Add Avery Johnson to the List of People Not Impressed With Dirk Nowitzki

You could make a legitimate case that Dirk Nowitzki has become the most heavily scrutinized player in these Playoffs. It is widely believed that he will win the regular season MVP award within the next two weeks (setting up the delightful possibility of the big German accepting the award while his team deals with one of the biggest upsets in NBA history), and he is falling apart during the first round series against the underdog Warriors.

The media, fans, and just about anyone who cares about the League has voiced some kind of disappointment in Dirk's performance thus far. Yesterday, even his coach Avery Johnson got in on the act. From the Associated Press:

"I'm tired of hearing about how they've taken him [Dirk] out of his game and any lack of confidence. You're just not supposed to have that, all right," said Johnson.

"I wasn't the best of players and didn't have the best of skills, but you were not going to shake my confidence. We need all of our players to be confident, to be resilient, to be persistent and that's what I want to see tomorrow."

As of this writing, the Mavs are leading the Warriors by 3 points in game 5. Dirk has 16 points and 9 boards so far, and he has looked slightly more aggressive than he did throughout the first four games. He's got about 15 minutes left of game time to cheer up his coach.