Everything seems to be falling into place for the Dallas Mavericks, even when it comes to the injury to their franchise player.
Dallas' leading scorer Dirk Nowitzki expects to play in Monday's Game 4 against the San Antonio Spurs after landing awkwardly on his right ankle late in Game 3. Nowitzki only shot free throws during the Mavericks' practice on Sunday and iced the severely swollen ankle every two hours.
Nowitzki's 27.6 points and almost 10 rebounds in the playoffs are one of the key reasons why Dallas has a 2-1 series lead over the defending champs in the Western Conference semifinals. But Mavericks head coach Avery Johnson knows he has other weapons in his lineup.
''We have other guys on this team who we think we can get a lot of production out of,'' Johnson said. ''We've done it before, we've had to make those sort of adjustments, and we're prepared to do it again.'
The 7-foot forward missed only one game this year, sitting out Dallas' final regular season game against the Los Angeles Clippers. Without Nowitzki the Mavs lost 85-71 to the Clippers, failing to cover the 9 1/2-point spread set by oddsmakers.
The Mavericks were perfect against the spread in the playoffs until losing ATS as 4-point favorites in Saturday's 104-103 squeaker. Oddsmakers have set the Dallas Mavericks as 2-point home favorites for today's game.