Tag: San Antonio Spurs

Three ‘Heatles’ trump Nowitzki again in Game 3

The Miami Heat outnumbered Dallas and Dirk Nowitzki again Sunday night.

The balanced Miami offense took advantage of solid performances from Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James  to cruise to an 88-86 victory in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. It provides the Heat with a 2-1 edge in the best-of-seven series.

Wade went for 29 points  and 11 rebounds. Bosh notched 18 points including the game-winner with 39.6 seconds left. And James had a solid 17 points and nine assists.

Their collective effort overcame a monster game from Nowitzki, who scored a game-high 34 points but received little help from the rest of his Mavericks team.

Nowitzki had a chance to tie the game at the end of regulation, but he misfired on a 15-foot jumper at the buzzer that would have tied the game with Udonis Haslem providing tough defense.

“It was a good offensive play, and a good defensive play,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters after the game. “And he happened to miss.”

Nowitzki pulled the Mavericks into a chance to win the game at the end by scoring 12 straight points down the stretch on six free throws, a layup, a dunk and a tough jumper that tied it at 86.

But on the Mavericks’ final two possessions, Nowitzki threw a pass out of bounds and missed off the back iron as time ran out.

Dallas players know they must provide more help for Nowitzki in order to square the series when Game 4 is played on Tuesday night.

“We have to have somebody step up besides Dirk,” Dallas guard Jason Kidd told reporters after the game.

Miami’s balance enabled them to reclaim homecourt advantage on Sunday. They can gun for much more when the series resumes for Game 4.

STUDS

Miami G Dwyane Wade: Notched 29 points, 11 rebounds and three assists in the Heat’s 88-86 Game 3 victory over Dallas.

Miami F Chris Bosh: Despite playing with a painful swollen left eyelid, he produced 18 points including the game-winner with 39.6 seconds left in the Heat’s victory at Dallas.

Miami F LeBron James: Went for 17 points, nine assists, three rebounds and two steals in the Heat’s triumph over the Mavs.

Miami F Udonis Haslem: Scored only six points but was plus-5 and provided the defense to contest Dirk Nowitzki’s potential game-tying shot at the buzzer in Miami’s victory at Dallas.

Dallas F Dirk Nowitzki: Went for a game-high 34 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, blocked three shots and was a game-best plus-12 in the Mavericks’ loss to Miami.

DUDS

Dallas G J.J. Barea: Went 2-for-8 from the field with four turnovers in the Mavericks’ loss to Miami.

The Dallas bench: The Mavericks’ backups went a collective 8-for-24 from the field (33.3 percent) with five turnovers and were a collective minus-23 in their loss to Miami.

Buck Harvey: Nowitzki’s turn to joke with Heat

Tim Duncan pulled LeBron James close and said a few things. “This is going to be your league in a little while,” Duncan said.

Then came the kicker. “But, uh, I appreciate you giving us this year.”

On June 14, 2007, about an hour after getting swept in the Finals, LeBron couldn’t help himself.

He laughed.

So another Texas team is in another of LeBron’s arenas tonight, with LeBron facing his first Finals elimination game since 2007. And if the Mavericks complete what the Spurs did before, Dirk Nowitzki should pull LeBron close and say the same.

This time, the joke would have more bite.

There are no guarantees Nowitzki will get the chance. These Finals have been so tight, there’s reason to believe the Heat could win two games at home.

Nowitzki knows what would follow, too. Lose now, after being ahead 3-2 in the series, and the Mavericks would become the Mavericks again.

“If you lose, you’re going to get hammered,” he said Saturday at a press conference in Miami. “It’s just the part of the business. I think we understand that. We’ve been around long enough. I got hammered the last 13 years, basically. So hopefully this year I can make the hammering go away for one year.”

He and the Mavericks have been flattened by a ball peen, if not a sledge. In 2006, with Mark Cuban in the lead, the Mavericks were whining when they weren’t paranoid. Three different Mavericks served various suspensions in that postseason, including Jason Terry and his infamous punch to Michael Finley’s shorts, and yet the Mavericks reacted as if they were being picked on.

The next season, culminating with Duncan pulling LeBron close, might have been Nowitzki’s nadir. The Mavericks, with Nowitzki as the MVP, were eliminated in the first round as the No. 1 seed.

Now it’s all turned around, and not just on the court. Nowitzki has won over everyone, partly because of his play, and partly because of the team he is beating.

The last few days played into that. Then, video taken following a shootaround the morning of Game 5 showed LeBron walking next to Dwyane Wade.

Wade coughed and said to LeBron, “Did you hear me cough? Think I’m sick.”

They laughed and pulled up their jerseys over their mouths — as Nowitzki had during Game 4 when he was fighting a sinus infection.

It might have been nothing more than a joke if it wasn’t for the history. Wade called out Nowitzki after the 2006 Finals for not being a leader, and there was a reported coolness between them at the 2007 All-Star Game. String it together, including how Wade dismissed Nowitzki’s illness after Game 4, and this was less humor than it was a jab.

Wade’s weak explanation Saturday added to that. “We never said Dirk’s name,” Wade said. “I think he’s not the only one in the world who can get sick or have a cough.”

Wade blamed the media after he had implied, in effect, Nowitzki had been feigning his sickness. Wade has always been immune to the stain of “The Decision,” as well as most of what followed; now he seems to be joining LeBron’s alienate-the-world marketing strategy.

Nowitzki’s reaction also suggests this was more than just a joke. “I just thought it was a little childish, a little ignorant,” Nowitzki said Saturday. “I’ve been in this league for 13 years. I’ve never faked an injury or illness.”

Nowitzki, though, didn’t need to say a thing. He’s not only winning with toughness and efficiency, he’s also doing so against a group even less likable than his Mavericks were in 2006.

I appreciate you giving us this year?

Yes, Nowitzki could say that.

bharvey@express-news.net

NBA Finals not a Lone Star love fest

By DOUGLAS PILS
dpils@express-news.net

Rivalries have a tendency to skew one’s perception of reality or, at worst, make viewing another reality incomprehensible.

The best example going right now — outside of the political arena’s constant state of being — is among Texas NBA fans.

Spurs fans, those who bleed silver and black and nothing else, are in full riot mode over the Dallas Mavericks being in the NBA Finals. You could hear the city’s laughter building on Thursday before the Mavs evened the series with a mad fourth-quarter rush in Miami.

As if he needed the answers, SpursNation.com writer Tim Griffin asked and found reasons for fans’ disdain last week.

“The hatred is because of the rivalry and the fact that they have a classless owner and loud mouth peanut sixth man,” wrote someone calling himself “rperez_jr.”

It’s not hard to realize he’s talking about Mark Cuban and Jason Terry.

In a 2006 playoff series won by Dallas, the duo forever made themselves enemies of Alamo City by saying bad things about the River Walk and with a short punch to Michael Finley’s groin.

It doesn’t matter that a few months later, the city did find zoo feces in that river or that Finley and Manu Ginobili had jumped on top of Terry.

Never mind that had it been Terry and some other Maverick on top of Finley, and it was Finley doing the punching, Spurs fans would see a folk hero instead of a villain.

And it makes no difference that Cuban has been a model citizen during these playoffs, even if he’s had to be quiet to do so.

The perception won’t change.

Generally, Texans band together when faced with outside aggression — see the Alamo, Civil War and any state saying it has better high school football or barbeque. If something shines a positive light on the state, it doesn’t take much to get behind it.

Even Longhorns and Aggies can admit that things are better for both, and the conference they play in, when both find themselves ranked. It didn’t do AM much good to say it beat a 5-7 Texas football team last year, just as the Aggies didn’t do the Longhorns many strength-of-schedule favors from 2000-09 by averaging six wins a season.

Fact is, the Spurs and Mavericks have a lot in common:

Playoff streak: Dallas is at 11, Spurs 14. No current team has more than eight.

50-win seasons: Dallas has 11 straight, Spurs have 12, which would be 14 if not for the 1998-99 lockout. Only the Lakers at 12 from 1980-91 have matched that.

Foreign influence: Mavs have four not counting Puerto Rico’s J.J. Barea. The Spurs have three not counting Tim Duncan of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Coincidence: The Spurs made their first Finals in the 26th season after moving from Dallas. Mavs made their first Finals in the 26th year of existence, losing in 2006 to Spurs fans’ delight.

Ah, but little of that matters in San Antonio. That leaves Spurs fans who hate Dallas left rooting for what one SpursNation.com reader calls the “anti-Spurs” because of the way the Heat’s LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh scream and preen after good plays.

Again, that’s perception. To Spurs fans, Ginobili has great expressions after big plays. You can bet others see screaming and preening.

If the Mavericks win, it means the great state of Texas has seven NBA titles in the past 18 years. If you’re counting and you care about telling Hollywood to stick it, that would be two more than California in that time.

And Spurs fans can still point to the imaginary scoreboard that would read: San Antonio 4, Dallas 1.

TEXAS SHARING

NBA players who have crossed over between Dallas and San Antonio since 2000:

Former Mavericks

Steve Novak: Seven games with Mavs and 23 with Spurs in 2010-11.

Michael Finley: Played nine seasons in Dallas, where he was a two-time All-Star, before spending 4 1/2 with Spurs.

Austin Croshere: Ended NBA career with three games here in 2008-09. Spent 2006-07 in Dallas.

Pops Mensah-Bonsu: Three games here in 2008-09; 12 in Dallas in 2006-07.

Kurt Thomas: Severe right ankle injury limited him to five games with Dallas in 1997-98. Played well with the Spurs from 2007-09.

Nick Van Exel: Backup point guard in 2005-06 played 100 games for the Mavs from 2002-03.

Mark Bryant: Spent 18 games in Dallas in 2000-01; 30 in S.A. the next season.

Cherokee Parks: Of his seven NBA stops, he had 64 games in Dallas as a rookie in 1995-96; 42 with Spurs in 2001-02.

Samaki Walker: No. 9 pick in 1996 spent three seasons in Dallas and the next two in S.A.

Former Spurs

Ian Mahinmi: No. 28 pick in 2005 joined Mavs this season after 32 games in S.A.

Drew Gooden: Started 2009-10 with the Mavs; finished 2008-09 in S.A.

Matt Carroll: Three games in S.A. in 2004; 46 with Mavs in two seasons from 2009-10.

Kevin Willis: With Spurs from 2002-04. Came out of retirement and played five games for Dallas in 2007.

Avery Johnson: He got a start on his coaching career working with Don Nelson over 1 1/2 seasons from 2002-03.