BOSTON -- As reporters filed into the visiting locker room at TD Garden after the Boston Celtics claimed a 114-93 victory over the Dallas Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki was sitting alone on a trainer's table with his 40-year-old feet both stuck in a bucket of ice, his hands clasped and his head down.
It had been only a few minutes earlier that Nowitzki, playing at TD Garden for the 18th and likely final time, had been serenaded with cheers by the opposing fans throughout the final minutes of Boston's blowout victory, hoping he would give them one final moment -- and, in doing so, pass Kobe Bryant for the most points ever scored in this building by a Western Conference opponent.