Only three players had scored 40 points in a game at age 37 or older — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, and Karl Malone.Make that four — Dirk Nowitzki joined the group Sunday going against Portland
Make that four — Dirk Nowitzki joined the group Sunday going against Portland.
Nowitzki scored 40 points Sunday in Portland, doing so on 26 shots. It wasn’t like Portland just left him open — 20 of those shots were contested according to the NBA’s SportsVU player tracking, but the big German hit 13 of them anyway. Nowitzki did most of his damage from the midrange, where he was 10-of-16 for the night. He also had three threes, as well as some buckets at the rim.
The win over Portland keeps Dallas in the eighth and final playoff spot in the West, but things are tight. Dallas and Houston are tied in the seven and eight spots, with Portland just half a game ahead and Utah just one game behind in the nine seed. The Mavericks could use a few more games like this from Dirk down the stretch.