The Los Angeles Clippers defeated the Dallas Mavericks by a score of 121-112 on Monday night, but the final score was only a mere footnote to the best moment of the game.

The most touching moment came late in the fourth quarter when Doc Rivers stopped the game and used a timeout to address the Staples Center crowd in honor of Dirk Nowitzki, who then gave the Mavericks legend a standing ovation:

Mavs owner Mark Cuban expressed his gratitude to the classy Rivers on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/1100273092444725248

The Mavs then took to Twitter to thank Doc, as well:

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As you probably already know, Nowitzki will likely be retiring at the end of this season, marking the end of an illustrious 21-year NBA career. While Nowitzki has not officially announced anything yet, the prevailing thought is that Dirk will call it quits at year's end.

The 40-year-old actually had one of his more productive outings of the season against the Clippers, finishing with 12 points and five rebounds in a hefty 26 minutes, which came just two nights after he posted 15 points in 26 minutes against the Utah Jazz.

For a guy who is only averaging 5.3 points over 12.2 minutes per game this season, those are some big numbers.

On the season, Nowitzki is shooting 34.8 percent from the floor and 30 percent from 3-point range.

The future Hall of Famer owns lifetime numbers of 20.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game while making 47.2 percent of his field goal attempts, 38.2 percent of his long-distance tries and 87.9 percent of his free throws.

He also has a championship and an MVP award under his belt.