Mavericks, Heat tied at 2-2 2011 NBA Finals

Yours truly. Back again.

I wanted to get in my thoughts on the finals before I shuttered NTM for good (or until I move back up to northern Texas).

On LeBron:

King James has been ripped and analyzed and talked about for his Decision (poorly handled), his aspirations (Global Icon? Really?) and his trophy case (filled with individual accolades). He is oddly self-aware of his image yet sometimes unaware of the consequences of that. Methinks he is perhaps too talented to appreciate. Take away his other-worldly athleticism and he might be everyone’s favorite underrated player. Instead,  he is built like Karl Malone and has hops like Vince Carter. Dude is a beast. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have Mike Jordan’s drive to be the best, nor Kobe’s drive to be Mike Jordan.

What does that mean?

It means we think he could be even more awesome than he already is and we give him shit for not immediately producing the results he "should" be.

That said, he cannot be held blameless. Watch the Decision and listen to his interviews. Look at his tattoos. LeBron brings a lot of that on himself. Cool if he fully understands the consequences and can he deal with the seemingly overwhelming burden of expectation that is placed on him. Is that so? That remains to be seen.

What do we make of his Game 4 performance?

It was a bad game. Those who parrot the zero-sum thinking that a win means you are clutch and a loss means you suck sound stupid. Summing up Game Four as “LeBron sucked, Heat lose” does not do nearly enough justice to the Mavericks nor to the rest of the Heat.

All of the above goes for baggin’ on Dirk when Dallas loses this series.

On Dirk:

Way back in the first round vs Portland I mentioned on Twitter that Herr Dirk was Dave Robinson if he never had Timmy. The soft label, the playoff ‘failures’, the individual accolades are all very similar. ‘Tis why I can’t feel unyielding, irrational hate towards the guy. I know what it felt like to root for Dave and hear the barrage of unfair criticism.

So how can I root against Dirk in this Finals?

He doesn’t need a Finals victory to validate his baller status in my eyes. I ain’t down with the “ITS ALL ABOUT THE RINGZ” bullshit. It is mostly about the rings. Mostly. The rest is far too complicated to describe in this space.

On the Mavericks:

Gutty. Admittedly, I ignored the Mavs this season. Well, ignored is the wrong word. I didn’t take them the least bit seriously but not without reason. Other than a surprisingly good record, they hadn’t shown they were going to nut up in the playoffs. They have.

Sure, the Lakers helped beat themselves and OKC and Portland weren’t serious championship contenders. That means nothing. This Mavs teams is not as young and ferocious as that 2006 squad, but it does have more mental talent. They run out older, wiser Dirk who has vaccinated his game against the tricks that befuddled him in the past, future HOF Jason Kidd instead of Net castoff Devin Harris, 13-year veteran Shawn Marion instead of Josh Howard and Tyson Chandler instead of the junk pile that Dallas used at center.

The stink of the past playoff failures turned people off. Playoff victories and big wins in tough situations were the only things that could make the NBA fandom take this team seriously. Lo, and behold some amazing play by Herr Dirk and ballsy 15-point comebacks (three of ‘em) have resurrected the Metroplex fanbase into full-on Douche-mode (my interpretation).

As unlikeable as these Mavs are to little ol’ me, they are making these playoffs fun to watch. That is why I want to watch in the first place, anyway. Fun.

That said, did anyone really think that the Mavericks were going to give up and die in Game Four? Dallas has already shown they believe enough to not quit and are skilled enough to execute a comeback. They have no reason to think they cannot do the same in this series. It is pretty rare for a squad to have that combo. They shirked off a “for sure” loss in Game Two and nearly stole another on their home floor. This game? Actually they should have sewn it up with around a minute-thirty to go. Dallas had wide-open shots from Terry, Dirk and DeShawn that didn’t drop and spared Miami a KO blow.

On Heat:

So now they have the pressure. Who is applying this pressure? Media. Some can be self-applied but it is hard to duck 48-hours of questions without it affecting your mindset. That is, of course, if you don’t believe in yourself and/or your system. Reaching the Finals, playing so well for stretches and the presence of Dwyane Wade and LeBron James has to give that team some confidence. For D-Wade? His ability and performance this series gives him even more. For LeBron? Well, the shadow of doubt might creep into his mind. Maybe it won’t. Hard to tell with that dude. It isn’t new pressure or criticism and his press conferences seem to show a guy that is not rattled in the least. He has an answer for every question, takes responsibility for his (poor) performances and seems to have an idea how to improve it. Sounds like confidence to me.

Still, it is like in Rocky when Apollo Creed knocks down Rocky for the 100th time and yet he gets up. Apollo turns, looks at him and shakes his head in disbelief. Dude won’t stay down. Miami is the more talented, more athletic squad. So far, they won’t stay down.



By the way Apollo wins that fight.