Nowitzki Plays Through Sickness

Despite having a fever over 101 degrees, Dirk Nowitzki had a huge game 4 in the NBA finals to keep his teams championship hopes alive.

Game four of the NBA finals belonged to the Dallas Mavericks as they tie up their series with the Miami Heat 2-2. This is a big win for Dallas who needed it to keep that championship ring in their sites. Final score 86-83.

Dirk Nowitzki, the man who has been so huge for them in all of their playoff games so far did not let them down. He played a hard fought game last night while at the same time fighting off a fever. He had 21 points for Dallas. Tyson Candler also stepped p his game last night. He had 13 points and 16 rebounds.

Dwyane Wade led the Heat with 32 points, but his teammate and friend Lebron James was pretty absent. James only put up 8 points in what could be a turning point in these NBA finals. Chris Bosh has kind of been the silent assassin for Miami. He had 24 points last night. One thing that you can take away from game 4 is that when you shut down Lebron James, the Heat really struggle. Despite a stellar performance from Wade, James' presence needs to be felt and he might as well been on the bench last night.

Dallas really stepped up to help Nowitzki out too. In game 3 only 2 Mavericks besides Nowitzki were in double figures. This game however we had 5 Mavericks in double figures, including Dirk. Finally Jason Terry came out of his shell, he ends up with 17 points on the night. The Dallas bench put up 28 points in total, with DeShawn Stevenson adding 11 points to Terry's 17. When Dallas is on, it seems like they can't be stopped.

Game 5 will be Thursday night from Dallas, another must win for The Mavs. If they play like they did last night and shut down James again I think they will easily take game 5 and head back to Miami only needing to win one game on the road. This series has been down to the wire every single game and I cna imagine the next few will be even more intense.

Heat head coach Eric Spoelstra said in his post game press conference that they have a golden opportunity in game 5: