JAG’s Sports Blog

The Miami Heat won their 1^st NBA title as they came back from an unlikely 0-2 deficit to defeat the Dallas Mavs Tuesday night 95-92 led by Dwyane Wade’s 36 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists performance. For all the talk of LeBron James being the heir apparent to Michael Jordan, Dwyane Wade played last, so the bandwagon mentality of writers and fans says it’s Wade that’s the best in the league now. At least until the season starts again, Wade is the King.

Miami started the first 2 games of the NBA finals appearing to be a team that really had no answer to stopping the Mavs when a funny thing happened on the way to the store. Dallas was uncovered in this series for what their big problem is. Dallas has no mental toughness in close games and seems to fall apart when you force them to run a set offense. I said at the beginning of this series that the NBA playoffs are about match-ups and Miami’s best chance was against Dallas rather than Phoenix because of the size and speed of Phoenix. Dallas can also run, but they seemed to struggle if you forced them to grind it out on offense. Miami is the team that has no problem grinding it out and playing a half-court offense. Dwyane Wade has become the king of the half-court offense in the league and specifically for Miami. Miami force their will on Dallas and Dallas didn’t know how to react when Miami wouldn’t go away.

Shaquille O’Neal is no longer the dominant player he was 5-10 years ago and is a clear liability on offense late in games because of his woeful free throw shooting and that’s where Wade comes in. Wade all but takes the ball in his hands and forces defenses to stop him as he takes off from the top of the key and shakes and shimmies all over the court. This is the smartest move anyone can do because it forces every defender to back off of his man just a little and it opens up everything for the other players. Dallas ran 3 men at Wade during parts of the series like game 5 when he wasn’t fouled, but you have to play the game and let the chips fall where they may.

Game 6 was a microcosm of the last 4 games of the series and pretty much the first 2 games also. Dallas was able to get an early lead, but they have a nasty habit of relaxing once they gain a lead and get out of their offensive flow. Miami can grind it out as well as anyone in the league and take advantage of a team that slacks up. Dallas went up 14 and immediately got out of their offensive flow and Miami came back to take a 1-point lead at the half. Wade had 19 points, while Dirk Nowitzki finally had a solid half with 17 points. It was looking obvious that Dallas was starting to panic a bit in the second half as the only player that seemed to be very effective was the underplayed Marquis Daniels. Daniels seemed to be effective at both ends of the floor as he gave them a lift and kept them close to Miami when it was becoming obvious they couldn’t make any key stops when they needed it on defense.

The difference in this series was that Dallas’ superstar Dirk Nowitzki was frustrated as he couldn’t get off early in the series with Miami running several players at him and forcing him to take shots he cleared didn’t want. On the other hand, Dallas had absolutely no answer for Wade and only Wade stopped himself when he struggled from the free throw line in the first two games. Dallas couldn’t get the entire team to shoot effectively at the same time and that was their downfall as all season the Mavs always seemed to have at least 3 players burying clutch shots to carry each other. This series it always seemed no one truly wanted to take the big shot late in games. Contrast that with Miami where savvy veteran, Gary Payton, made several key baskets late in games that either gave Miami the lead or helped them hold off late rallies by Dallas. Throw in the missed free throws late in games by one of the best free throw shooting teams in the league and you have a team that only seems to prosper when they are front-running.

The refereeing was very suspect in game 5, but Dallas put themselves in that position by not finishing off game 5 and giving Miami the confidence they needed by only being down 2-1 instead of 3-0. Miami’s role players did what they had to and in the end, teams win championships in sports, not individuals. Wade was the clear leader of the team, but for all his heroics, every game except one was closely contested. Dallas will have to go look in the mirror and figure out how a team that played so well together to get to the finals, suddenly couldn’t get the job done and spent more time feeling cheated and sorry for themselves.

 

I guess this was a lesson learned for Dallas and fans alike in that you must work hard for 48+ minutes and never assume the game or series is won until it’s actually over. Everyone has to bring their game, be ready to use it and keep going until there’s nothing left in their tank. I tip my hat to Miami because I thought this series was over at 2-0 and with Shaq trying to build a house with all his bricks at the free throw line. They persevered and now they get to celebrate out on South Beach and downtown now.

Dwyane Wade is the new superstar that will be recognized as the top finisher in games. Kobe can’t really be stopped, but wade really knows what it’s like to play for and on a team and how to utilize his incredible skills for the good of everyone.