For all of the talk and his celebrated tattoo of the Larry O’Brien Trophy, Dallas guard Jason Terry hasn’t been much of a producer in the NBA Finals so far.
Those struggles led Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki to call out Terry during his meeting with the media on Monday, saying that he needed to produce more if the Mavericks have any hopes of winning an NBA championship.
The biggest reason for Terry’s struggles has been that the bigger and stronger LeBron James has been guarding him during most of the fourth quarters in Dallas’ two losses in the series. Terry is 0-for-7 from the field in those two games in the fourth quarter.
“They keep sticking him [James] on Jet in the fourth quarters and he’s been doing a good job,” Nowitzki told reporters in . “Jet hasn’t really been a crunch-time, clutch player for us the way we need him to.”
Nowitzki and Terry ranked among the most productive NBA duos in the fourth-quarter production during the regular season. Despite his early struggle, Terry remains confident he will be able to rebound quickly.
“They know to take me out of the fourth quarter, which they didn’t do in Game 2,” Terry said of the Heat’s choice to return to James on him defensively, “then they got a good chance.”
Added Terry: “Let’s see if [James] can defend me like that for seven games.”
The Mavericks will have little hope of upsetting the Heat without a big contribution from Terry.
A good time to start would be in Tuesday’s Game 4.