Cuban leaves $20k tip after post-championship revelry

Celebrating his first title was a sweet experience for Dallas owner Mark Cuban.

Even if it came with a steep price.

The New York Post reports that Cuban early Monday morning at the chic Miami Beach nightspot Liv at Miami’s Fountainebleau Hotel after the Mavericks wrapped up their first NBA title.

Cuban spent most of it on a $90,000 bottle of Ace of Spaces Champagne for teammates Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, Shawn Marion and Brain Cardinal. The Larry O’Brien Trophy was in the middle of the celebration, which curiously came at the same club where LeBron James’ mother partied before she was arrested earlier this year after a tiff with a parking attendant.

Cuban left a $20,000 tip for the wait staff after the celebration, which continued until 5 a.m and included a performance by rapper Lil Wayne.

“Worth every penny,” Cuban told the Post by e-mail.

Bad memory No. 9: Spurs squander fourth-quarter lead in Black Friday collapse to Mavs

In our continuing look at the best and worst moments of the 2010-11 Spurs’ season, we look at the Black Friday tumble where they saw their early 12-game winning streak snapped by Dallas.

No.  9: Black Friday fourth-quarter collapse snaps Spurs’ 12-game winning streak.

When:  Nov. 26, 2010

Where: ATT Center, San Antonio.

What happened: The Spurs’ offense fell apart down the stretch as they were held without a field goal for a four-minute stretch late in their 103-94 home loss to Dallas on the day after Thanksgiving. Despite 31 points from Manu Ginobili, the Spurs saw Dallas take control as they scored nine straight points late in the game. It enabled the Mavericks to earn a a small measure of revenge for their 2010 playoff series loss to San Antonio. Dirk Nowitzki went 12-for-14 from the field en route to a team-high 26 points and Tyson Chandler and Shawn Marion each scored 19 points for the Mavericks. Tony Parker was limited to nine points and was minus-17 in plus/minus. And Richard Jefferson clanked through a miserable shooting night with only two points as he missed all four field-goal attempts.

What was said:  ”Dallas did a great job tonight. As a group they executed better than we did. I think they were a bit hungry and a bit more competitive than we were tonight. And it showed up in the fourth quarter,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, describing the late collapse.   

What was said, Part II:  ”The last few games we were executing great down the stretch and making shots, but today they did. It was pretty clear they made all the shots they needed and we didn’t,” Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, describing the end of the Spurs’ 12-game winning streak.

What was said, Part III: We didn’t know what the streak was. It was just a matter that they’ve been playing well. We’ve been playing pretty good and we know this is our rival. And this is what the rivalry is all about,” Dallas guard Jason Terry on snapping the Spurs’ 12-game winning streak.

What was said, Part IV: “I guess it’s a magnet (for Nowitzki’s elbow). Things happen and you’ve just got to be tough and be ready to keep playing,” Ginobili, who sustained a bloody nose early in the fourth quarter, courtesy of an elbow from Nowitzki. Ginobili’s nose was broken by Nowitzki in the 2010 playoffs.

The upshot: The victory snapped San Antonio’s 12-game losing streak which was their longest of the season. But it was the Spurs’ last home loss in a long time as they immediately started a 22-game home winning streak that would stretch through March 6 and finish as the longest home winning streak in team history. And after that loss to Dallas, the Spurs would beat the eventual Western Conference champions in each of the three remaining games against them during the regular season.

Previous bad memories:

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Miami ‘D’ hangs on in fourth

By JONATHAN FEIGEN
jonathan.feigen@chron.com

DALLAS — All those days in the gym, Dirk Nowitzki has worked on all those moves and launched all those shots just for these moments.

The spins. The fadeaways. The impossibly high release. They were all there as the final seconds of Game 3 of the NBA Finals slipped away. And Nowitzki had been on a roll, scoring 12 consecutive points to give Dallas a chance.

But Udonis Haslem wasn’t at any of those workouts. With the game in Nowitzki’s hands, the Miami Heat put Haslem on Nowitzki, and he never let him loose. Haslem forced a turnover, then masterfully contested the shot Nowitzki missed at the buzzer as Miami held on for an 88-86 win Sunday at American Airlines Center to take a 2-1 series lead.

“The look with four seconds to go, I think it was as good as you can get it,” Nowitzki said.

Added Miami coach Erik Spoelstra: “That was a very similar situation to what we saw the other night. Had a different matchup. That’s a makeable shot. But (Haslem) did a great job keeping his chest in front of him and forcing him into a fadeaway. Nowitzki is a tough player.

“That shot hung up in the air about as long as it was in between Game 2 and Game 3. It was a good offensive play and a good defensive play. And he happened to miss.”

Of the 11 previous Finals in which the teams split the first two games in the current 2-3-2 format, the team that has won Game 3 won the series.

“This is a total win,” said Dwyane Wade, who led Miami with 29 points. “You want to win the game on the defensive end of the floor, and we got a stop.”

The Heat were burned in Game 2 after letting the ?Mavs erase a 15-point lead in the final seven minutes. Sunday, they were again up with seven minutes left, this time by seven.

And just as he had at the same point of Game 2, Nowitzki went to work. He scored the Mavericks’ next 12 points including when he cut to the rim for a slam with 2??1/2 minutes left.

“He knows he’s going to have to carry a certain load, not just a scoring load,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “He’s going to have to make plays. We’d like to make it easier for him.”

After Wade hit a jumper, Nowitzki dropped in a fadeaway to tie the game with 1:40 remaining, giving him 34 points — 15 in the fourth quarter.

The Heat found a way to win partly because of a big shot from a struggling member of their Big 3.

Chris Bosh had made just 15 of 51 shots in the Finals, but he took a pass from LeBron James and swished a baseline jumper from 16 feet, giving Miami an 88-86 lead with 39.6 seconds left.

“That’s fundamental basketball at its best,” Spoelstra said. “You see an open man. You hit an open man.

“The important thing we did we didn’t necessarily do in Game 2 was trust. The ball moved. The play wasn’t designed for him. The ball moved, and we hit the open guy. I don’t care what happened to that point. He makes winning plans. He made a big one for us.”

In Game 2, Spoelstra had Bosh on Nowitzki during his string of clutch shots. This time, Haslem locked down Nowitzki as Bosh could not. After Bosh’s jumper, Haslem closed so quickly that Nowitzki looked for Shawn Marion in the corner, but threw his pass away with 30.2 seconds left.

The Mavericks, however, had a last chance after James missed a 3-pointer with 4.9 seconds left.

Nowitzki created enough space to get his fadeaway off cleanly from 16 feet out. But the ball bounced harmlessly off the rim at the buzzer.

“He’s a great player, 7 feet, so he’s going to shoot over me,” Haslem said. “I’ve got to make it tough on him.”

Jason Kidd had nine points and 10 assists for the Mavericks, but also four turnovers. Giveaways haunted Dallas throughout the game, especially the first half, helping keep Miami comfortably ahead.

“We have to have somebody step up besides Dirk,” Kidd said. “We have to figure out how to get up front and play up front. The big thing is we’ve got to be able to make plays late in the game. Game 2 we made the plays, Game 3 we just didn’t.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.