By Adrian CrawfordUpdated June 13, 2011 19:05:00 Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks finally cemented their place in history by clinching the NBA Finals in a deciding Game Six 105-95 win over the star-studded Miami Heat on Monday (AEST).
Dallas was one of 12 teams in the league to have never won a championship, its previous best chance coming in 2006 when the Mavericks opened the series 2-0 at home before Miami won the next four games to clinch its maiden title.
In a fitting finish the Mavericks won the Larry O'Brien Trophy on the road, erasing the pain of the 2006 defeat when the Heat won it in Dallas.
In the aftermath of the 2006 series Nowitzki's toughness and ability to lead a team to the title was repeatedly questioned but he repeatedly answered his critics by making the fourth quarter his own in seemingly every contest.
The German international forward's composure and reputation for making big plays down the stretch rarely faltered and he was far and away the deserving candidate for Finals MVP.
This time around the 32-year-old 10-time All-Star had 10 points in the final 12 minutes to secure his first ring and bolster his Hall of Fame credentials.
Nowitzki said winning on Miami's floor did not make it any sweeter, despite the way the Heat won in '06.
"Obviously that was one of my disappointing losses in my career, to lose the Finals series after being up 2-0, and it took so long just to get here [that] I don't really know if it would have made a difference," he told reporters.
"The feeling of being in the best team in the world is unbelievable.
"If you're in this league for 13 years just battling, [making the] Playoffs for the last 10 years and always come up a little short, that's why this is extra special."
Outspoken Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who was fined in 2006 for making comments about officiating in the Finals, paid tribute to fans who came from Texas to will their team to a title.
"To our fans who came here to Miami ... we heard you," he told the crowd.
"You rock."
Nowitzki struggled offensively in Game Six, shooting just 9-of-27 from the floor to finish with 21 points, the same haul he turned in despite suffering from flu and fever in Game Four.
But once again Dallas proved that depth was its greatest strength as Jason Terry scored a game-high 27 points (11-of-16, 3-of-7 from range) and added three rebounds and two assists off the bench.
For the second time in as many games Dallas was devastatingly accurate from downtown, going 11-for-26 (42.3 per cent) from long range as Terry (3-of-7) and Jason Kidd (2-of-3) filled it up.
Miami had help off the pine but as usual it was LeBron James (21 points), Dwyane Wade (17, eight rebounds, six assists) and Chris Bosh (19 points, eight rebounds) who did the bulk of the scoring.
Heat guard Mario Chalmers had a Finals career-high 18 points and seven assists to provide a similar spark that JJ Barea gave the Mavericks.
Fast start
The Mavericks trailed early but rallied to end the first quarter with a five-point advantage, a surge that continued into the second period and culminated with a 17-2 run that gave the visitors the largest lead (12) either team had enjoyed in the Finals thus far.
But with such an offensive arsenal and the defensive prowess to match, the Heat refused to lay down and went on a 15-3 run of their own to steal back the lead approaching the half.
While Nowitzki could not get a shot to fall, Terry took up the slack and knocked down 10 straight points to ensure Dallas stayed in front by two points at the midway point.
"Was he unbelievable tonight or what?" Nowitzki said of Terry, the 33-year-old veteran of 11 years who won the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award in 2009.
"Coming out right away from the first half and setting the tone, he watched me struggle there early and he took it upon himself to really attack and look for his shot early and get going early.
"And man, he kept going all night long and he was phenomenal.
"That one time-out he said to me 'keep pushing, remember '06', he said that to me in the fourth quarter and we kept plugging.
"It wasn't pretty for me but I had to keep plugging and keep fighting."
From there the Mavericks were never bested and while Miami got close at times it just did not have the aggressiveness from James and Wade that quickly became the team's hallmark this season.
Dallas was loaded with veterans in Kidd (38), Shawn Marion (33) and DeShawn Stevenson (30), but none of the Mavericks stars had won a title, while coach Rick Carlisle had not been to the Finals since he was a player on Boston's 1986 championship-winning team.
Kidd's leadership and gritty defence helped tie things together while exciting young guard Barea earned himself a spot in the starting line-up for Game Four and held onto it by providing lightning-quick penetration in the lane and yet another scoring option for the already-deep Dallas roster.
The Mavs also had to do it without starting small forward Caron Butler, who was the club's third-best scorer per night before undergoing knee surgery in January and subsequently missing the rest of the season.
"All I said was play your game and play your ass off," Carlisle said.
"Dirk Nowitzki is one of the very greatest players in the history of this game and that was validated here tonight.
"He had a tough shooting night in the first half and other guys stepped up and kept us afloat and in the second half. He was amazing."
Storybook ending
One of the most hotly contested NBA Finals series in recent history was also one chock-full of narrative.
The Mavericks shook off the hoodoo of being unable to win on the road in the postseason by beating Portland in one of the rowdiest buildings in the league before stealing the first two games against Los Angeles at the Staples Centre on their way to a 4-0 sweep.
They came into the first round having not won away from Dallas in the Playoffs since 2009, and they had lost 18 of their last 20 in opposing arenas in playoff campaigns.
Winning the title not only cemented Nowitzki's legacy, it validated what some saw as a premature tattoo that Terry had inked on his right bicep before the season even started - a likeness of the championship trophy.
From the season's opening tip late last October the spotlights had been affixed on South Beach after James and Bosh joined forces with Wade in an effort to finally taste championship glory.
The Heat faltered early in the season but hit their straps and were a virtually unstoppable force as the postseason approached, and throughout the early rounds it was tough to imagine any team stopping the Big Three from their title aspirations.
But the pressure appeared to get to James as the Heat drew closer to lifting the Larry O'Brien Trophy a second time, and the two-time MVP did not play up to the same standard against Dallas that he did in the Eastern Conference series against Philadelphia (24.2ppg, 10.6rpg, 6.2apg), Boston (28.0, 8.3, 3.6) and Chicago (25.8, 7.8, 6.6).
His Finals averages were a shadow of his physically dominant self, finishing with 17.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.8 assists per night when his team needed the usually aggressive driving scorer to get to the free throw line.
James' shrinking violet act in the Finals drew plenty of attention as the series rolled on and while he shot efficiently and facilitated for his team-mates in Game Six, his late-game performances were weak compared to the desperation Nowitzki showed every time he had the ball in his hands.
But Wade refused to say that he or James "choked" under the pressure in both men's second Finals appearance.
"The word choked is overused in sports," he said.
"We lost ball games, we lost the Finals.
"We ran into a team this time that was obviously better than us. We give them credit and we take nothing away from that."
Tags: sport,
basketball,
united-states First posted June 13, 2011 12:48:00
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