2011 NBA FINALS -- Heat 92, Mavericks 84: My Top 10 Observer-ations

By Richie Whitt Tue., May 31 2011 at 10:55 PM

10. Mavs spurted 7-0 out of halftime and led 51-43, but somehow trailed 65-61 entering fourth. How's that you ask? Four turnovers and a LeBron James 25-foot fadeaway 3-pointer at the buzzer that makes you just tip your cap.

9. Back in the early '00s the Sacramento Kings were a badass team. Led by Mike Bibby and Peja Stojakovic they almost made The Finals. But tonight they both got in the way, combining for four fouls and seven missed shots with nary a point scored.

8. With the AAA crammed with fans in all white, the NBA Finals looked like a karate convention. Of course, there are also jerseys in the rafters of Dan Marino and -- not making this up -- Michael Jordan. What. The. What?!

7. Let's face it, that wasn't a well-played basketball game. Neither team shot more than 40 percent and lots of in-the-paint misses. Finals jitters? Great defense? Both?

6. What happened to Jason Terry? He didn't score after halftime and finished with only 12 points on 3 of 10 shooting. Maybe he was too worried about bits. Like trophy tattoos. And Heat sleepwear. He needs to be good for the Mavs to be great, and tonight neither was in effect.

5. When the Heat are in The Finals, Miami brings out the big hitters. And who might they be? Jimmy Buffet. Gloria Estefan. Queen Latifah. And Ludacris. Yes, those are ranked worst to first.

4. If the Mavs' bench can't obliterate the Heat's sorry subs, this will be a looong series. Midway through the fourth quarter Mario Chalmers, Mike Miller and the boys had outscored Dallas' strength, 22-17. Recipe for disaster.

3. By the way, rumors and even a "breaking news" story that Dirk got engaged last weekend are bogus. Mavs say no. Yes he has a serious Swedish girlfriend, but as of now she ain't no fiancee. Whew. Would've been curious timing, at best.

2. When LeBron James drives the lane with two minutes left in a playoff game, Dirk and Tyson Chandler can't spectate. What should've been a hard playoff foul was instead James dunking for an 85-75 lead that sealed the deal. Sorry, but that smacked of "soft."

1. This was no doubt the Mavs' worst game of the postseason. Too many offensive rebounds allowed (16). Reserves outscored by Miami's sorry subs (-10). Not a Finals-worthy performance.

Tags:

basketball, Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade, Jason Terry, LeBron James, NBA Finals

RichPeopleAreSad

Sounds like another bitter Dallas fan. Money can't buy you everything...especially dignity. Just bask in your mediocrity for a bit....or I'll call Lebron to put you to sleep again.

Sylvan Fain

I hear the excuse train coming by......bad calls by ref, Mavs didnt make shots, Dirk has a broken finger, bench didn't play well, NBA is fixed...... I guess Miami will have to win 4 championships to shut everyone up, because nobody seems to think this team can win. I am just waiting for Cuban to explode all his bottled up anger with a $500,000 fine.

Rob_Em

My own observations:

* I don't think Dallas fans fully realized how much athleticism Miami has when they were making their predictions. Miami just looked too strong and too fast on defense, on driving to the basket, and on rebounding. LeBron James is simply an NBA player in an NFL player's body.

* I'm not a Mavericks hater or a Dirk hater. The reason it's hard for me to root for the Mavs is because of the fans. They have to be the biggest crybabies in sports. I've heard nonstop this morning about biased officiating and biased commentary. Surely these same fans aren't the confident, prideful fans that root for the Cowboys.

* Rick Carlisle is great. His second best player is injured. His three best scorers outside of Dirk are point guards. Dirk can't play defense but has to be out on the floor 40 minutes. Through pick-and-rolls, zones, double teams, substitutions, etc. Carlisle keeps a group of old, flawed players competitive with the NBA's best teams.

* Mike Bibby got old fast. I don't even think he has the strength to get the ball to the goal from the three point line anymore. But that's not as bad as the 7-foot Brendan Haywood missing an uncontested dunk. Good grief.

* Richie, if you swallow your pride now and admit the Heat are going to win this series, I might slow down on the barrage of insults.

Scruffygeist

All Craig did was tweet a picture of the rafters. Gotta defend Richie on his points--same venue attended by the same smartasses gets similar results.

P1Javier

Craig tweeted the pic along with the caption, "WTF?". Richie did the exact same thing except he used his very annoying "what the what?".

Scruffygeist

Dude, as much as I love nutkicking Richie, you have to do better than a WTF comparison. Pretty sure a couple million people have used it at some point.

Cleo McDowell

Look... me and the McDonald's people got this little misunderstanding. See, they're McDonald's... I'm McDowell's. They got the Golden Arches, mine is the Golden Arcs. They got the Big Mac, I got the Big Mick. We both got two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, but their buns have sesame seeds. My buns have no seeds.

Scott

Mavs in 7

cornelius

read last night's tweets of @junior_miller , @skindoeshoops, @benandskin and u will clearly see blatant plagiarism.

Reader X

Please. Stop. Doing. This

Dan McDowell

THIS WILL BE A SWEEP! NO team will/could win with Terry, Peja & JJ on it

Truth

#8 & #5 are plagiarized word for word from gordon keith & craig miller tweets.

Richie Whitt

you guys kill me. fact is, #8 and #5 are plagiarized from richie whitt tweets during the game. look it up.

MoronDog

You know what kills me? Unicorns.

#GrowTheShow

just did, timeline shows u ripped off material yet again. but in ur defense i knows it hard to write original stuff with u being distracted by all the trannies and all

ghost of rhadigan ranger pxp

nice to see you still steal craig miller's material. in fact, ur show is nothing more than a mere atrocious attempt of a remake of dunham & miller. that plus the fact that you mention greggo's name 50 times a segment.

Richie Whitt

do i mention greggo's name? yep. do i steal craig miller's material? never.

MoronDog

If he is going to steal from Gordo (which I seriously doubt he did), I wonder if he would just put up some Mushmouth audio instead. It is more entertaining than point #5 or #8.

Thestranger

The city of Dallas let out a collective sigh of despair with that last Bron dunk. If we're going to win this thing, we can't be Hollywood'd by Dwyane and the king.