DALLAS -- Nearly four decades of combined NBA experience battled on the left block Friday. Dirk Nowitzki had the ball and Kobe Bryant was trying to stop him.
What happened next at American Airlines Center resembled an elite chess match between two savvy foes who have faced off for a basketball eternity, who surely know each other's moves and countermoves as well as they know their own.
Bryant knew he was caught in a lopsided mismatch, as he surrenders half a foot in height to the Dallas Mavericks star 7-footer who boasts a fade-away jumper that is virtually unstoppable because of its sky-high release point.