Nowitzki passes Shaq on NBA scoring list as Mavs top Nets in OT

Wednesday night belonged to Dirk Nowitzki.

Not too far from the bright lights of Broadway, Nowitzki put on a show-stopping performance at the Barclays Center while leading the Dallas Mavericks to a 119-118 overtime victory over the Brooklyn Nets.

Not only did Nowitzki vault past Shaquille O’Neal and become the NBA’s No. 6 all-time leading scorer, but he also ended his night with a picture-perfect up-and-under move for the game’s winning basket with only 6.4 seconds left.

In the afterglow, Nowitzki touched on many precious moments throughout his 17-plus year career, including Wednesday’s historic moment, which came when he buried a typical 18-footer from the right corner — right in front the of the Mavericks’ bench.

“It was surreal, passing Shaq, an all-time great, a legend,” Nowitzki said. “I was able to compete against him for a long, long time, and I was a fan of his in the ’90s. It’s sort of weird that I’m up there now with all these legends. But like I always say, I’m really going to enjoy this once my career is over.”

The Mavericks (16-13) certainly enjoyed what Nowitzki was able to accomplish against the Nets. One night after getting embarrassed in Toronto and chastised by coach Rick Carlisle, Dallas went out and shot 54.9 percent and made 16-of-34 shots from beyond the 3-point arc.

Offensively, it was one of the Mavericks more complete games. Afterward, the talk was mostly about Nowitzki, who trials Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain on the all-time scoring list.

“You can live a full life of NBA basketball and only see a feat like this once in your life,” Carlisle said. “You’re talking about a guy who is a generational great player, he totally redefined the game, redefined a position, second night of a back-to-back. You run out of accolades. It’s just such a tremendous feat and such a tremendous individual.”

Nets guard Jarrett Jack threaten to spoil Nowitzki’s special night. But, dogged by tight defense from Wesley Matthews, Jack missed a potential game-winning 18-footer at the overtime buzzer.

Meanwhile, Mavericks guard J.J. Barea started in place of Deron Williams, who strained his left hamstring in Tuesday’s loss at Toronto. Barea responded with a career-high 32 points and 11 assists as he directed the Mavericks’ offense while playing a season-high 41 minutes.

“This shows how great this team is,” said Barea, who was 13-of-20 from the field. “Everybody was pushing me and I just wanted to come out with a lot of energy early. I know we needed that. I think I got into a rhythm and I was able to help my team out big-time tonight.”

The Mavericks broke out to a 32-26 lead after the first quarter and stretched that to 64-53 at a half. At one point in the first half, Dallas made nine of its first 11 shots from 3-point range.

In the first half alone, the Mavs shot 70.6 percent from the field. But it all disappeared when Brooklyn outscored them in the third quarter 34-17.

However, big baskets by Nowitzki, Barea, Matthews, Charlie Villaneuva and Chandler Parsons helped the Mavericks improve to 1-1 on this two-game road trip.

“That was a fun game to play in,” said Parsons, who played back-to-back games for the first time this season. “Up and down game, playing hard.”

No one played harder than Nowitzki, who scored 22 points and converted 7-of-13 shots in 37 minutes.

“When something like this comes you want to focus on the next play, on the next shot,” Nowitzki said. “You don’t think big picture at that moment, because then you might get carried away.

“You just want to stay in the moment, and that’s what I told myself and focused on the next shot, and then once I hit 10 that was a great moment. There was a timeout shortly after that and everybody gave me a hug, and that was a moment I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.”

This story was originally published December 23, 2015 at 10:32 PM with the headline "Nowitzki passes Shaq on NBA scoring list as Mavs top Nets in OT."