Sefko has an article on the Mavs still having some tough matchups left in the final five games of the regular season. Dirk is glad to have the challenge.
"Great tests at the end," Nowitzki says. "That's what you want - hard games. You don't want to ease into the playoffs.
"I always felt like I played my best playoff series if right before in the last month we played hard, had something to play for, played for seedings. ... So I'm looking forward to another great five games, then leave it all out there and see what happens."
I'm probably reading too much into it, but I sort of feel like he's talking about Avery's strategy leading up the GSW series...
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Art Garcia writes over at NBA.com with some quotes on how the Mavs are looking to be the upset team this postseason.
"I'm a realist," Nowitzki countered. "I think we lost all three times we played them. That's not a secret. We'll just take it and run. We played them tough all three games, so why shouldn't we be able to pull a couple out."
"It's just a bizarre year," Mavs owner Mark Cuban said. "Maybe we're the Arizona Cardinals."
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Jason Kidd was named Western Conference Player of the Week.
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Manu Ginobili is done for the year. This probably has zero impact on the Mavs, but it's bad for the Spurs.