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Dirk Nowitzki wrapped his hands around the silver ball trophy that goes to the Western Conference champions and smiled. After five years, he and the Dallas Mavericks are kings of their conference again, earning another trip to the NBA finals.
Yet Nowitzki didn't flash the wide, toothy grin of someone relieved to have accomplished his goal. Because, he hasn't.
Unless the Mavs win the next round, too, and become NBA champions for the first time, their whole glorious postseason — and that silver trophy — won't mean as much. It's a lament heard by many superstars, but Nowitzki's indifference amid much of the frenzied celebration around him showed just how serious he is about it.
"I was already thinking about the finals," he said. "This is nice for a day, but we set our goals in October to win it all. We haven't done it yet."
Dallas capped its climb back to the NBA finals with a 100-96 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night that ended the Western finals in five games.
The young, up-and-coming Thunder made things tough on the older, now-or-possibly-never Mavericks as they had throughout the series. And, as he has throughout the postseason, Nowitzki made the plays that mattered most. His latest highlights: swishing a 3-pointer with 1:14 left that put Dallas ahead and making a pair of free throws with 13.3 seconds left to seal it.
"It feels good to finally go back," Nowitzki said. "This time, hopefully we can finish the job."
The Mavs' only other trip to the finals was in 2006. They were up 2-0, with a big, late lead in Game 3, but wound up losing to the Miami Heat in six games. They'd won only a single playoff series since until a tremendous run this postseason — going 12-3, with wins in 10 of the last 11 games, including a sweep of the two-time reigning champion Lakers.

At least now The Series has a theme: hatred.
For this, we can all thank Dwyane Wade, who is not so much a basketball player as an Artist of Conflict, a fellow who can win wars and all the little battles in between, without much concern for the rules of engagement.
In this case, the Miami superhero managed to nearly eliminate one rival with an interesting maneuver — perhaps not dirty, but not entirely in accord with the prescribed rules of sportsmanship — and it resulted in a dislocated elbow for Rajon Rondo and a cause celebre for a Celtics team that used it as a knockout punch.
Maybe you didn’t think the Celtics had a game in them like the 97-81 body slam they applied to Miami on Saturday night at a delirious TD Garden — it wasn’t something you could have gleaned from their performances in Game 1 and 2 in Florida.
But this was the old Boston. Kevin Garnett had a party in the paint, with 28 points and 18 rebounds. Paul Pierce started strong and finished even stronger. Shaquille O’Neal was no more than just a jiggly novelty act, but inspiring nonetheless. And the defense held the Heat’s Big Three to 15-for-41 shooting, and the entire Miami team to seven assists in the entire second half.