The Mavericks can only hope to inflict as much damage to San Antonio in the first round of the playoffs as they did to Houston in the regular-season finale.
They cost the Rockets plenty Wednesday night, grinding out a 95-84 victory at American Airlines Center. The win pushed the Mavericks up to No. 6 in the Western Conference and earned them a date with the Spurs, who will be playing without Manu Ginobili but will have home-court advantage in the best-of-7 series. "We're going to do everything we can to take momentum into this thing - it doesn't guarantee anything, but it's nice to have," coach Rick Carlisle said. "It's a great matchup between two great teams. We respect them a great deal, and I think they respect us, too."
The Mavericks proved they truly are playoff ready with 30 points and 15 rebounds by Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd's 103rd career triple-double, 23 points by Jason Terry and a comeback from 14 points down in the third quarter.
The Rockets? They were left in the rubble of a hard-fought game. They would have won the Southwest Division and been the No. 2 or 3 seed with a win. Instead, they will be in the No. 4 vs. No. 5 matchup with Portland.
Meanwhile, the Mavericks readied for San Antonio.
"We're going down to the Riverwalk," Terry said. "It's going to be an outstanding series - a big rival that's playing pretty good Basketball."
As are the Mavericks after a wild finish to an NBA season that was not always fun for the Mavericks, but in the end was quite gratifying.
They won 50 games for the ninth consecutive season. Only San Antonio, with 10, has a longer active streak.
"We've become a fighting team," Carlisle said. "I'm glad we got to 50. I think it's important to continue that run. It says something about the way our guys have hung in there, because it hasn't been easy."
The Mavericks also went 15-1 at home after the All-Star break, turning AAC into a dreaded destination for any team.
And they did it by scoring a tough victory against a Houston team that had everything to play for.
The Rockets were up, 61-47, as the Mavericks couldn't stop Yao Ming, who had 23 points, but none in the final 21 minutes when he fought foul trouble.
Then Josh Howard, who had a miserable first half and was clearly limping on his sore left ankle by game's end, went to the basket strong three times and made six free throws out of it. That, plus improved defense by Ryan Hollins and Brandon Bass on Yao, triggered the Mavericks' rally, which earned them a brief lead and left them in an 80-80 game with under five minutes left.
Terry took over, canning seven consecutive points for an 87-80 lead. The Rockets would not make a field goal in the final five minutes, getting outscored 15-4.
"I think we're as confident as we've been all season," Nowitzki said. "It's been a tough up-and-down year, but we've really played well as of late. Hopefully, we can carry that over into the playoffs. You want to play your best Basketball when it comes down to April and May, and I think that's what we've been doing the last couple of weeks."
In praise of Dirk: Speaking of Nowitzki, he had his 26th 30-point game of the season, tying his personal best for 30-plus games accomplished first in 2005-06. The Mavericks were 19-7 when he topped the 30 mark.
