6/7/11: Mavs Defeat Heat, Finals Tied Up 2-2

Dirk Nowitzki did his best impersonation of a flu-striken Michael Jordan and dropped 21 points while battling a 100-degree temperature in a tight 86-83 Dallas W.  Nowitzki went through a 16-minute drought in the first half, but–as always–he came up huge for his team down the stretch.

Before I get this post rolling, let me just say that I have played basketball with the flu.  I figure some of my readers have probably tried it as well.  It’s f@cking difficult, isn’t it?  I recall having a hard time getting the ball to the rim from the highschool three-point line.  I was simply drained of all of my energy, and that rendered me pretty much useless… and I wasn’t exactly playing against NBA-level competition, either.  So, while Dirk came up with his lowest point total of the series (21 on sub-50% shooting), all things taken into consideration, he was still the MVP.  D-Wade did drop 32 on 13-20, and Dirk’s lack of energy was exploited a little bit by Chris Bosh (24/6 on 9-19), but who was the man when it was all on the line?  Dirk was.

The start of this game must’ve had Rick Carlisle seeing flashbacks of game one.  Miami sputtered out of the gate and shot a lowly 29 percent in the first quarter, but they came up with nine offensive boards.  All tied up at 21 with the Heat shooting 29 percent?  Not a good sign for Dallas, although I suppose the 29-percent shooting they forced had to please coach Carlisle seeing as he decided to bench the team’s best defender.  That’s correct, Rick Carlisle thought it would be a good idea to start Jose Juan motherf@cking Berea over my main man DeShawn Stevenson.  Stevenson responded by coming in off the bench with 1:42 in the first and providing his Mavericks with a much-needed 11-point first-half effort.

JJ Berea?  He only scored eight points in the entire game.  Send the bobblehead back to the bench, Rick.

All sarcasm/DeShawn bias/toolishness aside, I understand why Carlisle gave Berea the start.  The one thing the Mavericks have been unable to do is build an early lead in this series.  In their first win and in this win, they had to fight back.  Fighting back typically requires a few fortunate bounces, twists, or turns, so it’s an awfully difficult way to go about things.  I’m sure Rick was just trying to get his team off to a more promising start at the offensive end, which is important and understandable.  However… unfortunately for the Mavs, Jose hasn’t been unable to do much of anything throughout this entire series.  He actually managed to get to the rim on a few occasions last night, but he blew some layups that he quite honestly just needed to make.  The fact that DeShawn Stevenson, of all people, was able to pitch in 11 off the bench ended up being extremely important because the offensive spark (Berea) didn’t end up providing any spark at all.

Even with Stevenson’s surprising offensive production, the Mavs trailed by two at the half.  Dirk hadn’t hit a shot since the five-somethin’ mark, and Dwyane Wade was looking like the same dude that carried Miami home in game three.  So, as I felt at the end of the first, I felt at the end of the second: Miami was going to win this game.

Unlike games two and three, the third quarter did not begin with a big Miami run.  Dallas managed to score the first points of the period and took a two-point lead on a JJ Berea J (I feel like I just typed an entire sentence by holding down on the “J” key.  JJJJJJJJJJJJ).  I actually missed the first half of this quarter because I decided to take a little car ride at halftime… and I got kind of carried away.  Please forgive me, I made a purchase yesterday and I have to be honest–I was more excited about it than I was about the NBA finals.

Where I get money for this? Don’t think rhyming blogging.

Not at all.

Seriously, not at all.  I just received four months’ worth of payments for advertising revenue; guess how much?  ………….$15.42.  Eight cents more and I might be able to eek out a quarter tank and a Fudge Round, but that’s about it.  One thing’s for certain: writing about the NBA for an audience of a hundred or so people a day does not pay well, and if you aren’t totally insane like I am, it’s probably not a field you want to enter into.  So, what I need you to do is tell your friends about your favorite blog, NBA247365.COM!  Tell ‘em it’s great, tell ‘em it’s cool, tell ‘em it sucks so bad it’s funny… I don’t really care, just tell ‘em to visit often!

Back to the third quarter… this is the part where Tyson Chandler and Shawn Marion scored 13 of 20 Dallas points.  They scrapped their way to a few putback opportunities, and got some run-outs for layups.  Shawn and Tyson finished up with a combined 29 points, which came up especially huge with Dirk’s illness, Peja’s absense (played two seconds, litterally), and J-Kidd’s masonry (0-3, 0 points).  Still, even with the surprising offensive contributions from defensive-minded guys, Dallas trailed by four entering the fourth.

The fourth quarter of this game was… interesting, to say the least.  After Miami’s brief seven-point lead disappeared after a 14-4 Dallas run, no team led by more than four points, and it was a one-possession game pretty much all the way down the stretch.  That meant that each team was shooting for a tie or a lead on nearly every posession, which made it a rather exciting finish.  It was a prolonged one, too, because neither team could actually put the ball through the hoop.  There were two baskets made in the final five minutes of this game.  Two.  Yes, this entire series has been a defensive battle… but this had more to do with guys missing than guys being locked down.  Mike Miller was out there clunking open threes, guys were getting offensive boards and missing the putbacks; hell, even Dirk missed a pair of back-to-back three-point tries.  He did not, however, miss this driving layup that he squeaked in between Udonis Haslem and a flying Dwyane Wade (seriously, he was inches from two-handedly obliterating that shot) for the game’s second-to-last basket…

Those were only 2 of his 10 fourth-quarter points, by the way.  As a team, Dallas was able to score 21 in the final quarter while holding Miami to just 14.  How’d they do it?  Well, for one, Jason Terry was able to get a little something going this time around.  You may recall that LeBron made a massive difference in game three by completely removing Terry from the game in the fourth quarter.  JET dropped six points during Dallas’ 14-4 run, and scored a total of eight in the quarter.  So, he and Dirk had to come up with 18 of the 21.  See, that right there is the difference between the win in game four and the loss in game three.  Dallas doesn’t really have anyone but Nowitzki and Terry who is capable of creating buckets when sh!t gets tight down the stretch.  I suppose Berea can do a little of that, but not against the length and athleticism of Miami, apparently.  So, that was key #1, in my mind: Jason Terry was able to give Dirk that little bit of help he needs to close out a game.  Props to him for finding a way to get the job done after looking like a five-year-old trying to score on his father in the previous game.  Key #2?  Dallas’ zone D.  They played it throughout the fourth, and while Miami missed some good looks, the zone did seem to lead to a little discombobulation and a handful of turnovers.  Miami was also unable to connect on a three-point try in the entire quarter.  Giving up the three is one of the risks you take when you go with a zone.  Dallas took that risk, and it worked out just swell because no one in a Miami uniform could fall out of a boat and hit water.

In sumnation (is that a word?  I feel like it is, but I’m too lazy to check): both teams clunked a lot of pretty damn good looks in this fourth quarter, but Dirk Nowitzki battled through his flu and balled like a champ for the final 12 minutes, and his helpers gave him just enough to get the job done.  The fourth quarter looked like a pick-up game at times; the ball was bouncing all over the place, dudes were running up and down the floor, rebounds were being tapped around… it was a bit ugly, honestly.  Let me just put it this way: this was a fitting way for the game to come to a close…

Aside from hardcore Dallas fans, can we all agree that we wanted Mike Miller’s shot to go in?  I wanted Dallas to win the game… but that would’ve been insane!  The ending I would’ve scripted for game four: Miller makes that shot, but DeShawn Stevenson comes in and saves the day with a game-winning buzzer-beater to cap the OT.  That ending would’ve been pure SWAG, and you know it.

Speaking of DeShawn Stevenson, my main mo’f@ckin’ man… if you haven’t heard, he publicly complimented LeBron and Wade’s talent a few days ago.  The issue?  He wasn’t talkin’ about their basketball talent…

“They’re great, great actors and they sell it.’ … Coach said it before the series we have a chance to push the ball like we like because [Wade] complains to the ref a lot. We’ve got to take advantage of that. They tend to do that and we’ve got to take full advantage of that … He does it all the time. He did it like seven times [Sunday].”

The King’s latest sales pitch:

LeBron… COME ON SON!  Look, LeBron… I like you, but that was terrible.  Like, you should be ashamed of that sh!t.  That’s all I’ve got to say about the matter.  As for your eight big ones on 3-11, well… I’m pretty sure Skip Brainless has that covered.

Thanks for the insight, Skipper.

One last comment before I wrap this up: who else thought Dwyane Wade’s rejection on Tyson Chandler’s attempted slam was going to be a turning point in this game?  This had “momentum builer” written all over it…

A little guy embarassing a big guy… a four-point swing… a play that took it from a one-possession game to a two-possession game… I thought for sure that this would spark a Miami run.  I guess that’s the difference between this Dallas squad and the ones of years past–this type of thing doesn’t kill them.  Tyson was right back down there trying to posterize Wade again just a few moments later.  It resulted in a foul the second time around, and if I remember correctly, Tyson added at least one more point towards Dallas’ winning effort.  Miami loss or not, though… that was a nasty block.  Tyson got owned kinda bad.

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