He started 3 of 8.
You might not think the first 37-year-old in 13 years to score 40 points in a game would bring that up in his post-game presser, but that’s where Dirk Nowitzki began after Dallas’ 132-120 win against Portland in overtime, the biggest win of the season. The Mavs and Trail Blazers are now separated by just half a game in one of the tightest playoff races in recent memory.
The Mavericks needed every point from Nowitzki, and from Deron Williams, too, who notched the first 30-point, 15-assist game for the franchise since Jason Kidd did so in 1996. When the German started the game cold — relatively speaking — and Portland briefly built a double-digit lead, Nowitzki knew his team needed more. Playing with a considerable amount of desperation and without forward Chandler Parsons, it was time for him to step up.
“I got set up really good a couple times and was able to finish the first half in a groove,” he said. “I think I made my last three or four straight. That always helps, going to halftime with a good rhythm.
“I just kind of enjoyed the groove from there, and just made some tough shots.”
“Enjoy” is one way to put it. Nowitzki would connect on 13 of his final 18 field goal attempts and score 12 points in the fourth quarter and overtime alone to secure his first 40-point game since Jan. 11, 2014. You’d have to go back to 2003 to find a 37-year-old (or older) who scored 40, as both Karl Malone and Michael Jordan accomplished the feat. On a grander scale, Nowitzki scored 20 points for the eighth straight game, his longest stretch since the 2010-11 season. He’s playing his best basketball in years at a time when his career should be winding down.
“He just keeps on doing it,” Williams said. “Father Time can’t catch up with him. Tonight, he just put us on his back offensively. He hit some huge shots, put the game away. I would say I’m surprised, but I’m not. He’s been doing it all season.”
Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle has seen a majority of Nowitzki’s milestones up-close, from his first Finals MVP to cracking the top-10 on the all-time scoring list to scoring 48 points on 15 shots in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. By now, he’s almost seen it all, but even he couldn’t help but gush after seeing what Nowitzki did Sunday afternoon.
“Never underestimate greatness at any age,” he said.
From a technical standpoint, Nowitzki’s late-game surge was another virtuoso performance. Portland had spent the entire game switching smaller defenders onto him, but Blazers coach (and former Mavs assistant) Terry Stotts elected to nix the switching and play straight-up against him with Al-Farouq Aminu, Nowitzki’s former teammate. Many players might double-take or play uncomfortable when an opponent changes up a gameplan late in a contest, but Nowitzki and Williams have seen it all, and it was their chemistry which would ultimately put the game away.
One reason Father Time can’t catch up with the German is because he’s got a counter move for everything. You don’t survive in this league for nearly two decades if you only have one move. He’s given the NBA 18 years worth of scouting reports, and having played with him a matter of months ago, Aminu knows Nowitzki wants to turn to his right in the post and launch a one-legged fade. So what does he do? He spins baseline — a move we’ve seen him make this season perhaps more than he has in a decade — and lays it in.
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Portland’s refusal to switch down the stretch often put Aminu in difficult situations when the Mavs ran high pick-and-rolls between Nowitzki and Williams. In this situation, Aminu is caught up trying to pressure Williams, and as he scrambles back in an effort to block a mid-range jumper, the German pump-fakes to free up even more space.
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Then, another Dirk/D-Will pick-and-roll creates penetration. Aminu goes under the screen to cut off the driving lane, but that leaves Nowitzki unguarded at the top of the arc. Forget about it.
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The next time down the floor, Portland adjusts and Aminu presses up more on Williams to take away the driving lane. Undaunted, Williams makes an easy pass over to Nowitzki, who is sitting on 37 points and has made more than 1,600 of these shots in his career — in fact, Dirk tied Steve Nash for 15th all-time in made 3s with this bucket. At this point in the game, even Wesley Matthews has become a #Nowitzness. Watch his reaction when Nowitzki puts up the shot. He knows exactly what’s going to happen.
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And after the shot falls, check out Raymond Felton’s reaction. When the big guy gets it going, everyone’s a fan.
Can you really blame his teammates at this point as they watch in awe and amusement at what Nowitzki as doing at this age? Only three other players have ever averaged more than Dirk’s 18.8 points per game at age 37 or older: Jordan, Malone, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Every one of those guys is considered an all-time great player, with the first and third names constantly in the conversation for greatest ever. Nowitzki has not only aged gracefully, but better than perhaps anyone could have imagined or hoped for. He’s averaged 26.8 points on 54.4/41.9/90.0 splits in his last eight games. These are numbers we expect to see from 27-year-old Kevin Durant, not 37-year-old Dirk Nowitzki. This is unprecedented stuff.
What Dirk is doing at this stage of his career can only add to an enormous individual legacy. He remains one of the most effective players in the game, even as the league has grown smaller and faster. In this, his 18th season, Nowitzki has scored more efficiently than Anthony Davis, LaMarcus Aldridge, Chris Paul, LeBron James, James Harden, Damian Lillard, and every other star in the league not named Curry, Leonard, Durant, or Thompson.
One thing’s for sure as the season winds down and the playoff race heats up: Nowitzki has raised the bar for what we consider to be possible from a player at this point in his career. And while you’d think it’d be safe to say it will be a long time before we see someone else reach this level at age 37, that might be incorrect: Nowitzki will still be around, waiting for his kick-out pass, ready to drain another 3. He’s still Dirk Nowitzki, and at this rate he might never not be.
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