DALLAS _ This particular portion of the Mavericks' schedule could easily be called the Dirk Nowitzki wannabe stretch.
They saw Chicago rookie Lauri Markkanen on Friday night and that didn't go all that well with the Finnish 7-footer scoring 16 points in a Bulls' win.
Sunday, on the night Derek Harper's jersey is retired, the Mavericks will see New York's Kristaps Porzingis, the third-year big man who at 7-3 is shooting 36.4 percent from 3-point range and averaging better than 23 points per game.
He's also among the large group of Europeans who grew up idolizing Nowitzki.
All of which is a little humbling to the sixth-leading scorer in NBA history.
He's been impressed not only with Porzingis, from Latvia and only 22, but also Markkanen.
"Really, really good," he said of Markkanen. "I didn't know he was that athletic. He shoots it easy, moves his feet, can play above the rim. He's going to be great for a long, long time.
"It's amazing all the talent that keeps flooding in from Europe now with Porzingis obviously coming on Sunday. He's on an amazing run. And this kid (Markkanen) has the same upside. That offensive game is already very polished."
And on Tuesday, Orlando's Nikola Vucevic of Switzerland normally would be working against Nowitzki. But he's out indefinitely after hand surgery.
At any rate, the European influx of talent is certainly not going to stop anytime soon.
"It's a small world," said Mavericks' assistant coach Melvin Hunt, who ran practice on Saturday in Rick Carlisle's absence. "And it's so cool before games when you see these kids talking to Dirk. A lot of these kids wore No. 41 because of Dirk.
"When I was in Houston, a lot of kids wanted to be Hakeem (Olajuwon). It's really cool to see guys like Porzingis step into the league and it shows we're in good hands."
