One more win.
That’s all that stands between the Mavericks and their first trip to the NBA Finals.
After Thursday night’s show of grit and flat out ri-Dirkulous play, is anybody going to doubt them now?
The Mavericks got a career playoff-high 50 points from Dirk Nowitzki, who came back from a dismal Game 4 to deliver the Mavericks a 117-101 win over Phoenix at AmericanAirlines Center for a 3-2 lead over the Suns in the Western Conference finals.
Nowitzki scored 15 consecutive points when the Mavs needed them the most. With the Mavs holding a precarious 89-88 lead, Nowitzki hit eight free throws, a layup, a midrange jumper and a three-pointer while personally outscoring the Suns 15-5 to put the Mavericks up 104-93 with under five minutes left.
From there, it was a matter of playing smart and riding Nowitzki’s brilliance to the finish line.
When he reared up from three-point range one last time with 1:44 to play, his swish gave him half-a-hundred points and the Mavericks a 115-98 lead.
His total tied Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers for the top-scoring game in the playoffs this season.
You wouldn’t have known it by then, but the Mavericks had to withstand a serious Phoenix charge earlier.
The Mavericks led at halftime for the first time in the series. But they couldn’t really feel good about it.
They were ahead by 14 in the first quarter and 13 midway through the second. But the Suns started tossing in three-pointers like they were layups. And when they weren’t making those, they really were making layups.
The Mavs’ defense blinked in the final six minutes of the half as the Suns went on a 21-9 rush before Nowitzki converted a layup in the final seconds for a 58-55 Mavericks’ lead. The Suns shot 11 of 18 (61 percent) to close out the half.
“When we were down seven in the third quarter, I saw everything slipping away. I tried to make something happen,” Nowitzki said.
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Nowitzki obviously had put his ugly Game 4 behind him. He had more points in the first 9:30 of the game than he had the entire evening Tuesday in Phoenix.
But there were some bonehead moves too. Jerry Stackhouse, who was having an active half, got a little too active when he got loose for wide-open layup but overshot the point-blank effort.
Normally, it wouldn’t have been a big issue. But DaSagana Diop picked up his second foul of the first quarter trying to get the rebound and the Suns got two free throws out of it. A four-point turnaround, plus Diop hitting the bench, made it a calamitous possession.
Diop was having a terrific impact after being inserted into the starting lineup for the first time this series. He had seven points and six rebounds in the first half.
The Mavericks could do no better than tread water in the third quarter. Then they found themselves like an 8-year-old in the deep end when Tim Thomas drove around Nowitzki for a slam.