The Dallas Mavericks are your 2011 NBA Champions bringing home the trophy for the first time in franchise history. After years of trying veterans Jason Kidd (17th season), Peja Stojakovic (13th season), Dirk Nowitzki (13th season), Shawn Marion (12th season), Jason Terry (12th season), Brian Cardinal (11th season), DeShawn Stevenson (11th season), Brendan Haywood (10th season) and Tyson Chandler (10th season) all finally got their first rings. And to be perfectly honest, I couldn't be happier for them. In what could be described as nothing less than a total team effort, Dallas turned in a dominant effort and upset the heavily favored Heat by double digits on their home floor 105-95 to clinch the series in six games. Despite a night that saw superstar Dirk Nowitzki open the game 1 for 12 from the floor in the first half, Dallas got the job done. Jason Terry, the guy who had the Larry O'Brien Trophy (that's the name of the NBA Championship trophy) tattooed on his arm before the season started was 8 of 10 in the first half for 19 points and finished with 27 points in easily his best game of the finals. When Dirk finally heated up in the second half (18 of his 21 points), the Heat didn't have an answer, and the rest is history.
But as I said, this was more than just Dirk and Jason Terry. Shawn Marion had 12 points and 8 rebounds and played stellar defense on LeBron James once again, Tyson Chandler had 5 points and 8 rebounds and was a dominant presence in the paint, Jason Kidd has 9 points and 8 assists and a pair of huge three-pointers in the second half, JJ Barea had 15 points and 5 assists as the Mavs improved to 3-0 with him in the starting lineup in the Finals, Brian Cardinal hit a three and drew a huge charge on Dwyane Wade in the second half, DeShawn Stevenson hit 3 straight 3-pointers in the first half, and Ian Mahinmi hit a pair of jumpers including one at the buzzer to end the third quarter and pulled down a pair of offensive rebounds. Total team effort. Everyone contributed. One of the more popular cliches being tossed around after the game is that a team once again proved to be better than a group individuals. And honestly it's hard to argue with that having watched the series. The Mavericks went 9 or 10 deep, the Heat had their Big Three. The Mavericks lost Brendan Haywood to injury and Ian Mahinmi stepped up. Peja Stojakovic was ineffective so Brian Cardinal stepped up.
The Heat didn't seem to know what they were doing. Half their roster was benched for being ineffective. And ultimately, the two glaring weaknesses they had before the season even started, point guard and center, came back to haunt them. Joel Anthony played just 11 minutes in Game 6 and finished the finals shooting 29% with 1.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and only 1 blocked shot over the final 3 games, all Heat losses. Mike Bibby got benched for Game 6 after starting the first five games in the series. Take away his 14 point game in Game 2 and he was just 2 for 12 from the field with 5 points. Erick Dampier? 0 minutes in the playoffs. Jamaal Magloire? 18 minutes in the postseason, didn't play after Game 2 against Chicago. Zydrunas Ilgauskus? Played the first 9 playoff games, then was relegated to the bench for the remainder of the postseason. Eddie House? Got huge minutes in Game 6 (21) after playing just 24 minutes in the first 3 rounds, but finished the playoffs 4 for 17 from the floor. Mario Chalmers was probably the lone bright spot for the Heat at those two positions averaging 11.8 points in the finals while shooting 14/35 (40%) from long range. He was also the only guard on the roster who could keep up with JJ Barea, but even that wasn't enough to rally the Heat.
It was believed before the season started that with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade being such good ball handlers and passers that the need for a true point guard would be unnecessary. It was thought with Haslem and Miller at their disposal, the Heat could go "small" while still being big with all kinds of versatility on the floor. Neither of those things worked out the way they planned. Haslem and Miller both missed significant this season with injuries and neither realized their full potential during the postseason. Their opening night starting point guard (Carlos Arroyo) didn't finish the year on the roster and their Game 1 starting point guard (Bibby) didn't see the court on Game 6. On a team that despite its wealth of individual talent had minimal margin for error, the odds finally caught up with them.
One more bit about the Heat real quick before we get to talking about the Champs, James Jones hit 45.9% of his three pointers (17/37) in the postseason and he never saw the court after Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals getting completely removed from the Heat rotation. Considering that the Mavs played a substantial amount of zone defense, how does your best 3-point shooter fail to get on the floor? Even if he was a defensive liability, it's not like Eddie House isn't. Just something to think about.
Anyhow, back to the Mavericks. Another thing that cannot be understated was what a great job Rick Carlisle did with this team in this series. He made all the right adjustments, always had his team prepared, and despite playing behind in games and in the series, they never lost their cool. I think the two biggest changes he made were inserting JJ Barea into the starting lineup in place of DeShawn Stevenson, and recognizing that Peja Stojakovic was going to be completely ineffective on the defensive end in this series and benching him in favor of Brian Cardinal both following Game 3. Barea scored 40 points in his 3 starts (compared to just 13 in the first three games off the bench). What's more, it paid off for Stevenson as well (24 points and 7 3-pointers off the bench). Then there was Stojakovic who scored at least 7 points off the bench in 9 of 15 games over the first 3 rounds of the playoffs. Against the Heat, he simply was not effective, and he was a huge liability on defense being unable to guard the likes of Chris Bosh and LeBron James. Carlisle went with Cardinal who'd logged just 8 postseason minutes through Game 3 of the Finals. Over the final 3 games, Cardinal logged 29 minutes, scored 7 points, and just added a layer of toughness to an already gritty Mavs lineup. Sure the Heat made moves too, but theirs were too little too late.
Finally, to win a championship you need to get a lot out of your star players. Dirk and Jason Terry, the two holdovers from the 2006 team that blew a 2-0 lead to Miami were tremendous. Dirk averaged 26 points a game in the finals despite playing through injury and illness. He missed just 1 free throw the entire series in 46 attempts (97.8%), and he was just absolutely huge in the 4th quarters scoring 62 points over the 6 games. That's the same total the Dwyane Wade and LeBron James had combined. And then there's Terry who after hitting just 13 of 34 shots in the first three games while being shadowed by LeBron James, then called James out saying let's see if he can guard me like that for 7 games. I guess he can't. Terry went for 17, 21 and then 27 points over the final three games and James either wore out or just couldn't keep up. Over the final two games, Terry hit 19 of 28 shots from the floor, nearly 68%.
And so again, we go back to the fact that this was a great team win by a great team. Miami didn't lose this series so much as Dallas won it. They made more plays, showed more heart, outhustled the Heat and outcoached them. And now LeBron James will have to wait at least one more year before he can experience what it is to be a champion.
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