2006 NBA Finals: Dallas Mavericks vs. Miami Heat

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Game's tonight at 6 PM (pacific timing) on ABC...I'm sayin' Dallas by 11.

[jeromechickenbone]

I'm really pumped.  The playoffs have been fantastic this year.

[Don Jacob]

at the end of one 31-23 miami 

[Bch]

thats my nig! D is all over the place on offense and defense

[jeromechickenbone]

thats my nig! D is all over the place on offense and defense

Wade is that nigga.

[7even]

Mavs' 2 most important players had terrible games, so I guess they'll come out a lot stronger in Game 2... could be a blow-out. Lol@Shaq 1-11 from the charity stripe 

[GangstaBoogy]

Good to see Dallas won, but damn WADE! That dude is everywhere. Scoring, blocking shots, stealing, setting up plays. If he develops a 3 point shot then he's gotta be the best young gun...if he's not already!

[Vegasmac25]

i really dont care who wins as long as the series is exciting.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Mavs' 2 most important players had terrible games, so I guess they'll come out a lot stronger in Game 2... could be a blow-out. Lol@Shaq 1-11 from the charity stripe 

LMFAO. Shaq is ridiculous...I still can't get over Plant's "Shaq will be the finals MVP" comment...LOLLLLL.

[7even]

Mavs can handle the Heat

Mavericks won't need 7 games to finish off unworthy opponent

02:20 AM CDT on Sunday, June 11, 2006

My first instincts were right. But I did not want to be viewed as a Western Conference snob when Dallas' first NBA Finals began. Wanted to be a gracious host and all that.

So the pick here was the Mavericks over the Heat in seven games.

What a moron.

All along I thought there was just something wrong with my television set. All those Eastern Conference playoff games being broadcast in slow motion – I mean, it seemed odd, but who knew? ESPN has done stranger things.


And, yeah, when an NBA writer told me, "You know, Antoine Walker is playing really well for the Heat," that, if nothing else, should have flipped the switch for me.

But it took seeing the Heat in person, even from a lofty perch above Section 123, to realize that those instincts were right.

Call me a Western Conference snob. The Heat has no chance (have no chance? I don't know, why don't they get a real nickname?) in this series.

Josh Howard and Dirk Nowitzki go 7-for-28.

They do that against Phoenix, and the Suns win by 10.

They do that against San Antonio, and the Spurs roll by 20.

They do that against Memphis, and the Grizzlies send that game to overtime.

They do it in the NBA Finals, and the Mavericks cruise past the Heat by 10.

I knew coach Pat Riley was dodging me, aware that I had uncovered the truth, when I asked about the 36-point loss to the Mavericks here in January. He talked about how that was just one of those things that happens in a regular-season game.

No sign of things to come. No cause for alarm.

Listen, when Walker is your third-best scoring option and when you've got him firing up 19 shots, nine of them from 3-point range, you are an offensively challenged team that is lucky to play its way into May, much less June.

The Heat wants to play games in the 80s because it isn't good enough to score 90.

And if you think things will be different in Game 2 at American Airlines Center tonight, consider these words from former Celtic-Maverick-Hawk Walker.

"We're not going to make adjustments. We're going to play Miami Heat basketball," he said. "We're going to play like we did [Thursday]. We felt we played well enough to win."

Oh, my.

Maybe playing six weeks of Eastern Conference playoffs causes one to be delusional. Maybe the Heat doesn't realize that the Mavericks played about as bad a game as they have played all spring, right down there with Game 4 against Phoenix when they lost by 20, and still won the opener.

Here's what should be understood about the Heat.

It's the third-best and quite possibly the fourth-best team Dallas has faced in the playoffs. You can look it up.

Miami's 52-30 record suggests the Heat wasn't close to the Spurs' regular-season level (63-19), was very close to Phoenix (54-28) and was slightly better than Memphis (49-33).

Look again.

The Heat plays 52 games against the East, a conference that lost the season series to the West by 54 games. That's where the Heat loaded up on its win total.

Check the winning percentages of the Mavs and their playoff opponents against the overstocked West this season.

San Antonio was .808.

Dallas was .712.

Phoenix was .615.

Memphis was .597.

Miami was .567.

How did the Heat get to the Finals?

By beating one team (Detroit) that was really good against the West and the East this year but that had run out of gas with its six-man rotation. And by beating one team that was fair against the West (Nets, .533) and one that was awful against the West (Bulls, .367).

A confident Jason Williams shrugged off Jason Terry's 32-point performance that torched the Heat in Game 1.

"We're the two best teams, obviously, in the NBA this year," he said.

Oh, gosh. It's a shame that's not even close to the truth.

The two best teams played in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs.

The only real challenge left for the Mavericks is the same one they faced against Phoenix, and that's telling themselves that this opponent is capable of winning a seven-game series.

As long as Avery Johnson can continue to get his players to believe in that lie, Dallas will be just fine.



http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/columnists/tcowlishaw/stories/061106dnspocowlishaw.82aaa3f.html









LMAO!!!

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

LOL...It's no quetsion who's the better team. Game is in about an hour and a half on ABC...I'm sayin' Mavs by 7...PeACe

[GangstaBoogy]

Baby G's bold prediction: Stackhouse is gonna show up big time in this game. On both ends of the court!

[7even]

Refs are crazy for calling a foul on Dirk at that drive by Williams.. there was no foul, and if you wanna call a foul you gotta call it on Harris 

[jeromechickenbone]

Refs are crazy for calling a foul on Dirk at that drive by Williams.. there was no foul, and if you wanna call a foul you gotta call it on Harris

It looked like Dirk barely tapped him - if anything it didn't really look like Williams was fouled at all.  He heard Dirk's footsteps and simple missed the layup.  Heat are very lucky to not be down by 10 after that shitty ass quarter.  They can't make a free throw, Wade was non existant, and Dallas seems to be a step quicker and more aggressive on the boards. 

[Bch]

Gary payton really doin the job defensively

heat making the mavericks change all those shots =)

zo mourning intimidating like what