It's no secret that Salt Lake City isn't one of Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki's favorite places to play in the NBA.
It goes both ways, though, as the Utah Jazz and Jazz fans don't much care for Nowitzki, either. The veteran All-Star forward was booed by many of the 19,911 folks in attendance every time he touched the Basketball during Utah's 115-87 win over the Mavs late Thursday night at EnergySolutions Arena. The loss ended a four-game Dallas winning streak and pulled the Jazz within 1 1/2 games of the Mavericks in the Western Conference standings.
Nowitzki struggled all night, picking up two fouls in the first quarter and making just 6-of-20 shots en route to a quiet 14 points for the fourth-leading scorer in the league.
Still, it could have been worse for Nowitzki. His two previous visits for games in the Beehive State ended in flagrant fouls and subsequent league suspensions. On Dec. 26, Nowitzki was ejected after a flagrant foul on Matt Harpring with 10 minutes to play. He had just 17 points in that Jazz win. And last March, Nowitzki took down Andrei Kirilenko with a flagrant foul that sent the Jazz forward to the hospital.
Both incidents ended up with league-imposed suspensions for the 7-foot German star.
On Thursday night, Nowitzki finished the game early, too -- only this time, he hadn't been kicked out. He was sitting on the bench for all but 50 seconds of the fourth quarter because the game was an obvious lost cause for the tired Mavs, who won a tough battle Wednesday night in Dallas against Portland.
"It was a butt whipping," said Dallas coach Rick Carlisle. "I'm not going to make any excuses. Just look at the stats. (The Jazz) played and we did not."
Nowitzki has had some outstanding games against the Jazz, including a 39-point outing last month in Dallas. But he has said on several occasions over the years that the Jerry Sloan-coached Jazz teams get away with a lot of fouls -- especially at home.
"I just got to be ready to take more hits and play through it and not lose my head," Nowitzki said prior to Thursday night's TNT-televised game.
Nowitzki often appeared frustrated during the Jazz rout, but managed to keep his head.
Instead, it was his teammate Josh Howard who lost his cool a bit. Howard was hit with a flagrant foul on Jazz guard Deron Williams late in the third quarter and, just a few seconds later, was nailed with a technical foul.
"(The Jazz) play well in here," said Carlisle. "That's been going on for two decades and you've got to do everything well (to win). I thought rebounding was one of the keys and they beat us by 22. That is a microcosm of the night." E-mail: lojo@desnews.com
