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Despite a down year by his Hall of Fame standards, Dirk Nowitzki got a little love in the MVP voting.

Nowitzki got one fourth-place and one fifth-place vote to finish tied with Russell Westbrook for 12th in the voting, far behind LeBron James, who was named MVP for the third time in four seasons. Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Tony Parker, Kevin Love, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo, Steve Nash, Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade also finished above Nowitzki.

It’s the lowest Nowitzki has finished in the voting in a decade. He won the MVP in 2007, finished third in 2005 and 2006, sixth in 2011, seventh in 2003 and 2010, eighth in 2002, 10th in 2004 and 2009 and 11th in 2008.

Nowitzki, the reigning Finals MVP, averaged his fewest points (21.6) and rebounds (6.8) since 1999-00.

DALLAS -- Coach Rick Carlisle, who is among the many Mavericks who are entering free agency, received tepid support from superstar Dirk Nowitzki on the subject of the coach's potential return to Dallas.

Nowitzki praised Carlisle’s performance over the last four years but stopped well short of publicly lobbying for the coach to get a new contract.

“This team, this franchise obviously has a lot of decisions to make,” Nowitzki said. “That’s obvious. Rick had a great four years here obviously. He took us to the promised land with a team that probably nobody thought could do it. I think he found a good mix over the years of stressing defense a lot and giving (Jason) Kidd some movement, giving him some freedom on the offensive end. Sometimes he did a good job getting out of the way and just letting us play and if he saw things are not going that well, call some plays and kind of pull us back in.

“I thought over the four years, he tried to do a good job. We’ll have to wait and see what the decision is with him, but he did a great job and obviously led us to the promised land.”

As has been the case all season, Carlisle didn’t want to address the subject after the defending champions’ four-game playoff exit.

“I’m not talking about my situation,” Carlisle said. “Right now is not the time, so I’m going to pass on that. You know, I’ve had four great years here. Again, I can’t tell you guys or anybody how much gratitude I have for the opportunity Mark and Donnie have given me and the players have given me here and what we’ve experienced through all the things, the great things last year and some of the other ups and downs.

“This is a first-class franchise. … This team and this franchise is going to continue to be great as long as Mark owns it. I’m confident in that.”

Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson has said several times that Carlisle “isn’t going anywhere.” However, owner Mark Cuban has declined to discuss the situation all season and stuck to that policy before Saturday’s Game 4.

"Want to have a long discussion about business?" Cuban said. "It’s my approach to business. It's worked out really, really well for me and I just want to be consistent."

The one exception Cuban made was giving Avery Johnson a five-year contract extension after the Mavs played in the 2006 Finals. Cuban fired Johnson two seasons later.

DALLAS – The Mavericks insist that they didn’t mail it in when things went haywire in Game 3.

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Mavs coach Rick Carlisle dishes on what he told his team after Game 3, how the Mavs can claw their way back into the series with the Thunder and more. Listen

They claim that effort wasn’t an issue in the lopsided loss that put the Mavs in danger of becoming just the fifth defending champion in NBA history to fail to win a playoff game the next season.

The Mavs say they were just that bad Thursday night. And the Thunder was that good.

“Hey, listen, we fought the whole way,” said coach Rick Carlisle, the lone member of the Mavs to address the media Friday. “We fought last night and didn’t play well. You tip your hat to them and we’ve got to defend our court in Game 4 and get back on the plane.”

That echoes the opinions voiced by players after the Mavs set an unfortunate, if obscure, NBA record: largest margin of defeat by a team playing in its first home playoff game in defense of an NBA championship, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“We tried, but you’ve got to give them credit,” Dirk Nowitzki said Thursday night. “Every time we made a little push, they made shots.”

Nowitzki talked about the importance of just getting a win, for pride’s sake. He certainly didn’t sound like a superstar who believed his team had any chance to become the first team in NBA history to overcome an 0-3 deficit to win a series. He acknowledged that the Mavs took a step back this season, the sort of comment that usually waits until exit interviews.

But Carlisle claims that the Mavs’ belief in themselves remains strong. He insists that all hope isn’t lost despite the 0-99 record of teams that lose the first three games of best-of-7 NBA playoff series.

“Somebody’s going to do it. It’s going to happen,” Carlisle said. “The thing is, to get to that point, we’ve got to focus on tomorrow’s game. We’ve got to focus on the first quarter, the first six minutes and work it whistle to whistle. That’s the way it’s going to happen.

“We still have a lot of belief in ourselves and what we’re doing. We’re going to keep fighting.”

DALLAS -- If you were stunned by this offensive stinker, you must not have watched the Mavs much this season.

This has been a bad offensive team since the day the defending champions -- might as well use that term while we can -- reported to the American Airlines Center for an abbreviated training camp.

Dallas’ decision makers anticipated that it would be a difficult process to fit in a few significant new pieces without much practice time, but the hope was that the Mavs would mesh throughout the course of this lockout-condensed season and be prepared to peak in the playoffs.

Pfft.

With the season on the line, the Mavs managed to come up with one of their worst offensive showings, shooting 34.2 percent from the floor in Thursday’s 95-79 loss that put Dallas on the verge of being swept by the Thunder.

“Just picked a bad time to really put a stinker out there,” said Dirk Nowitzki, who had 17 points on 6-of-15 shooting. “Nobody really had a good game for us. They took it to us on the other end. We picked a tough time to really get nothing going on the offensive end.”

That’s happened a heck of a lot this season, which is why the Mavs ranked 22nd among NBA teams in offensive efficiency. To put that in perspective, the Boston Celtics are the only playoff team that was less efficient offensively than the Mavs.

The versatile pieces that Mark Cuban and Co. expected to make Dallas a more dynamic offensive team haven’t panned out. Lamar Odom provided plenty of drama and precious little production. Vince Carter faded after the All-Star break and has really struggled in this series, making only nine of 31 shots from the floor.

The Mavs’ big guns have had off seasons by their standards. Nowitzki’s numbers are his worst since his second season in Dallas, before the Mavs’ run of a dozen playoff appearances in a row. Jason Terry’s stats are his worst in his eight-season Dallas tenure.

When one of those guys struggles, it’s tough for the Mavs to win. When they’re both off, it’s bound to get ugly.

That was the case in Game 3, when Nowitzki was bad and Terry was worse (11 points, 3-of-10 shooting, four turnovers).

“They played great defense all night long on Dirk and myself,” Terry said. “We’ve got to find a way. I think our offensive strategy right now is pretty much predicated on pass the ball around and see what happens. I don’t think that’s a good strategy for us.”

He’ll get no argument from coach Rick Carlisle: “I’ve got to do a better job of helping those guys. That’s something I really take responsibility for.”

Carlisle said something about watching film and trying to get this fixed. The truth is it’s too late for this season, and there’s a good chance Terry is gone next year.

If the Mavs want to get back to being a good offensive team, they better catch their big fish in the free-agency market.

For the sake of Dallas’ recruiting efforts, let’s hope Deron Williams was too busy to watch Game 3.

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Thunder’s crunch-time defense on Dirk Nowitzki might remind Mavericks fans of the way Dallas defended Kobe Bryant down the stretch of games in last season’s West semifinals.

The Thunder threw a fresh body/savvy veteran at Nowitzki for the final few minutes, much like the Mavs did against Bryant. In Oklahoma City’s case, it’s slimmed down center Kendrick Perkins taking over for Serge Ibaka. In the Mavs’ case, it was Jason Kidd taking over for Shawn Marion.

“It’s just a different look, and part of it is a fresh guy,” said Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks, who gives Perkins the freedom to decide when he wants to defend Nowitzki. “It’s not easy to guard that guy. That guy, not only does he take it out of you physically, but mentally he tortures you because he makes some of the shots that he makes. It’s like, ‘Are you kidding me?’”

The strategy worked for the Mavs against Bryant last season. It worked for the Thunder in Game 1, when Nowitzki had two points (on a pair of free throws) and two turnovers in the final two minutes.

Perkins played 26 minutes and had particularly fresh legs because his normal defensive assignment isn’t a taxing one. The Mavs’ centers aren’t scoring threats, so it isn’t as if Perkins spends a lot of energy batting for post position or playing on-the-ball defense until he switches onto Nowitzki.

Putting Perkins on Nowitzki also has another benefit to the Thunder. It allows Ibaka, the league’s leading shot blocker, to essentially play goalie with the game on the line.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle was talking to a room of reporters, but it felt like he was trying to send a message to the referees who will work the rest of this series.

Asked about the defense Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins played on Dirk Nowitzki in the Mavs’ Game 1 loss, Carlisle emphasized how physically the Thunder played the Mavs’ superstar.

“They’re going to do things to try to disrupt his rhythm,” Carlisle said. “They’re going to grab and hold. To me, a typical example is the play before the first half ends. He’s getting grabbed and held, and they call a foul on Dirk because he’s just reacting to all the contact. You know, that turns into a possession for them and they hit a 3. It’s a big momentum play.

“I’ve seen this for four years. Dirk Nowitzki’s the hardest guy in the league to guard because at 22 feet, if you back up and take your hands off him, he’s going to make the shot. So people grab and hold him all the time. I mean, all the time. He shows incredible restraint in those areas.”

Nowitzki scored 25 points on 8-of-18 shooting, but he had almost as many turnovers as buckets. Two of his six turnovers came in the final 90 seconds, when Perkins bodied up on Nowitzki as the Mavs were in the midst of crumbling in crunch time.

Nowitzki appeared to express frustration with the officials a handful of times during the game. That included the play Carlisle referenced at the end of the first half, when Nowitzki was called for an offensive foul after throwing an elbow at Ibaka while they fought for position, and a few times when the whistle didn’t blow after Nowitzki drew contact on drives to the basket early in the game.

When asked about Carlisle’s comments, Nowitzki answered diplomatically.

“I always talk during the game a lot,” he said, referring to conversations with officials. “My style is never to complain after the game. I won’t do it now.”

It is worth noting that the officiating crew of Joey Crawford, David Guthrie and Tony Brothers wasn’t whistle happy on either end. The Mavs had a 25-20 free throw advantage.

DALLAS -- Resting stars for the playoffs is risky business. Dirk Nowitzki knows that as well as anybody.

The last time Dirk sat out a meaningless game to rest for the playoffs was in the 2006-2007 season. He followed that up by shooting 38 percent against Golden State in a first-round exit, the worst playoff performance of his career.

While head coach Rick Carlisle plans to sit Jason Kidd at Chicago Saturday night, expect Dirk to get some work in.

"You don't have to get crazy with 40 minutes," Nowitzki said after playing 27 minutes in Friday's 104-94 win over Golden State. "Maybe 20-25 minutes. Get a rhythm going and get some shots in -- break a sweat."

A major luxury for Dirk and the Mavs is four days off between the Bulls and their regular-season finale in Atlanta. He might need it after playing what Carlisle said is the NBA's most physical defensive team in Chicago.

"I'll probably take one day completely off," Nowitzki said. "I'll probably spend the other three in the gym working the jump shot and getting ready for the playoffs."

Tonight was Nowitzki's lightest night since he left early with tightness in his back Feb. 29 against Memphis.

Our weekly look at which Mavs' stocks have risen and fallen the most:

STOCK UP

Dirk Nowitzki – Dirk just keeps shooting one-legged fadeaways over Father Time. He doesn’t want to sit out any games in the final week of the regular season and doesn’t look like he needs any extra rest. All he’s done in the last two games is put up 40 and 35 points. Nowitzki’s performance in Wednesday’s comeback win over the Rockets was especially impressive, considering that it came off the heels of playing 96 minutes in a 36-hour span. Dirk’s legs didn’t look tired as he scored 31 points in the second half, including 21 in the fourth quarter.

STOCK DOWN

Shawn Marion – The Matrix had been on a tear, posting four double-doubles in five games and averaging 11.2 points and 12.6 rebounds in that span. But he wouldn’t have a double-double if his production from the two games this week was combined. He had four points and two rebounds in the triple-overtime loss to the Jazz, watching the last 27 minutes from the bench. He followed that up with a four-point, six-rebound performance in the comeback win over the Rockets, when he sat out the fourth quarter again. The four days of rest before the regular-season finale could benefit Marion as much as any Maverick other than Jason Kidd.

DALLAS -- It almost felt like a playoff game in the fourth quarter Wednesday night at the American Airlines Center.

The building was buzzing. The stakes were high. And Dirk Nowitzki was dominating.

That was all she wrote for the Rockets, whose playoff hopes are flickering after their fifth straight loss. The Mavs are one win away from punching their postseason ticket after a classic Dirk performance in the final dozen minutes of their 117-110 victory over the Houston Rockets.

Nowitzki scored 21 of his game-high 35 points in the final frame, hitting four of six shots from the floor and all 11 free throw attempts while the Mavs turned a six-point deficit into a seven-point victory.

The flashback to last postseason’s form made Nowitzki’s ugly first half easy to forget. He had a grand total of four points on 2-of-6 shooting at halftime.

Nowitzki knew his fortunes were changing as soon as his first shot of the second half fell. It was an off-balance stepback that he launched while being fouled by Luis Scola, and the ball bounced high off the back rim before tickling the twine.

“I got a good bounce,” Nowitzki said. “It was a little flat and the ball bounced five feet in the air and dropped in, so that obviously helps, to get a couple lucky bounces.”

Skill soon took over, with Nowitzki lighting it up for 31 points on 8-of-11 shooting in the second half.

The Mavs helped free Nowitzki by making a halftime adjustment. They scrapped the plan to try to feed him the ball in the post and opened up the offense, running a lot of pick-and-rolls and using the 7-footer as a floor spacer.

With Vince Carter (23 points) and Jason Terry (19 points) hurting Houston, Dirk suddenly found a lot of room to work against the Rockets’ defense.

“He was able off movement to catch the ball and do some things, make plays,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. “A lot of it is very much a random game, but it’s the kind of trust that we have in our players to make those plays. It’s harder stuff to guard if you can do it, if you can pull it off and if you can make good decisions. The first half we struggled with decision-making. In the second half, and in the fourth quarter in particular, we were terrific.”

And Nowitzki was spectacular in one of the most important quarters of the Mavs’ season.

“Once he hit those two 3s back-to-back, we felt he got his rhythm back,” Terry said, referring to 3-pointers Nowitzki hit on consecutive trips early in the quarter. “He just kept being aggressive.”

Nowitzki’s other two buckets in the fourth were layups off of back-cuts. He did the rest of his damage from the line, going 11-of-11 on freebies in the final 4:05 to put the finishing touches on the Rockets.

It was only the fourth time this season the Mavs won a game they trailed after three quarters, but it felt so familiar. It was like a flashback to last season’s championship run, when Nowitzki took over time and again when it was winning time.

The Mavs can only hope it’s also a sign of things to come, now that Nowitzki & Co. have all but assured they’ll get a chance to defend their title in the postseason.

Charles Barkley made major waves around these parts earlier this season when he declared that Dirk Nowitzki’s days as a dependable go-to guy were done.

PODCAST
Charles Barkley says Lamar Odom didn't earn his money with the Mavs and reiterates that Father Time will beat Dirk Nowitzki Listen

Nowitzki snapped out of the worst slump since his rookie season soon after Barkley’s claim that Father Time had caught up with the face of the Mavs’ franchise. But Barkley was back on ESPNDallas 103.3’s “Galloway & Co” Wednesday, and he definitely isn’t backing off his pot-stirring opinion about Dirk.

“Bro, I’m never wrong on Father Time,” said Barkley, whom Nowitzki recently bumped to No. 20 on the all-time scoring list. “I said the same thing about Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan. They can have spurts because they’re great players. You can have spurts, but you can’t do it consistently. I mean, Father Time is undefeated.

"I tell people there ain’t but two things undefeated: Father Time and what got Bobby Petrino in trouble."

Not sure what Harley Davidsons have to do with this discussion, but let's try to steer it back on the road, so to speak.

Nowitkzi’s numbers (21.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, .456 shooting percentage) are his lowest since his second season in the NBA. There are extenuating circumstances, of course.

Dirk came back from the lockout in terrible shape by his standards, leading to the decision to give him a week to go through a personal training camp early in the season. And the lockout-compressed schedule has been tough on his 33-year-old legs, as he’s readily admitted over and over again.

But Barkley isn’t buying the theory -- often heard coming from Mark Cuban’s stairstepper -- that Nowitzki will be back to normal with a normal schedule next season.

“Father Time is going to win, man,” Barkley said. “You talk about next year? He’s just going to be a year older next year.”

DALLAS -- Dirk Nowitzki started the game in one of those German grooves. Then he was just a guy for most of the night.

The face of the Mavs’ franchise was in Hall of Fame form for the first five minutes Friday night. He hit his first four shots from the floor -- a driving layup, a one-legged leanaway off a post-up, an and-1 midrange jumper and a 3-pointer -- before the botox folks filled up the AAC’s lower bowl.

Then Dirk got a grand total of five shots the next two and a half quarters. Huh?

That definitely isn’t the only reason the Trail Blazers turned a 15-point deficit into an eight-point lead entering the fourth quarter, but it definitely didn’t help matters for the Mavs.

“It’s always like I start out hot, get out at the same [time], like six minutes in the first quarter and didn’t get a shot,” Nowitzki said after the 99-97 overtime loss to the Trail Blazers. “Basically one shot in the second, one shot in the third. Then we’re down eight and it’s like, ‘Hey, here you go. You’ve got the ball now. Now make something happen.’

“It’s tough. I’ve got to be able to keep myself in rhythm and keep getting touches throughout the game.”

Dirk wasn’t bad the rest of the game, but he didn’t dominate after sitting down midway through the first quarter. He finished with 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting, meaning he was 5-of-12 from the floor after his spectacular start.

“He’s not going to make every shot,” coach Rick Carlisle said.

And Carlisle isn’t going to budge much from his regular rotation when it comes to his superstar, especially on the first night of a back-to-back with a big game against the Grizzlies coming next. Carlisle actually stayed with Nowitzki a little longer than usual in the first quarter.

“I think we stuck with him an extra minute or so,” Carlisle said. “It’s very rare. In the second half, it happens more frequently [that] we depart from that. We have defined roles.

“It’s something I wrestle with at times, but on the whole, because of it we were a championship team last year and there are dynamics to our rotation that require it.”

Nowitzki doesn’t necessarily disagree.

“It is what it is,” said Nowitzki, who did have one of his best rebounding nights of the season with 14 boards. “We all know what Rick does. He substitutes at certain times. That seemed to work last year, so we’re sticking with it.”

Carlisle’s routine of resting Nowitzki midway through the first quarter isn’t going to change. Nor should the Mavs habit of getting him touches on virtually every trip down the floor, especially when he has yet to miss that night.

A few more notes from the Mavs’ maddening loss:

1. Tough day for Delonte: Give Delonte West credit for being a tough guy. His performance after halftime, however, didn’t earn any props.

West battled on a bad wheel after twisting his left ankle when he landed on a ball at the morning shootaround and again when he landed awkwardly after a layup near the end of the first half. That obviously affected him in the second half, when he was 2-of-6 from the floor and was often assigned to defend Raymond Felton, who scored 16 of his season-high 30 points in the third quarter.

“I give him a lot of credit for being out there,” Carlisle said. “A lot of guys -- the majority of guys in this league -- wouldn’t have. He’s a great kid. He stands for all the right things on the basketball court, and he gave us what he had.”

When pressed, West admitted that his heavily-taped ankle stiffened up during the second half.

“But once you’re out there, you’re out there,” said West, who finished with 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting and five assists. “There’s no excuses.”

According to West, there’s also no question he’ll play Saturday night against the Grizzlies.

2. Wright’s flights: If the Mavs managed to win this game, the buzz would have been all about Brandan Wright.

The slender center had 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting, and most of those buckets came in spectacular fashion. He had four dunks, two of which were worthy of any highlight reel. Wright put Portland’s Luke Babbitt on a poster by soaring over him for a tomahawk jam, and the Human Exclamation Point threw down a right-to-left windmill off an errant lob pass from Jason Terry.

“I was just making a play,” Wright said with a shrug. “That’s not something you practice during the season, but during the summer, you do practice stuff like that.”

3. Little from Lam Lam: You didn’t get your hopes up when Lamar Odom had a couple of pretty good performances last week, did you?

He’s back to being the guy Mavs fans have grown to loathe. Odom missed Monday’s loss to the Clippers with a stomach bug, but he had a grand total of eight points and six rebounds in the last two games of this homestand.

The most notable thing Odom did during his five-point, five-rebound outing in Wednesday’s win was accidentally fire up his teammates with his poor effort that prompted Carlisle to summon him to the pine with 10 minutes to play.

Odom followed that up with a three-point, one-rebound, one-assist, two-turnover line in 11 minutes against the Trail Blazers. There were scattered boos after his sloppy turnover in the third quarter, and he was benched for good less than a minute later.

DALLAS – Dirk Nowitzki was a heck of a tennis player while growing up in Germany, but the dude never played a down of quarterback.

That was painfully obvious by the terrible full-court pass Nowitzki threw out of bounds with 22 seconds remaining in overtime Friday night.

Shawn Marion was wide-open for what would have been a go-ahead breakaway dunk or layup. However, Nowitzki’s pass was about 15 feet off the mark. It sailed into the seats, setting up the Trail Blazers to take the last shot, which Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge drilled at the buzzer to beat Dallas.

“It was just a brutal play,” Nowitzki said. “What happened was I got the rebound and really wanted to hold it for the last shot. I looked up and he was just wide open. I tried to rush it to him and it just completely got away from me. It was just kind of like an instinct play.

“When you look up and see a guy open, you want to give him the ball. I just over-rushed it and completely overthrew it. I should have just held it and gone for the last shot like I wanted to. But sometimes in the game you make decisions in a split-second, and that was definitely the wrong one.”

HOUSTON -- Dirk Nowitzki has bumped four legends down the NBA’s all-time scoring list this season, but he was especially pleased to pass Charles Barkley.

Father Time had nothing to do with it, bro.

Yes, Barkley is the big mouth who declared earlier this season that Dirk’s days as an elite go-to guy were done. Nowitzki has acknowledged being motivated by that opinion –- he’s averaged 24.4 points per game since Barkley’s infamous appearance on ESPN Dallas 103.3’s Galloway and Company –- but he’s definitely not bitter about it.

That’s because he has too much longtime love for Sir Charles, who dropped to the 20th leading scorer in NBA history.

“Charles was always kind of my hero,” Nowitzki said after his 31-point performance in Saturday’s win over the Rockets gave him 23,758 career points, one more than Barkley. “I always wore No. 11 in Germany, then I saw him wearing No. 14 in the Olympics in Barcelona, so then I changed my number to 14. Then when I came over, it became No. 41.”

There is a little irony in Nowitzki moving past Barkley in Houston, where Father Time caught up to the Round Mound of Rebound during a stint with the Rockets at the end of his career.

Nowitzki is probably done climbing the all-time scoring list this season. Boston’s Kevin Garnett is next on the list with 23,997 points and counting.

With a typical Dirk year, Nowitzki could move all the way up to 13th by the end of next season, passing Garnett, Allen Iverson, Patrick Ewing, Jerry West, Reggie Miller and Alex English.

A few more notes from the Mavs’ win over the Rockets:

1. Brandan Wright’s block party: This might have been the best performance of backup big man Brandan Wright’s career. It certainly was the 2007 lottery pick’s best performance in a Mavericks uniform.

Wright scored 14 points (one shy of his season high) on 7-of-9 shooting and grabbed six rebounds in 34 minutes off the bench. The stat that sticks out, however, is The Human Exclamation Point’s career-high seven blocked shots.

“He’s quick on his feet. He’s quick off his feet,” Dirk Nowitzki said. “Sometimes you think he’s got no shot to get to that ball, but one quick step and he’s basically elbow above the rim. He had some great blocks tonight.”

2. Matrix reloaded: No need to worry about whether the left knee that sidelined Shawn Marion for three games is still sore. Not after he put up 12 points and 15 rebounds on the butt end of a back-to-back.

It was the 400th double-double of Marion’s career.

“Marion’s back in a big way,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. “He was terrific again. He’s guarding the key guy on their team, who was a point guard. He’s just really one of the unique guys that I’ve ever seen. The way he’s guarded every position on the floor this year, he’s Defensive Player of the Year material.”

3. Calvary coming?: There is a chance that Brendan Haywood (sprained right knee) and Delonte West (fractured right ring finger) could play Tuesday night against the Rockets.

"I'd like to think so," Carlisle said. "But I don't know that. I know the progress has been good. But we don't have a set timetable. I don't think it's impossible. The hope is sooner than later."

HOUSTON -- Dirk Nowitzki’s potential career as a model took another hit during Saturday night’s overtime period, when he got caught with an errant elbow above the right eye.

“Just four stitches,” Nowitzki said after getting postgame medical treatment. “I’ll be all right.”

Nowitzki was bleeding profusely after the cut was opened up with 47.9 seconds remaining in overtime. He thought he got hit with an elbow by Houston point guard Goran Dragic, who was called for an offensive foul. However, it appeared that it was actually teammate Brandan Wright’s elbow that did the damage during a scramble for a loose ball.

Not that it mattered much after the Mavs pulled out the 101-99 win.

“It was an offensive foul,” Nowitzki said, “and we moved on from there.”

Mavs athletic trainer Casey Smith made like a cut man in a boxer’s corner during the timeout after Dragic got whistled for the foul. He managed to stop the bleeding, allowing Nowitzki to get back on the court for the next possession, when Jason Terry hit a pull-up jumper off a pick-and-roll with Nowitzki to give the Mavs the lead for good.

“Hats off to the training staff for getting the blood stopped,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “[Nowitzki] being able to go back into the game created that scoring opportunity for Jet, because [Marcus] Camby was hugging Dirk so closely that it created a double screen and Jet got a really good look to put us in strong position.”

SAN ANTONIO – The spotlight after Friday night’s loss to the Spurs was on the Mavericks power forward who didn’t play.

Good thing for the guy who logged 37 minutes at the position for the Mavs.

“I had a brutal night,” Dirk Nowitzki said.

That description was accurate, unlike the vast majority of Nowitzki’s jumpers at the AT&T Center. The perennial All-Star had perhaps his worst performance since his early-season struggles, scoring 16 points on 5-of-21 shooting and grabbing a grand total of two rebounds.

Nowitzki missed his last 13 shots from the floor. He scored only four points in the second half, all on free throws.

“I actually felt good at the beginning of the game,” Nowitzki said. “Just during the game, I couldn’t get the ball up in there. They were short. Wide-open 3s were even short. I just didn’t have enough to get the ball up today.”

Added coach Rick Carlisle: “We have to work on getting him some cleaner looks. But he had some that he normally makes that he didn’t make tonight.”

Dirk didn’t have a rebound until the fourth quarter. While he attributed the off shooting night to heavy legs, Nowitzki made no excuses for such a poor performance on the glass.

“That’s my bad,” Nowitzki said. “I don’t care, you can always box out and rebound.”

A few more notes from the Mavs’ second straight lopsided loss to a Western Conference contender:

1. Matrix’s return: Want some good news? Shawn Marion's left knee didn’t bother him in his return from a three-game absence.

“I felt good,” Marion said. “Once I got out there, I was able to stay warm and keep my body going. That’s pretty much it. I got a little winded there a couple of times, but for the most part, my wind was pretty good.”

Marion was one of the more productive Mavs, scoring 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting in 31 minutes. He did a more than respectable job defending Manu Ginobili, who had 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting and seven assists.

2. Custodian’s dirty work: Brian Cardinal made his mark on the game – or on Tim Duncan’s face, at least.

“The Custodian” was called for a flagrant foul when he inadvertently raked Duncan in the face, sending the Spurs legend sprawling to the floor. That was the only statistic recorded by Cardinal in 4:20 on the floor, during which the Spurs outscored the Mavs by 10 points.

As you might imagine, Cardinal wasn’t exactly a popular guy at the AT&T Center, drawing the wrath of the Spurs faithful. Duncan shrugged it off after the game – “That’s just basketball,” he said – but San Antonio’s Stephen Jackson had some choice words for Cardinal.

“To me, it was a dirty play,” Jackson told the San Antonio Express-News. “When you can’t play no more, I guess all you can do is go out and try to hurt people.”

3. Kidd’s birthday bummer: The Spurs spoiled Jason Kidd's 39th birthday.

For a few minutes, it appeared it might be a storybook birthday celebration for Kidd, who got the hot hand from 3-point range to briefly give the Mavs the lead in the third quarter. Kidd ended up with an unusual line in the box score for him: 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting, seven rebounds and only one assist. It’s only the second time in Kidd’s career he had only one assist while playing more than 30 minutes.

Nevertheless, Kidd did have one good reason to celebrate.

“I’m still in the thirties,” Kidd cracked.