Even if Dirk Nowitzki is feeling as good as he did against the Jazz on Saturday when he scored a season high 40 points in just under 29 minutes, defeating the best home team in the league will be a tall task for the Dallas Mavericks.
Nowitzki and the Mavericks (22-16) visit Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder (29-8) for their final meeting this season in Monday night’s best game.
The Thunder has won two of the three meetings this season against the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last season. They boast a league best 15-1 record at home and look to stretch their home winning streak to 13 games.
Durant has averaged 28.7 points in the three games against the Mavericks this season, just 0.5 more than his season average. He is second best in scoring just behind Kobe Bryant, who leads the league with 28.9 points.
Russell Westbrook leads all point guards in scoring with 23.7 points but is also tied for the second-most turnovers in the league with 4.1. The Thunder’s biggest issue this season has been their league worst 16.5 turnovers per game.
Kendrick Perkins leads the team with 10 technical fouls and will be suspended if when he reaches 13. The Thunder must realize the difference between positive aggression and misplaced aggression in order to continue their success as a dominant team.
After struggling out of the gate to start the shortened season, Nowitzki is finally rounding back into form. He averaged just 15.1 points and 5.8 rebounds in the month of January, raising questions about whether it was a mistake to play for Germany at Eurobasket last summer. After taking four games off towards the end of January, he came back and showed that the rest was worth it by averaging 22.3 points and 8.1 rebounds in the month of February.
Shawn Marion struggled offensively in the month of February — scoring 10.6 points on 40.4% field goal shooting — after averaging 13.3 points on 46.9% field goal in January, but he was a key cog defensively. Expect him to see some time defending both Durant and Westbrook.
The Mavericks are 13-2 when Marion scores at least 13 points.
Dallas got back on track against the Jazz after losing five of their previous six contests and look to start a new winning streak against the Thunder, who had a seven game winning streak snapped by the Hawks.
Another key against the Thunder will be the play of Lamar Odom, who had his most energized game of the season in his last game after a four-game hiatus.