DALLAS --For the past eight seasons, either Dirk Nowitzki or Jason Terry were called upon to make a last-second critical basket for the Dallas Mavericks.
But, like leaves in the fall season, things have a way of changing.
Terry is in his first season burying jumpers for the Boston Celtics. Meanwhile, the last time Nowitzki played in a regular season or playoff game, Terry was still one of his teammates.
Nowitzki had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on Oct. 19 and may not return to play again until mid-December. In the meantime, players like OJ Mayo, Vince Carter, Shawn Marion, Chris Kaman and Darren Collison are called upon to pick up where Nowitzki and Terry left off.
Such was the case Monday night against the Golden State Warriors. The game was tied at 90-90 in regulation play when the Mavs called timeout with 15.8 seconds remaining.
Following the timeout, the ball wound up in Carter's hand, and he milked it -- Nowitzki style --until his 19-foot fadeaway jumper near the buzzer missed its mark. The Mavs wound up losing the game in overtime, 105-101.
So who will be the Mavs' money player now that Nowitzki is injured and Terry is in Beantown?
"We have a mixture of guys who have got to get involved,'' coach Rick Carlisle said. "OJ’s a main guy, Kaman’s a main guy, Vince is a main guy, Shawn is a main guy, Collison is going to be a guy in that situation.
"And you know, I don’t know that it’s going to be any one guy that we go to all the time. But a lot of times, like at the end of the Cleveland game, we ran one play repeatedly that had three different options on it. We need to have that kind of flexibility, otherwise they’re going to lock into one guy
all the time.''
-- Dwain Price
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