The Dallas Mavericks‘ battle against the Houston Rockets last night held huge playoff implications. With just five games to go, the Mavs held a narrow one game lead on the Rockets in the playoff hunt as the opening tip went up.

A Houston victory would've created a tie for the final three playoff spots between Dallas, the Rockets, and the Utah Jazz. Longtime Dallas star Dirk Nowitzki made sure that didn't happen.

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In the closing seconds, James Harden held the ball with his Rockets trailing by one point, 86-85. Rather than take a timeout, head coach J.B. Bickerstaff decided to hold off so that Dallas couldn't sub out Dirk in favor of a better rim protector.

Well, instead of going high, Nowitzki went low. As the Beard drove through the lane to the basket, Dirk cleanly stripped the ball away to a teammate and the Mavs held on for the huge win.