Nowitzki (50) Casts His Spell

The 8-year-old kid they pulled from the crowd during a timeout didn’t know how to spell “Dirk.”

So the emcee whispered into his ear a word that brought the American Airlines Center crowd to its feet after the kid spelled it out.

M-V-P.

Thanks in very large part to Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks fans might be able to spell N-B-A F-I-N-A-L-S for the first time in the team’s 26-year history if the Mavericks win one more time in the Western Conference finals.

Nowitzki, who finished third in the most-valuable-player voting, scored a Mavericks playoff-record 50 points in a 117-101 Game 5 victory Thursday against the Phoenix Suns. The Mavericks hold a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.

A pointedly direct film session Wednesday afternoon -- as in, the wrath of Coach Avery Johnson -- set the table for Nowitzki’s outburst. Johnson was, well, unhappy that Nowitzki didn’t drive to the basket more in an 11-point, three-for-13 shooting effort in a lopsided Game 4 loss to the Suns.

“Avery got on me pretty good,” Nowitzki said. “We watched the film session, and he let me have it.”

Nowitzki took it out on the Suns, making 14 of 26 shots and 17 of 18 free throws. He also had 12 rebounds and made five of six from three-point range. He was a point shy of tying his career high.

Today’s film session presumably will go a little better.

“It was pretty special what he did,” Johnson said. “He was disappointed with the last game. I’m not going to tell you everything that went on behind the scenes, but we were all disappointed.”

The Mavericks would have been more than disappointed going back to Phoenix with a 3-2 deficit, as might have been the case if the Suns had continued a third-quarter run that wiped out a 14-point Mavericks lead.

But Nowitzki scored 15 consecutive points for the Mavericks in the fourth quarter, an 89-88 edge becoming a more stable 104-93 lead with 4:59 to play.

“I just saw the whole season swimming away,” Nowitzki said. “So at that point, I just said, ‘Let’s go. I’ll shoot the ball, drive the ball.’ ”

The Suns have been in worse situations, down 3-1 to the Lakers in the first round, but they will have to find answers for Nowitzki and Josh Howard, who scored 23 points to keep alive one of the more peculiar stats of the season. The Mavericks are now 24-0 when Howard scores 20 or more points.

“He’s a great athlete,” Suns guard Steve Nash said. “He’s a tough cover.”

Nash had a rough shooting night -- 20 points on five-for-17 shooting -- and Raja Bell had only three points in his second game back from a calf injury.

Also leaning against the Suns is the Mavericks’ recent road record in important playoff games. The Mavericks closed out their first-round series in Memphis and, more notably, ended their Western semifinal with a Game 7 victory in San Antonio.

“We need to hold serve,” Suns Coach Mike D’Antoni said, “and come back here and see if [Nowitzki] can do it again.”

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The Mavericks weren’t as fortunate earlier in the day when the league suspended reserve center D.J. Mbenga for six games because he entered the crowd during a Game 4 dispute involving Johnson’s wife.

Mbenga has played in only five playoff games but could be useful if the Mavericks advance to the Finals and play Miami, where it helps to have as many fouls as possible to use against Shaquille O’Neal.

Mbenga went into the crowd to defend Cassandra Johnson, who reportedly was irritated when a man and woman kept standing and blocking the view of Johnson’s children. Johnson allegedly pushed the woman during an argument, although she told police there was no physical contact.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who also rushed to Johnson’s side, was not suspended for his involvement, the league ruling that his actions “did not violate NBA rules and were not otherwise inappropriate.”