Mavs Win 2011 NBA Finals

Dirk

          That’s all he needs, one name and now you’ll recognize it forever. The greatest European players to ever play in the NBA has now proven himself by finally winning his first NBA title. I could have started this article out with how much I hate LeBron, as you may have seen in my past articles, and how he continually choked in the 4th quarter but that would not give enough credit to the great Dirk. That would not be fair to Dirk nor the Mavs, so I am starting with the NBA Finals MVP. Dirk carried this team throughout the playoffs and finally gets the recognition he deserves.

          Up until winning it all, all Dirk was known for was losing the 2006 NBA Finals to the Heat after the Mavs took a two games to zero lead and being named 2007 NBA MVP after having his top seeded Mavs bow out in the 1st
round to the #8 seeded Golden State Warriors.

         Now Dirk will be known for his persistence, his cold-bloodedness in tight games, and his unbelievable fade away jump shot off one foot that is the most unblockable shot in the NBA since Kareem’s skyhook. He led the team to a victory in Game 4 with a fever of 102 degrees. Oh yeah, and he is unreal from the free throw line, missing only 11 in 150+ attempts throughout the playoffs. Dirk shot remarkable numbers from the field, the 3-point line, and the free throw line. Additionally, he managed to do work in the post, a complaint about him in years past. With this win Dirk is one less superstar in the dreaded “Elgin Baylor Club,” consisting of the greatest players to never win a championship. He can now forget about 2006.

LeBust

          I have been waiting for this moment for an entire year. An opportunity to see LeBron James fall short of another NBA championship. In fact, this best expresses how I feel about LeBron as I write this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHJoj9IqeKg

          Obviously I enjoyed it greatly over the past years when I equally despised him but this time, of course, is different because now people cannot make excuses for him. Every time I had an argument about James before he joined Miami my counterpart would say that he has not had a supporting cast and you cannot blame him for losses. Well.... What do you have to say now? You cannot say that he did not have a team around him because Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were right by his side. I would also get laughed at when I stated that LeBron is not a clutch player and shies away from the spotlight. In the six 4th quarters of the NBA Finals, LeBron tallied a TOTAL of 18 points. Compare that to Dirk who had 62. Does that prove my point? When he was guarded by shorter players like Kidd, Barea, or Terry he would settle for jump shots instead of taking them in the post. Throughout clutch moments in the series LeBron looked passive. Instead of coming to get the ball and make plays he would stand and hide in the corner. If the ball was swung to him he would immediately give it up to the closest player like a game of hot potato. He figured that if he did not have the ball in his hands then people could not blame him for losing. Wrong. In fact, it is even worse now.

          LeBron put a target on his back when he decided to make his free agent announcement a national television special and when he, during the team’s preseason welcoming ceremony before they had even had a practice, talked about the number of championships the team would win as he said “not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven.” I guess when he said that he was hoping that Dwyane Wade was listening and would be able to handle the pressure that LeBron put on them because it was clear James wanted nothing to do with the game when the pressure picked up. Sure, you can say he was the key to beating the Celtics and Bulls in Rounds 2 and 3, respectively, but those were not Finals games. He was not brought to the Heat to win Conference championships.

          On a side note, before he joined the Heat it seemed like I was one of very few people to truly despise LeBron. Everyone said I was insane and did not know what I was talking about. Now that the majority of people seem to hate him and are saying the EXACT same things I had said throughout LeBron’s career about his incompetence, statements which just last year these people were on the other side on, it has taken a lot of the fun out of being a LeBron hater, especially when you do not get the credit of calling his shortcomings way in advance.

          Listen, this team is going to be contenders for as long as their three players are under contract but it is just nice to know that they went through the pain of suffering first because for all the pompousness he exerted before and during the season, not only does he deserve all the criticism but he asked for it. It is easy to talk about winning, only few have the true capability of backing it up. But enough about LeBrick, this was about the Dallas Mavericks who were more than just Dirk.

The Coach

          For all the bad things I said about Mike D’Antoni’s poor coaching job during the Knicks’ 1st round sweep by the Celtics in my article “Coach D’Antoni Needs To Go,” the complete opposite is true for Dallas’ coach Rick Carlisle. Carlisle made all the proper adjustments and took major risks during these Finals that paid off. The first is the Mavs’ zone defense. Not many teams use the zone in the NBA and certainly none use it nearly as much as Dallas. The clever use of the zone to keep the Heat out of the paint and the switching back and forth from man to zone defenses kept Miami’s stars on their heels and thus was a huge factor in limiting the production of Wade, Bosh, and James.

          In addition to that, another huge move came during the substitutions. Instead of using sharpshooter Peja Stojakovic, Carlisle went to bench warmer Brian Cardinal. In addition, when backup center Brendan Haywood went down with an injury he used Ian Mahinmi sparingly. If you had told me that one of these players was going to touch the floor during the NBA Finals, let alone both, I would have said you were beyond crazy. But Carlisle risked it and his players made him look like a genius. Neither player got huge minutes but they made an impact that goes beyond the box score. Cardinal was all over the floor on the defensive end as he pestered Miami while making a couple of threes on the other end and Mahinmi helped out on the boards while Haywood was shelves, taking some pressure off the Mavs’ bigs. Neither player played much, if at all, in the playoffs before the Finals but both came up big in the championship games.

The Rest of the Cast

          Jason Terry was garbage in the first three games of the championship. The only player, other than Dirk, left on the Mavs from the ’06 meltdown was not playing like he wanted to redeem himself. In Game 1 he had 12 points on 3 of 10 shooting, in Game 2 he put in 16 points, and in Game 3 he finished with 15 points as he went 5-13 from the field. After Game 3 Dirk challenged him, claiming that up to this point Terry had not been clutch. Terry certainly responded. In Game 4 he had 17 but came up big in the 4th quarter. In Game 5 he finished with 21 points on 8 of 12 shooting and had some great assists to close the game. Finally, in Game 6 he lit it up with 27 points as he went 11 for 16 from the floor. That verbal bump from his teammate was just what Terry needed and he responded big time. One could argue that he was MVP of Games 5 and 6.

          Father time is undefeated when it comes to battling older NBA players and their careers but Jason Kidd is putting up quite a fight. The 38 year old showed that he still can ball in this league with the best on both ends of the floor. He was the floor general of this team, an extension of Coach Carlisle on the court. He was able to keep the Mavs focused and distributed the ball to where in needed to go. In addition, the veteran played a major role in stopping Kobe Bryant in the 2nd Round, Russell Westbrook in Round 3, and Dwyane Wade in Round 4. Like I said, Kidd is 38 years old, but was still the primary defender when guarding one of the greatest players of all-time (Kobe) as well as two other guards who are significantly younger and quicker than he (Westbrook/Wade). In addition, Kidd may not have exploded offensively in terms of points but when he was given the opportunity, he hit some huge 3-pointers during key moments of multiple games.

          J.J. Barea is an aberration. Nobody that small, he is listed at 6 feet but has trouble reaching that wearing high heels, should be able to have such a big impact in a game. Nobody that small should be able to shoot over NBA defenders much bigger than him. Nobody that small should be able to get into the paint and finish amongst the trees with such ease. But J.J. keeps doing it. He was almost nonexistent in the first 3 games. But once he was inserted into the starting lineup in Game 4 on, he came alive. All of a sudden the 3s that were not falling began to fall. Suddenly lanes to the rim were taken that had gone unnoticed previosuly. His ability to contort his body under the rim and finish layups over and around bigger players is reminiscent of a Derrick Rose highlight reel.

          Tyson Chandler and Brendan Haywood were the two centers, starter and backup respectively, who were supposed to keep wiry rebounders Udonis Haslem and Joel Anthony off of the offensive boards. When Haywood went down with an injury and missed Games 3, 6, and 7 as well as only playing three minutes in Game 4 the Mavs were supposed to take a giant hit on the boards. But Tyson Chandler chased after each rebound, on both ends of the court, like it would be his last while also staying a physical presence in the paint. With Dirk not known for his defense/rebounding and Haywood out with an injury the burden went to Chandler who had gone relatively forgotten every since he left the New Orleans Hornets where he was the 2nd half of the team’s pick-and-roll with Chris Paul. But Chandler used his long wing span to block shots and cause shooters to make adjustments as well as grabbing rebound after rebound on both offense and defense. When he was not getting offensive rebounds he was tapping them out to his teammates in order to extend the possession, something that is not shown in the box score.

          In Phoenix, Shawn Marion was all offense playing with Coach D’Antoni. Marion went from a team that could not care less about defense to a team that looked to him as the defensive anchor. The Mavs asked him to stop Kevin Durant in the Conference Finals and LeBron James in the NBA Finals and he did not disappoint. Yes, he put in some big shots but his role as primary defender helped lead this team to a championship. Marion did something that many veterans would never even dream of doing, transitioning from offensive fire power to primary defensive stopper.

          DeShawn Stevenson was another key defender on the team. When Marion was not checking LeBron, it was usually Stevenson. In addition he was a major factor on offense. Stevenson was unconscious from beyond the arc hitting 13 of 23 (57%) 3-pointers throughout the Finals. The statistic itself is fantastic. Coming from a guy who is supposed to be a game changer on the defensive end, that is even better. This meant that defenders would have to think twice about leaving DeShawn open as they went to double team Dirk.

History Prevails in Surprise Playoffs

          This was the year of the young players. Teams that focused on young franchise leaders were suddenly winning in the playoffs. In the past, veteran led teams were known for winning it all. A team that had been there before was supposed to know how to make the proper adjustments. Not this year. In the semifinals three of the four teams were led by young superstars. Oklahoma City had Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook; Miami was run by Wade, Bosh, and James; and the Chicago Bulls was led by Derrick Rose. Veteran filled teams were dropping left and right as the Celtics with Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen lost to the Heat and the San Antonio Spurs consisting of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili fell to a younger and much more inexperienced Memphis Grizzlies team. This was going to be the year that the youthful, energetic stars overtook the experienced, veteran teams. But the Mavs had other ideas. Kidd (38), Dirk (32), and Terry (33) were the life blood of this team as well as some of the oldest men on it.

          The Dallas Mavericks helped show that this was not a series of 1 superstar vs. 3 superstars. Instead, this was 1 team vs. 3 superstars as everyone on the Mavericks contributed to this Finals victory and bought into the idea of playing together for a common goal.