirk could get traded if cuban keeps the team
kg,oneal and paul gasol (with lottery picks) would be avaible
If you take Dirk off of that team and replace him with ANYONE...
The Spurs are going to have less of a problem with Dallas...
The matchup problems that Dirk gives us are the only reason that Dallas is a tougher team to beat than Denver...
As Golden State and Heat have shown. Spurs are just one trade move of solving the Dirk Nowitzki Conundrum. Just throw someone stronger, shorter and smart enough to defend on him.
Dirk appears to have Brad Lidge syndrome
And conversely, we've learned that the mavs were built to beat Shaq, Duncan, Yao, etc, but the Warriors were built to beat them. We need a consistent low-post scoring threat and a point guard that knows how to make a goddamn entry pass. Easier said than done.
Especially cause you signed Terry to an idiotic contract, he's not THAT good.
well, we were able to unload the Raefist, we can probably deal Terry. His contract isn't that horrible.
I wonder if we could get Gasol without having to give up Howard or Dirk. Gasol isn't putting a team on his back either, but I think Howard is too special a talent to give up on and would be too steep a price to part with for Gasol. The only question at this point is after the series is over, and Donnie, Mark and Avery sit down to take a hard look at this thing, do we need to blow it up? Or make some minor roster tweaks? Or some moderate roster overhaul?
Mike Conley is the only true distributor PG with any potential in the draft, we could make a move to get him....I'm sure we'd have to offer Harris but I'd rather have a smart distributor instead of a poor man's Barbosa.
What I want to know is will Dirk pick up his MVP trophy in Oakland, Houston or Utah?
You guys keep stocking PGs and jumpshooters, and Nellie will keep on running you out of the gym.
You need a Low Post presence. Heck, even a PJ Brown would work out for you guys.
Mavs need a good distributing point guard to freeze the defense and a presence inside. Heck, he doesn't even need to be a good defender, Diop and Damp are decent. Just someone to keep the defense honest.
Dirk is in a WORLD of trouble now. If he thinks it was tough before, now the Warriors KNOW they're getting to him. Ever seen a shark when it gets the scent of blood? Bad, bad, bad news.
It is all on Dirk - he's a wimp, has no heart, and has proven that he can't pull it off in the 4th quarter when the game is on the line.
Is it any surprise that one of the most selfish players in the game (Stackhouse) talks about stepping up? Of course he doesn't want the emphasis to be on Dirk because then he can launch more stupid shots.
Stackhouse would have been the savior of the Mavs current franchise if he would have been happy with the points he had, instead of forcing stuff. He saved the game, but cost them the game as well. Sad.
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