For a little while, it looked like the Miami Heat’s 88-86 win over the Dallas Mavericks to give them a 2-1 lead in the series was going to be a repeat of Dallas’ dramatic Game 2 comeback victory. The Heat came out in attack mode and put the Mavericks on their heels early, attacking the basket with impunity and getting out to early double-digit leads.
Still, Dallas refused to fold, and once again took Miami to the wire thanks to some superlative play from Dirk Nowitzki and some breakdowns by Miami. Miami only made one shot inside of five feet in the last 10 minutes of the game, and didn’t attempt a single free throw.
Meanwhile, Dallas clawed back into the game with some tough, rotating defense, some solid work on the boards, and a steady diet of free throws, as well as some great plays from Nowitzki. Nowitzki scored Dallas’ final 12 points, with many of them coming from the free-throw line after Miami committed needless loose-ball fouls on rebounds under Dallas’ basket when Miami just needed to make the clock into their friend and make Dallas work for every one of their points.
The Heat had a double-digit lead at multiple points during Game 3, and led by seven with six and a half minutes to go. With a minute and a half left, the game was tied. This time, however, the Heat held their ground. After Jason Terry missed an open corner three that could have potentially given the Mavericks a 2-1 series lead, Miami unleashed a Wade-James pick-and-roll that ended with James setting up Chris Bosh with a wide-open midrange jumper behind a Udonis Haslem back-pick. Bosh knocked it down, giving the Heat a two-point lead with 37 seconds left.
After a Nowitzki turnover, a missed “hero three” by James, and a Nowitzki miss on a jumper that was perfectly defended by Udonis Haslem, the game was over and the Heat had a 2-1 lead, taking home-court advantage right back from Dallas.
It wasn’t a perfect performance for the Heat, nor was it a commanding one. They let their offense get stagnant. They gave up leads instead of putting the Mavericks away early. They gave Nowitzki too many easy looks at easy jump-shots, and put the Mavericks on the line far too many times with needless fouls.
Still, it the performance the Heat needed to win, and the kind of performance we should be expecting from this team at this point. Despite the Heat being “Hollywood as Hell” off the court, they sure do love winning ugly on the court, and they did enough to win ugly on Sunday.
It wasn’t about Wade dominating, although he did have a masterpiece of a performance. The game came down to Mario Chalmers’ four threes, including a half-court buzzer-beater at the end of the first quarter that may have been a backcourt violation.
It was about Udonis Haslem stepping up to set a perfect screen on Dirk on the Heat’s final basket and play perfect defense on him on the game’s final possession. It was about Chris Bosh, who had played 11 consecutive quarters of sub-par basketball and had one working eye, making the biggest shot of his career. It was about LeBron James focusing on passing and playing defense late in the game instead of trying to go for the highlight reel and get it done offensively.
It wasn’t pretty, but by doing the little things right in the waning moments of Game 3, the Heat put themselves two games away from their ultimate goal: holding that championship trophy when the series is over.