This story is going viral, if you will pardon the pun.
Dwyane Wade and LeBron James were caught pretending to be sick and apparently mocking Dirk Nowitzki on camera by channel 11 in Dallas. Nowitzki had a fever above 100 degrees during Game 4, but still managed to lead the Mavericks to a series-tying victory.
Here is the video:
Karma, if you believe in such a thing, came back to get Wade? He injured his hip
early in Game 5 and tried to play through it.
Wow. Pretty bold move guys. At least the Mavs won Game 5 and now are 1 win away from winning this series. I would imagine the Mavs will have the last laugh. Oh, and did I mention karma?
We know that Dirk Nowitzki will play through a bad finger injury with a brace, will play through with a 101 degree temperature, and we also know LeBron James is human after all.
It’s not just the first time in his playoff career that LeBron has been held below 10 points. It’s the first time in 434 NBA games, regular season and playoffs included. It’s the first time overall since Jan. 5, 2007.
If he’d done this in Cleveland, sat on the weak side watching teammates do the bulk of the lifting, he would’ve been called a quitter. Given that his team was hardly getting blown out of this one – in fact, the Heat was leading by nine points with 10:30 left in the fourth quarter with LeBron playing the facilitator – it should probably just be called a once-in-a-lifetime oddity. The Halley’s Comet of LeBron James’ playoff career.
Ouch! It goes further:
But here’s where the criticism is absolutely valid in this one. If LeBron had played 44 minutes as the sidekick, the egoless point forward with all the right intentions, and then turned it on for the final four minutes, no one would’ve been concerned about the final stat line.
If LeBron James decided that, in the final few minutes with the Heat desperate for big buckets, he would switch to a scorer’s mentality and just flat-out missed, it would at least be reasonable.
But for LeBron to attempt exactly one shot in the fourth quarter when his team needed everything he had, it’s pretty much inexcusable.
So to put it mildly, LeBron is taking some HEAT (hahaha) for his poor performance no?
Look, the Dallas Mavericks are playing hard. They are huffing and puffing, running around bandaged up with a temperature of 101. These “old” guys have this series tied up at 2 games apiece. It’s going to be very interesting the way this thing ends up, but we do know that the Mavs are trying really hard in this thing. More than some players are playing right?
It’s hard to say, really. On the one hand, this face painter could be simply reacting to his beloved Dallas Mavericks going down two games to one in the NBA Finals after the squad lost to the Miami Heat 88-86 Sunday night. Alternatively, the bead of moisture running down his painted blue cheek could also be stemming from the considerable amount of perspiration accumulating on his forehead.
In breaking news from USAToday, we are learning that the Miami Heat are “very disappointed” at losing Game 2 in Miami the other night.
“First of all, we let one go,” Heat guard Dwyane Wade said. “We let one slip away. We’re a very confident team going into the fourth quarter when we have the lead, whether it’s one point and obviously 15.
But just looking at the film, even watching on my own, just looking at the things you felt we could have done better as a team, the little mistakes we made that they made us pay for.”
I have to wonder if the Miami Heat ever thought that maybe they are too full of themselves? Nah, probably not.
Heat ‘very disappointed’ in late Game 2 collapse (USAToday)
Forgive me for being sort of a vindictive kind of guy, but I always love reading the paper of the team that the Mavs beat after a big game. Take what the Miami Herald is saying this morning after last night’s improbable Mavs comeback victory.
Entering the NBA Finals, it seemed nothing could top the craziness that was the Heat’s comeback in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals. Then Thursday happened. The Heat led by 15 points with seven minutes left before the Mavericks reeled off a 17-2 run to tie the score at 90 with 57 second to play.
Launching threes, hitting threes, shutting down superstars, holding the slimmest of leads at home or on the road — all of it appeared to be a piece of cake for LeBron James and the Heat in these playoffs.
And then Thursday happened. And then the fourth quarter happened. And then Dirk Nowitzki happened.
And then all those good feelings that had been built up over the past two series of impressive close-outs dissolved with one left-handed layup. An injured left hand at that.
The Heat, which was lulled into the quicker game by Dallas’ smaller lineup at times, had a postseason’s worth of highlights consolidated into one 40-minute segment of basketball.
It looked easy when Wade was either carving up the Mavericks defense and scoring, or kicking out to wide-open shooters. It looked stifling when the Heat defense forced turnovers that resulted in so many dunks that both rims are probably bruised.
It looked like such a sure thing when Wade hit that fadeaway three in the corner to extend the Heat lead to 88-73 that those seat covers were probably all bunched up and ready to be launched in the crowd.
Perhaps it was too early, then. Because the complacent Heat offense immediately appeared. The overconfident approach kicked in. The stand-and-watch LeBron offense kicked into high gear, and this time he wasn’t in savior mode.
This time, he was in “What’s going on, here?” mode.
And then the Dallas Morning News with this:
When Dwyane Wade, who had 36 points, poured in a 3-pointer from the corner right in front of the Mavericks’ bench with 7:14 to go, the Mavericks were down 88-73. Carlisle called a timeout, and LeBron James threw some soft punches into Wade’s chest as the pair did a little dance heading to the Miami bench.
“They were emotional and excited,” said Mavericks forward Brian Cardinal. “I don’t know if it ignited us. I’m sure it helped refocus everybody. You notice everything. That’s the beauty of having 15 guys on the bench. Everybody’s got an eyeball on something.
A 22-5 run later, the Mavericks had proved they were well aware of the Heat’s antics.
Let that be a lesson boys and girls. Never, ever start celebrating in advance. One thing you have to give credit to the Mavs for: They don’t even celebrate when they win a series!
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Dirk Nowitzki made the tie-breaking layup with 3.6 seconds left, and the Mavericks roared back from 15 points down with 6 minutes left in the fourth quarter to beat the Heat 95-93 on Thursday night and tie the NBA finals at one game apiece.
Capping a furious rally by scoring Dallas’ final nine points, Nowitzki’s final two baskets were left-handed — despite a torn tendon on his non-shooting hand.
It was nice to take the air out of Miami.
Stat of the Game: The Heat took 73 shots & 30 of them were from 3. Series heads to Dallas tied 1-1
Despite being owners of a conference-worst record 19-63, NBA fans in Cleveland have a clear horse in the race for the NBA Championship, which began on Tuesday night in Miami, the city to which LeBron so famously (or infamously, depending on where you live) took his talents last year.
Shortly after the Heat advanced to the Finals last Thursday night, one Cleveland area artist and graphic designer George Vlosich took to his computer and produced a t-shirt that embodies most Cleveland residents’ view on the series between the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat (read: LeBron James).
The group’s newly-created logo even includes the tagline, “Defeat Pure Evil.”
The rapid growth of the Twitter account and the number of followers that have jumped on the bandwagon in one day is proof as well of the number of people–regardless of team affiliation–who just want the Heat to lose.
It’ll be interesting to see if any Heat fans out there have a response to the “Cavs for Mavs” group.
Dirk Nowitzki is having the best postseason of his career, averaging 28.4 points per game, while leading the Mavericks back to the NBA Finals. Nowitzki’s newfound dominance can be traced back to a plan hatched by his coach before the regular season even started.
This year, Nowitzki averaged just 34.3 minutes per game. That was down over three minutes from 2008-09 (37.7 min/g) and 2009-10 (37.5 min/g), and was his lowest amount of playing time since his rookie year (20.4 min/g).
The fewer minutes led to Nowitzki’s lowest scoring output (23.0 ppg) in seven years. But the benefit appears to be a Dirk with fresher legs in the NBA’s second-season. So far, Nowitzki’s playing time in the playoffs is up to 38.9 minutes per game, which is in line with previous postseasons. Last year he averaged 38.8 minutes and in 2008-09 he average 39.4 minutes. And despite nearly identical playing time, his scoring is up 2.0 points per game over the last three years, when he averaged 26.7-26.8 points.
In his older age, the fresher legs have made Nowitzki a better shooter. His effective field goal percentage (eFG%; which weighs shots based on their point value, a 3-pt shot is worth more than 2-pt shot) was at a career-high this season (.545) and has continued at nearly the same rate into the postseason.
All data via Basketball-Reference.com
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