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How it happened: Kobe Bryant and his supporting cast crushed the Mavericks’ playoff hopes.

In a game that all but mathematically eliminated the Mavs from the playoffs, Bryant produced the 19th triple-double of his career, stuffing the box score with 23 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists, four steals and two blocks while playing all but the final 56 seconds. Then again, it’s no surprise to see a future Hall of Famer come up with that kind of performance in a critical game.

Nor was it surprising for perennial All-Star center Dwight Howard to post a double-double (24 points, 12 rebounds).

On the other hand, it was hard to see a double-double coming from Lakers reserve forward Earl Clark, who had 17 points and 12 rebounds. Clark had a total of 16 points and 13 rebounds in the previous six games, when the Lakers sputtered to a 2-4 record.

Clark’s five-point possession -- a layup, missed free throw and 3-pointer -- after a timeout in the third quarter killed the momentum of the Mavs, who had scored 11 consecutive points to trim the Lakers’ lead to five. Clark’s spurt accounted for the majority of a 9-0 run that made the Lakers’ lead comfortable again.

The Mavs never mounted another serious threat.

Dallas superstar Dirk Nowitzki, who was so spectacular in comeback wins over the Los Angeles Clippers and Chicago Bulls last week, never got going Tuesday night. He finished with only 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting.

Surprise starting center Chris Kaman led the Mavs with 14 points, but that wasn’t nearly enough for Dallas to keep up with Kobe’s Lakers.

What it means: The Mavs won’t be reaching for their razors after failing to get to .500 again, and it’s a major reach to see them making the playoffs. Dallas (36-38) is 2½ games behind the Utah Jazz and Lakers in the fight for the West’s final seed. Both teams hold the tiebreaker over the Mavs due to winning the season series.

Play of the game: Bryant made a move so sweet that it left Shawn Marion lunging at the air and slammed over Elton Brand. Dribbling near the right elbow, Bryant hesitated before blowing by Marion and then took off for the tomahawk before Brand could get in position to seriously challenge him at the rim, not that it necessarily would have mattered.

Stat of the night: The Mavs are 2-13 on the road this season against West teams that currently have winning records. One of those wins was against the Lakers on opening night.

LOS ANGELES -- Chris Kaman will be the Mavericks' third center in three games.

Kaman will match up with the Lakers' Dwight Howard, making this the 23rd starting lineup the Mavs have used this season.

It's the 7-foot veteran's first start since March 20, when Brooklyn big man Brook Lopez scored a season-high 38 points in a Mavs loss.

Brandan Wright has been the Mavs' starting center most games recently, but the slight 6-foot-10 Wright has trouble dealing with powerful big men such as Howard. Elton Brand started Saturday's win against the Bulls, a game in which Wright had 17 points and 13 rebounds off the bench and Kaman did not play due to a coach's decision.

LOS ANGELES -- Is the jumper that O.J. Mayo called “broke” after his 1-of-13 outing in Saturday’s win over the Bulls fixed?

PODCAST
Marc Stein joins Fitzsimmons & Durrett to discuss the Mavericks-Lakers game Tuesday night. If the Mavs lose, are their playoff hopes over? Listen

“It’s getting there, man,” Mayo said after Monday’s practice.

The Mavs had Easter Sunday off, but Mayo spent much of the holiday shooting in the gym. He also made a trip to Loyola Marymount to get up more shots after the Mavs arrived in Los Angeles on Monday evening, in addition to his normal post-practice and post-shootaround shooting routines.

If Mayo isn’t on against the Lakers, it won’t be due to a lack of work.

His left shoulder, however, could continue to be a negative factor. Mayo is 4-of-23 in two games since spraining the AC joint in his non-shooting shoulder while chasing a loose ball late in last week’s OT win over the Clippers.

Mayo ditched the harness he was wearing to protect the shoulder after the first quarter of Saturday’s game because he said it’s uncomfortable and affects his balance when he’s shooting. He doesn’t plan to wear it the rest of the season, although he is dealing with significant pain.

Facing the Lakers has been a major challenge for a healthy Mayo. He averaged only 11.0 points on .297 shooting -- his lowest field goal percentage against any foe other than the Bulls -- in the Mavs’ first three meetings with the Lakers.

“We all know what’s at stake,” Mayo said. “Gotta go out there and play and perform.”

A preseason guarantee that the Dallas Mavericks would be only a game and a half behind the Los Angeles Lakers when they left for this late-season trip to L.A. would have certainly pleased Dirk Nowitzki.

The Mavs’ superstar just didn’t imagine that scenario would play out like this.

PODCAST
Marc Stein joins Fitzsimmons & Durrett to discuss the Mavericks-Lakers game Tuesday night. If the Mavs lose, are their playoff hopes over? Listen

“I was hoping it would be for a number two or three seed, not for nine,” Nowitzki said with a sheepish grin. “Yeah, it’s been, I guess, a tough season for both teams.”

That’s an understatement. As Nowitzki noted, the Lakers’ cluster of stars (Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol), have all dealt with significant injuries this season, with Kobe currently bothered by a bone spur in his foot and Nash doubtful to play against Dallas due to hamstring and hip issues. It’s also been a season-long soap opera in L.A., with the Kobe-Dwight dynamic as the main storyline with subplots such as firing the head coach after five games and snubbing the brother-in-law with 11 championship rings.

For the Mavs, it’s been more like a long series of Survivor, except the guys who get voted off the island keep getting replaced. Dallas has used 22 players – remember Eddy Curry playing a significant role in the season-opening win over the Lakers?! – and 22 starting lineups.

Oh, and Nowitzki missed three times as many games as he did in any of the previous 14 seasons of his Hall of Fame career and struggled mightily upon his return, the primary reason the Mavs are in the position of “trying to be the greatest comeback since Lazarus,” as coach Rick Carlisle says. (Or at least since the 1996-97 Los Angeles Clippers and Phoenix Suns, the last two teams to make the playoffs after digging out of a 10-games-under-.500 hole.)

Call them excuses if you want, but there are legitimate reasons that two of the league’s proudest franchises have been reduced to fighting with the Utah Jazz for the West’s final playoff spot. Not that the rest of the NBA feels any sympathy for teams that have combined to win three of the last four titles.

The playoffs will go on without at least one of these teams. Maybe both.

If the Lakers miss the playoffs, they’d go down as one of the biggest disappointments in pro sports history. It’d be stunning to see such a star-studded roster flop for a franchise that has failed to qualify for the playoffs only twice since 1976, winning 10 titles in that span.

If the Mavs miss the playoffs, the league’s second longest postseason streak would be snapped at a dozen seasons. It’d mean the Mavs went from a championship parade to a lottery pick in a span of only two years.

Those would be miserable fates for two franchises that frankly have grown so accustomed to qualifying for the postseason that it feels more like a prerequisite than an accomplishment.

The ruthless competitors who serve as faces of their respective franchises aren’t going to go down without a fight. That makes Tuesday night’s matchups must-watch TV, must like their nationally televised duel the last time these teams met, when Kobe’s “Amnesty THAT” performance one-upped Dirk’s 30-point, 13-rebound outing.

“Hey, both [teams] have a lot of pride, a lot of fight in them,” said Nowitzki, who has led the Mavs to a 23-14 record since the season’s low point, including an 11-5 March. “It should be a fun matchup [Tuesday] night. It’s national TV. Staples Center. Jack Nicholson courtside. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

Well, it’s been better. But it doesn’t get much more pressure packed.

The eighth-place Utah Jazz own the tiebreaker over both the Mavs and Lakers, so the loser of Tuesday night’s late TNT game is in huge trouble. That’s especially true if it’s the Mavs, who would need the Lakers and Jazz to choke down the stretch to have a chance.

“We’ve had must-win games since January,” coach Rick Carlisle said, “so this is nothing new for us.”

Missing the playoffs would be something new. The Mavs – and the Lakers, for that matter – are fighting to keep their flames from being extinguished.

A combination of Bikram yoga, early morning track workouts and the copious amounts of drilling in the gym with longtime NBA guard John Lucas has helped keep the Mavericks' Mike James far fitter than most 37-year-olds.

And playing his way into the starting lineup for a team in a full-fledged playoff race has convinced James that he can play at the highest level for another season or two.

PODCAST
Marc Stein joins Fitzsimmons & Durrett to discuss the Mavericks-Lakers game Tuesday night. If the Mavs lose, are their playoff hopes over? Listen

"My plan is to play two more years and my hope is to be able to finish my career here in Dallas playing for Rick, Donnie and Mark and with Dirk," James said, referring to Mavs coach Rick Carlisle, team president Donnie Nelson, owner Mark Cuban and star forward Dirk Nowitzki.

"If there's one thing my career has taught me, it's (that) what I hope and what happens are sometimes two different things. But this experience since I've been here has made everything I've gone through extremely worth it. Now we just got to make these playoffs."

The Mavericks became James' 11th NBA stop in early January when he was called up from Dallas' D-League affiliate in nearby Frisco and signed to the first of two 10-day contracts. Well aware of the Mavs' seasonlong struggles finding consistency from their point guards, James joined the Texas Legends with the intent of convincing Dallas that he could still contribute. One game with the Legends did the trick, with James gradually working his way into the starting lineup by early March.

The move partly stems from Carlisle's belief that projected starter Darren Collison is more effective coming off the bench, but there's no denying the impact of the switch: Dallas is 10-4 with James starting.

Despite appearing in a mere 15 NBA games over the previous three seasons, James averaged 9.2 points and 4.7 assists in 26.4 minutes per game in March and shot 45.6 percent on 3-pointers.

"I said to my agent (Bernie Lee) the other day, if everything that happened to this point in my career happened to bring me to play for Rick at this stage of my life to prepare me for this, then it's been worth it," James said.

"I'm in the middle of this right now and all that matters to me is making the playoffs. I want this so bad, I can't express it. But in the summer when I take a step back and look at it, I think I'll be able to appreciate it more, the fact that I fought really hard to be a part of this team."

James has a natural bond with fellow vets Elton Brand and Vince Carter -- referring to Carter as his welcoming committee when he first got to town -- but likewise has a lot to say about playing with Nowitzki, who didn't do too badly in March, either.

Dirk's numbers for the month: 20.0 points per game on .548 shooting from the floor and .468 shooting on 3s.

"Being that I've been so many places and played with so many quote-unquote superstars, I think I have a pretty good handle on (that description)," James said. "And Dirk is the best I've ever played with or been around.

"He's hard-working, humble, intelligent and doesn’t miss anything. On off days, he's in the weight room or in the pool. He's so intelligent and driven to know his body and what he needs to do to get ready. I wasn’t here when he was hurt and I know it's been a challenge for him, but over the last few weeks, day by day, you can see his work paying off."

PODCAST
Marc Stein joins Fitzsimmons & Durrett to discuss the Mavericks-Lakers game Tuesday night. If the Mavs lose, are their playoff hopes over? Listen

DALLAS –The race for the West’s eighth seed heads into the home stretch with the Dallas Mavericks trailing the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers by a game and a half.

With an assist from ESPN Stats and Information, here’s a quick comparison of the remaining schedules for the three teams. (Note: Strength of schedule is the average winning percentage of the opponents.)

MAVS
Strength of schedule: .485
Home games: 4
Road games: 5
vs. .500+: 4
Back-to-backs: 2

LAKERS
Strength of schedule: .562
Home games: 6
Road games: 2
vs. .500+: 5
Back-to-backs: 1

JAZZ
Strength of schedule: .522
Home games: 5
Road games: 3
vs. .500+: 4
Back-to-backs: 0

The Jazz own the tiebreakers against both the Mavs and Lakers. The Mavs-Lakers tiebreaker has yet to be determined. The Lakers can claim it with a win Tuesday night over the Mavs. If the Mavs win and tie the season series, the next tiebreaker would be conference record. The Lakers are 21-23 against West teams; the Mavs have a 19-24 conference record.

DALLAS -- Dirk Nowitzki’s best week of the season wasn’t good enough to win Western Conference player of the week honors.

That went to Utah big man Al Jefferson, who averaged 19.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 1.5 blocks as the Jazz went 4-0 to get back in the driver’s seat in the race for the West’s final seed.

Nowitzki averaged 29.7 points and 7.7 rebounds with shooting percentages of 62.1 from the floor and 45.5 from 3-point range to lead the Mavs to a 2-1 record last week. His clutch heroics keyed comeback wins over the Clippers and Bulls.

“I think at this point it’s pretty obvious that we’re still looking at one of the greatest ever, playing at that level,” coach Rick Carlisle said.

A strong case can be made that Nowitzki was snubbed, but that’s the furthest thing from the mind of a man whose honors include 11 All-Star appearances, an MVP and a Finals MVP as the Mavs leave for a must-win road trip that begins Tuesday night against the Lakers.

DALLAS -- There is a school of thought that this season represents Rick Carlisle’s best work during his five-year coaching tenure in Dallas.

PODCAST
Rick Carlisle joins Galloway & Company to discuss getting Dirk Nowitzki more involved in the Mavericks' game plan and much more. Listen

No question Carlisle deserves credit for a job well done. After all, the Mavericks were essentially left for dead when they were 10 games under .500 in mid-January and many times since then.

The Mavs managed to pull themselves back into the playoff picture, thanks in large part to Carlisle pressing buttons to try to squeeze every bit of potential out of this patchwork roster.

“We’re under .500,” Carlisle said dismissively, “so we haven’t done that good of a job.”

That’s humility for the sake of staying in the moment. Carlisle has done a heck of a job to keep this flawed team fighting while constantly fidgeting with the lineup and rotation to give the Mavs the best possible chance of winning.

But a better job than the 2011 title run? C’mon, man.

“Winning a championship is always the best coaching job,” Mark Cuban said. “Period, end of story.”

Maybe that’s simplifying things too much, but that was a historically excellent coaching job that Carlisle and his staff did during the 2011 postseason, which started with nobody taking the Mavs seriously as contenders and ended with a championship parade in downtown Dallas.

Think about the gauntlet the Mavs had to get through to win that title. They beat Kobe Bryant’s two-time defending champion Lakers, sweeping arguably the best coach in pro sports history into retirement. They gave Kevin Durant’s Thunder a clutch clinic to delay what could be a decade of Western Conference dominance for OKC. And they beat LeBron James’ Heat, a feat that might not be accomplished in a playoff series for quite some time, if ever, depending on whether the NBA’s premier player opts to stay in Miami for the rest of his career.

That’s a miraculous run by a lone-star team that was a popular first-round upset pick.

There were plenty of examples of coaching genius by Carlisle and his staff – headlined by two assistants, defensive coordinator Dwane Casey and offensive coordinator Terry Stotts, who were hired away as head coaches.

Start with the psychological wisdom of owning the Mavs’ 23-point collapse after Game 4 in Portland. This wasn’t just an empty it’s-always-the-coach’s-fault declaration. Carlisle made a point to fall on the sword for failing to make adjustments to get the ball out of Brandon Roy’s hands during the Blazers guard’s spectacular fourth quarter, an admission that reinforced a tone of accountability in the Mavs’ locker room and prevented a potentially catastrophic meltdown from having a carryover effect.

That was the last time during those playoffs that Carlisle’s strategy was questioned. Heck, the Mavs lost only three more games during that run.

How about the decision to dust off Corey Brewer when Game 1 in Los Angeles seemed to be getting away from the Mavs? Brewer, a benchwarmer on that team, earned every penny Cuban paid him during his high-energy, high-impact eight minutes that turned around that game and changed that series against the Lakers.

One of the primary reasons the Mavs were able to sweep a team practically nobody gave them a chance of beating was because of their success with an unconventional lineup. With Brendan Haywood serving as the defensive backbone in this particular lineup, Dirk Nowitzki and a few second-unit scoring threats (Jason Terry, J.J. Barea and Peja Stojakovic) lit up the Lakers. Phil Jackson never figured out a way to slow down the Barea/Nowitzki high pick-and-pop with Terry and Stojakovic spacing the floor with scorching 3-point shooting.

The defensive game plan that turned James, the NBA’s most dominant force, into a confused, timid player in the Finals was just as genius. Part of that was the bold move of starting Barea at shooting guard after the Heat took a 2-1 series lead, a decision that ensured that DeShawn Stevenson could come off the bench with fresh legs and ferocity to spell Shawn Marion as head of the snake against James.

We could go on and on. Suffice to say it’s silly to think that a fight for .500 – no matter how flawed the team, no matter that a Coach of the Year case can be made for Carlisle if the Mavs make the playoffs – is more impressive than one of the greatest coaching jobs in NBA history.

DALLAS – Dirk Nowitzki declared recently that the playoffs have essentially already begun for the Dallas Mavericks.

The big German certainly has looked like postseason Dirk recently.

PODCAST
Rick Carlisle joins Galloway & Company to discuss getting Dirk Nowitzki more involved in the Mavericks' game plan and much more. Listen

There were a couple of performances last week that were reminiscent of the 2011 title run, when Nowitzki was an efficient scoring machine and clutch executioner. First, he lit the Los Angeles Clippers up for 33 points, outscoring the West contender in overtime. He followed that up a few days later by dropping 35 on the Chicago Bulls, capping the Mavs’ miraculous comeback with eight points in the final 54 seconds, including the game-winner.

Clearly, this is a case of fuel being poured on the competitive fire of a legend who is a member of the exclusive, four-man 25-point, 10-rebound career postseason club, right?

Actually, Dirk offers a much simpler explanation for his recent return to Hall of Fame form: He’s fully healthy and finally feels like himself again.

“Honestly, it’s just me starting to feel better again,” Nowitzki said. “I was struggling early. Honestly, in a normal season, I’d just be hitting my midseason form, but unfortunately this season I missed (29) games. So this season is already over.

“Instead of me playing good ball in January, February, March right now, the season is unfortunately over. I’m just feeling good again.”

This is one of the instances where the German-to-English translation isn’t entirely accurate. Nowitzki didn’t mean to suggest that Dallas is done fighting when he said the season is already over. He just meant that the regular season is nearly finished.

As Nowitzki said after the Mavs were humiliated in Houston in early March – and most of us considered the thought of Dallas extending its dozen-year postseason streak to be pure fantasy – he’s never given up on anything in his career. He’s darn sure not about to throw in the towel when the Mavs are a win away from shaving and a game and a half back of the West’s final playoff spot with a huge road game against the Los Angeles Lakers next on the schedule.

It’s far from ideal that the Mavs are in position to have to fight for a playoff berth. However, it’s a heck of a lot better than the way things looked for the Mavs after Nowitzki’s extended absence while recovering from preseason knee surgery and his miserable performance after his return.

“It’s obviously fun to always play for something,” Nowitzki said. “If we played for the 12th seed right now, it’d probably be a little different, but this way there’s still something to play for. We’re working every day for it. That’s obviously more fun."

O.J. Mayo’s perspective from the neighboring locker: “You see him really champing at the bit to get to that eighth spot, doing everything in his will to keep us in striking distance. We’ve got to do whatever we’ve got to do to give him some help.”

It’s not as if Nowitzki’s offensive explosions last week came out of nowhere. He’s one of the primary reasons the Mavs have a puncher’s chance of making the playoffs.

There were flashes of the old Dirk in February, such as his 30-point, 13-rebound showing in a losing effort against the Lakers.

March was by far Nowitzki’s best month of the season, as he averaged 20.0 points while making 53.3 percent of his shots from the floor, including 48.3 percent from 3-point range. Not coincidentally, the Mavs went 11-5 to climb back into the bottom of the West playoff picture.

It’s a far cry from Dirk’s dreadful December, when he rushed back despite his rehab not going well and scored a total of 30 points on 32.4 percent shooting in his first four games, all losses.

“It’s just I feel night and day difference since I came back,” Nowitzki said. “I was dragging. Every step, it wasn’t fun running up and down, and that’s obviously a problem. But I like running again, I like moving, I like getting into the shot, bending my knees. It’s a matter of feeling good again and trying to help the team win.

“It’s sad when you’re out there and your mind wants to make moves in December and January and your body just doesn’t respond right. When you can’t do those moves, that’s just sad. I’m just happy that when my mind sees something now in a split second … and my body’s able to respond and do that move.”

Nowitzki has been an efficient scorer since the All-Star break. However, he’s only recently gotten back to being the no-doubt closer who demands the ball during crunch time and delivers.

That’s proof that he’s broken free of the physical and mental burdens that slowed him for much of this season.

“He’s been battling injuries and people have been saying he’s not the same or whatever,” Brandan Wright said. “But he’s definitely back.”

Too late or just in time?

DALLAS – Coach Rick Carlisle couldn’t stop raving about one of his starters after Saturday’s stunning comeback win over the Chicago Bulls.

No, it wasn’t Dirk Nowitzki, the dude who scored eight of his season-high-tying 35 points in the final 54 seconds, including the game-winning bucket.

Carlisle kept gushing about how proud he was of O.J. Mayo, the guy who finished the game with four points on 1-of-13 shooting.

“Here’s a guy who is banged up, and I just thought he was totally engaged in the game and did a lot of things even though he didn’t shoot the ball well,” Carlisle said. “If we’re going to get where we want to get in the next nine games, the example that he set out there today is really important.

“That’s just grit and guts – being totally in and totally committed.”

Mayo is playing through the pain of a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder, an injury suffered on a hustle play late in Tuesday’s win over the Clippers and diagnosed by an MRI on Friday. He’s the only Maverick who has played in every game this season.

Mayo played with a harness protecting the shoulder during Thursday’s loss to the Pacers but ditched the restrictive device after the first quarter Saturday afternoon.

“I just said, to heck with it, and just tried to play without it,” said Mayo, whose only bucket was a big one, a driving layup to trim the deficit to six with 1:44 remaining. “If your shot is broke, you at least want to shoot it comfortably. You want to be comfortable shooting a broke shot. You don’t want to be uncomfortable shooting a broke shot.

“But, hey, it was a great win, a win we needed. I’ll get in the gym tomorrow and try to fix that break in my shot and keep playing hard.”

Easter Sunday is officially a day off for the Mavs, but Mayo has work to do.

There’s not much Mayo or the Mavs’ medical staff can do to ease the pain in his shoulder before Tuesday’s critical game against the Lakers.

“It is what it is,” Mayo said. “You’ve got to deal with it. I can still walk, run and communicate out there, so whatever it takes to help us win.”

Mayo managed to help the Mavs win despite an awful shooting outing Saturday, which is why his coach kept praising him.

A few more notes from the Mavs’ thrilling comeback win:

1. Wright big off bench: Brandan Wright’s streak of starting ended after four games, with Elton Brand replacing him in the lineup. Wright responded with his first double-double in a Dallas uniform.

Wright scored 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting and grabbed a career-high-tying 13 rebounds in 23 minutes against the Bulls.

“No matter who starts, when you get an opportunity to play your minutes, just play them to the best of your ability,” Wright said. “That’s what it’s been about the whole year. I know it’s been a revolving door at the center position. We know what to do when we get in the game.”

Wright’s last double-double came on April 1, 2011, when his New Jersey Nets lost to the Philadelphia 76ers. Wright noted that the lottery-bound Nets were simply playing out the string at that point.

“This one means much more,” Wright said. “We’re playing for something.”

Wright’s emergence is part of the reason the Mavs are playing for something. After being in and out of the rotation all season, Wright averaged 11.6 points and 6.1 rebounds in 24.4 minutes per game in March, when the Mavs went 11-5.

2. ‘Like a video game’: It appeared early in the fourth quarter that Nate Robinson was going to hog the headlines after this game.

Chicago’s backup point guard caught fire, going on a personal 11-2 run after the Mavs and Bulls entered the fourth quarter tied. Then Robinson drilled a 32-footer, pulling up from near the midcourt logo after tracking down a loose ball with the shot clock ticking down, giving him 14 of his 25 points in span of six minutes.

“He was so on fire that it was almost like a video game,” said Nowitzki, who went into video-game mode down the stretch.

Robinson was 9-of-16 from the floor and 7-of-7 from 3-point range, but his last bucket was that 32-footer. He missed his last two shots, including a jumper at the buzzer that could have sent the game into overtime.

Give Mike James a lot of the credit for cooling off Robinson.

“My teammates looked at me and said, ‘Look, stop asking for help on that screen. Turn that water hose off,’” James said.

3. Rally cry: The Mavs get a day off before leaving for a huge four-game road trip. That trip begins with a must-win game Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Lakers before a Thursday date in Denver against the Nuggets and their West-best 33-3 home record.

“Regardless of who the opponents are coming up, it’s just important that we continue to fight and battle and stick together,” Carlisle said. “That’s the rally cry.”

DALLAS -- After almost 15 seasons, folks around these parts should have learned their lesson.

Don’t ever leave a game when Dirk Nowitzki is on the floor, no matter how low the Mavericks’ odds of winning seem. You might miss a legendary performance.

Hundreds of Mavs fans found that out the hard way Saturday afternoon, departing the American Airlines Center after the Chicago Bulls built a dozen-point lead in the fourth quarter. Those in the sellout crowd who stuck around were treated to vintage Dirk clutch dominance.

Nowitzki finished his season-high 35-point performance with the kind of scoring flurry we’ll be talking about long after he’s been inducted into the Hall of Fame. The bearded face of the franchise scored eight points in the final 54 seconds, including the game-winning 3-pointer from the left wing with 2.9 ticks on the clock, to cap a 15-1 closing run.

Mavs 100, Bulls 98.

You had to see Nowitzki celebrate -- arms raised, his thumb-and-two-fingers 3 symbol formed on both hands, screams coming the middle of all that facial hair -- to believe it.

A dozen down with less than five minutes to go against an Eastern Conference playoff team that ranks third in the NBA in scoring defense? That’s not too much of a mountain for the Mavs to climb with their German in a groove.

“It’s kind of like the story of our season, honestly,” said Nowitzki, who was 14-of-17 from the floor and 5-of-6 from 3-point range in the game, 6-of-7 and 3-of-4 in the fourth. “Every time people write us out or say we’re done, for some reason, we find a way to hang around.

“The same happened today. I think everybody was thinking this thing was over, and we found a way to turn it around. The same with our season. Probably three weeks ago, nobody thought we could even make it a close race, and here we are.”

Presumed dead not too long ago, here the Mavs are, scrapping their way into the fight for the West’s final playoff seed despite being 10 games under .500 2½ months ago. Here they are, sitting at 36-37 after winning 11 of 16 games in March, preparing to head out on a huge four-game road trip that begins Tuesday with a must-win game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

And here Dirk is, peaking into playoff form just in time to have a chance to extend the Mavs’ postseason streak (12 years and counting) and make up for what had been the most miserable season of his career.

(Read full post)

How it happened: Dirk Nowitzki dominated winning time, willing the Dallas Mavericks to a miraculous comeback win.

Nowitzki matched his season high with 35 points on 14-of-17 shooting, including 15 in the fourth quarter and eight in the final minute. He finished his clutch scoring flurry with the game-winning 3-pointer with less than three seconds remaining.

The Mavs stormed back from a 12-point deficit in the final minutes, finishing the game with a 15-1 run over the last 3:32.

Nowitzki’s corner 3 with 53.5 seconds remaining made it a two-point game. After Chicago’s Carlos Boozer split a pair of free throws, Nowitzki hit a one-legged fadeaway on the baseline to trim the deficit to one. He hit the game-winner the next possession.

Nate Robinson was one of three Bulls to score 25 points, joining power forward Carlos Boozer and small forward Luol Deng, but the reserve point guard’s ridiculous scoring flurry early in the fourth quarter appeared to be the turning point of the game.

Robinson took over right after the Mavs closed the third quarter with a 12-1 run to tie the game. He opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer from the right wing, starting a personal 11-2 run in the first 3:27 of the quarter to give the Bulls the lead for good.

Robinson finished his hot streak with one more 3, a ridiculous 32-footer with the shot clock ticking down midway through the quarter. He finished with 14 of his 25 points in the fourth. He was 9-of-16 from the floor and 7-of-7 from 3-point range in the game, 5-of-8 and 4-of-4 in the fourth.

But Dirk wasn’t done.

Robinson had a chance to send it into overtime after Nowitzki's heroics, but his jumper at the buzzer clanked off the iron.

What it means: The Mavs (36-37) pulled within a game of the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers in the fight for the West’s final playoff berth, pending the results of Saturday night’s games. Dallas won four of six games during the homestand, capping it with a thrilling victory over the 39-32 Bulls, the East’s fifth-place team.

Play of the game: How could it not be Nowitzki’s game-winner with 2.9 seconds remaining? He drilled in in Luol Deng’s face after Vince Carter found Nowitzki on the left wing.

Stat of the day: Nowitzki has a season-high 35 points in two of the Mavs’ past three games, lighting it up in heart-pounding wins over the Clippers and Bulls.

DALLAS -- The Mavericks' best banger is in the starting lineup against the Bulls.

Elton Brand will start at center instead of Brandan Wright.

That's clearly an attempt by Rick Carlisle to prevent the Mavs from being overpowered by Eastern Conference bullies for the second consecutive game. The Pacers had a 55-34 rebounding edge in Thursday night's rout at the AAC, and the Bulls play a similarly physical style.

The slender, 6-foot-10 Wright started the last four games and has been a major factor in the Mavs' March success (10-5 record). However, he was a nonfactor against Indiana, finishing with four points and three rebounds in 22 minutes. Brand had five points and a team-high eight rebounds in 21 minutes against the Pacers.

This is the Mavs' 22nd starting lineup of the season.

DALLAS – An MRI revealed that Mavericks shooting guard O.J. Mayo has a mild sprain of the AC joint in his left shoulder, an injury that will not prevent him from playing Saturday afternoon against the Bulls.

“I’m good to go,” Mayo said when asked about the pain. “Ready to play.”

Mayo, who suffered the injury when he crashed into courtside seats while chasing a loose ball late in Tuesday’s win over the Clippers, is the only Maverick who has played in every game this season.

The five-year veteran has never missed a game to injury –- he served a 10-game suspension and missed one game because of bronchitis in his tenure in Memphis –- and has played through several nagging injuries this season.

“He’s going to be in some pain,” said coach Rick Carlisle, who doesn’t anticipate having to limit the playing time of Mayo, the Mavs’ leader in minutes. “It’s what he can tolerate, but he’s one of the toughest guys we’ve had here in a long time. …

“Those are the kind of guys you want to be able to get in a foxhole with.”

Mayo wore a bulky harness to protect the shoulder in Thursday’s loss to the Pacers, when he scored only seven points on 3-of-10 shooting. He hoped that head athletic trainer Casey Smith could come up with some less restrictive protection for his shoulder.

“I’m going to see if we can lighten it up a little bit,” Mayo said. “It was like playing with football pads on.”

The Bulls will be without center Joakim Noah (foot) and shooting guard Marco Belinelli (abdomen).

DALLAS -- Shooting guard O.J. Mayo is undergoing an MRI to determine the severity of the injury to his left shoulder.

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Mayo, the only Maverick to play in every game this season, suffered the injury when he crashed into courtside seats while chasing a loose ball late during Tuesday’s overtime win over the Los Angeles Clippers. He played in Thursday night's loss to the Pacers with a harness on the shoulder and participated in Friday’s non-contact practice before going to the doctor.

“He’s sore,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “He’s been one of our soldiers. He’s played hurt all year long. He took a pretty good hit on it in the Clipper game late and it’s bothering him, so we’re going to get it looked at and make sure it’s something that isn’t a serious injury.

“The hope is that it’s not and he can continue to play, but we’ll see.”

Mayo ranks second on the Mavs in scoring (16.3 points per game), second in assists (4.4) and leads the team in minutes (35.7).

The 25-year-old Mayo has missed only one game due to injury or illness during his five-year career. His toughness is one of the traits the Mavs like most about the fifth-year veteran, who can test free agency again this summer if he decides not to exercise the player option in his contract for next season.

“The guy had a torn up hand in a meaningless exhibition game in a foreign country and he insisted on playing,” Carlisle said. “He has not missed a practice or a game this year. So if he’s able to play and there’s nothing in there that says we should sit him out, you do the math. I think he’s going to be there for us, but we’ll see. We have to have the doctor take a look at it and we have to take a picture of it.”