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Dirk Nowitzki won’t give up on making ‘one more push’
- Updated: April 24, 2016
2:24 AM ET
DALLAS — Dirk Nowitzki lingered on the bench several seconds longer than his teammates at the end of the timeout. He stared at the floor, head down, towel covering it. Finally, he squirted some water in his face and creaked back out onto the American Airlines Center court.
Thirty-four seconds later, with 6:01 remaining in the fourth quarter and the Dallas Mavericks trailing by double digits, coach Rick Carlisle sent David Lee to the scorer’s table. Carlisle recognized how gassed his 37-year-old star was and wanted to give Nowitzki a quick breather.
But the living legend looked in Carlisle’s eyes and sternly said one word: “No.” Lee checked in for Zaza Pachulia instead.
Never mind how stacked the odds are against the Mavs in this series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, a much younger, much healthier, much better team. There was no way Nowitzki, sore knee and all, was going to limp off that floor until all hope was lost for the Mavs.
“It’s just fighting until the end, fighting until it’s over,” Nowitzki said after the 119-108 loss in Saturday’s Game 4 that put the Mavs on the brink of elimination down 3-1. “I felt like my wind was decent enough to kind of battle it through. All you’re thinking basically is just make one more push, make one more push.”
Dirk Nowitzki continued to gut it out for the Mavericks on Saturday as he keeps vying for another playoff run. Danny Bollinger/NBAE via Getty Images
That’s all Nowitzki is thinking at this point in his career: Make one more push, make one more push. The odds, once again, are stacked against him.
Since the summit of Nowitzki’s spectacular career, the 2011 title run when he was the world’s best player for two magical months, the Mavs have failed to get out of the first round. Barring a miracle with a MASH unit — now Deron Williams looks like he’s done for the season, and center Salah Mejri was added to the Mavs’ lengthy injury list on Saturday night — that certainly isn’t changing this …
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