Wednesday, November 4, 2009

MVP! MVP! MVP!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uti8Kz4SYUU

I said it on Twitter, but it deserves saying again...Dirk Nowitzki is an effing man.

With the grit and will of Larry Bird and the swagger of Michael Jordan, Dirk saw his team in need last night and basically said "OK guys...time to get on my back, cuz I'm going to carry you tonight."

Mavericks had been awful all night. They were playing decent defense, but as has been the case all year (Including their wins) the Mavs just couldn't hit jump shots. This is a Dallas team that if you can prevent them from getting a head of steam and running up and down the floor for transition buckets, they're very easy to slow down. Because if they can't run, they're forced to take jumpers and they just don't have a roster that can consistently hit 20 footers.

The Jazz obviously knew this. Whatever happened, Utah was going to make sure first and foremost that Dallas did not get any fast break points. By doing that, they forced Dallas to shoot under 35 percent for most of the first three quarters.

Dallas entered the fourth quarter down by double digits and the Jazz lead got all the way up to 16 at one point. That's when Dirk Nowitzki had enough of it and decided he was just going to ram to the basket, no matter who was in his way. He took it to the hole repeatedly at the start of the 4th and quickly go in the bonus. Dirk scored a monumental 29 points in the 4th quarter...two short of tying the NBA record (Wilt Chamberlain) for most points in a 4th quarter.

I saw something in Dirk last night that I haven't seen since the 05-06 season when the Mavericks made the Finals. It was a will to just not let his team lose that ballgame. It wasn't the same sort of game, but it was Jordan-esque in the way he carried his entire team against a defense that had shut them out for three quarters.

I've seen a lot of greatness from Dirk Nowitzki in his time with the Mavericks, but last night may have been the finest performance I've ever seen from him.

Dirk Nowitzki single-handedly defeated the Utah Jazz last night.

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