Thursday night marks the first time the Dallas Mavericks will play in Miami since winning their first NBA Championship less than a year ago.
Dirk Nowitzki will obviously be wearing his championship ring and bringing the Larry O'Brien Trophy along as he returns to the scene of the crime, right?
Not exactly.
Following Tuesday night's victory over the Rockets, Nowitzki was focused on moving forward and not dwelling on past accomplishments.
"We feel like we've been celebrating all season," Nowitzki said, according to The Dallas Morning News. "We didn't get our ring on time, then we celebrated the banner, we celebrated the rings and every other day a player [former teammate] came in here getting a ring.
"So we've been celebrating a lot this year. We want to kind of put it behind us and move forward and hopefully have a good playoff run here.
"Yeah, it'll be nice to go back to the scene of the crime, but we've got to move on and we've got to win a ballgame."
Reporters got a laugh out of the 7-footer when he was asked if he'll be sporting the king-size championship ring on the trip.
"No, that's over," Nowitzki said. "I've really only worn it like once or twice, really. I wore it to the symphony once, in swag to the symphony. Other than that, I didn't wear it much."
In 26 career games against the Heat, Nowitzki is averaging 23.8 points and 7.3 rebounds. En route to winning Finals MVP honors last season, Nowitzki averaged 26 points and 9.6 rebounds in six games.
--
Follow Jon Machota on Twitter: @jonmachota
