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| At least their owner isn't afraid of going to the rim. |
Dirk
He posted solid numbers, there's no question. But "the guy who no one can guard" turned into "the guy Udonis Haslem and James Posey can guard." He just didn't take over a single game the way a true superstar does. While Wade adapted to the quick whistles to stay in the middle of the action, Dirk was busy taking fadeaways early in the shot clock, passing to Erick Dampier in crunch time, and singing David Hasselhoff at the line. Speaking of which…
Free throws
Have you heard? Miami took more free throws than Dallas—I think ESPN did a short piece on the subject. You know what else Miami did? Drove to the basket instead of settling for jumpers. They also made their free throws in the last minute of close games. Hell, Shaq was more clutch at the line than Dirk and Josh Howard, which is almost as unheard of as David Stern drawing cheers at a public appearance.
Attitude problem
This was an issue from the top on down. From celebratory Letterman appearances during the series for Mark Cuban to press table outbursts after the games for Avery Johnson, the Mavericks never once focused on playing better after the first two games. At least you can't fault their effort…to turn every press conference into a diatribe about fixed games and missed calls.
Jumpers
You have seven minutes left to extend your season and the other team is in the penalty. You should either:
a) Pass the ball around the perimeter a couple of times and launch a long jumper with 18 seconds left on the shot clock.
b) Drive to the basket and take some contact.
(See Dallas' canceled parade route for answer.)
The superstar
After two straight years of team ball dominating, and destroying, the finals, we finally got back to one (far more entertaining) player being able to control an entire series. Yeah, Dallas came up short on many occasions, but D-Wade also came up huge almost every time the Heat needed him. Dallas may have been deeper, but when they needed one guy to step up at the end of a game, they couldn't find him. Everyone in the arena knew who Miami was giving the ball to in the fourth quarter—Dallas still might be trying to figure that out. (And they should stop, because the series is over.)
See ya next year when we all tune in to see if Michael Doleac can defend his title!