Tag: National Basketball Association

Wade admits Heat simply ‘let one go’

By TIM REYNOLDS
Associated Press

DALLAS — After two days of intense film study and painstaking analysis of the final 14 possessions in their end-of-game collapse in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, the Miami Heat finally came up with the reason why.

It wasn’t a highly technical explanation.

“We let one go,” Dwyane Wade said.

And entering Game 3, the Heat will try to let Game 2 go again. The way Miami sees it, carrying over the stigma of that loss — one of the worst late-game collapses in Finals history — would only doom them again tonight when the scene shifts to steamy Dallas for the first of three games on the Mavericks’ home floor.

Dallas rallied from 15 points down in the final seven minutes to beat Miami in Game 2, outscoring the Heat 22-5 to finish the game and knot the series. Thanks to that win, Mavs fans still may see another NBA title celebration, only this time, by the Western Conference champions and not a Heat team that hoisted a trophy at Dallas after the 2006 finals.

“In the playoffs, it’s a win or a loss. However it comes by, it’s a win or a loss,” Heat forward LeBron James said. “We’ve moved on from Game 2, seen the mistakes we’ve made. Seen some of the great things we’ve done as well. It’s a win or loss. The series is tied 1-1. We never get too high or too low in the series. We haven’t gotten too high or low in the regular season as well.”

Game 3 is crucial for so many obvious reasons, like the Heat wanting not to deal with another stumble and the Mavericks wanting to keep momentum rolling and retain home-court advantage. Statistically, there’s proof that it’s a Texas-sized swing game as well.

Since the NBA went to the 2-3-2 format for the finals, teams have now split the first two games 12 times. In the previous 11, the winner of Game 3 has always gone on to win the championship.

Big whoop, both teams said in response to that one.

“We just can’t let up. We’re not good enough to just relax,” said forward Dirk Nowitzki, who led Dallas’ late-game charge in Game 2 at Miami. “We need to play with an edge at all times in every game. So hopefully (tonight), with the crowd behind us, we’re going to have a great game. Just looking at this one game.”

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was more succinct.

“I think both teams have bucked a lot of those numbers and odds up to this point already,” Spoelstra said. “We’re a non-traditional team.”

Maybe that’s one of the reasons why the Heat were so loose Saturday.

Players arrived at the arena around noon, most with headphones on as they walked off the bus, bobbing heads in time with the music and nodding to people as they walked by. James and Wade were chatting and laughing, a few players checked out the turf that would host an Arena Football League game later Saturday night and some stretched their arms to tap the goalposts as they walked across the floor where a basketball court will be tonight.

The mood couldn’t have been more different from when they walked off the floor in Miami on Thursday, stunned by what just happened.

“We’re coming home, but we know that’s no guarantee of anything,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “We’ve lost at home this year in the playoffs. Now Miami has as well. The venue has significance, but it never guarantees anyone anything. .?.?. The mistake that we’re not going to make is feel like coming home is going to be something that helps get us over the hump. It’s not going to be like that. Both these teams are too good of road teams.”

Including the playoffs, the Mavericks have won 34 road games this season, tops in the NBA. Miami ranks second with 32.

The Heat also haven’t lost consecutive games since early March, winning after all six of their most recent losses by an average of 11.7 points. And in their last 24 games away from home, they’re 17-7.

All good signs for Miami now, given that if it doesn’t win one of the next three in Dallas, the season will end here.

“We’ve been a pretty resilient bunch all year,” Heat forward Udonis Haslem said. “We’ve bounced back every time we’ve been knocked down. I’m expecting the same thing with this situation.”

Dallas has won 12 of the last 14 meetings at home, six of those coming in single-digit games.

Mitchell remembered for his community work

By Jerry Briggs
jbriggs@express-news.net

Long after the cheering stopped for one of the best players in Spurs history, Mike Mitchell tried to deliver a message of hope to troubled kids.

The former sweet-shooting small forward dedicated the last years of his life to that mission.

“He loved it,” former Spurs forward Mark Olberding said. “That was his passion. He had some personal issues he was going through as a player, and he turned (around) and gave back to the community, helping those at-risk kids.

“He did a great job. He’ll be forever remembered for that.”

Mitchell, a 1980s-era Spur, was memorialized in a ceremony attended by about 300 people Thursday night at the Antioch Sports and Community Center.

A San Antonio resident and longtime member of the Antioch Baptist Church, Mitchell died June 9 after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 55.

The crowd at the service was an eclectic mix.

Several former NBA players, including former Spurs Olberding, Paul Griffin, Larry Kenon, Mike Gale, Keith Edmondson and Reggie Johnson, turned out.

They all sat in a section with some of the Baseline Bums, the team’s long-time fan group.

Also, former Cleveland Cavaliers standout Campy Russell made a trip from Cleveland, where he works as the team’s director of alumni relations.

Russell was a fifth-year player with the Cavaliers when Mitchell came into the NBA as a rookie in 1978.

“Today was the first day I realized that Mike was gone,” a tearful Russell told the group. “We were always close. We hit it off right away, and we played the same position — can you imagine that?”

Other less-familiar faces with important jobs in the San Antonio community also attended. One was Roy Washington, superintendent of the Cyndi Taylor Krier Juvenile Correctional Treatment Center.

Mitchell, as CEO of a non-profit that focused on drug counseling for youth, often held court several years ago with kids at the Bexar County-operated Krier center.

“Mike was very personable,” Washington said. “Those kids paid attention to him.”

Mitchell had quite a story to tell.

He played professional basketball for 22 years in the NBA and in Europe, including seven with the Spurs from 1981-88.

A dashing talent with a 19.8-point career scoring average in 10 NBA seasons, he played with Hall of Famers George Gervin and Artis Gilmore on the Spurs. He dueled in the playoffs against the Magic Johnson-led Los Angeles Lakers.

Afterward, he went overseas and thrilled fans in Italy with a feathery jump shot. Part of his story wasn’t so thrilling.

In 1987, Mitchell checked into a rehabilitation center, a victim of substance abuse.

“I wasn’t worried about him,” Russell said. “He had a lot of good people around him. That was really the greatness of Mike Mitchell. He was willing to change.”

Rehabilitation was an experience that prompted Mitchell to found the National Institute of Sobriety, Education, Rehabilitation and Recovery (NISERR), a non-profit designed to combat chemical dependency.

Starting in 2003, following a long basketball career in Europe, Mitchell went into schools and correctional facilities in San Antonio to spread the word. He was encouraging. He was upbeat.

He was loud.

“Mike was pretty dynamic,” Washington said. “He came in and with his height and that commanding baritone voice. He had their attention. He joked with the kids, and they laughed a lot. They apparently (listened to) everything he was saying because they would give it back to him.”

Terry’s emotion, points fuel stunning Dallas rally

By JAIME ARON
Associated Press

MIAMI — Jason Terry didn’t like Dwyane Wade strutting his stuff in front of the Dallas Mavericks bench, and let him know it.

So what if the Miami Heat were up by 15 points with 7:14 left and had plenty to celebrate? Terry and the Mavericks weren’t about to go down 2-0 that easily.

Terry fired back with the first six points in a 22-5 run that ended with the Mavericks pulling off one of the most stunning rallies in NBA finals history, beating the Heat 95-93 on Thursday night. The next three games are in Dallas.

Terry went scoreless in the second half of the opener, and was a miserable 4 of 16 for the series before his key roll down the stretch. He scored eight points in the furious rally, finishing with 16 points, five assists, two steals and a huge smile.

It was especially sweet for him to stick it to the Heat, their fans and Wade because he and Nowitzki are the only players left from the 2006 Mavs who blew the finals by losing three straight games in Miami.

In ’06, the Mavericks didn’t have the resolve to recover when things were slipping away.

This postseason, they have proved time and again that they can.

Sure, they blew a 23-point lead against Portland, but they won their next seven. In Game 4 of the conference finals, they overcame a 15-point deficit with a little more than 5 minutes left, something they certainly were thinking about when down by the same margin but with even more time on the clock Thursday night.

Terry is one of the club’s emotional leaders. His fiery attitude and on-fire performance down the stretch were as crucial for Dallas as Dirk Nowitzki playing through an injured finger on his left hand.