Flu-stricken Nowitzki lifts Mavs to series-tying win

Dallas — Coughing and wheezing, worn out from hardly sleeping the night before, Dirk Nowitzki somehow summoned energy for a late surge that led the Dallas Mavericks to an 86-83 win over the Miami Heat yesterday, squaring their NBA finals series at 2-2.

The German giant fought through a sinus infection and everything else that ailed him and his team to power a 21-9 run over the final 10:12, lifting the Mavericks to a memorable victory.

He scored 10 of his 21 points — including a driving right-handed layup that spun in off the backboard with 14.4 seconds left to put Dallas up by two — and grabbed five of his 11 rebounds in the final period as Dallas pulled off its second stunning finish this series.

“Just battle it out,” Nowitzki said, sniffing throughout his postgame interview with his warm-up jacket zipped all the way up. “This is the finals. You have to go out there and compete and try your best for your team. So that’s what I did.”

The Mavs avoided going down 3-1, a deficit no team has ever overcome in the finals, and guaranteed the series will return to Miami.

Game 5 is Thursday (Friday in Manila) in Dallas, and Nowitzki vowed to be ready.

“There’s no long term,” Nowitzki said. “I’ll be all right on Thursday. Hopefully I’ll get some sleep tonight, take some meds and be ready to go on Thursday.”

Nowitzki wasn’t as dominant as Michael Jordan when he scored 38 points despite a fever in Game 5 of the 1997 finals — but it was that kind of performance.

If the Mavericks wind up winning their first championship, this performance will go down in NBA lore, topping his effort in Game 2, when he bounced back from a torn finger tendon to score the final nine points in Dallas’ 22-5 rally.

By comparison, consider how meek a healthy LeBron James played Tuesday.

The Miami behemoth scored only eight points, ending a double-figure scoring streak of 433 consecutive games, regular season and postseason. It was the first time in 90 playoff games that he scored so few points.

He made only 3 of 11 shots — a tip-in, a 15-foot jumper and a breakaway dunk. Not only did he not score in the fourth quarter, he took only one shot while playing all 12 minutes. /ap