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01-14-2010, 05:01 PM
Mavs' Nowitzki Reaches 20,000 Points
By Dave McMenamin
ESPN Los Angeles
Nowitzki
DALLAS -- The shot that got Dirk Nowitzki the loudest ovation of the night -- a 14-foot baseline jumper from the corner over Lamar Odom with 10:57 to go in the fourth quarter that accounted for the 20,000th and 20,001st points of his brilliant 12-year career -- didn't matter nearly as much as the shot hit by Kobe Bryant 10 minutes and 28 seconds later to break a 95-95 tie and silence the arena as the Lakers eked out a 100-95 win.
Anytime an accomplishment like that is reached, you can't help but look back at what got you there. The American Airlines Center video screen showed a clip reel of Nowitzki's first made field goal and his 5,000th, 10,000th and 15,000th points, and while the Mavericks' uniform styles and Dirk's hairdos may have changed, Nowitzki's shot -- the elbow in like an elderly couple after sundown, the legs bending and then exploding back straight like rubber bands, the follow through lofting high enough for him to obscure somebody's view in the mezzanine -- were all the same.
But it came in a loss. Against a guy who has four rings in his career to his zero. Against a team that has the best record in the West and has now defeated the Mavericks, the team with the second-best record in the West, two times in the last 10 days.
And you know why he'll remember the silence more than the cheers.
"He'd rather have the win than 20,000 points," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. "That's where the disappointment is. You get a guy who is pure basketball heart. He'd do anything to win any ballgame and he wouldn't care how many points he scored."
He scored 30 points on 11-for-22 shooting on Wednesday, including the game-tying 3-pointer with 42.9 seconds left. Bryant scored just 10 points, but made the jumper to beat Nowitzki.
Nowitzki, who Derek Fisher called one of the 10 best shooters in the history of the game, has had other career-defining moments soiled. The Mavs' 2-0 lead in the 2006 Finals ended in disaster. His MVP and 67-win season ended with a monumental first-round upset to the eighth-seeded Warriors in '07. And now his 20,000th point has been usurped by Kobe.
That jumper of his will get him what he's searching for one of these days.
By Dave McMenamin
ESPN Los Angeles
Nowitzki
DALLAS -- The shot that got Dirk Nowitzki the loudest ovation of the night -- a 14-foot baseline jumper from the corner over Lamar Odom with 10:57 to go in the fourth quarter that accounted for the 20,000th and 20,001st points of his brilliant 12-year career -- didn't matter nearly as much as the shot hit by Kobe Bryant 10 minutes and 28 seconds later to break a 95-95 tie and silence the arena as the Lakers eked out a 100-95 win.
Anytime an accomplishment like that is reached, you can't help but look back at what got you there. The American Airlines Center video screen showed a clip reel of Nowitzki's first made field goal and his 5,000th, 10,000th and 15,000th points, and while the Mavericks' uniform styles and Dirk's hairdos may have changed, Nowitzki's shot -- the elbow in like an elderly couple after sundown, the legs bending and then exploding back straight like rubber bands, the follow through lofting high enough for him to obscure somebody's view in the mezzanine -- were all the same.
But it came in a loss. Against a guy who has four rings in his career to his zero. Against a team that has the best record in the West and has now defeated the Mavericks, the team with the second-best record in the West, two times in the last 10 days.
And you know why he'll remember the silence more than the cheers.
"He'd rather have the win than 20,000 points," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. "That's where the disappointment is. You get a guy who is pure basketball heart. He'd do anything to win any ballgame and he wouldn't care how many points he scored."
He scored 30 points on 11-for-22 shooting on Wednesday, including the game-tying 3-pointer with 42.9 seconds left. Bryant scored just 10 points, but made the jumper to beat Nowitzki.
Nowitzki, who Derek Fisher called one of the 10 best shooters in the history of the game, has had other career-defining moments soiled. The Mavs' 2-0 lead in the 2006 Finals ended in disaster. His MVP and 67-win season ended with a monumental first-round upset to the eighth-seeded Warriors in '07. And now his 20,000th point has been usurped by Kobe.
That jumper of his will get him what he's searching for one of these days.