The Miami Heat have won the NBA Championship to end the greatest NBA post season I have ever seen. I must say that while I wanted to see the Diesel win his fourth ring, I take no particular delight in seeing Dallas on the short end of the stick. As crazy as he seems to be, Mark Cuban is a breath of fresh air in professional sports. I hope that he can get his team to the mountain.
However, this has to be sweet for the Daddy. It was a "him or me" situation for Shaq in LA and after Kobe "won" the feud, Shaq went to Miami and delivered a championship to South Beach. Meanwhile, the Lakers are still justifying their decision. In some levels, it made sense, I suppose to trade Shaq and keep Kobe. After all, Shaq is much older and he tends to break down. And now, this is Wade's team, although I don't think Wade gets there without Shaq. Meanwhile, what the Lakers never figured out was that Kobe doesn't understand team. He may pass once in a while, but ultimately, it's all about Kobe. It's always been about Kobe. While Shaq is getting fitted for a fourth ring, the last time we saw Kobe, he was quitting on his team in the second half of a game seven blowout against the Suns.
Now, and forevermore, the Lakers franchise will have the Shaq trade as one of the darkest moments in franchise history.
Oh, and one more thing. With the season hanging in the balance, Dirk Nowitski disappeared in the fourth quarter, with only 2 points. Is that a fair thing to say, considering that he had 28 points and 15 rebounds and carried this team all year? Of course it isn't.
Tonight, while paying closer attention to it, there were definitely some huge
missedwrong calls tonight. The one on Nowitzki with Miami up 83-31 was a killer, especially because of the way the crowd was reacting to all of the foul calls. And right up to the very end, Wade was practically automatic at the line.Even then, I just think the Heat were a little better than the Mavs tonight. The Mavs, even when they got the shots they were looking for, just weren't knocking down many shots.
Stackhouse was pretty huge for a while in the fourth quarter, though, especially considering his 5 fouls. That was a pretty poor final possession for the Mavs, too, when they had the chance to tie it.
Oh yeah, on a more Shaq-related note, I thought that Mourning was the better player tonight. Without checking, I'd guess that the tandem of Shaq and Mourning must've been the best team center in the league.
Mourning was huge in the second half. Huge.
Oddly, the fact the Mourning and Payton got rings (finally) gives a guy hope for KG if he can extract himself from the abyss that is the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Dallas didn't play particularly well in the 2nd half, but again some of the calls in favor of Wade were just ridiculous. He got calls even when the defender laid off of him; he got a call under the basket in the 4th quarter, just by throwing his hands in the air and shouting "Ahhh!"; and the call he got when he threw his fore-arm into Nowitzki with 26 seconds left was beyond absurd. It couldn't have been any more clear which team (or, specifically, which player) the refs were favoring in the last two games. Whenever Miami really needed some help, they just had to give the ball to Wade; either he'd score, or the refs would send him to the line. Forget Shaq. The officiating in Games 5 and 6 threw the series to Miami, and completely ruined it for me.
Here the playoffs were on the verge of being the best ever, and then games 5 and 6 completely turned me back off to the NBA.
Really, they need to start fixing the officiating NOW. When an NBA game comes off like a WWF main event, there's a problem.
...and the call he got when he threw his fore-arm into Nowitzki with 26 seconds left was beyond absurd.
Yes. I really hate it when officiating becomes a big part of the story, but it's pretty hard to ignore here, especially tonight.
I honestly don't think it's part of a big conspiracy so much as it's just gross incompetence. NBA officiating has always seemed poor for as long as I can remember, but it seems like they just let the same guys keep coming back year after year, and they ain't gettin' any better.
I thought the calls weren't as bad in game 6. And not every call went against Dallas. I do think that the referees tend to make calls at the end of these games that they wouldn't otherwise. One example was the travelling call on the missed free throw late in the game. Two Miami players got there and briefly held the ball. Travelling was called, even though they quickly let go.
Wade got fouled a lot at the end, but it was to stop the clock. He wasn't getting the every call to the basket. Plus, he got a loose ball foul called on him that was dubious down the stretch. The one really bad call in Wade's favor was that play where he came at Nowitski and flung his arm out. Really bad call there.
Watching game five and then seeing the Wade-Nowitzki play from last night's game leaves a sour taste with this basketball fan.
I realize Wade is a great player and he's fun to watch, but it seemed like the refs willed him to an MVP-caliber series.
But much like the Seahawks in the Super Bowl, the officiating didn't cost the Mavs this one. They could have won last night's game if they had played a decent third and fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Mavs looked the T-Wolves. Where were the plays for Dirk? He hardly touched the ball.
Other than the Dirk call (and Dirk got a similar call earlier when he barreled into a defender that had position) I thought the reffing on Wade was much better in game 6. I didn't think it was nearly as bad as in game 5. You also saw more of a team game from Miami. In game 5 Wade shot the ball every time in the fourth. Last night was not the same. I thought it was a very good and exciting game.
The Mavs don't always run their offense through Dirk, because Howard and Terry are capable of pouring in points, as well. When the defense is gearing itself towards Dirk, it may even make better strategic sense to run plays for his teammates. When KG disappears from his team's offense, on the other hand, it's just puzzling.
The fishy calls around Wade last night weren't as frequent as they were in Miami, but I noticed that they seemed to crop up when the game was close or Miami had fallen behind. In the first half, when Miami needed a run to get back in the game, there were a few phantom fouls to help Wade out. I didn't see much of it in the 3rd quarter, but down the stretch the friendly whistles came back out.
Are you referring to the time when he ran over the guy on the baseline, while the shooter hit the 3?
I couldn't agree more. It wasn't a basketball championship, it was a coronation.