June 30: Dirk Nowitzki notifies the Mavericks that he will opt out of the final year of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career. The Mavs set their top priority on keeping Dirk in Dallas. Mavericks President of Basketball Operations Donnie Nelson says, "He is our number 1 priority, period... We're going to do everything we possibly can to make sure Dirk is a Mavericks for a long, long time... I think his heart is in Dallas, You learn to never say never in tis business, but from our perspective we will be doing everything possible to keep him right here."
July 5: Dirk gives the Mavs a hometown discount and helps them have enough money to sign other free agents during the summer by agreeing to a four-year contract worth 80 million with the Mavs, which is 16 million less than the 96 million that was the maximum he was eligible to receive.
July 8: Brendan Haywood agrees to a six-year contract worth 55 million dollars with the Mavs. The seven footer provides a big presence in the post for the Mavs.
July 12: Ian Mahini agrees to a two-year contract worth 4 million dollars with the Mavs to add youth and athleticism to the Mavs frontline.
July 14: The Mavs acquire Tyson Chandler from the Charlotte Bobcats in exchange for Erick Dampier. Mavericks President of Basketball Operations Donnie Nelson says in a statement, "We could not be more excited to add Tyson Chandler. He is one of the most versatile big men in the league today. He gives our front line a defensive, shot-blocking, athletic punch we haven't had here in a while." Chandler adds a much needed toughness and defensive presence that the Mavericks had lacked for years including when they lost to the Heat in the 2006 NBA finals. Chandler had been in the top 10 in rebounding in the NBA three times in his career and the top 15 four times including in 2006-2007 when he was second in the league in rebounds per game.
September 27: Brian Cardinal signs with the Dallas Mavericks to add a three point shooting presence on the floor for the Mavs.
October 27: The Mavs start their season strong with a win at home against the Charlotte Bobcats 101 to 86. From the first game Mavs coach Rick Carlisle puts the emphasis on the defensive end of the floor. He says after their victory, "Our good offense put us in position to guard better. We are one game in, but our defensive numbers are better than they have been. It's the foundation for success."
November 26: The Mavs end the Spurs 12 game winning streak by beating them on the road 103 to 94 and take their record to 11-4. The Mavs avenge their 97-87 loss to the Spurs in Game 6 of the playoffs in the previous year when as a 2 seed they fell to the Spurs 4 games to 2. Dirk has 26 points on 12 of 14 shooting from the floor. The Mavs extend their own winning streak to four games.
November 27: The Mavs play the new look Miami Heat for the first time during the season at home and beat the big three and the Heat 106 to 95. The Mavs dominate the Heat inside outscoring them 48 to 26 in the paint. Dirk scores 22 and Tyson Chandler adds 14 inside to extend the Mavs win streak to 5 and bring their record to 12-4.
December 11: The Mavs win their 12th straight game and bring their record to 19-4 by beating the Utah Jazz 103 to 97 at home. Although the Mavs blew a 25 point first half lead, as the Jazz tied the game with 4:31 remaining, the Mavs showed resiliency, especially Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry by finishing off the Jazz in the end of the fourth quarter. Dirk begins to show that he can get it down in the clutch.
Decmber 20: The Mavs play the Heat on the road and for the second straight time beat them 98 to 96 and bring their record to 22-5. The Mavs are 15-1 in their last 16 games. The Heat once again have no answer for Dirk as he scores 26 points and Jason Terry scores all of his 19 points in the final 11 minutes of the game. The Mavs snap the Heat's 12 game winning streak. Heat coach Erik Spolestra says, "Bottom line is they made bigger plays down the stretch more consistently than we did." This would become a theme when these two teams would match up. Even LeBron James admits about the Mavs, "They can get you off-balance."
January 1: The Mavs starting shooting guard Caron Butler goes down with a knee injury in the first quarter. The 15-point per game scoring is huge for the Mavs because of his ability to be the teams third scorer along with Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry. Coming into January 1 with Butler, the Mavs were 24-7, which is a .774 winning percentage. Without Butler for the rest of the year, the Mavs were 33-18, which is a .647 winning percentage. The mavs really began to miss Butler as the season went along.
January 17: The Detroit Pistons beat the Dallas Mavericks 103 to 89 to give the Mavs their season high sixth straight loss. After starting 26-8, the Mavs fall to 26-14. Dirk only played in 2 of the six games during the losing streak as he was out with an injury.
January 19: The Mavs play the Lakers for the first time all season and beat them at home to snap their 6 game skid 109 to 100. The Mavs balance and production from the bench including over 20 points from both Jason Terry and Shawn Marion outlasts the efforts of Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol.
February 9: The Mavs beat the Sacramento Kings on the road 102 to 100 to extend their win streak to 10 games and bring their record to 37-15. Mavericks show their great balance and ability to have guys play great games off the bench once again as J.J. Barea steps up with 20 points on 8 of 12 shooting in the victory.
March 4: The Mavs win their 8th straight game and bring their record to 45-16 by beating the Pacers at home 116 to 108. Dirk leads the team in scoring in 5 of the 8 games and Jason Terry continues his hot shooting.
March 12: The Mavs lose to the Lakers at home 96 to 91 and only hold a half game lead over the Lakers for second place in the Western Conference as they fall to 47-19. The Mavs continue to struggle to find scoring from guys other than Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry, as they score their fewest points since January 22.
March 31: The Mavs lose to the Lakers on the road by 28 points in a beatdown that sees the Lakers extend their 2nd place Western Conference lead to a game and a half as the Mavs fall to 53-22. The Mavs score just 82 points and shot just 36 percent during the game including 6 for 26 (23 percent) from three point land. The Lakers show that they are more physical han the Mavs, as Bynum scores 18 and has 10 rebounds, Gasol has 20 points and 7 rebounds.
April 6: The Mavs lose to the Denver Nuggets 104 to 96 at home and suffer their fourth straight loss and their record drops to 52-25. Injuries are beginning to catch up to the Mavs as Tyson Chandler misses the game with a stiff lower back and Jason Kidd is also out. The Mavs also learn that Caron Butler is unlikely to return for the playoffs.
April 7: A day after the Mavs lose their fourth in a row to the Nuggets, Nuggets coach George Karl admits he would rather play the Mavs than the Thunder. Karl sees that the Mavs are struggling and have been hit with tons of injuries. He says, "If we had to pick and choose on it, we would probably say 55 percent Dallas, 45 percent Oklahoma City... I just think right now our speed might have more effect against Dallas than it will have on Oklahoma City."
April 13: The Mavs finish their regular season 57-25 and clinch the 3rd seed in the west with a win over the Hornets at home.
April 16: Questions still remain around the Mavs. Many people doubt their chances in the postseason especially without Caron Butler for the entirety of the playoffs. Most people, including myself, saw the Mavericks as the most likely higher seed to not make it at of the first round. On ESPN out of 12 NBA experts, 6 of them picked the Trail Blazers to beat the Mavs in 6 games. In game one, the Mavs beat the Trail Blazers 89 to 81 at home on the backs of a big fourth quarter from Dirk Nowitzki. Dirk had 28 points during the game and 18 in the fourth quarter. There was a span of a little over two minutes in the fourth quarter where Dirk had 10 points from the 4-minute mark to the 2-minute mark to keep the Mavs in the game.
April 19: The Mavs take a 2-0 series lead by beating the Trail Blazers again at home 101 to 89. Once again Dirk carried the team especially in the fourth quarter. He scored 33 points including 14 in the fourth quarter and the Mavs final 11 points. He got to the foul line 17 times and made 15 from the strike. It was a positive sign for the Mavs that Jason Terry scored just 10 points in both games but they got solid contributions from other guys like Jason Kidd.
April 21: The Trail Blazers got the series to 2-1 by beating the Mavs at home 97 to 92 in game three. Only Dirk Nowitzki with 25 points and Jason Terry with 29 points had more than 10 for the Mavs, who struggled to find a third scoring threat. They scored just 20 points in each of the quarters of the second half and had long stretches of scoring droughts.
April 23: The Mavericks collapse to lose game 4 and blow a chance to go up in the series 3-1 heading back home by losing 84-82 in game 4. Once again the Mavs struggle to score as only Dirk scores over 13 points. The Mavs score just 15 points in the fourth quarter as the Trail Blazers come back from 23 points down to tie the series at 2. With 9:48 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Mavs were up by 17 points with the score 73 to 56 but they scored just 9 points during the rest of the game. Most critics say after the game that these are the real Mavs, who blew the 2006 NBA finals, lost to the Golden State Warriors in 6 games as a number 1 seed in 2007 and lost to the Spurs as a number 2 seed last year.
April 25: The Mavs hold on despite scoring just 18 points in the fourth quarter to beat the Trail Blazers 93 to 82 and go up in the series 3-2. Tyson Chandler had a enormous game with 14 points and 20 rebounds including 13 on the offensive end. Chandler says after the game, "Coming out tonight, I knew my team would need me. After a bad loss, a lot of times it can carry over. Tonight, I wanted to bring energy and hope my teammates would feed off it, and they did." Chandler proved the toughness that the Mavs had not had in any of their previous playoff runs. Although the old Mavs would have become discouraged by blowing their huge lead in game 4, Chandler didn't allow the loss to carry over to game 5 and the Mavs took the big game by 11 points.
April 28: The Mavs play a really good game in game 6 to beat the Trail Blazers 103 to 96 and move on to the Western Conference semifinals. The Mavs held off the Trail Blazers in the fourth quarter with 8 big free throws by Dirk in the final stretch of the game. Jason Terry says after the victory, "We're such a confident team. We have so many veteran guys, starting at the top with Jason Kidd on down to Dirk, that we believe. Especially in close ballgames, we've been winning them all season long. So we're confident." Not only did the Mavs prove that they can close games lead by Dirk Nowitzki but they also showed that they can win on the road. Dirk says, "It's definitely big for our confidence to win a road game in the playoffs. We haven't done it for a while so we definitely needed one. In this league, if you have a chance to close out a team, you always want to go for it." The Mavs advance to play the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals.
May 2: Despite the Mavs first round victory over the Trail Blazers and the Lakers struggling to get by the Hornets in 6 games, all 12 of the NBA experts on ESPN pick the Lakers to beat the Mavs. I predict the Mavs to lose in six games to the Lakers. In game one, the Mavs stun the Lakers by winning 96 to 94 in LA to take a 1-0 series lead. The Mavs outscore the Lakers 52 to 41 in the second half including 15 to 16 in the fourth quarter. Just like in the firs round, Dirk came up huge in the fourth quarter. He scored 11 of his 28 points in the final frame and made two free throws with 19 seconds left to give the Mavs a 95-94 lead and their first lead since the second quarter. Jason Kidd said after the tough victory, "You can always learn from your experience. This is a different team. Maybe a little bit older... and maybe wiser. The big thing is we all get along and we all push for each other to have success." Even Jason Terry admitted that, "Years prior, Kobe probably would have had dunk or a layup [on the Laker's final possession." However, this is a different Mavs team. This is a Mavs team that strives on the defensive end of the floor.
May 4: Nobody saw the Mavs winning both games in LA at the Staples Center but they did just that by beating the Lakers in game two 93 to 81. Dirk Nowitzki once again had a huge game with 24 points on 9 of 16 shooting but it was the Mavs defensive that won them the game. They held the Lakers to 13 points in the third quarter and 19 in the fourth. The Lakers bench shot 26.1 percent and had just 12 points. Shawn Marion said after the game, "We made our presence felt on both ends of the floor tonight. We did a good job of handling their pressure and just going out there and doing what we've been doing all postseason, just playing good defense and just playing our style of play."
May 6: In a game that the Lakers had to win, a game that everybody thought the defending champs would win, the Mavs were just too much once again. The Mavs won the game 98-92 to take a commanding 3-0 series lead. Dirk was just too much for the Lakers as he scored 32 points including 9 in the fourth quarter. Not even the Maverick players could have imagined in their wildest dream a 3-0 series lead over the Lakers. Dirk was great down the stretch for the Mavs once again. His coach Rick Carlisle reflected this by saying, "Just about everything that happened down the stretch was a direct result of him [Dirk] either scoring the ball or making a play to get somebody a shot, or make a pass for an assist for a three or a two or whatever it was."
May 8: The Mavs keep the pedal to the medal and complete the shocking, stunning, whatever other word you want to say, sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers. The Mavs kill the Lakers by 36 points in a 122-86 beatdown to advance to the conference finals. Jason Terry hit 9 of the 10 threes he took and finished with 32 points. As a team, the Mavs were lights out from three point land hitting 20 of the 32 threes they attempted. The Mavs once again showed something, this time that they can win without Dirk having a huge game. He scored his postseason low 17 points but didn't need to score because of the play of guys like J.J. Barea. The Mavs advance to the Western Conference finals to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder.
May 17: Game one was characterized by three words: ALL DIRK NOWITZKI. Dirk had 48 points on 12 of 15 shooting from the floor and made a ridiculous 24 of 24 free throws. Dirk's 24 straight free throws without a miss in a game was a NBA regular season and playoff record. The Thunder had no answer for Dirk all night and fell to the Mavs 121 to 112 in Dallas. Dirk said after the game, "I was really looking to shoot early and was able to get my rhythm after the first couple of shots. I kept attacking and my teammates kept feeding me and feeding me and I was able to take advantage over some smaller players." Whether th Thunder put Kevin Durant or Serge Ibaka on Dirk, he couldn't be stopped. Dirk's huge game led them to an early 1-0 series lead.
May 19: The Thunder got one back by beating the Mavs 106 to 100 in game two to tie the series at 1 game apiece. Tyson Chandler said after the loss, "When you're afraid of a team [the Lakers] or you feel like a team can beat you every single night, you go out there and you play with a certain type of edge. I feel like we came out here and we took these boys [the Thunder] lightly. There's a reason why they're in the Western Conference finals. They're not a team to be taken lightly, so we've got to make our adjustments and come out and win game 3... When you have a seven-game win streak, you kind of forget what got you there. We started feeling good about ourselves. We've got to get back to what got us there."
May 21: Dirk once again was the closer for the Mavs as they stole game three on the road to take a 2-1 series lead over the Thunder by winning 93 to 87 in Oklahoma City. As he has done all playoffs long, Dirk came through in the clutch and when the Mavs needed him the most with big shot after big shot. Although Dirk struggled during the game as he was just 7 of 21 from the field, he made big plays down the stretch. He had 10 of his 18 points during the fourth quarter. Dirk was the only Mav to score from the 7:22 mark to the 1:42 mark. During that span, he kept the Mavs lead at 9 points and withstood a charge from the Thunder to come back. Rick Carlisle said, "He's our guy. In the fourth quarters, he's going to touch the ball as frequently as we can get it to him. If he misses a few shots, he's not going to get deterred, he's not going to get discouraged. He's got the kind of will, he's going to keep going at it."
May 23: The Mavs huge comeback in the fourth quarter of game 4 to bring the game to overtime and then close at the Thunder 112 to 105 was the turning point of the series. Dirk had another monster game with 40 big points. After a Kevin Durant three pointer with 5:05 remaining in regulation, Rick Carlisle called a timeout as his team was down by fifteen points with the core 99 to 84. Dirk Nowitzki came out of the timeout like a possessed man scoring 12 points in the final 5 minutes to bring the game to overtime. He hit two clutch free throws with 6 seconds remaining to tie the game at 101 and the Thunder were just too distraught to come back as they were outscored 11 to 4 in the extra session. After the Mavs loss in game 2 Dirk Nowitzki said about the team's fourth quarter, "We just didn't have it, couldn't get the stops we needed. We're usually a great fourth-quarter team. We get stops; we go out and run and execute on the offensive end. But those couple of minutes right there where they went up eight or 10, that was the killer." In game five the Mavs and Dirk adjusted and played a phenomenal fourth quarter to come back from 15 down to tie the game and send it to overtime.
May 25: The Mavs had all the momentum in the world coming back home up 3-1 and looking to clinch the series. Although the Thunder kept it close throughout the game, the Mavs once again ran away with the game in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Thunder 28 to 20. Dirk had another big game to cap off his monster series with 26 points including a three to give the Mavs a 95-94 lead with just about 1 minute remaining in the game and the game clinching free throws with 13 seconds left to give the Mavs a four point lead and seal the win. However, the Mavs celebration was short. Dirk said after the series victory, "This is nice for a day, but we set our goals in October to win it all. We haven't done it yet... It feels good to finally go back. This time, hopefully we can finish the job." The Mavs move to the NBA finals to face the big three and the Miami Heat for a right to win the NBA finals. The matchup is a rematch of the 2006 NBA finals that the Mavs and Dirk so infamously lost after being just 6 minutes away from a 3-0 series lead.
May 31: The Heat won game one 92-84 over the Mavericks in Miami on the backs of the big three, who combined for 65 of the team's 92 points. However, the Mavericks do show some positive signs as Dirk scores 27 points and makes 12 of his 12 free throws, while Shawn Marion adds 16 points and 10 rebounds. The Mavs were also happy that they held the Heat to 39 percent shooting and just 92 points and were confident that their offensive struggles in game one would not come back in game 2. Rick Carlisle sais, "We'll play better. I'm very certain of that. We had some opportunities. Shots we normally make, they didn't go down. Look, it's a long series. We'll adjust."
June 2: The game that changed the finals was game two when the Mavs came back to rally and beat the Heat 95 to 93. After a Dwayne Wade's three pointer with 7:13 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Heat were up by 15 points 88 to 73. However, you can never count out the Mavs when they have a guy like Dirk Nowitzki. Dirk had 9 points in the final 2 minutes and 44 seconds including the game winning layup with 3 seconds remaining on the clock. After struggling to score with LeBron James on him in game one, Jason Terry had 16 points including 8 in the fourth quarter. Jason Terry said after the victory, "Unbelievable. I don't know how the finger felt, but I know he [Dirk Nowitzki] didn't care. He was going to do whatever it took for us to get the win... You can just sense it in us that we weren't going to give up, we were going to be resilient." Tyson Chandler added, "Dirk is the kind of guy that is going to be persistent and we're going to keep going to him. No matter what they try to do, we're going to keep going to him. We know eventually they're going to wear down because they're spending a lot of energy trying to keep him out of the game." Dirk Nowitzki said," Definitely a huge comeback for us and we never gave up, and that was big."
June 5: The Heat took game three in Dallas 88 to 86 despite Dirk Nowitzki's 34 points and late charge in the fourth quarter. His 15 fourth quarter points weren't enough to get a victory for the Mavs but he showed once again that he is an unstoppable force, especially when it comes to crunch time in the fourth quarter. Even Udonis Haslem admitted after game three about Dirk, "He's a great player, 7 feet, so he's going to shoot over me. I've got to make it tough on him."
June 7: After their game three loss, Jason Kidd said, "We have to have somebody step up besides Dirk." In game four when the Mavs really needed a victory and Dirk had a 101 degree fever, the Mavericks supporting cast really stepped up and helped the Mavs get a 86 to 83 victory to tie the series at 2. Shawn Marion had 16 points, Tyson Chandler had 13 points and 16 rebounds, DeShawn Stevenson had 11 points, and Jason Terry stepped up with 17 big points. Although Dirk was fighting that fever and shot poorly, he still had 21 points, a team high. The Mavs defensive was stifling, limiting LeBron James to 3 of 11 shooting and a woeful 8 points for the superstar. Dirk Nowitzki commented on this by saying, "Our defense won us the game."
June 9: With the series tied at 2 games a piece and the Mavs players calling game 5 their "game 7", the Mavs played their best offensive game of the finals and knocked off the Heat at home 112 to 103 to take a 3-2 series lead and become one game away from becoming NBA champions. Dirk had another huge game with 29 points but he got a lot of help from Tyson Chandler, who had 13 points, Jason Kidd, who had 13 points, J.J. Barea, who had 17 points, and Jason Terry, who added 21. Once again, just like every game for the Mavs during the postseason, they turned to Dirk during the fourth quarter. He had 8 points in the final frame and was 6 for 6 from the strike. His jumper with 2:45 gave the Mavs a 102-100 lead, which they would never relinquish. Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said, "We made more shots. We did a lot of good things defensively, which led to good offense... The thing we've got to do is we've got to make sure our defense is consistent."
June 12: Nobody could have predicted this. I'm not sure if even the Mavs thought that this was possibly. But they proved the impossible by winning the NBA championship in six games with a 105 to 95 victory over the Heat in Miami to win the title. The Mavs avenged their collapse to the Heat in the 2006 NBA finals by knocking them off to win the title in 2011. A man who couldn't come through in 2006, came through in 2011. Dirk Nowitzki struggled shooting during the game but when it mattered, he came through, which was something he failed to do in the Mavs previous run to the finals. Over and over again in the playoffs Dirk had outstanding fourth quarters to lead the Mavs to victory. He scored 10 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter and never let the Heat get within striking distance in the final frame. Everytime the Mavs needed a bucket they turned to Dirk and he delivered. Dirk was deservedly named the NBA finals MVP. Dirk said, "We worked so hard and so long for it. The team has had an unbelievable ride." The Mavs are NBA champions.
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