^He fell just a single point shy of double figures on 3-5 from the great beyond. My guy is stepping up HUGE right now; I’m talkin’ 62.5 percent from three on the series. What’s, say, LeBron James shooting, you ask? 41.6 percent. Not only that, Stevenson is actually shooting better than LeBron is from the field as well. DeShawn Stevenson for Finals MVP? If the award was based on what it should be–three-point shooting efficiency and degree of SWAG–then it wouldn’t even seem so farfetched, would it?
Speaking of SWAG, LeBron, Dwyane, and the rest of the Heat were kind of stylin’ on the Mavs… and yes, the Mavs got mad. It began early…
…and occurred often…
…and eventually resulted in a 15-point Heat advantage with about seven minutes to go in the fourth. Said 15-point advantage was taken on this Dwyane Wade three-ball, corner pocket…
Had Miami won this game, and gone on to win the series, this would be one of those shots that you’d be seeing for the next 50 years. The dude had his arms up before the ball went through the basket on some sort of prime Gilbert Arenas swag. Said Jason Terry: “It really was disheartening to us … [I] looked specifically at Dirk and said, ‘There’s no way we’re going out like this.’”
I believe it was some time around this point that ABC’s camera panned the crowd and paused on Steve Nash. I chose to include this seemingly unimportant detail for one reason, and one reason only. See if you can figure out what that reason is by looking at the screenshot below.
For the beasts: her name is Brittany Richardson. You’re welcome.
Where was I… oh yeah; Dallas was down 15 with under eight minutes to go, looking like they were about to fall into an 0-2 hole that would’ve had me declaring the Miami Heat the 2010/11 NBA Champions. Meanwhile, as you likely observed in the video of D-Wade’s triple, the Heat (mostly LeBron and Wade) were celebrating as if my declaration had already come true. This is pretty much what last night’s second half looked like up until, oh, about 3:54…
…that’s when Jason Kidd hit a three-pointer that took it from a seemingly-safe nine-point lead to a very-much-in-danger six-point lead.
Dallas then turned the defense up a notch, resulting in five missed jumpshots and a pair of turnovers. The driving and dunking and fist pumping and chest bumping had come to a screeching hault, and Miami found themselves trailing by three after this cold-blooded J by none other than Dirk Nowitzki…
He was WIDE open. Normally, I’d blame this on the defender. I mean, you can’t let a guy like Dirk get that open… you just can’t. However, I can’t really blame Chris Bosh here. Why? Because this was simply a perfectly executed play by the Dallas Mavericks. Dirk and Chandler both acted as screeners for Jason Terry, causing Miami’s D to scramble a little bit. Chandler then turned and screened for Nowitzki, who had created seperation from Bosh in the comotion. Tyson created a human wall in front of Bosh that would’ve required him to foul in order to contest the shot. The only thing worse than letting Dirk get wide open would’ve been to foul somebody.
So… Dallas up three with 26.7 seconds to go… they’ve won, right? I mean, Miami has clunked like six or seven shots in a row, and their seemingly invincible momentum has been torn to shreds. Had Jason Terry not had the mental meltdown of his life, this game probably would’ve been over.
So, JET, with a three-point lead, you stop chasing Mario Chalmers to stand behind Chris Bosh at the foul line? Why? I have no idea what he was thinking… it looks like he was focused on trying to keep Dwyane Wade, who had 36 points, from receiving the inbound pass, but even that is no reason to leave a shooter all alone. It’s fitting that he got burned on this one.
After calling Terry a f@ckhead in the timeout (said Dirk on his discussion with Terry: “I’m sure there was a little cussing involved.”), Nowitzki decided to take matters into his own hands. As he has all postseason long, he delivered.
I know what you’re thinking: Chris Bosh, how in the hell do you allow him to get to the rim so easily? Before you go throwing the Dinosaur under the bus, though, hold on just a damn second. Raise your hand if you were 100% sure Dirk Nowitki was about to shoot his signature fading jumper. Ok, now stop hating Chris Bosh and be honest. I’m rasing my hand, and I would think any reader who’s ever seen Dirk Nowitzki play basketball before is too. Dirk was clearly trying to create space for his one-legged J–he backed Bosh down as he always backs a dude down to set up for the mind-boggling shot that seems to go in about 89.7 percent of the time–but Bosh didn’t allow it. Dirk then took what the defense gave him, which in this case was a lane to the basket, and finished the play. Normally, I’d be all over Chris Bosh for allowing the lane to the basket, but this is Dirk Nowitzki we’re talking about here. He has proven time and time again that you can NOT allow him space to get that jumper off. I’d rather have him driving to the hole than shooting one of those… you may as well count the two if it isn’t blocked (it never is). I put this sh!t on Udonis Haslem more than I do Chris Bosh. Haslem was waaaay too slow on the help, and allowed Tyson Chandler to bump him away from the basket as he tried to block the shot. Anyway, forget the defense… this was more about Dirk being a great player than it was about a defensive failure. Dirk was denied his number one option, so he took exactly what he was given. Great players can make those kind of adjustments, even when they’re sitting on some not-so-stellar 9-21 shooting.
Fun fact: the Mavericks have now rallied from a deficit of 12 or more in each series of these playoffs. From notorious choke artists to cold-blooded crunch-time killers, the Mavs have come a long way.
All the talk about game one from a Dallas perspective was regarding the monsterous rebounding defecit. I spoke mainly on the fact that their bench was out-scored by Miami’s. They took care of both of those issues on this night… so why were they still down 15 in the fourth? Well, as you probably gathered from all of those highlights, they were turning the ball over a lot (Miami had FIFTEEN steals in this game). Turning the ball over will kill you against the Miami Heat. You absolutely cannot allow them to get out in transition. In order to beat the Heat, you have to make them work for their points. Dallas wasn’t getting that done early on (The ease of Miami’s scores can be summed up by this funny from Jeff Van Gundy: “Chris Bosh had a dream that he was guarded by Peja Stojakovic.”). D-Wade had 21 points of his own in the first half alone, and even though Miami was actually trailing by the time the break came along, I knew they’d go up big if the game continued the way it was going.
Even though Dallas made an incredible comeback to win this game, I’m still concerned if I’m a Mavs fan. The Heat have gotten better looks overall for two consecutive games now. Dallas did step their D up at the end, but they needed a little luck as well. Had Miami made just one of those… however many jumpers they clunked in the last four minutes? They probably hold on. I also thought Miami settled for some shots they didn’t even have to settle for. They started playing the shotclock a bit down the stretch, which proved to be a fatal error. Their biggest mistake was playing/acting as if this thing was in the bag… and I highly doubt they’ll make it again. They’ve got to be at least a little embarrassed… I mean, the only thing worse than gettin’ styled on is stylin’ on someone and then FAILing at the last second. That’s why you must use caution when stylin’ on a dude like Dirk Nowitzki. He’ll make you pay. Dirk only went for 24 in this game, but he was the best player on the floor in the second half of the fourth quarter. Thus far, I’d have to say he’s the Finals MVP (sorry, DeShawn). Props to Tyson Chandler and Shawn Marion for stepping up and combining for 33/15. Those two were kinda the goats of game one, but they were huge for Dallas in game two.
NBA247365.COM educational moment: how to call for a lob, featuring Chris Bosh:
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