Dirk Nowitzki, Mavericks punch playoff tickets
SALT LAKE CITY — Dirk Nowitzki‘s favorite time of the year started a little early this season.
There is no doubt that Playoff Dirk made an appearance Monday night, when the Dallas Mavericks punched their tickets to the postseason with the stakes about as high as possible for a regular-season game.
If the Mavs lost this one, they’d have been in serious jeopardy of being the odd team out in the fight for the final two spots in the Western Conference. Nowitzki wasn’t going to let that happen.
As a result, seeding will be the only thing at stake for the Mavs when they host the San Antonio Spurs in Wednesday’s regular-season finale. For the 15th time in 16 seasons, Nowitzki’s Mavs will finish better than .500 and be postseason participants.
Nowitzki got his first taste of the playoffs way back in 2001, when he held his own against 37-year-old legend Karl Malone as the Mavs pulled off a major upset of the Utah Jazz.
Nowitzki scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the Mavs’ 101-92 win over the Jazz on Monday. Those numbers aren’t too far from the postseason norms for one of four players in NBA history with career averages of at least 25 points and 10 rebounds per game in the playoffs.
Jazz fans might never forgive Nowitzki for his infamous “Utah is a bad city” quote from those 2011 playoffs, but he wasn’t the most despised player in a Dallas uniform Monday night. That honor goes to ex-Jazz point guard Deron Williams, whose 23-point, six-assist performance must have been especially painful for the Utah faithful to watch.
