Tonight was Dirk Nowitzki’s 75th appearance in the 2017-18 campaign. He became the first player in NBA history to play at least 75 games in his 20th season or later, passing the mark shared by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Robert Parish. It’s another testament to Dirk’s extraordinary longevity and willingness to put in extra work before and after practices that he’s been ready to play so many games at this age.
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Plays like this really put the defense in a precarious position. No point guard wants to switch onto a bigger player coming full speed off a screen, and even if he’s able to stop Barnes, Barnes can easily post him up and get a pretty good look. At the same time, switching a big onto Smith isn’t a great idea, either. What’s more, neither player is really used to defending pick-and-rolls from that particular position. We saw Cleveland do this a lot with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving while those two played together to create a little bit of chaos. I wonder how much more we’ll see things like this the rest of this season.
The Mavs (23-53) will play the Cleveland Cavaliers (45-30) on Sunday at Quicken Loans Arena at 5 p.m. Central.
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