‘Dirk Night & Defense’: Mavs Dominate Warriors; Doncic Ankle OK?

On a night where the Dallas Mavericks completely dominated the best team in the NBA, it was overshadowed by the great Dirk Nowitzki in what was a near-perfect night.

When the Dallas Mavericks first announced that Dirk Nowitzki’s jersey retirement game was going to be against the NBA-leading Warriors, many people wondered if they had made the right decision, given the Golden State Warriors’ dominance this season and the fact that the Mavs had been struggling early on.

As it turns out, the professional ceremony schedulers knew what they were doing. Aside from superstar Luka Doncic tweaking his ankle in the final minutes, Wednesday night was immaculate, as the Mavs beat the Warriors with a dominating defensive effort before No. 41 was raised into the AAC rafters.

“It was a great, great ceremony and I’ll always remember that,” said Nowitzki. “And my kids pushing the button (to raise the banner). Just lovely all around, and I’ve got to thank the Mavs for putting it on, and Mark [Cuban], and it was fantastic.”

Although Nowitzki had to know that home crowd would go wild at whatever he’d say at his ceremony, in typical Dirk fashion, that didn’t deter him from putting in the extra work and preparation for his speech.

“My speech was finally good,” said Nowitzki. “I think I worked on it for weeks now … and you’re kind of trying not to mess up, but then the fans got me [emotional]. 

“[I appreciate] how many people have come up to me and said they appreciated what I did for the city [and] for this organization, and that always gets me.”

Doncic, who Nowitzki recently said he’d love to mentor at some point, has always had the utmost respect and admiration for the Mavs’ best player of all time, and that was shown yet again on Wednesday.

Despite turning his ankle at the end of the game, head coach Jason Kidd said Doncic was the first one to get back to the locker room and get dressed for the ceremony.

“I would say a lot,” said Doncic of how much Nowitzki means to him. “He was a hell of a player. He did so much for Dallas. He is respected all around the world. He did an amazing job. … I always say he is an amazing person and one of the most humble superstars.”

And as for that twisted ankle that cause some concern towards the end of the night?

“I twisted it a little bit but not that bad,” said Doncic. “I guess it will be OK. It just hurts a little bit, but I will be fine.”

As much as Luka loves Dirk, perhaps he can eventually honor the ‘Big German’ in another way at some point by developing his ‘rubber ankles.’ Nowitzki was always spraining his ankles during his playing days, but it eventually got to a point where he didn’t let it affect him much.

"I hope [Luka’s] fine,” said Kidd. “I think he changed as fast as anyone, so I think he was moving pretty good. …Hopefully we'll have a better understanding of what it is tomorrow."

The Mavs, who have now won four games in a row in impressive fashion, are currently 20-18 on the season and occupy the fifth-seed in the Western Conference standings. The hope is that Doncic doesn’t have to miss anymore time, and that Dallas can continue to build on all of its positive momentum … and it’s newfound elite defense.

“We just tried to make it as tough as possible and then on the offensive end take care of the ball,” said Kidd after the Mavs held the top team in the league to a season-low 82 points and superstar point guard Steph Curry to just 14 points.

“We felt our defense did a great job tonight and gave us a chance to win."

Between a very fun outcome to their game against the Warriors, an extremely successful tribute to their legend, and an optimistic update on their current superstar’s ankle status, it’s safe to say that times are good for the Dallas Mavericks right now.