Nowitzki making a case for MVP

"Was it 19? Dang, I didn't know it was that big," Nowitzki said.

And yet it was. Down 50-31 in the second quarter against Memphis last night, Dallas put on a second half show and pulled a 97-87 victory from the fires of defeat. The win had big German fingerprints all over it, too. Consider:
*At their lowest point, Nowitzki scored 8 crucial points to get them back in the game before halftime.
*Down 58-54, he nailed consecutive jumpers, one from downtown, in a 30-second span to give the Mavs their first real lead of the night.
*He had 4 blocks in the second half, 2 on separate possessions late in the third when the Grizzlies made a push to re-acquire the lead.

This comes on the heels of a game he single-handedly saved against the Clippers, too. In the fourth quarter:
*Nowitzki scored on 3 consecutive possessions to push the lead to 92-84 with 5:58 left. Except for 1 free throw scored by Stackhouse with 1 second left, those would be the final Dallas points of the game.
*During that cold stretch, Dirk kept the game close by collecting 6 defensive rebounds in the last 6 minutes.
*With 6 seconds left, he completely shut down Sam Cassell on the perimeter, forcing him into a jumper that he partially blocked to preserve Dallas' 1-point lead.

In one game, he made the final scoring push before doing the dirty work needed to help his team preserve a win when the shots and free throws stopped falling at the worst possible time. In the next, he played the starring role in a huge comeback. Thanks to Nowitzki, the Mavs now have a franchise-record 13-game home winning streak and are a win away from playing .800 ball.

If the Mavericks somehow retain the top seed in the West and finish no more than a few games back of Detroit (which plays a much easier Eastern Conference schedule), it will be hard to dispute Dirk Nowitzki's legitimate claim to the MVP Trophy. Heck, given his remarkable defensive turnaround, you could make a case he's the Most Improved Player, too.

There's always more room in the trophy case.