Nowitzki not worried about finger

MIAMI -- The day after tearing a tendon in the middle finger of his left hand, Mavericks star forward Dirk Nowitzki doubted the injury would affect him for the remainder of the NBA Finals.

"I don't think it's going to be necessarily bothering me on my shot," said Nowitzki, who practiced Wednesday with his finger taped in a splint. "It's going to be other stuff -- dribbling, passing, catching, swiping down, stuff like that. I think it will be OK."

Nowitzki was planning to experiment with a variety of remedies for Game 2 Thursday. "Try tape or try a splint from the back so I can feel the ball and not lose grip of the ball," he said Wednesday. "We're going to play around with it today in practice, maybe tomorrow some in shootaround. By then I'll have an idea how it feels and how it is to play with the thing.

"I'm really not worried. It's not that sore so it should be OK."