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NBA FINALS: MAVERICKS v HEAT

June 1, 2011

Dirk Nowitzki

MIAMI, FLORIDA: Practice Day

Q. Dirk, you're one of the select group of MVPs that have not won a championship. How much were you aware of that? And beyond just wanting to win for a title, how much motivation do you feel to kind of shed that label?
DIRK NOWITZKI: I'm not really worried about that label. I'm worried about winning. I'm not worried about my legacy at all. It's about me being on a winning team, on a team that's the best team that year and ends the season on a win. That's what I dream about. Everything else I'm not really worried about. I'm living in the moment. I'm not living in the past or the future. I want to make this work here and now.
It took us five years to eventually get back to this stage. It's been a long and bumpy ride. So we want to make the most of it. That's really all I'm worried about.

Q. Dirk, I understand you're not going to make excuses and it's not your shooting hand, but how concerned are you about your finger effecting your ability to do things like go to your left off the dribble, fight for rebounds with that hand and other facets of the game?
DIRK NOWITZKI: I don't think it's going to be necessarily bothering me on the shot. Obviously on the shot you only hold the ball with the left hand. It's not like you do anything crazy with it. It's going to be other stuff, dribbling, passing, catching, swiping down, stuff like that. I think it will be okay. I have this splint on for now. I think we're going to play around with some other stuff. Try tape, or try a splint from the back so I can feel the ball and not lose grip of the ball.
We're going to play around with it today in practice, maybe tomorrow some in shoot-around. By then I'll have an idea how it feels and how it is to play with the thing. I'll be okay. I'm really not worried. It's not that sore, so it should be okay.

Q. Dirk, can you go over how it happened and when it happened. And did you know right away something was bad?
DIRK NOWITZKI: I didn't know at all how it actually happened. It was like four minutes to go when Bosh slipped on a screen-and-roll and came towards me at the basket. I stripped him, I felt, clean. And, yeah, I was kind of talking to the referee about the play, and the next thing you know I run on offense after two free throws and I'm looking down and my finger was bent. I couldn't straighten it. It was a freakish play. I ran over to the sideline and showed our trainer. He knew right away what happened. We just taped it and went from there.
So it didn't affect me afterwards. It didn't get as sore as I was anticipating last night. So it should be all right.

Q. After reviewing the game, what adjustments do you feel the team needs to make defensively and offensively?
DIRK NOWITZKI: Well, you know, the first thing is obvious: We gave up 16 offensive rebounds. I mean, that's way too many. They are already a very, very explosive offensive team with three superstars. But you can't give them second chances over and over. So we just got to protect the paint a little better. That's obvious.
And then some of the other stuff, be a little sharper on the pick-and-roll coverages, rotate a little quicker. We lost Chalmers a bunch of times in the first half. He made us pay with some threes when we actually had a nice run there in the second quarter.
And offensively, I think once we don't give up those 16 offensive rebounds, it should help us speed the game up some. If we get some rebounds, get the ball in J-Kidd's hands, I think that should play in our advantage.

Q. Dirk, how surprised were you that LeBron is the one who takes Jason? And can you also talk about LeBron as a defender. He defends guys like Rose and Terry and you on the series, how unique he is?
DIRK NOWITZKI: You look at his body. He's amazing. 6'8", 260, or whatever, and he moves like a football running back. He can guard any position on the floor. That's what makes him amazing on both ends of the floor. Yeah, he can guard multiple positions. He's quick. But he's also strong.
Yeah, everybody knows that Jet is a big key to our success. When he plays well, we usually play well and we give ourselves a chance to win. Even though they put him on him in the fourth quarter, we have to keep going to Jet. He's got to produce for us. That's a big key why we're here.

Q. Dirk, talking to the Heat about your finger, players talked about what they would do to counter you, the fact that they know that you are hurt on that side. How much of an advantage does that give them to know which finger, which hand? And how concerned are you that guys will hit you more and swipe down on you more than normally just to see if you can stand the pain?
DIRK NOWITZKI: That's all right. I'm really not worried about that much. If they do, I have to fight through it. This is not my first injury I've played through in my career. And I'm not really worried about it. I think once the game starts, the adrenaline starts flowing, I don't think it will really slow me down much. I'm really more worried about ball handling with the left and finishing on some lay-ups with the left than about them swiping down, going for my finger.

Q. Dirk, you said yesterday not to get too high on the highs and too low on the lows. Can you describe a little bit the mood in the locker room and how you guys are approaching this next game?
DIRK NOWITZKI: I think the mood is not great after a loss. I think that's natural. But it's the same way in the regular season. We're a veteran team that's seen a lot in this league. It was a tough loss. It was right there. As poorly as we played on both ends of the floor, I think we were only down four with a couple of minutes left. There's some positives to take out of this game. We just got to be a little sharper tomorrow.
I think we've recovered from tough losses these playoffs already, and this is another one. We have to come back and be better. Hopefully our guys take the challenge.

Q. Dirk, you and Holger worked on so many different shots in so many different situations. If you're not able to use your left hand the way you normally do, how limiting will that be?
DIRK NOWITZKI: Everybody knows, watching me for 13 years, I like to go left and finish with my left. So I'm going to experiment around how the ball handling is going to be. But I'm not really that worried about it. It didn't throb as much as I anticipated yesterday. I don't think it's going to be that limiting.

Q. Dirk, what are your thoughts on Peja and what you guys have to do to get him on track so you have a second shooter besides from Jet?
DIRK NOWITZKI: I think it's our whole bench has to play better. That's not a secret. I think they were the best scoring bench during the regular season, and that's for a reason. Because we feel like we've got some weapons. It's not only Jet coming off the bench. J.J. has been amazing in these playoffs so far. He had a subpar game yesterday, where he missed some lay-ups, missed some shots, with guys collapsing on him in the paint. Peja we feel had two or three good looks he can make anytime.
We'll take those shots. If he's going to be open on two or three looks like that, we have more confidence in him that he will make some. I actually thought Haywood played well off the bench. Obviously, he's not a huge scorer for us. But he was active. He came in and had two or three blocks right away. Had some rebounds and made some of his free throws. So I actually thought he played really well.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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