What a finish.

Yeah, that Howard timeout really destroyed their chances at a last shot. Damn, Dirk Nowitzki was so mad after the loss, kicking everything in sight on the way to the locker room.

But this was Dwyane's night. The Finals MVP trophy has his name on it.

I saw that too. :lolsign:

What the hey, I'm gonna go and say Mavs in 7. :)

The Mavs may still win this series, but tonight is the reason why I say something about them is undeserving about a championship. They just don't have that player with killer instinct like Miami has with Wade. They all seem so emotionless and dumbfounded in the clutch. This is the 2nd game in the series they choked away.

The last 3 nights (games) have been Wade's nights (games). Over the 3 home games in Miami, Wade has averaged 40.3 points. He is the main reason why this Miami team is only the 2nd team in history to win all 3 middle games in the Finals. It's official: Dwayne Wade is the best player in the league right now.

Dallas made even more critical mistakes last night. Missed free-throws by normally good free-throw shooters, Howard's early timeout call. These are the type of things that decide who wins out, and so far, the Mavs have failed miserably. Sunday was a bad day for "M"'s. First Phil Mickelson chokes, then the Mavs choke... again!

I'm still picking the Mavs to win this series. It's been a great matchup and I think it deserves to go 7 games, so I'm hoping Dallas can get their swagger back and find a way to pull this out.

Also, I like an owner who's hands-on and everything, but what the hell is Mark Cuban doing? He's all up in the huddle during timeouts. I wouldn't be suprised if he was chatting with the ballboy and running plays through to Avery Johnson. I'm sayin', dude needs to be the rich owner and sit up in the box somewhere. He's gotta be a distraction to the team.


"What am I saying to you right now, dog? Please, don't come off on me right now because I'm going to come off on you, and I'm not in a great mood right now. Get out of my face, man. Get out of my face."
-- Josh Howard when asked by Chris Sheridan to comment on his controversial timeout call.

... haha!

One point! One freaken point! (I just saw the results!) I didn't watch it, how did The Mav lose by one point?

Dwyane Wade.



Oh, is anyone else happy for Gary Payton who hit that clutch, left-handed, high-off-the-glass layup? He's hit big shots in two of the Heat's wins.

That's exactly why you pick up a Gary Payton during the offseason. He's not good enough to carry a team, but if you need a big bucket late, he's a veteran guy who can still deliver. I like how for 3 quarters, Jason Terry abuses him and Jason Williams, but Terry always gets burned in crunch time.

If Miami does win the series, GP will have had played a key role. I was watching the postgame press conference, and GP was mad cool, very veteran-like, very chill. GP is gangsta.


Oh, and just in case some people believe the Mavericks' insinuation that Wade was not fouled on his last drive:

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...-OT-FOULED.jpg

The only odd thing was that the refs called the foul on Nowitzki, not Harris. But in any case, Wade was fouled.

I don't think anyone was debating there being a foul. I think the main criticism was that the refs let that decide the game. It was a ticky-tack foul, they should have swallowed their whistles on that play. But of course, star players get certain calls, and that's the nature of the game. Dallas doesn't have anything to whine about though, they had their opportunities.

I'm doing my post-game surfing this morning, and a lot of people are debating whether or not there was a foul call.

I found another picture, and there seems to be a gap between Harris's hand and Wade's arm. The angle in that first picture I posted isn't the best. This is the second angle:

http://www.nba.com/media/finals2006/...600_060618.jpg


There's also an animated .gif from the ABC camera. Nowitzki definitely didn't foul Wade. But it's hard to tell whether Harris's hand came down on Wade's forearm (I didn't add that caption at the end):

http://nelsok.com/images/72102485.gif

It doesn't look like there was a foul to me at all, or one that warranted a foul call, at least. But, Nowitzki should have done a better job of closing that lane when Wade made his way down there. It might have forced him to take a tough jumpshot with two people crowding him. Also on the play before that, Devon Harris drove down the lane and CLEARLY drew contact, but didn't get the call. Inconsistent officiating down the stretch it seems.

I'm still staring at the animated .gif. Harris' hand came down pretty hard. Had he actually hit Wade's arm, Wade's arm probably would not have been able to continue its normal upward motion.

If that's true, then there was no foul on that play.



http://www.sun-sentinel.com/media/ph...6/23985544.jpg

The only Cuban not welcome in Miami.

I think you only swallow your whistles in that situation if there was a chance Wade could make the shot, but IMO there was absolutely no shot at him hitting that shot.

Yeah, I guess you're right. He chances were very slim that he'd hit that shot.




Going away from the NBA Finals a bit, I was skimming ESPN and found a couple of articles about Len Bias. He died 20 years ago today. This guy was a beast at Maryland and would have been a SUPERstar in the NBA right off the bat. It's tragic what happened to him. Check out these articles:

The legend of Len Bias
By Scoop Jackson

Len Bias gone, but not forgotten
By Bomani Jones

I'm a big fan of Scoop Jackson. I really like his writing style. The Bomani Jones article is good too.

Timberwolf: If you can SOMEHOW find a video or animated GIF of the dunk Jackson is referring to from that Carolina game, you'd be my hero. It'd probably be hard as hell though, so I don't worry yourself if it's too much trouble.

Nice. I'm also a fan of Scoop. I liked his stuff, ever since his SLAM days.

I had always been under the impression that Len Bias was a good player drafted by the Celtics in '86. I never knew that he was that good.

I'm just learning now that, had he lived, he would've changed the history of the NBA. The Celtics would've continued to win championships, since Bird and McHale would've had their careers extended as they wouldn't have had to play those heavy minutes. Michael Jordan would've had a serious rival in his own conference to deal with.

It's unfortunate what happened with Bias.


I couldn't find an animated .gif. But I found a clip of what seems to be the dunk Scoop was talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsE0Th50SII

It's the one at the 1:34 mark (with replays until the 1:53 mark), where he stole the inbound pass against the Tar Heels and reverse dunked it, spreading his legs and arms.

The tribute clip itself is pretty awesome. He really seemed to play like a bigger, taller, young Michael Jordan. He could jump and hang, and the block at the 1:23 mark was absolutely ludricrous.

If you want, I can send that clip to you in .flv format.



Edit:

Here's another one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qHB7TAoUUc

That dunk is the first play you see. And I am certain it's the one Scoop is talking about.

Again, I can send both clips to you in .flv if you like :)

Yeah man. If Bias had played 15 or so years, there would have been absolutely no drop-off for the Celtics. The Lakers and Pistons might to have gotten their back-to-back championships, Celtics vs. Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals might have become a recurring theme. Simply put, he would have changed the course of NBA history as we know it.

It's always sad to see such talent squandered, but as his mother said during an interview, he did much more for the NBA and society at-large in death than he could have ever done in life.



Dude, T-Wolf, you're the best man! Thanks so much. I owe you one. :D Thanks for the offer, but I have a plugin for Firefox that lets me download .flv files. Again, thanks, I really appreciate it. :)

The tribute video was really good. Bias' game was beautiful to watch. He looked like man amongst boys out there. I think he would have been one of the greatest to ever play the game.





Also, tonight is Game 6 between the Heat and Mavs. Dallas finally gets to return home after a horrific 3 games in South Beach. It seems like everybody on that team is pissed, whether that works for or against their favor remains to be seen. I'm hoping Dallas wins. I really want to see a Game 7.

So did I, bishop...so did I.
Heat 95, Dallas 92. Heat takes the championship.

...and sad am I. :(

Well, it looks like I predicted it right, with the Heat winning the championship after six games. Though it certainly didn't look like this was gonna happen after the first two games, the Heat came back and won four in a row, a surprising feat only achieved by two other teams in league history.

Even though this wasn't a down to the wire Game 7, it was still a pretty good game. The Heat certainly had the lead for the majority of game but, especially in the fourth quarter, the Mavs managed to give them a run for their money. The Heat played well all throughout though, which is what led them to victory tonight. I'll give it up for the Mavs, but my congratulations goes to the Miami Heat, for winning their first championship.

And man, how much do Dallas fans suck? They can't even be civil while Miami is being presented with their trophy. I mean, I know no one expects them to cheer for them, but they certainly don't have to boo them. Shit, the game is over, and if they have nothing good to say or do, they should just leave already.

God damn it, I was really pulling for my hometown owner to win his first. Too bad.

Simply put, Dallas did not deserve this championship. They had double-digit leads twice in tonight's game and still lost. Whenever you're a team that relies too much on jumpshooting, that's going to continue to happen. They get hot for awhile outside, fall in love with it and then it all falls to shit. They're a great team, and they'll be around next year, but they need somebody they can throw the ball to down on the low block and get some consistent, high-percentage buckets.

Congrats to the Heat. They played like the team that wanted it more and they showed it over the last four games. Dwayne Wade played out of his mind (he's damn sure no Jordan, btw), Shaq was dominant when he needed to be and their role players came up huge during clutch situations.

Now... Kobe and Jerry Buss can go cry.

Oh, and I wonder how Stan Van Gundy feels right about now.

Cheated? He made the entire team, and Riley just flat out stole it from him just when Dwyane (This fucker's parents need to learn how to spell) Wade was breaking out.

I like how everyone down here is all of a sudden a Heat fan.

Just like they were suddenly Marlins ('97 & '03) or Panthers ('96) fans.

Everyone down here is going flaming batshit, I wish I could be more excited (I was more excited for Tampa when they won the cup, as you may know I'm into hockey.) but I really can't.

But Miami needed something like this, fake as the happiness may be.

Yeah man, I gotta agree with you. This whole thing about Van Gundy wanting to leave and spend time with his family didn't fly with me. I wouldn't be suprised at all if he was pushed out the door. He goes through training camp and everything, then 10, 15(?) games into the season says "eh, lemme quit so I can spend time with my family". Nah, I don't think so. Just doesn't sound right to me.

Also, congrats to Alonzo Mourning. Working his way back from the whole kidney ailment and playing a signifcant role in this championship run is pretty cool. I don't exactly like when he blocks a shot and damn near has a seizure on the court, but he worked hard and deserved this title. Payton too.

Hey, it's the same in Dallas. Miami and Dallas just aren't basketball towns like Philly, Boston, LA and other big NBA towns are.

But I'm happy the Heat won. I predicted them to win in 6 or 7 and I'm a fan of Wade. You all know I've said plenty of times on here that the Mavericks are just undeserving of a title. You saw why this series. They came up small when it counted in big moments. Blew big leads at the end of games and then choked away a big lead with the momentum on their own home court in game 6. Bishop is absolutely right. They did not deserve it period, and I've said it since before the series even started. Something about that team just to me wasn't deserving.

Wade, however is very deserving. He's one of the best players in the game and plays with fire, energy, and determination. He willed that team to victory. On paper they have a lot of big names, but almost all of them are a shell of themselves. They won because of Wade and Wade alone.

Okay wait a sec last time I checked the Mavericks led 2-0; now they lost 4 matches in a fucking row? Jesus Christ, what is this. Cuban will be pretty pissed.

Fuckin Wade can go fuck himself btw