A: Yes and no.

Sure, Dirk Nowitzki had a few embarrassing performances in the NBA Finals. Game 4 was a nightmare for the big German, as he shot a woeful 2-14 from the field in the Mavs’ 98-74 loss. But the entire team looked hungover from their stunning meltdown in Game 3, so Dirk can hardly be blamed entirely for the loss. Speaking of Game 3, Nowitzki – a 90.1% free throw shooter in the regular season – missed a free throw that would have sent the game to overtime. But everything that could have gone wrong went wrong in the final six and a half minutes of Game 3, and the Mavs players will forever be haunted by those 390 seconds.

It’s true – Nowitzki wasn’t quite himself in the series. He shot 39% from the field after shooting 46% in the Conference Finals and over 50% in the first two rounds of the playoffs. He averaged 22.8 points in the Finals after averaging at least 27.1 points in each of the first three rounds. But 23 points and 12 rebounds aren’t “choke” numbers; Nowitzki was harassed by an effective Heat defensive that featured a scrappy Udonis Haslem and lots of double-teams when he tried to put the ball on the floor.

This season, Nowitzki made great strides in aggressively taking the ball to the hoop, but he’s still a jump shooter and jump shooters occasionally have an off night. Normally, when he’s struggling from the field, he’ll penetrate to get himself going. He did just that in Game 4 and went to the line 13 times, scoring 16 points despite shooting just 14% from the field that night. Whenever he put the ball on the floor, another Heat player rushed him, forcing him to give the ball up. Miami’s game plan was to make someone else beat them and neither Jason Terry (1-12 in the second half of Game 6) nor Josh Howard (5-16 in Game 6) were up to the task. Nowitzki played well with his team facing elimination in Game 6 – he scored 29 points on 10-22 shooting, while grabbing 15 rebounds. Not bad for a “choker.”