We are all Nowitznesses. But especially this guy.Welcome to the final BAD Weekend Watch of the season, and possibly the final BAD post period of the season. (And for perhaps quite a while, thanks to the nearly inevitable lockout.) Thank God we have this dedicated Dirk Nowitzki fan to ease the pain. I feel better already!
Worst of Game 5 in Pictures:
This is the most Brian Cardinal-y picture I've seen in ages, and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside
SAD FACE.(Sorry Heat fans, but this, too, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside)
That's some crowded air space -- is the air traffic controller sleeping on the job again?
Why the hell is Rick Carlisle committing invisible harakiri? Didn't his team win?
Even the Smurfs went through an unfortunate disco phase
Game 6 of the NBA Finals:
Mavericks at Heat, ABC, 8pm Sunday (Mavs lead series 3-2): If Brian Cardinal gets meaningful minutes in this game, the Mavs win. Book it. Besides, there's always time later for the Heat to win a title. Allen Iverson wants to make an NBA comeback. When he comes back at age 38 after next year is completely wiped out by a lockout (Great Simmons piece about the lockout here), I'm sure AI can join the Heat and lead them to the promised land of rings and trophies.
That being said, the Mavericks are still far from a championship. Not only are they going to win in Miami to take the title, but they are also fighting one of the most unbelievable stat curses in basketball history: Jason Terry's tattoo of the NBA championship trophy. Certainly even Devin Harris would shy away from such insolent taunting of The Way The Game Is Supposed To Be Played.
Labels: Bawful After Dark
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Worst of Game 5 of the 2011 NBA FinalsBawful After Dark: June 9, 2011
Worst of Game 4 of the 2011 NBA Finals: Dirk's Flu...
Bawful After Dark: June 7, 2011
Worst of Game 3 of the 2011 NBA Finals: National D...
Worst of Game 2 of the NBA Finals: Dirka Dirka Dir...
Note to the NBA: Leave refcalls.com alone
ET Live Blog: The HEAT / HATE Edition
Bawful After Dark: May 31, 2011
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Simmons = the ultimate frontrunner.
wv:tameli, Dirk became sick after eating too many tamelis.
Terry waited until Dirk moved beyond the arc next to him, waited for LBJ to momentarily focus on the possibility that he was going to pass to Dirk, and then grabbed that split second of LBJ distraction to cleanly step into his shot.
Terry really watched the film of how LBJ was guarding him in the first couple of games, and made correct adjustments. Kudos. One more good game out of him, and Mavs win.
-----
Fun small sample size stat that I haven't seen anyone mention:
Seven times has a team gone home in the Finals for the last two games down 3-2. In all seven Finals, the team to win Game 6 wins the series.
The modern media has got to stop with these ridiculous comparisons. Dirk is weak enough defensively that they try to hide him in their schemes.
PS Let's have a thought experiment and imagine Bron having a post-up game. Or let's imagine Bron playing in the 80s without one.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ycn-8618401
I'd say if Dallas can win game 6, they have a pretty good shot... ;-)
@Wormboy - if Lebron doesn't take Jason Kidd in the post every single time, where he can just shoot a turnaround jumper (lets be honest, I'd back myself to hit at least 4/10 in that position) without having to worry about the fact that he has no real post game, then he's a total fraud. As a Heat fan, I don't make that rather bold statement easily.
Fun stat.
"I'd say if Dallas can win game 6, they have a pretty good shot"
I'd tend to agree.
But the three times that the home team has managed to Game 6, they've gone on to win Game 7 each time. If the tiny sample size prevails, Miami wins the series if they take Game 6.
-----
The other thing I'll note about Game 5 is that Rick Carlisle has Big Brass Balls.
He simply refuses to play Dirk and Chandler more than 40 minutes. I'm rooting for Dallas, and watching Carlisle's rotation in the 4th quarter was driving me nuts.
He willingly sacrificed a 4th quarter lead in a crucial game in order to have Dirk and Chandler rested down the stretch, with confidence that his "real" lineup could reliably outscore Miami down the stretch. Big Brass Balls, and he was correct.
If it were me, I'd have played Dirk and Chandler both 44 minutes. Which is why Rick Carlisle is smarter than me. (Though I still think he's an idiot for playing Peja those -11 six minutes in Game 3, when Games 1 & 2 should have made utterly clear Peja's uselessness in the matchups of this series.)
Meh. Dirk is more competent offensively than prime Timmy, just as prime Timmy was more competent defensively than Dirk.
But Dirk has become an fully adequate big on the defensive end. That's a key part of how Dallas demolished the Lakers.
I'd put prime Timmy over prime Dirk, but they do belong in the same conversation.
(Part of why you try to hide Dirk behind Chandler/Haywood on the defensive end is because you want to conserve his energy. LBJ has been expending so much energy on the defensive end in this series that he's gassed on the offensive end.)
(from December 12, 2010)
The Bucks ended the Mavericks’ 12-game winning streak on Monday. It’s the fifth time in team history that the Bucks have ended a winning streak of at least 12 games. The most famous instance was when Milwaukee ended the Lakers’ NBA-record 33-game winning streak on Jan. 9, 1972. The Bucks also ended 12-plus game streaks by the Celtics (1973, 12), 76ers (1983, 14) and Spurs (2007, 13). All the teams that have had winning streaks of at least 12 games ended by the Bucks have gone on to win the NBA title that same year.
That's a pretty good one.
-----
I'll say the one thing that baffles me about the Miami brain-trust is their having LBJ run around after Terry. LBJ stopped having an impact after Terry figured him out after the first couple of games, and having Wade cover Ray-Ray in the Boston series worked out pretty well.
LBJ had a really sweet TS% in his last two playoff runs in Cleveland - better than Wade's norm. I wonder if Miami decided to make Wade the offensive focus for sentimental reasons to make him MVP, or because he'd struggled in the Chicago series, or what. Because if I were coaching Miami, I'd have Wade chase Terry, and leave LBJ a bit more energy for the offensive end. I'd want LBJ as my offensive focus.
The two have different games, but we've got to give Timmy a huge edge for being an elite defender as well as offensively strong.
Lots of respect for both, of course.
Like I say, I'd likely pick prime Timmy over prime Dirk, but it's damn close.
Timmy was an ultra-elite defensive big, and an adequate offensive big.
Dirk is an ultra-elite offensive big, and an adequate defensive big.
Pick your poison.
Dirk's has had a playoff TS% of 59% or more in five of his six last playoffs, (with the Don Nelson Warriors Ambush series being the only exception), while Timmy's never gotten up to a playoff TS% of 59%.
Dirk's playoff TS% in each of the past three playoffs has been over 62%, all at very high usage rates, which is crazy. That's a significant level over what Timmy could efficiently produce on the offensive end.
Michael Jordan never got up to 62% TS% in the playoffs. Neither did Kobe, Shaq, or LeBron. Nash did it once, (last year), but he obviously doesn't score as much as Dirk, so the efficiency is less valuable.
Dirk is the single most efficient volume scorer in the playoffs we've seen in this era. That's really valuable. And like Jordan, he can reliably get his shot off late in games, which Timmy couldn't always do.
"Lots of respect for both, of course."
No doubt.
"Adequate offensive"?
Wow.
First, I'll answer the question that is on everybody's minds. Yes, Mr. Wade is going to make it. I have to admit even I was a little scared at first. But I have never met a soul as singularly determined to live as Dwyane Wade. In fact as I was dialing up his next of kin, he slapped the phone right out of my hand and said "Save it Doc...I've survived worse.." and rose like Lazarus. Folks, you should've seen this bruise.
Now, I have heard some dundherheads without a medical degree from a prestigious university (cough University of Phoenix 2002) bring up the fact that Mr. Wade has suffered numerous injuries, many of them during the NBA playoffs which seem to have no effect on his play. Some dare-I-say fools might say that Wade creates these injuries out of whole-cloth in order to make himself seem more heroic and give himself a built in excuse. I implore you before you make asses of yourselves and I, that you look at the videotape. Clearly, Mr. Wade is suffering from severe injuries. He has to be helped up by his teammates 30 times a game. He is grimacing. GRIMACING after every play. Is that the face of an uninjured man?
No, Mr. Wade suffers from a rare disease caused by overexposure to clips of Jordan's flu game and Willis Reed's comeback. These symptoms include pain so intense that the ordinary man cannot comprehend it and the only cure is the basketball. During the time that Mr. Wade holds such basketball he is perfectly fine. This was what helped him overcome this debilitating affliction on this night as well as in 2006 where he famously suffered the flu, an injured wrist, and two injured separate hips to seek contact on every play and win the finals MVP. It has also helped him through numerous games in his career, such as his knee and eye injuries suffered this year after missing game winning shots.
So this is no phony-baloney injury such as the 'fever' and 'hurt tendon' that Dirk claims. I'd like to see who made such a diagnosis. Probably a fool pretending to be a doctor on the blogosphere! No, Mr. Wade is hurt. Very, very hurt. I ask you to pray for him because he is not out of the woods yet. I have asked him to retire from the game of basketball for fear he may die or at the very least never walk again, but he looked me in the eye and said "Doc, if I die out there on the court it will be for those fans in Miami that live and die for basketball, filling up the arena every night...I have to do it for them. The children." The bravery displayed shamed me for even suggesting the cowardly option of not playing.
So, please cheer for Dywane Wade. He needs us like we need him. He is putting his life on the line to win a title. I haven't seen such bravery since the soldiers at Normandy and I bet they didn't have superficial hip bruises.
Well, I have done all that I can do. Rest assured, we will have a wheelchair at the ready in case he suffers some sort of injury, perhaps to his shoulder or thumb, but he will play. For all of you. For all of us. For mankind.
God speed Duene.
But according to refcalls.com the officiating has been tied (once) or favored the Heat (4 times) through the series. It's reasonable to expect a big edge for the Heat in officiating, especially at home.
Now, I wouldn't dare say that Stern would tinker with the officiating crew to favor Miami and force a game 7. Oh no. There's only tons of money and huge ratings on the line, going into a likely lockout. We have motive, we have weapon,and we're waiting to see if the crime happens. We can bet on Wade, once again, throwing himself into people to draw fouls. All I can say is that maybe he shouldn't pick Brian Cardinal this time.
Unless you really love or hate one of the teams in a series, you end up rooting for the team you pick to win.
I've been with the Mavs this playoffs ever since they took Game 1 against the Lakers.
I see no reason they don't win this thing. And I'm rooting for them.
(But last year, I didn't see any reason Boston wouldn't take the Finals going into Game 6 in LA. And then Perkins went down in the 1st quarter. So I guess I'll just have to watch the game to find out.)
You left out my favorite of all time: when Paul Pierce apparently suffered a career ending injury in Game 1 of the '08 Finals, had to carried off the court to the locker room by four players, and came back 10 minutes later to immediately knock down a couple of dagger 3's.
That was a stone cold killer drama queen performance.
http://cdn3.sbnation.com/imported_assets/736935/THRUSTING.gif.pagespeed.ce.oFc2hR6jYV.gif
Nah, I picked the Heat to win but I'm rooting hard for Dallas. I can't stand the cHeat. No money on the line though.
In short; Spoelstra has to make major adjustments on offense if they want to have a chance. Also, hands in faces.
Captcha: rucati. Peja Stojakovic rides into the sunset on his Rucati after winning a ring.
That was a stone cold killer drama queen performance.
Oh yeah, you know he started his own line of wheelchairs now.
http://cdn.faniq.com/images/blog/75e12d72dd58b1c1f0dd5416c6511487.jpg
Why yes, I believe it does.
Anyway, never thought I'd see the day Dirk and Kidd get a ring. An amazing game and an awesome series.
By the way, Cuban is avoiding interviews like a plague, even after winning?! I think Stern must have told him he'll lose his ownership next time he speaks out.
LeBron: -24 (while Bosh and Wade are +4/+3)
LOLCardinal: +18 (!!) (in 12 minutes)
Mike Miller with -16 in 8 minutes - that's kinda bad, isn't it?
- Mark Jackson
Hot.
Congrats to the Mavs and Dirk! You might have knocked out my beloved Lakers but it's good to see some of those guys finally get a ring. Congrats!
And hey Scottie Pippen, who's the GOAT now?
The shit-talking, the showboating, starting a fracas after HE taunted the Heat. I don't get his deal with LeBron, but it brings out the worst in him. Now everyone got to see it for two weeks. Oh well.
First and foremost: apologies and my sincere congratulations to Jason Terry.
Secondly, thank you Dallas, you didn't just win the championship, you won it for the fans of 28 other teams. Speaking of which, sorry to the dozens of real Miami Heat fans out there. But hey, Miami still got to see a real championship celebration after all! Let's repeat: Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven... Zero.
Ah Hell, one last time:
www.skullknight.net/griffith/alasthope.jpg
or should we give that title to bosh?
You'll notice I don't congratulate Cuban. :)
Erik Spoelstra: "We didn't expect this." That there may be the problem. They thought it was theirs, ordained.
Lost in this was Wade's sick three near the end.
Thoughts:
-It is possible to make Bron human with certain defensive schemes and him spending a ton of energy at the defensive end.
-Same with Dirk. He got pushed so far out of his spots and contested so strongly this game that he shot like crap until the end.
-Wade was the best player on Miami this series.
-Bosh is a pretty good third guy, though granted he had mostly single coverage.
-Get rid of Bibby, keep Haslem and Chalmers. Get a couple of other tough defenders who can shoot 3s. Get a real center (though Anthony deserves kudos, a real center would do a lot more defensively). Miami will win one in the next couple of years.
That is all.
TAAAAAAAKKKEEE DAAAAAAT WWWWIIIIIITT CHHEEEEWWWWWWW!!!!!
Payback's a bitch. There is a god.
Also, sincere condolences to kazam92, you're one of the good ones. A lot of the hate for this team wasn't the fault of Heat fans, but the general basketball ignorance surrounding this team: the Heat Index, Dan LeBatard, shit like that. Especially LeBatard, in a sport which he's shown again and again he knows, and cares to know, very little about outside of "talent wins," and who turned this whole thing into a referendum on chemistry and team dynamics. The Mavs triumphing like they did was perfect in that regard.
Anyway, I think this goes to show there's no such thing as two "superstars" on the same NBA team. A team only has one superstar, like a solar system only has one sun; or like quarterbacks, if you have two it means you don't have one. There has to be a pecking order and an alpha dog, no matter how good the two players are, like Shaq > Kobe, otherwise it doesn't work. LeBron and Wade tried to avoid settling that and ultimately never really figured it out, and it showed in their play. The Heat ended up being less than the sum of their parts.
Cuban rules, Dirk rules, Mavs rule.
It's funny because you just know he's thinking about it. It's also ridiculous that it can't be ruled out as a possibility.
Anyway, I don't doubt that he's going to pack up again and go someplace else. I'd be surprised if he stayed in Miami. But it would just be too fucking hilarious if he actually went to Dallas.
Karma is a bitch.
"There's no such thing as two 'superstars' on the same NBA team."
So, uh, what about Kobe/Shaq, MJ/Pippen, KG/Allen/Pierce, Wade/Shaq, Bird/McHale/Parish, Magic/Kareem, ....
I mean I could go on but you get the point.
I'm sorry, there is no way in hell LeBron's going to Dallas, that's a ridiculous notion. He's a guy who reads and cares about his own media. There is no way after the backlash from taking his talents to South Beach would he go to Dallas. Sorry, but that's incredulous.
@TransInsano:
+1 to you sir. I find nothing wrong with Heat fans or even fans of LeBron and DWade. It's the general asshattery that has arisen because of it that's annoying. It's similar to the reasons people hate the Lakers and the Yankees.
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/247033_10150205697851583_510301582_7676890_3703752_n.jpg
"LeBron James didn't go to college because he doesn't like to show up to THE FINALS." i LoL'd
P.S. The Word Verification to post this comment is "apity". Irony?
And even if he could I don't think he's *that* much of an idiot. Miami is still likely to be competing for championships for the next 5 years or more, and I imagine they'll win one, and maybe a lot more than one. But for now... I'm glad the Mavs beat them.
So I get what he's saying, but I disagree. I really don't think the Heat lost because Wade and Lebron couldn't figure out who was "the man." I really don't think that matters, personally.
That being said, I hope this frikkin lockout is not going to last as long as it did a decade ago, don't think I could handle it.
http://lockerz.com/s/110284161
Miami doesn't care...
I don't feel too shitty. The worst I felt was in 05 losing to the Pistons in 7. This I can deal with. Dirk deserves it.
wv: itunesq: the sound of the cHeat losing was itunesq
I just watched his post game interview, that man is just golden. Being European as well (I'm Belgian, I speak German and visit Germany quite often), I've always had great respect for him, but it has really gotten 10 times bigger. In a way, I'm really glad for him (and for Jason Kidd), it's the first time a Euro has won the title being the best player on the team, that itself is a cool thing as it is. Basically, the only two reasons I'm not happy Dallas won: Terry & Stevenson. They're like what Kobe & Lebron are to America, but just far, far inferior players. Literally can't stand them.
That said, I think if LeBron cared about what people thought of him he wouldn't have made "The Decision" to begin with.
Also, again, I was full of shit a second ago.
THAT'S ALL THE ANALYSIS YOU NEED.
See, the universe bends to my glib metaphors!
@AK Dave: Yes, please stop before you get to Arenas/Hughes/Jamison on your inclusive list of "superstar" teammates. I get your point, but you missed mine (Caleb said it better than I did).
@Koggz: Yeah, and I can't wait to see how some of the more insufferable elements of the Heat-centric media are going to spin this. On the ESPN 5-on-5, every one of them picked the Heat to win game 6, even the Dallas guys. Just dumb, and not only in hindsight.
@Caleb Smith: Yeah, I don't know if that's really the case here, but it sure looked like LeBron lost his superstar identity as soon as it became clear Wade was going to dominate the Finals. Worse, LeBron didn't even effectively dominate the secondary role and was outplayed by Jason Terry in that regard the last few games. I almost blame Wade as much as LeBron, clearly they weren't on the same page. It's not even so much about whose "the man" as just having your roles defined. By the time game 6 rolled around, both LeBron and Wade looked like they didn't know what to do anymore. In a nutshell, what I'm saying is being a team's superstar is a role too, and there's only one of those spots available on a roster.
It's great Dirk got a title. There aren't many other Mavs who I can say that about.
You could name literally hundreds of crappy players who have an NBA title. Not many are as detestable as DeShawn Stevenson though.
A question for everyone and Mr. Bawful: who wins the most useless Championship ring-bearer, Corey Brewer or Brendan Haywood?
I vote for Brendan Haywood because when they stopped playing him, the Mavs started to win more Finals games.
On the game: Dirk struggled but still shot 8-15 in the second half, Terry was fantastic, Brian Cardinal was HUGE. As a lifelong Mavs fan I'm just happy right now.
With Haywood, I don't think the series even goes to 6 games. Chandler had to play too carefully to stay out of foul trouble.
Plus, Haywood did help them get to the Finals...
But I need to eat crow (again) on Kidd's ability to guard people and hit big shots, and I need to eat crow on Jason Terry. Dude came up big in this series, and especially last night. I thought that he didn't have it, and he certainly played like an all star as the series continued.
And is it just me, or did Dirk run back to the locker room to weep, then come back out. I found that touching. Looks like Bosh was crying, too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t48brs4QRjY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DcUkhM0bkQ
I'm guessing he wanted a little alone-time with an exercise bike.
But I think he said something in the post-game about this being emotional for him(obviously) and needing a few minutes to recover.
The whole NBA should just have a big cry and get it over with.... jesus.
LeBron James: You know, just the run-of-the-mill stuff … like his legacy as a player. I watched him pretty closely in Game 5 from my seat: He doesn't seem comfortable, as if he lost his identity as a basketball player to some degree.11 Is it possible that he's so talented that he never ended up concentrating on one great thing? He never developed a go-to gimmick like Dirk's high-post game, Wade's one-on-one game, Kobe's one-on-one game, Duncan's low-post game … he's like one of those fancy diners that has a six-page menu loaded with options, only when you ask the waitress what's good, she says, "I don't know, everything!" But wait … I asked you what's good.
When his erratic 3-pointer was falling against Boston and Chicago, it made him seem unstoppable. Now it's gone again. What's left? He's doing a tremendous Scottie Pippen impersonation, right down to his numbers every game … and I'll let that sentence speak for itself. What's really shocked me: LeBron's inability to adjust to however these high-pressure games seem to be playing out. When Jordan's shot wasn't falling, he got to the rim. When Bird's shot wasn't falling, he went down low and crashed the boards. Magic learned to morph into whatever his team needed from him: He could run fast breaks, go down low, get Worthy going, feed Kareem, whatever; he always made the right decision. LeBron? It's like he can't figure it out. There's never a Plan B for him.
Dallas made a key adjustment in Game 4, sticking Shawn Marion on Wade and Kidd on LeBron — with the implication being, "We can do this because LeBron won't make us pay by taking Kidd down low and torching him" — and it worked like a charm. In the fourth quarter of Game 4, they mixed it up by throwing a zone at Miami, hoping LeBron would get confused, stand around, avoid long 3s, and stop moving. That worked, too. To repeat: The Mavericks built their defensive strategy around LeBron's limitations and predictabilities. Not a good sign for someone currently finishing his eighth season. What's at stake for LeBron? He already lost. The emperor has no clothes. He needs to unleash two of the most phenomenal performances in Finals history — not one, two — to change my mind on that one.
That about sums it up. Dude has so much talent that he never developed a goto move. He always assumes that his talent will allow him to prevail but when Dallas D took away what he wanted to do, he had no plan B. The Bulls did the same thing in game 1, unfortunately for them, his 3 was falling for the rest of the series and they lost.
James probably has as good skills as Jordan did, but he's just not nearly as good a competitor.