It's been five months since Michael Finley played the worst game of his NBA career. That was the impetus the All-Star guard used to score a game-high 34 points as the Mavericks christened American Airlines Center with a season-opening 94-87 victory over the Detroit Pistons.
A sellout crowd of 19,200 - the largest crowd ever to see a basketball game in Dallas - saw the Mavericks stumble on their feet early, but use a second-half offensive flurry to blow past the Pistons.
For Finley, it was a memorable evening. All summer, the seven-year veteran toted the stat sheet from Game 5 of the second-round series against San Antonio, when he was 1-of-17 from the field and tallied only two points.
"That was my inspiration throughout the whole summer," Finley said. "I looked at the stats sheet every day before I worked out, and that's what motivated me to get up at 7 in the morning and go work out for four hours.