Jason Terry: "Toughest playoff opponent was Portland."
Magic: "Ten guys just beat 3 guys."
Jason Terry: "Toughest playoff opponent was Portland."
Magic: "Ten guys just beat 3 guys."
Yep, the announcers started to question Carlisle for having Dirk on the bench to finish the third, but the Mavs held their lead with Dirk on the bench. Then, Dirk came out in the fourth shooting well. I thought the Dallas offense was as fluid it has been all playoffs when Dirk was on the bench. Carlisle mixed up zone early and switched back to man when the Heat adjusted. Just a great job with minute managment, play calling on D and O, just a great job all the way around.
Still stunned by the end of the game. I dont think Dirk could believe it. Maybe it was the fact that the Heat gave up or that he realized that the game was already over, the look on his face was wow, this one is already over. Strange ending. I thought the Heat would start fouling with 2 minutes left. Not that it would have mattered, it would have been auto-Dirk at the FT line.
1st question for Lebron at the Press Conference is a HAYMAKER: "Lebron, what is your assessment of your ability to play under pressure?" OUCH!!!
I agree. Of course the Heat will deny it, but it looked like Miami laid down and quit with about 2 min left. I thought the last 4 min were totally mismanaged by Spoelstra.
But then again, why foul Dirk? He finished the Miami series hitting 45 of his 46 free throw attempts (98%). He also hit 175 of his 186 attempts (94%) for the entire NBA playoff run, and he came into tonight's game hitting 25 of 25 in 4th quarters against Miami. Talk about a "closer".....WOW!
HD
They did. But Magic is still right in his assessment. Spoelstra milked his top 4 players for everything he could. Miami had 4 players (Chalmers, Bosh, Wade & James) play over 38 minutes tonight. LeBron played over 41 minutes. Meanwhile for Dallas, only Dirk played more than 38 minutes. He played 38.54.
http://dallasnews.stats.com/nba/boxs...&home=14&vis=6
It showed up in the scoring stats too. Only 6 players for Miami scored tonight, while 9 players scored for the Mavericks. I think Spoelstra overplayed his starters tonight, therefore he didn't get any help from his "fresh" players on the bench. I think that's what we saw at the end....there was nothing left in the tank. Miami got outcoached!!!
HD
The only negative about the Heat losing is that Juwan Howard is on their team and I've always thought of him as a top notch guy. And, if you've seen the "Fab Five" documentary, you see that he really is a quality person. After such a long career, it would be nice to see him get a ring.
Aside from that, it's nice to see the Heat lose after that horrible "press conference" they threw with Wade, James and Bosh on stage with lights and smoke. They deserved to lose because of that. I will never forget Wade saying that they were, "arguably the best trio to ever play the game." You gotta be kidding me!
Magic, Kareem, Worthy
Bird, Parish, McHale
Jordan, Pippen, Rodman
Wilt Chaimberlain, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor
Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, K.C. Jones
Nevermind other modern duos like Malone & Stockton or Kobe & Shaq.
And, Wade has the nerve to say that before they ever play a single game? Glad he had to eat those words. Even better that they lost to a bunch of 30-something journeymen and a 5-foot-nothing point guard from Northeastern.
Not to mention the windfall this will create for the bars in downtown Cleveland.
That was awesome.
It's so nice to win a championship and even better to beat the team that you should have defeated in 2006.
The Heat have a bright future, they'll get other chances, but man, it was awesome for the Mavs to beat them.
And even though the game wasn't really a "good game" for the non-Mavs fans, my wife and I were really hoping it would end kind of like that. Those 4th quarter come-backs and tight finishes are great for the casual fan and the NBA accountants, but they're tough on the fans of the teams that are actually playing. I had to get up early this morning. It was tough enough getting to sleep after they won by 10, a last second shot to win (or even worse, to lose) would have been brutal.
Go Mavs!