By Israel Gutierrez
MIAMI HERALD - THEY’RE NOT HAPPY IN FLA
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)
DALLAS - This isn’t the way the Miami Heat reached the championship round.
Not with Antoine Walker flinging up shot after shot, with Shaquille O’Neal looking pained at the free-throw line, with the bench providing next to nothing and with a leaky zone defense allowing wide-open jump shots.
The Heat’s first NBA Finals experience was different, all right. But it had less to do with the Mavericks’’ unique style of play than it did with the Heat’s inexplicable change in approach.
The Mavericks won Game 1 90-80, a game that hardly was artistic, as the Heat played a style that hardly was the usual.
Miami’s Dwyane Wade scored 28 points, but shot just 5 of 18 after the first quarter. O’Neal was 8 of 11 from the field and 1 of 9 from the free-throw line for his 17 points. O’Neal was the primary offender, as the Heat went 7 of 19 from the foul line.
Walker was fairly quick on the trigger, taking 19 shots and hitting just seven of them in 42 minutes, and the Heat reserves provided a total of two points and one assist.
The Mavericks also received less-than-stellar production from their stars, with Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard combining for 26 points on 7-of-28 shooting.
But they were rescued by Jason Terry, who scored 32 points on 13-of-18 shooting.
I liked the tempo of the game for us tonight,'' Heat coach Pat Riley said. It wasn’t a wild, up-and-down game.’’
The Mavericks began with a more traditional lineup that included Adrian Griffin at shooting guard and DeSagana Diop at center, who matched up with Wade and O’Neal, respectively.
The decision would seem to have played into the Heat’s hands, because Miami had less to worry about on the defensive end, and Wade and O’Neal still had their usual advantage offensively.
EARLY SUCCESS
And early on, it played exactly to that notion. Wade showed no ill effects from a lingering sinus infection and flu that limited him since the finished off the Detroit Pistons in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Wade hit 6 of his first 7 shots, including two 19-foot jumpers that served notice that he was still in the type of groove that helped him shoot better than 61 percent against the Pistons.
A Wade free throw with 9.6 seconds left in the first quarter gave the Heat a 28-23 lead.
On the ensuing Dallas inbounds pass, Nowitzki turned it over to Gary Payton, who found Walker at the top of the three-point circle.
Walker took a couple dribbles before pulling up for a 28-foot three-pointer that extended the Heat’s lead to 31-23 with 1.6 seconds remaining in the period.
Wades 13 points in the quarter and Jason Williams'' seven led the Heat's offensive surge in the opening period, which included 70 percent shooting from the field and 2 of 2 from three-point range. The Mavericks, meanwhile, might have been experiencing some Finals jitters. Nowitzki and Howard, Dallas'' potent forward combination that average 45.8 points combined in the playoffs, were a combined 2 of 11 in the first quarter for 10 points. It was Terry's shooting (3 of 3 for eight points) that kept the Heat from taking an even bigger lead into the second quarter. But any Mavericks nerves were replaced with defensive intensity in the second quarter, as Dallas defense began to look more like the effective unit that improved dramatically this season. After the Heat took a 38-27 lead with 8:07 left in the half on an O'Neal hook shot, the Mavericks went on a 19-6 run to finish the half, which ended on a difficult Nowitzki fadeaway over the outstretched arm of Walker. Wade missed all four of his shots in the second quarter and scored just two points, and O'Neal added four in less than six minutes. The Heat as a team shot just 5 of 19 in the second quarter (26.3 percent) for 13 points. Terry was the one player the Heat couldn't keep up with, as he torched the Heat for 20 points in the first half on 9-of-11 shooting. Terry had been shooting just 42.6 percent for the playoffs and struggled to find his shot after the Mavericks beat San Antonio to reach the Western Conference finals. We talked a lot about it,’’ Riley said of the defense on Terry. ``We have to close out on his airspace and be very aware of where he is. There’s no doubt he kept them in the game in the first half.’’
Terry was held scoreless in the third quarter, and Wade returned to his more aggressive self. He scored 10 in the period, including a powerful dunk over Mavericks 7-foot center Erick Dampier.
NOT ENOUGH
But the effort was only good enough to record an even period with the Mavericks, and the Heat entered the final quarter trailing 70-68.
The final 12 minutes began as a contrast of zone defenses. The Mavericks played an effective one that forced the Heat into jump shots from erratic shooters such as Payton, and the Heat’s zone somehow left Dallas’’ hottest player wide open.
The ineffective zone left Terry alone for back-to-back three-pointers, the second coming with 7:54 left in the game and giving the Mavericks their first double-figure lead, 82-72.
Terry could have given the Mavericks a 12-point lead when he took a steal the length of the floor for what looked like an easy layup.
But Terry, apparently caught between dunking the ball and laying it up, missed the shot, then fell to the floor.
It resulted in a Heat fast break that ended with an O’Neal layup. James Posey stole the ball on Dallas’’ next possession, which again turned into an O’Neal dunk.
The quick six-point turnaround gave the Heat life, as it trailed 82-76 with 6:54 remaining.
But with 2:44 remaining, that lead was still six following two Terry free throws. And Wade followed that possession with a turnover, putting the Heat in an insurmountable hole.
By the end, when O’Neal went to the free-throw line for two meaningless free throws, the Mavericks’ fans gave a mock cheer when the Heat center hit his first free throw of the game.
Getting mocked on basketball’s biggest stage isn’t exactly how the Heat planned to make its Finals debut.
By Barry Jackson
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)
DALLAS - The performance of the Heat’s supporting cast in Game 1 of the NBA Finals mirrored the team’s. At times, it was very good. At other times, angst-inducing.
Miami received a spirited defensive effort from Udonis Haslem, some timely shooting from Jason Williams and three three-pointers from Antoine Walker.
But their work was tarnished by several mistakes and errant shots from Walker, poor shooting from Gary Payton, and Williams’ inability to slow Jason Terry.
Walker’s play was exasperating at times. Though he finished with 17
points and six rebounds, he missed 12 of 19 shots and committed six turnovers, including two badly overthrown passes in the third quarter.
Also, Walker failed to convert on two layups, and one was particularly costly. With the score tied at 56 and Dirk Nowitzki offering resistance on defense, Walker badly missed a fast-break layup in the third. On the rebound, Haslem committed his fourth foul, forcing him to the bench with 5:45 left in the quarter.
That was problematic because Haslem had helped limit Nowitzki to 2-of-8 shooting in the first half.
Shortly after Haslem left the game, Nowitzki nailed two three pointers. In the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, Walker missed two running hook shots and lost the ball out of bounds on another careless turnover. He finally converted with a runner, off a nifty pass from Shaquille O’Neal. But Walker missed two open three-pointers later in the fourth, the first with the Heat down 82-76 and 6:07 left and the second with Miami down 82-79 and 3:39 left.
Meanwhile, Williams, who made his first 10 shots against Detroit last Friday night, opened 3 of 4. But after reentering the game, Williams missed perhaps his most critical shot of the game - a three-pointer with the Heat down seven and just more than two minutes left.
The bigger problem was that neither Williams nor Payton could control Terry.
Terry poured in 20 points in the first half, and followed a scoreless third quarter by scoring two baskets against Williams early in the fourth.
Then he eluded Payton for back-to-back three-pointers that extended Dallas’ lead to 82-72 with 7:54 left.
It was a horrible sequence for Payton, who missed a three-pointer in between Terry’s two three-pointers. Payton, who entered shooting 43.3 percent in the playoffs, closed 0 of 4 from the field.
As for Haslem, he provided typically solid defense and a team-high nine rebounds. But after scoring the Heat’s first two baskets, he attempted just two more shots the rest of the night and didn’t score again. Against a deep Dallas team, Miami is going to need more from its reserves.
The Heat’s bench provided 13 rebounds - including seven by James Posey - but was outscored by Dallas’ reserves 24 to 2. Mourning, who averaged 20 minutes in the regular season, played only five, mustering just one rebound and no blocked shots. These Finals are hardly an ideal matchup for Mourning, especially when Dallas pushes the tempo.
AND SOMETHING THAT LOOKS LIKE A NEWS REPORT
By David Aldridge
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)
DALLAS - The NBA Finals did not begin with the high-powered offensive show many expected from two of the league’s best-scoring teams. But the Dallas Mavericks did a little more in the fourth quarter Thursday night and pulled away from the Miami Heat late for a 90-80 victory in Game 1 of this best-of seven series.
On a rare off night from Mavericks all-star forward Dirk Nowitzki (16 points on 4-of-14 shooting from the floor), it was Dallas guard Jason Terry who was the catalyst, scoring 12 of his game-high 32 points in the fourth quarter. It was enough to hold off Miami, which did not make a field goal in the final five minutes of play.
It was a slow start, but we came back,'' Terry told ABC after the game. There’s another level that we can go to defensively.’’
Eight straight points from Terry early in the fourth quarter gave Dallas an 82-72 lead, but after he missed a wide-open breakaway layup, the Heat came back. While Dallas went scoreless for more than 4( minutes - and didn’t make a field goal for almost seven minutes - the Heat closed within 82-79 on a free throw from Dwyane Wade (28 points) with 4 minutes, 22 seconds left.
But the Heat did not get closer, missing its last eight field-goal attempts, and that allowed Dallas to hang on for the victory.
Shaquille O’Neal did a good job passing out of double-teams most of the night for Miami, and scored 17 points. But he only made 1 of 9 free throws. Wade also missed four of his 10 foul shots; they were the only two Miami players to attempt a free throw.
Game 2 is Sunday evening, again at American Airlines Center.
Dallas led by 70-68 after three quarters, but Terry - who had scored 20 in the first half - once again proved unstoppable. The Mavericks went to a three-guard lineup to open the fourth, and their quickness at both ends gave them control of the game.
After a basket from Antoine Walker (17 points) brought the Heat within 74-72 with less than 10 minutes remaining, Terry personally keyed an 8-0 run, hitting a fadeaway jumper, a three-pointer off a Nowitzki pass with 8:24 to go, and another three following a Miami miss, giving Dallas a 10-point lead with 7:54 left in the game.
We were fortunate enough to be pretty steady defensively,'' Mavericks coach Avery Johnson said. We were fortunate they missed some shots … but it’s the Finals. You take them any way you can get them.’’
These Finals have many intrigued; they bring many elements, from a high-profile star in O’Neal to an emerging superstar in Wade and an international idol in Nowitzki. Both teams had shot the ball extremely well coming into the series.
Miami continued that trend in the first half. With O’Neal staying patient throughout the half, the Heat scored on seven of 13 first-half possessions when Dallas double-teamed O’Neal.
And with Wade (15 first-half points) breaking down Dallas’ defense at almost every opportunity, Miami took control late in the first. Consecutive three-pointers from Walker gave the Heat a 34-23 lead early in the second period.
But Terry kept Dallas close. And after O’Neal picked up his second foul with two minutes left in the half and came out, the Mavericks finally got some traction, going to a smaller lineup.
While the Heat missed their last seven shots in the quarter, the Mavericks went on a 10-0 run to end the half. Terry tied the game at 44 on a fastbreak basket with 32.6 seconds left, and Nowitzki closed the half with a 19-footer at the buzzer, giving Dallas a two-point lead at intermission.
Nowitzki hit two threes in the third, and the Mavericks led by as many as six in the quarter. But Miami again found success in its half-court offense. A three-pointer from Jason Williams tied the score at 56, and five Dallas turnovers in a four-minute span kept the Heat close through the rest of the period.
Wade got aggressive again, scoring 11 in the quarter, including a transition dunk that brought Miami within 68-67 with half a minute left. Dallas led by two after three quarters.
June 14, 2006
Heat 98, Mavericks 96
Unstoppable Wade Breathes New Life Into Staggering Heat
By LIZ ROBBINS
MIAMI, June 13 – Dwyane Wade looked at the scoreboard, saw the double-digit deficit and shook his head.
There was no way that he was going out like this, Wade told himself midway through the fourth quarter. There was no way he would let his Miami Heat go down 3-0 to Dallas in the N.B.A. finals, especially on its home court.
So with each jumper and with each drive, Wade steadily dug his team out of its hole and revived the series in the process.
Down by 13 points with 6 minutes 34 seconds remaining in Game 3 of the N.B.A. finals, Wade rattled off 11 points from that point – setting the stage for his 37-year-old teammate, Gary Payton.
In a desperate quest for his first and likely last championship ring, Payton nailed his first shot and only shot of the night. His 21-footer was the eventual game-winner, lifting Miami to a resounding 98-96 victory in Game 3 of the N.B.A. finals.
The Heat is alive, now trailing by 2-1 in a series that continues with two more games in American Airlines Arena. Only two teams have come back from a 2-0 deficit (Boston and Portland), but both played before the finals went to a 2-3-2 format.
Given Wade’s ability to resurrect his team, this series could be far from over.
“He just rises to the occasion,” Heat Coach Pat Riley said. “We kept it simple in the end and he kept making play after play after play. You just couldn’t stop him.”
The Mavericks left the court shaking their heads at the chances they had and at the performance that Wade unleashed.
Wade scored 15 of his game-high 42 points in the fourth quarter, 12 after picking up his fifth foul. “You just try to do what you can to help your team get over the hump,” Wade said. “If you make some plays it might energize some other guys. That’s what I did.”
Mavericks Coach Avery Johnson said: “Wade really got away from us. He really hurt us with his penetration sometimes, he was really persistent. Even with Wade scoring like that, we still had a chance to win the game, but we had a really bad fourth quarter.”
Even though the Mavs blew a 13-point lead, they still had two chances at the end. With the Heat leading, 97-95, Dirk Nowitzki stepped to the free-throw line with 3.4 seconds remaining. He was a 94 percent shooter, having missed just two free throws during these finals.
Nowitzki made the first. His second clanged off the rim, just like his first six field goals of the game.
Wade was then fouled and sank only the first of two free throws. The Mavericks rebounded the miss with one second left, but an alley-oop inbounds pass to Josh Howard was tipped away by — who else? — Wade, and the arena erupted with confetti falling from the rafters.
In the end, it was Shaquille O’Neal, the 12.5 percent free throw shooter in the first two games, who made his when it counted. With 1:48 to play, he had cut the Mavericks’ lead to 93-90 by sinking two free throws — giving him 16 points.
His thought process on the line? “Make them,” O’Neal said after the game. “I just went back to the way I used to shoot – when I was a good player.”
But now he has Wade. And for that, he is grateful.
After O’Neal’s free throws, Wade – who was playing the final 10 minutes with five fouls and a lightly bruised knee from a collision with O’Neal, followed by making a 20-foot jumper.
Udonis Haslem, playing with a strained left shoulder, made two free throws to give the Heat a 94-93 lead with 1:03 to play.
The Mavericks tied the score at 95-95 off a driving layup by Devin Harris with 33.5 seconds left. When Miami got the ball back, the Heat zipped the ball around the court. Jason Williams fed Payton on the right arc. Payton, faked his defender, Howard, high in the air, dribbled around him and sank the 21-foot jumper.
“Maybe we started to relax too early or celebrate,” Dallas’s Nowitzki said. He finished with 30 points and 9-of-20 shooting from the floor. “I don’t know what it was. But we didn’t defend them and we couldn’t get anything to drop. The only good thing is we’re still up 2-1.”
As badly as the Mavericks were shooting, they still found themselves in the game, thanks to Miami’s 20 turnovers. Dallas took a 77-68 lead into the fourth quarter, and the centers’ statistics told the story. Erick Dampier scored 12 points in the third quarter, equaling what O’Neal had scored in three quarters.
Just 24 hours earlier, at 10:30 p.m. Monday, Wade and O’Neal were at opposite ends of the Heat’s practice court, returning to the late-night playoff jam sessions they started last season.
“Shaq was on one end working on his free throws,” Wade said before the game. “I was on the other end working on my shot.”
Call it compulsion, call it sleeplessness, or simply call it leadership; O’Neal and Wade were determined to revive their team’s moribund hopes any which way.
After scoring a career-playoff-low 5 points in Game 2, O’Neal was in such a bad mood he skipped out on the postgame interview, drawing a $10,000 fine while the Heat was served with an additional $25,000 penalty from the league.
“I didn’t talk and I got fined. I didn’t deserve to talk,” O’Neal said after Game 3.
O’Neal seemed more interested in letting his game do the talking. He was active from the opening tip. He made the first shot of the game, a turnaround jump hook. Then he banked in his second, and dropped in a reverse layup for his third. He had a steal and four assists in the first quarter.
In the playoffs O’Neal came into the game averaging 11 points and 6.5 rebounds, shooting 2 for 16 from the free-throw line. His teammates and Riley did not want to talk to him about his misses.
“He’s been through it now for 13 years,” Riley said at the morning shoot-around. “He’s had 74 coaches, 29 gurus, 14 psychologists. He knows. We know.”
But as he made both his free throws in the first half to delirious applause, O’Neal seemed to be returning to form as the dominant 7-footer in the game.
This was the first time in the series that the Heat led at halftime. And while they lost the lead in the third quarter, Wade and Payton found a way to bring their team back – before it was too late.
June 14, 2006
Stackhouse Embraces His Supporting Role
By LIZ ROBBINS
MIAMI, June 13 — By the time Jerry Stackhouse was traded for a third time, he knew he had to change more than his uniform.
He had heard that he was arrogant, overconfident and quick-tempered. Instead of tuning out the voices, Stackhouse toned down his act with the Dallas Mavericks because of the voices he did not want to hear: those of his three children.
“That’s not how I was away from the game, that’s not who I am,” Stackhouse said before Game 3 of the N.B.A. finals on Tuesday night. “That wanted me to change that persona a little bit. I’ve now got kids growing up; I was married. Families don’t like to read things like that about their loved ones, especially when they know it’s not the case.”
Jaye, Alexis and Antonio Stackhouse, all under age 4, may not be proficient readers yet, but they understand that their father is contributing significantly to a winning team.
At age 31 in his 11th season, Stackhouse has never been closer to an N.B.A. championship. He has subverted his ego and embraced his sixth-man role.
“I kind of played the back seat a little bit,” Stackhouse said.
When Stackhouse arrived in Dallas for the 2004-5 season, Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley helped him adjust because they respected his experience.
“That’s how I come off, but I never look at it that way,” said Stackhouse, who is the Mavericks’ third-leading scorer. "The guys who were in the 1 and 2 roles didn’t look at it that way. They said: ‘If we’re not on our game, we got Stack. We got a guy who’s been there and proven and knows what to do.’ "
Stackhouse, still bearing the marks from three stitches he took from a Shaquille O’Neal elbow in Game 1, scored the most important points of Game 2 when he went on a personal 10-0 run in the last 79 seconds of the first half to give the Mavericks a 16-point lead. He made three 3-pointers, drawing a foul on one of them for only the seventh 4-point play in finals history.
“He’s hungry to try to see how it feels like to finish the season with a win,” Coach Avery Johnson said at the morning shoot-around. “He’s been real unselfish.”
Stackhouse came into Game 3 averaging 16 points and 29.5 minutes in the Mavericks’ 13 playoff games. He averaged a career-low 13 points this season, compared with his career-high 29.8 points in 2000-1 in Detroit.
“Early on in my career, I might have brushed people the wrong way because of my overconfidence, because of maybe being a little brash as a young player,” Stackhouse said. “When I was moved from this team to that team, my confidence took a little bit of a beating from that.”
Then he added, smiling, “Because I was so overconfident, I was still confident.”
As the No. 3 pick in the 1995 draft, Stackhouse entered the N.B.A. out of North Carolina talking a big game but winning just 18 games as a rookie with Philadelphia.
After struggling to find chemistry the next season, when Allen Iverson was drafted, the Sixers traded him to Detroit.
Stackhouse helped build the Pistons into a 50-game winner by 2002. And then, suddenly, he was gone, traded to the Washington Wizards for Richard Hamilton.
“I was blown away by it,” Stackhouse said of the trade.
But when he thinks about it now, he sees that Joe Dumars, the Pistons’ president and Stackhouse’s former teammate, was trying to build an all-around team.
“I knew looking at the formula teams have that win a championship, they had guys that were contributing, all five guys, and even those teams where we won 50 games, we were a two-star team,” Stackhouse said. “It worked out well for them and ultimately it worked out well for me.”
In the trade that sent him to Dallas, the Mavericks not only got Stackhouse, but they also received the rights to guard Devin Harris, who was the fifth pick in the 2004 draft.
Through the years, Stackhouse has had the unfailing support — and constructive criticism — from his mother, Minnie, a minister at the House of Hope church in Kinston, N.C.
The support is mutual. Stackhouse said he spent $500,000 this past year refurbishing the church for his mother, who has been a minister since Stackhouse was 8.
In 2002, Stackhouse formed a charity, the Triple Threat Foundation, to support diabetes research. Both Minnie and his father, George, live with diabetes; two of his sisters died from the disease.
Minnie called on Mother’s Day to ask her son why he failed to intentionally miss a free throw late in Game 4 of the Mavericks’ Western Conference semifinals series against San Antonio.
"She was like, ‘What were you thinking about?’ " he said.
The Mavericks came back to win that game in overtime and eventually won the series. In the playoffs, Stackhouse has been the primary example of the depth that neither Phoenix nor Miami has had.
“Like pretty much all of our players,” Johnson said, “he’s hungry to do whatever it takes to help the team win.”
Couldn’t believe game 3. The mavs pretty much gave the game to them. Up by 13 with 5:00 to go. What an embarassment, way to let them back in the series!
Shaquille O’Neal shot career lows in free throw percentage in each season since coming to Miami 2 years ago. These girls have been on the sidelines for those 2 years. Coincidence?..I think not…
Distractions MUCH!?!?!? :eek:
June 19, 2006
Heat 101, Mavericks 100
Wade Scores 43 Points, and the Heat Takes Command
By LIZ ROBBINS
MIAMI, June 18 — Since the Mavericks arrived in Miami for the N.B.A. finals, all they seemed to do well was fold their tents and watch Dwyane Wade go.
First, the Mavericks collapsed under Wade in the final 6 minutes 34 seconds of Game 3, losing a 13-point advantage and the chance to jump to a 3-0 series lead. Then, after the Heat pounded the Mavericks in Game 4, Dallas Coach Avery Johnson packed their belongings and sent the team to seclusion in Fort Lauderdale.
With the N.B.A. finals building to a thrilling crescendo in Game 5, the Mavericks again held a double-digit lead early and watched as Wade burst it late to force overtime.
And then, Wade took advantage of the Mavericks’ incredulous miscues in the final seconds, finishing with 43 points, including two free throws to send the Heat to a 101-100 victory. Miami marches to Dallas with a 3-2 lead in the N.B.A. finals, one game from realizing the franchise’s first championship. The Heat are only the second team to sweep the middle three games of the finals at home.
The last two minutes of overtime turned into a microcosm of the Mavericks’ three games in Miami.
Dallas’s Josh Howard, who shot the ball well through most of the game to make up for his suspended teammate, Jerry Stackhouse, mistakenly called the team’s last timeout before Johnson wanted it.
With 1.9 seconds left, Wade dribbled through three defenders and drew a foul from Dirk Nowitzki. Wade was on the free-throw line, having made the first of his two free throws, when Howard called timeout.
Despite the ensuing confusion — Johnson was waving for his players to call a timeout after the second free throw — Wade sank the game-winner. Without a timeout, Devin Harris could only launch a desperation shot from halfcourt as Dallas’s last shot.
Only seconds before, Dallas’s Dirk Nowitzki seemed to hit a game-winner with a fadeaway jumper over Miami’s Shaquille O’Neal with 9.1 seconds left to give the Mavs a 100-99 lead.
But it would not hold. The Mavs had their opportunities. They were up by 11 points with 53 seconds left in the first half, by 9 with 5:30 left in the third quarter, and by 2 with 2.8 seconds left in regulation.
Howard had missed two free throws with 54 seconds left in overtime and the chance to put Dallas up by 3. Instead, Gary Payton, who hit the game-winner in Game 3, drove to the basket and lofted a left-handed floater high off the backboard. It dropped in with 29.8 seconds left, giving the Heat a 99-98 lead.
By then, the Mavs were already reeling, a sign of their entire stay in Miami. Jason Terry led the Mavs with 35 points, and Nowitzki had 20. Wade, with his 43 points, scored 121 points in the middle three games, beating Dallas this night by hitting 21 of 25 from the foul line.
After three ragged quarters, the game exploded into a contest, with Wade awakening and the Mavericks trying to hold on, just as in Game 3.
Wade, who had missed 11 of his first 14 shots, rallied the Heat on a 7-0 run to end the third quarter to give his team its first signs of life in the game.
Dallas was holding a 71-70 lead entering the final period, with Terry and Howard having each scored 23 points. The two had paced the Mavs, who were without Stackhouse off the bench and, it would seem, without Nowitzki, who was vanishing from these N.B.A. finals, shooting off-balance jumpers and lacking the aggressiveness he had in the first three rounds of the playoffs.
But Terry and Howard were determined to play off Nowitzki’s double teams. In the final 6:23 of the second quarter, they built momentum for the Mavericks, sparking a 21-9 run. Miami made just two field goals during that stretch.
The Mavericks’ owner, Mark Cuban, sat behind the bench dressed in a Stackhouse jersey and stood up to protest virtually every call, especially the non-calls on O’Neal.
Johnson had two days to seethe, first over his team’s play and then over Stackhouse’s suspension for a flagrant foul on O’Neal in Game 4. Johnson yanked his players out of their team hotel in downtown Miami on Friday and sequestered them in Fort Lauderdale, forcing them to share rooms.
“We got a little quiet time for ourselves kind of the way it was in the regular season and early in the playoffs,” Johnson said before Game 5 of the housing arrangements. “Hopefully not only for this game, but I think it sent a message for as we move forward.”
The Heat seemed a step behind most of the night. O’Neal missed seven of his first eight free throws, as the Mavericks made use of their three centers and their fouls. Wade could only make free throws. And the Mavericks were pounding the Heat all night on the boards.
But with the series moving back to Dallas, where the Heat has not won in three tries this season, Miami’s players knew they had to fend off recent history to grab what might be their best chance to win a championship.
They can just ask their coach, Pat Riley. In his first nine years as coach of the Lakers, Riley went to the N.B.A. finals seven times; in his last 13 seasons as a coach, he has been just twice.
“Then after I left L.A.,” Riley said, “I realized how hard it was to get there.”
Dwyane Wade is money, thats all i can say. It reminded me of watching Jordan.
June 21, 2006
Heat 95, Mavericks 92
Heat Beats Mavericks to Win First Championship
By LIZ ROBBINS
DALLAS, June 20 — Bathed in the spotlight that followed his every step, Dwyane Wade did not blink.
He moved confidently in a zone of his own all night, driving his Miami Heat toward a championship and casting a chilling shadow on the dumbfounded, distracted Dallas Mavericks.
Even when the Mavericks started pushing their way back into yet another game they once led Tuesday night, and back into an N.B.A. finals they once led by 2-0, Miami’s superstar was there to seal the outcome of Game 6.
When the Mavericks’ last chance — a 3-pointer from Jason Terry to send the game into overtime — bounced off the rim, Wade reached up and grabbed it. Hearing the buzzer, Wade rocketed the ball 50 feet into the air, unleashing a scream into the stunned air of the American Airlines Center.
Wade scored 36 points in a most-valuable-player performance, leading the Heat to a 95-92 victory. It was Miami’s fourth straight triumph, and it gave the franchise its first championship in 18 years of existence.
Wade gave Coach Pat Riley, who replaced Stan Van Gundy in December, his first title in 18 years. It was Riley’s fifth championship; he won four in the 1980’s with the Los Angeles Lakers. Wade delivered a fourth title to Shaquille O’Neal, who, upon being traded from the Lakers to Miami, proved that he could win with another talented backcourt mate.
Both Riley and O’Neal had each promised Miami a championship parade when they arrived, nearly a decade apart. And because of Wade, whom Riley drafted with the fifth overall pick in 2003, there will be a celebration on Biscayne Bay.
“He just took it to another level,” Riley said. "Players like that are hard to come by. He’s making his legacy in his third year.
“I’ve never had a player like this who can absolutely, at any time, beat five guys and make great plays.”
Wade was not alone. The veteran center Alonzo Mourning blocked five shots with the ferocity of a man desperate for his first title, and given a second chance on a career with a kidney transplant. Gary Payton, at 37, captured his first championship in his 16th season in the league, alongside the role players Riley brought in last summer in a controversial trade: Antoine Walker, James Posey and Jason Williams.
Wade led the way, just as he did to orchestrate the Dallas collapse in Game 3, when the Heat trailed by 13 points with 6 minutes 34 seconds left. The Mavericks never recovered, and Wade kept getting better.
“Wade is probably one of the most respected players, and he proved that over the last four games,” Riley said.
Surveying the wreckage of his team’s collapse, Mavericks Coach Avery Johnson said: “Some of that stuff you can’t teach. He had a lot of will to win. You’ve seen players like Jordan, a lot of players in history who have those type of performances. We tried a lot of things, but he just had the desire to get it done.”
Ahead by 14 points in the first quarter and by 9 in the second, the Mavericks saw Wade steal the championship out from under them.
With just under 26 seconds to play, the Mavericks made a strange play that typified their confusion. Dallas’s own superstar, Dirk Nowitzki, passed to center Erick Dampier, who had rolled off a pick into the lane. Dampier bobbled the ball, and Wade collected it to make two free throws that gave the Heat its margin of victory.
The Heat took a 71-68 lead going into the fourth quarter. At first it seemed as if Josh Howard would provide the lasting picture of a disheveled, embarrassed Dallas team.
Howard, the player who had mistakenly called Dallas’ last timeout near the end of Game 5, dropped his shorts unabashedly while O’Neal was at the free-throw line. Howard readjusted the wrap on his thighs, pulled up his pants and then, as O’Neal missed the second foul shot, committed a lane violation. Given another chance, O’Neal made his first free throw of the night.
Mark Cuban, the vocal owner of the Mavericks, held his head in his hands and waved his arms in disgust with every foul Wade drew. One first-half call in particular seemed questionable when Howard stepped far away from a driving Wade. Unlike the Mavericks, who began to shrink away from the basket and from contact, Wade thrived.
The game actually began to follow a familiar script late in the first half. When the Mavericks took a 10-point lead with 3 minutes 31 seconds to play, Wade took over and Dallas collapsed.
He paced a 13-2 run that included a monster dunk from Mourning and finished the first half with 19 points. Each jumper looked more effortless than the last, as Wade shook off his defenders and slipped into his comfort zone.
As the games progressed in Miami, Wade evolved from a young star into an inevitable force.
“That’s what these events do,” Riley said. “They make genuine stars out of players. And sometimes, to some kids, they become genuine heroes.”
The comparisons to Michael Jordan kept flying, much to Wade’s discomfort. He grew up in the Chicago area first admiring Jordan, then befriending him.
“Dwyane has told me he would not like me speak of him in context with Michael Jordan out of respect for him,” Riley said before the game. “I think it’s time for Dwyane to take on his own persona.”
“The comparisons are flattering,” Wade said. “But there will never be another Jordan. Hopefully, when I’m done playing, there will be someone comparing me to him.”
Riley compared Wade instead to a panther. Or a leopard. “Up in the tree. A lot of times they let certain prey go because it’s not something they want to feast on,” Riley explained.
Wade started slowly, as if sizing up his enemy. He did not score for the first 10 minutes, but then exploded, compensating for the foul trouble and general struggles that O’Neal endured.
Wade was the one who had led the comeback in Game 3, with the Heat down by 13 and just 6:34 left in what became the turning point of the series. The Mavericks never recovered in Miami. Wade only got better, scoring 42 points, 36 and 43 in the three Heat victories on their home court.
When the Mavs returned home for Game 6, they resolved to show a different attitude. Terry called it “controlled anger,” and it was one the Mavs felt from the threat of elimination, their lingering anger over Jerry Stackhouse’s suspension for a flagrant foul on O’Neal in Game 4 and their overall feeling that the league was slighting them and favoring Wade.
In the end, however, the Mavs simply had no one to counter Wade, who seemed to be forging his legacy at every turn.
