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Remember how Dirk Nowitzki said his ankle was too hurt to play last night? Yeah, he was lying: he scored 18 points in 27 points minutes to help the Mavs over the Warriors. As Avery Johnson explained after the game, he expected to have Dirk back all along. From Tim McMahon's blog for the Dallas Morning News:

The post-shootaround pessimism was all an act, Avery revealed after the win over the Warriors. The Mavs knew this morning that Dirk would play tonight.

They just didn't want the Warriors to know.

"Nellie taught me that," Avery said with a big smile.

It was a slick move without a doubt, but it also makes me wonder to what degree the Warriors are still in the Mavericks' head. Last year at the start of the playoffs Johnson tweaked his starting lineup for the very first game, a surprising move for a No. 1 seed going up against a No. 8. And now they're resorting to smoke and mirrors for a regular season game nearly a year later? Maybe it's just a little bit of gamesmanship that any club would do, or maybe the Mavs are still afraid of Don Nelson. Who knows?

In any case, just because Nowitzki returned doesn't mean he's at full strength -- McMahon said Dirk was wearing a bulky brace and was clearly limited in his lateral movements, and Johnson commented that Dirk had the highest pain tolerance of any player he's been around since David Robinson. Considering the Mavs are barely in the playoffs (they're currently the No. 7 seed, just two games ahead of the No. 9 seed Warriors)\, there's no point in holding anything back, but you have to hope for Dallas' sake that Dirk has something left in the tank should the Mavs make the playoffs.