NBA Finals 2011: Mavs @ Heat Post Game Two Quotes "What Dirk does"

What the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat said 
after Game 2.

Quotes

Mavericks

Coach Rick Carlisle

(On the Game) "Look, this was not a conventional game. We all know that. If you’re going to win a championship, you’ve got to have the wherewithal to hang in when things are tough. You have to keep believing. All year our guys have believed, and tonight was another great example. They had to win the game. It wasn’t easy."

(On the Runs of the Game) "There’s two good defensive teams that also have great shot-making abilities, so you can see some runs."

(On getting a Tech) "I stand up for my guys. If I think things are going on out there that aren’t fair, I’m going to fight for them. That’s just how I do business. If you get a technical once in a while, you get a technical once in a while. But that was a long time ago now."

(On stops) "This team has been through some difficult situations. We’ve been down big a couple of times in the playoffs. We have shown that we have the ability to come back and the guys believe that if we get stops, we’ll always give ourselves a chance. It wasn’t gonna happen unless we got stops."

(On being down 15) "At that point we want to stay in front of them, get a hand up and hope they missed. They missed a couple of shots, and it allowed us to keep our momentum going."

(On Marion) "He was great. Look, we need him on the floor because of his defense. Offensively he's given us points and playmaking. His movement on the court makes a lot of good things happen for us."

(On Dirk's injury) "I played with Larry Bird when he was the best player in the world. Guys like that don't feel pain right now. If you're feeling pain, you make yourself numb."

(On how to defend Dirk) "There's nothing he hasn't seen. Give up."

Dirk Nowitzki

(On the Game) "Definitely a huge comeback for us. And we never gave up, so that was big. Proud of the team, how they battled. To be down 15 against a great team like that and we kept plugging. I think in this league, you’ve gotta play till the end, especially in the Finals. You can be down 20, you gotta keep plugging. You never know what’s gonna happen in this league. And we kept on fighting and we got some lucky bounces there."

(On his left hand injury) "It felt great. I thought it wasn't going to bother me before the game, and it didn't. I was able to get a good grip on the ball."

(On Chandler) "Tyson has been our MVP defensively all season long. He's covered a lot of ground for us. We did a better job I thought of pick-and-roll coverage. He really stepped out there, impacted the ball. We were still able to recover back some and scramble."

(On the last play) "We talked about it. They had a foul to give, so I actually drove a little earlier than I would have, knowing they had a foul to give. Made a move and the foul never came, so I was able to get to the basket and lay it in. That was a big play, and they didn’t have a timeout left, so we had to scramble back."

(On James frontrimming a layup) "LeBron had a clean lane. He's going to finish those 10 out of 10 times, but we had a couple of lucky bounces down the stretch."

(On what he told Terry after Chalmers Three) "I'm not going to share that with the media. I'm sure there was a little cussing involved. If you’re down 15 and you make an amazing run like that and you’re up three, you can’t give up a wide-open 3. It just can’t happen, so we’ve gotta go back and look at stuff like that."

('06, '06, '06, '06!!!) "As much as '06 is still on mine and Jet's mind, during the game you don't think about anything like that. You're caught in the moment as a player out there. You compete right there. You take every possession like it's the last in the Finals. You don't really think about anything else but trying to get this win."

(On the Series) "We’re not gonna approach the next three, we’re gonna approach the next one like it’s our last. I mean, you can not get a split and a huge emotional win in Game 2 and then go home and lose Game 3. So, as far as I’m concerned, the next one is the biggest game of them all, and hopefully our fans will be rocking. They’ve been great to us and carried us throughout the playoffs so far, so we’re going home to a great building and hopefully can get Game 3."

Jason Terry

(On 4th-Quartering) "I have had games throughout my career where I've struggled. I've struggled throughout three quarters in the game and then, boom, in the fourth quarter the light comes on. Tonight was another one of those examples. In a game with this magnitude, to be down 15 points in that situation, I was just going to do whatever it took to leave it all out on the floor. That's what happened tonight."

(On Miami up 15) "Just watching them celebrate like that was disheartening for us."

(On THAT moment) "Each Finals, there's going to be a turning point. There's going to be a moment, so to speak. And tonight the moment was ours."

(On THAT timeout, down 15) "We looked at each guy in the huddle to a man. Me specifically, I looked at Dirk, and said there’s no way we’re going out like this. There’s too much time left in this game, and for us to go out in a blowout-type fashion with them dunking on us, shooting threes on us, it would have really been disheartening."

(On the other timeout, after Chalmers Three tying the Game) "I don’t want to tell you what Nowitzki was saying in the huddle. That was my mistake, my error that left Chalmers wide open for 3."

(No really, what came out of Dirk's mouth?)  "A lot of curse words."

(And after that?) "Big fella told me he had my back. And he did. He came down and got the game-winning bucket."

(On Nowitzki’s ability to perform in the clutch despite the injury) "Unbelievable, but these are shots, again, that he works on and practices. I don’t know how that finger felt, but I know how he didn’t care. He was gonna do whatever it took for us to get the win tonight,"

(On the last play for Dirk) "Dirk knew it was coming to him. He does what Dirk always does."

(On Mavs coming back in general) "If there's time on that clock, there's still time for us."

(On the Mavs) "We continued to keep faith in ourselves. We went out and grinded it out and got it done."

Jason Kidd

(On Wade's 'Celebration') "He followed through and left the hand up. The big thing was he made the shot and at that point we were down 15. For us, we had nothing to lose. We had to keep playing. Everybody who played tonight stayed together and encouraged one another to keep playing it out, and we found ourselves in the ballgame."

(On the Comeback) "We got stops and we maybe gave up two offensive rebounds in that last seven minutes. Guys just stayed together. Even with that last 3-pointer that Chalmers made, everybody just looked forward and said, 'Let's find a way to win the game.' "

Tyson Chandler

(On his Game) "I just said, I don’t care what my stats end up, I’m just going to give everything I've got. I'm going to leave it out on the floor, and there’s no way I’m walking out of this game with any disappointment. That was the longest day-and-a-half ever. I was happy to get back on this floor."

(On Celebration-gate) "It was frustrating. You're a competitor, so to see a guy hit a shot like that and dance in front of your bench, I don't know what competitor wouldn't be frustrated. When you've got a guy showboating like that in front of your bench and you're down 15 with seven minutes to go, you're like, 'The game ain't over.' That's all we said on the bench: 'Listen, I don't care what they're saying over there on the other bench. The game ain't over.'"

(On freeing up Dirk for Three per screen) "I kept seeing they were pre-rotating to our shooters and they kept getting lost in our screen and rolls. So coming out of that timeout I told the guys, 'If me and Dirk set a double screen, look back to this side because I feel like I can get a pick on one of them and they’re going to be confused.' And it opened up.'"

(On Nowitzki) "Dirk is the kind of guy that is going to be persistent and we're going to keep going to him. No matter what they try to do, we're going to keep going to him. We know eventually they're going to wear down because they're spending a lot of energy trying to keep him out of the game."

Shawn Marion

(On this one vs the OKC one) "Just a different series, but we always believe we can come back regardless of the score. The game is over when the final buzzer rings. If you’ve watched us play all season, you know we’re a resilient team."

(On Dirk being japanese for Dagger) "I've got all the faith in the world in him."

(On his Game) "I'm just being aggressive on both ends of the floor. I think I'm seeing some things I can take advantage of and I'm doing it. My teammates are finding me, the balls are finding me in ways to create opportunities for myself and my teammates. I'm taking advantage of it. Just being aggressive and taking the ball to the rack. Also, I was able to handle some pick-and-rolls. I like that. I was able to come off and be aggressive and attack more. I was able to find my teammates or attack the basket."

Honest Abe

(Hey man, you have many tattoes, so you must be tough. This Nowitzki guy on the other hand has none, so my street smarts say he's soft. Aimirite oramirite!?) "No man, Dirk's a warrior. I've been on this team for a year-and-a-half and I never seen nothing like it. He's a true warrior. To hit a game-winner on that torn finger, to play the way he played with that torn finger, with people slapping on him, says a lot about him and what he does."

Heat

Coach Erik Spoelstra

(On collapsing) "That's about as tough a fourth quarter as you can have. When it started to slide, it just kept going."

(On being a little three-happy) "To shoot 30 3s in a game is not our style of basketball, and at the end of the game to not be able to execute and move the ball and find an open shot. We were running the clock down to the end. That's not been a successful formula for us the last three months."

(On what was more concerning) "Offensively, if we could have executed and moved the ball, we might have been able to stem the tide a little bit, even as poor as we were defensively down the stretch."

(On [not really] defending Dirk late) "We went to our normal package of late-game sets, we just didn't have the necessary execution."

(On why they didn't take the foul they had to give on Dirk's last possession) "It’s easy to say it right now. You know, we’re aware of it. We talked about it. We’ve been in that situation before. We didn’t use the foul. Obviously, it looks like right now you could second-guess that, but we didn’t take it. Don't believe for a second that i didn't tell those mofos to take the foul. They. Just. Did. Not. Next question."

(On not doubling Dirk on the Gamewinner) "At that time, they had carved us up enough on that. We left open some shooters, and they made us pay. We tried to do it with our normal defense. He made a heck of a drive. We cut him off one time, he spun, our help defense came, and he made a high-arcing lay-up — I believe with his left hand."

(On the Series) "We'll regroup. We have a tough group in there. We haven't had it easy at times, so we know how to respond when we have our backs against the wall."

LeBron James

(On the Collapse) "We’re up 15. If they go on a 12-0 run for the rest of the game, if we don’t score another basket, we still win by three. Defensively we just have to be more in tune and not allow a great team — a great offensive team — to get as many great looks as they did down the stretch."

(On Celebration-gate) "It was no celebration at all. I was excited about the fact that he hit a big shot and we went up 15. The same we've done over the course of the season. There was no celebration at all. We knew we had seven minutes to go still to close out the game. As far as celebration, that word has been used with us all year. But we knew how much time was left in the game still."

(On this Loss) "It hurts. It’s a ballgame now."

(On the Series) "Every time we have had a pitfall, we've figured out how to bounce back."

Dwyane Wade

1000 Words.

(On the Loss) "We didn't play the way that we normally play, so they deserved it and we didn't."

(On whether the Heat might regret how things played out) "Well, only time will tell. We gave them and they gave themselves life. We made it a lot harder on ourself."

(On Celebration-gate) "First of all, every team in the league when they go on a run, they do something. Whether it's a signal, whether it's a chest bump. It's a part of the game of basketball. A celebration is confetti, champagne bottles. If it pumped them up -- they won the game.

(Well, did it?) "Obviously, it did something. That's not the first time. It won't be the last time that, if we do a great play that we come and our teammates and we do something. It had nothing to do with the outcome of the game for us."

Chris Bosh

...Boshtrich

(Question from Miamifan: The F@ck!?) "I don't know what happened."

(On Dirk's Gamewinner) "He does a move that he always does. I got caught up in trying to cut off his drive and that's what he wanted. For a split-second, I just played bad defense."

(On the psyche of the team) "We just didn't execute down the stretch. There's no shock. There's disappointment. But the reality is the reality. We might as well get used to it and focus on the next one."

Mike Bibby

(On feelings getting touched torched late) "This isn't a good feeling. It's going to be tough to sleep. This hurts. It definitely hurts."

Vids

French Huddles are the best, though

Celebration-gate

(that's all? I was expecting fireworks and bodybuilder poses)

Game Recap

The Highlights

And now, the real Highlights

Fan Reaction in Dallas

Podium

Dirk on the Rally

NBA.com Postgamebits

Dirk | Jet | Trix | Rick | Spo | DWhistle & Bron | Bosh

ESPN Audio

Links

MMB | Rottcap: Nowitzki Lift  Catcap: Whaddayasee?

Then, the unpossible happened. Dirk happened.

A team down 15 points with barely seven minutes to play to come back, tie the game, and then win it. A team who was careless and mistake-ridden on offense and defense for nearly the entire game to suddenly roll out a six minute stretch of basketball that was near perfection. A superstar, looking for redemption from a previous collapse, to score the final nine points, including two baskets with an injured left hand.

Are we sure that this isn't the script for Hollywood's next basketball movie? Heck, I know for a fact that if it was, I'd call it cheesy and unrealistic.

That's what the Mavericks did. They defied history, they defied odds, and they defied everything that seems realistic.

Peninsula Is Mightier Blow huge; Epic

Dwyane Wade scored 9 points that included a few sick highlights as the Heat went on a 13-0 run to go up by 15 points with just over 7 minutes left in the game. 

As we have seen throughout this years playoffs, you can never count out the Dallas Mavericks.  Just when you think the game is over, they come right back and stun you with an amazing run.  They did that in this one, going on a ridiculous 17-2 run to tie the game with 56 seconds left.  It was a string of horrible offensive possessions for Miami, continuously chucking up bad three pointers and running poor plays.  Dirk was absolutely clutch for Dallas, scoring their final 9 points including a layup in the final seconds to win the game. 

The Heat's defense on the final play was just as bad as it was in the final minutes of the game.  They had a foul to give, but instead left Chris Bosh alone on Nowitzki, didn't foul him and were late to help on the back end, giving him the easiest layup you'll ever see in an NBA Finals game with the game tied and under 10 seconds left.  Talk about a choke job...all I can say is this better inspire Miami to play amazing on the road because a game like this could potentially be a back breaker.

NBA.com In Epic Rally, Dirk makes you pay | Celebrate?

Just when the Heat and their fans braced for the sort of premature celebration that ushered in this Big Three era last July, Dirk Nowitzki gave all of Miami the finger. Roll.

Dwyane Wade left his right hand in the air for a few extra seconds, just for effect.

LeBron James came over to join in the celebration after Wade's 3-pointer pushed the Miami Heat's lead to 15 points with 7:14 to play. They danced a little, smiled a little more and reveled in the moment.

The home team was cruising towards what appeared to be a commanding 2-0 lead in The Finals before a raucous American Airlines Arena crowd that surely had designs on the parade route they would line for the official delivery of that Larry O'Brien trophy.

What could wrong on a night when seemingly everything had gone so right?

How about everything, and then some.

ESPN Dime Gloating spurred

The Miami Heat were at it again, celebrating before they had accomplished anything.

ESPN Dallas Duo pulls incredible

One more Dallas playoff demon -- the biggest and baddest of 'em all -- goes down. That's been a theme of this magical Mavs playoff run. They busted out of the first-round funk. They won with Danny Crawford officiating. They reversed the trend of playoff road misery. They pulled off epic comebacks in Los Angeles and Oklahoma City.

And then they topped it all with this stunner.

Heat Index: The 55-second Possession of Doom

Who’s to blame?

Take your pick. You could blame Spoelstra for not calling a play on the first opportunity. You could blame James for taking not one, but two contested 25-footers instead of penetrating. You could blame Haslem for needlessly saving the ball and throwing it away.

In the end, the truth is that it was superb defense from the Mavericks. Terry’s swipe on Haslem was as clutch a defensive play as you’ll find. Nowitzki stopped Chalmers’ penetration and then forced an off-balance 25-footer from James seconds later.

Fifty-five seconds elapsed. Twenty-six dribbles, none inside the paint. Eight passes, none that resulted in a good shot. Two offensive boards, none that led to a second-chance point.

It was, however, one failed opportunity that led to an unthinkable Game 2 collapse.

Hoopdata Boxscore |  Notes for Mavs Heat

Even though the Dallas Mavericks had recently engineered a miracle comeback against Oklahoma City Thunder...lightning doesn't strike twice. Dallas trailed the Miami Heat by 15 points with just over six minutes to go in Game Two of the 2011 NBA Championships. They seemingly had few workable options. Dirk Nowitzki wasn't shooting well. The bench wasn't doing much. D-Wade was on fire. Miami felt that this was their moment. They had established superiority. On destiny's doorstep. (cue music from "Rocky").

[...]

It still seems that, when both teams are going pedal to the metal, Miami is the better side. If either slacks off on defense, then the other can put points on the board quickly. Will Miami be committed to 48 minutes of defense every game from this point forward? Will they get discouraged and lose defensive intensity if things start to go the other way (we saw that during the regular season slump, but not really at all in the playoffs...nothing's happened until tonight that could discourage them). Maybe Miami's still on destiny's doorstep. Dallas has made it clear they're not going to hold the door open for them.

Answers will become clear in Sunday's Game Three. Back with numbers and notes Sunday before midnight...

An advanced Boxscore at Arturo

Mark Jackson was right for once.  There goes that man. He just had the wrong man.

I kept watching the game and thinking:

• Miami is getting outrebounded and taking bad shots .
• Dallas is playing sloppy ball and that combined with Miami’s athleticism is what’s costing them the game.

Regression to the mean is a hell of a mistress.

Game on.

SI.com Steal astonishing

I will bet you all of the money in my pocket -- not much, I admit, but it's all I've got -- that Pat Riley felt the same acidic, clammy, bass-drum-beating-in-his-skull feelings that he felt in 1984. This is something he would rather not recall, but here it was in front of him Thursday.

The better team lost.

His team was beaten.

Again.

In 1984, it was Larry Bird's Celtics upsetting the Riley-coached Lakers at the end of Game 2 in Boston on a James Worthy turnover that led to an overtime-forcing layup with 18 seconds remaining, followed by the unfortunate memory of Magic Johnson dribbling out the clock in regulation. The Lakers should have been up 2-0 and they should have won the title. Instead they were positioning themselves to eventually lose Game 7 in Boston.

BDL Where Dallas tied that bad boy up

You'll never believe it, but this mess really does come down to effort.

Basketballprospectus Don't call it a comeback

Dallas 95, at Miami 93 (Series tied 1-1)
Pace: 87.7
Offensive Ratings: Miami 108.2, Dallas 106.1

In Game Two of the NBA Finals, success was the Miami Heat's biggest enemy. When Dwyane Wade's three-pointer capped a 13-0 Heat run and extended Miami's lead to 15 with 7:13 to play, the team found itself in that awkward position so many teams have been caught in this postseason. The Heat needed to run time off the clock, but it was too early to totally ignore the offense. That's just what Miami did, to its ultimate demise.

[..]

Though the last seven minutes have naturally dominated the postgame conversation, it's unclear how much they will carry over into Game Three. To the extent that it too is likely to be decided by late-game execution, it's crucial, but Dallas still needs to clean up the issues that allowed the Heat to build a double-digit lead, namely turnovers. The Mavericks coughed it up 20 times, and a remarkable 15 of them were live-ball turnovers. Those translated into runout after runout and dazzling Miami finishes. The Heat scored 31 points on those 20 turnovers, meaning Miami had just 62 points on its other 67 or so possessions.

Half-court offense is where the Heat has significant room for improvement. If not for the turnovers and threes, conversely, Miami might never have claimed the lead at all. Such was the case most of the first half, when the Heat's highlight-reel plays counted just the same as Dallas' workmanlike offense. The Mavericks' man-to-man was effective enough that we never saw any zone from them, and it might be phased out of the arsenal until needed later in the series.

 

NBAPlaybook What happened on Dirk's Winner | Gametying Three for Miami | The Play that sparked the Run

After a furious comeback (and back to back threes from both teams), the Dallas Mavericks found themselves tied with the ball for the final possession (with just a 0.5 second differential on the shot clock), looking to get the basketball to Dirk Nowitzki and get a game winner.

----------------------------------------

After a big Dirk Nowitzki three gave Dallas a three point lead with 26.7 seconds left, the Miami Heat were looking to get a three pointer to tie the game in the hopes of sending the game to overtime.  Miami was able to get a fantastic look off of a quick inbounds pass due to a poor defensive mistake by Jason Terry and a heads up play by LeBron James:

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Looking for a spark (and for points) late in the 4th quarter, the Dallas Mavericks were searching for a play that would work against Miami’s tough/quick defense.  At some point towards the end of the game, coach Rick Carlisle started running a staggered pick and roll with Dirk Nowitzki and Tyson Chandler as the screener, a play that the Mavericks haven’t run at all during the Finals to this point.  It was obvious that this play gave Miami trouble as Dallas scored 8 points on the 4 possessions they ran it while shooting 75% (including 2-2 from three).

Refcalls NBA, Dude, you mad? | Review of Game2

As some of you may have seen this morning, YouTube took down our video from yesterday that had many of the ref calls we reviewed from the 2nd half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals. There are literally thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of videos on YouTube that have NBA footage in them, but they haven’t been taken down. You’ve got to think with this action the NBA may be noticing how much RefCalls.com is revealing of their game, and they may have a problem with it. Oh well. Whatever.

These Finals games deserve the utmost scrutiny since so many people are watching them. But they are killers to review, especially considering all of the missed traveling violations from known offenders playing in these games.

Speaking of travels, we counted up the number of missed travels in the game, and they are the following:

Miami:
Dwyane Wade – 5
Chris Bosh - 2
LeBron James - 1

Dallas:
Dirk Nowitzki – 3
Jose Barea - 1
Peja Stojakovic - 1

PBT Heat Collapse | Heat's biggest Prob: Dallas now Believes | Tops Incredible

After a regular season defined by crunch-time blunders and late collapses, the Heat’s postseason had been defined by gritty closing performances that saw the Heat holding onto close leads or pulling off comebacks in the fourth quarter.

All of that changed during Thursday night’s 95-93 loss, which may end up being Miami’s most important game of the season.

"Hang in. Hang around. Keep believing."

Those were the messages that Rick Carlisle was preaching to his Mavericks in the timeout huddle, with his team facing a 15-point deficit with just over seven minutes remaining in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

Apparently, Carlisle’s guys were listening.

Maybe no elements of this game of this will carry over into the next, or maybe what transpired over the final seven minutes of this amazing comeback will generate an entirely different dynamic for the series going forward. All we know is that we don’t know, but once these Finals are said and done, fans across the country will argue that they always knew the Mavs’ Game 2 victory would change everything or nothing, with the wisdom that only hindsight provides.

Hoopshype  Tweets

Ron Artest: Ok I was wrong I got mavs in six I mis calculated If lebron gets this win n Dallas I'm going on record as saying he is great!! 2 hours ago

Jose Juan Barea: Mavs fans here we come ...coqui about 6 hours ago

Charlie Bell: Let's not forget another key contributor for Dallas. My main man Brian Cardinal getting some P.T. Lol. #prioritysports 6 hours ago

Caron Butler: Hell of a win.... 7 hours ago

Anthony Tolliver: Have u been watching the same playoffs I have? Lol...they r 3 wins from the chip. Id say they have meshed pretty well...but we will see. about 7 hours ago

Anthony Tolliver: Why do people feel its necessary to hate on the best players in the world? Lol...u don't have to like them but don't hate ...u look ignorant about 7 hours ago

Jeff Pendergraph: But what was funny I heard so many stories of people missing it bc they gave up. Both were tight but don't take anything away from dallas about 7 hours ago

Jeff Pendergraph: Honestly yall, this was better to me. Its the finals and they were in miami. Let's give them props yall. Blazer comback was insane about 7 hours ago

Eric Maynor: Games are never over in the NBA......#fact about 7 hours ago

Charlie Bell: That crowd is going to be record breaking loud Sunday. Dallas can smell blood. This is their year. Miami will b back but this is Dallas year about 7 hours ago

Shelden Williams: So I go upstairs cuz I'm thinking the game is over with the mavs being down 15 and after I put lil momma to bed I find out that mavs won!?! about 7 hours ago

Charlie Bell: What happened to the big 2 the last 7 minutes. about 7 hours ago

Jeff Pendergraph: Ok Blazer fans. Let's say greatest Finals comeback about 7 hours ago

Austin Daye: This press conference is gunna be interesting about 7 hours ago

Dan Gilbert: Wow! Wow! And Wow!! @cavsnick almost knocked me out jumping on me at the end...Its also past the dudes bedtime! WOW! yesterday

Gilbert Arenas: Watch out dirk..miami PD might get u..for stealin that game..haha. Great game great game yesterday

David West: Damn can't give up a lay up! yesterday

Gilbert Arenas: 20-2 run...one word DIRK... yesterday

JJ Hickson: What happened the last 3 minutes... SOMEBODY has to step up... Can't just be the man when everything going good... yesterday

Anthony Tolliver: Wow..that was unbelievable! Did Mavs win that game or did MIA lose?..doesnt really matter...its 1-1 haha. This series is going the DISTANCE! yesterday

Eric Gordon: Wow what a game... yesterday

Quincy Pondexter: Wow Dallas stole that game. Dirk is on a mission yesterday

Isaiah Thomas: Y'all see my bro @Jason Terry giving his shoes, wrist band and headband away after the game?? He always giving away something.. GREAT dude! yesterday

Dorell Wright: Man I might have to get to Dallas for a game now. Take my yngsta @Ekpe Udoh this sht just got real hahahahahahha yesterday

Roger Mason: Great game!!!! DIRK is a PROBLEM! I actually was just arguing that Dirk was the most complete offensive player in the league. yesterday

Ed Davis: Dirk got that killer in him yesterday

James Harden: Wow that was a tough finish by Dallas. yesterday

Earl Barron: Yep. We've got ourselves a series. #NBA yesterday

Jeff Pendergraph: That was one of the GTREATEST comebacks EVER!!!! Who ever says Dirk is not a beast, #fail yesterday

Samardo Samuels: Dirk look like larry bird on that move.. yesterday

Justin Harper: You aint gotta like him, but you will #RespectDirk yesterday

Jason Thompson: Wow. We Now Hav A Series!! Next 3 in Dallas...Shuld get Interestin yesterday

DeMar DeRozan: Dirk!!!!!!!!! yesterday

Chris Singleton: I'm calling it, #DIRK will be a trending topic yesterday

Zabian Dowdell: Now its a series... yesterday

Eric Maynor: WOWWWWWWWWWW yesterday

Eric Maynor: WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW yesterday

Charlie Bell: Miami might not win another game. Imjustsayin yesterday

Austin Daye: Chris Bosh should name his first son #DIRK yesterday

Marcus Camby: Great game! yesterday

Chris Singleton: I know heat fans sick... Just try to go to work tomorrow, our economy can't afford for you not to lol yesterday

Greg Monroe: Good game.... But ummmm #viola #viola yesterday

Jordan Williams: Dirk. yesterday

Anthony Morrow: Dirk wit da lefty lay for the game...wit the left hand tendon tear tho...tough yesterday

Austin Daye: DIRK is the truth yesterday

Marcin Gortat: One of the best come backs ...... yesterday

DeJuan Blair: DIRK IZ A BEAST!!! yesterday

Shelvin Mack: Great game......... yesterday

Talor Battle: Where the bum ass heat fans tonighttttt...silence yesterday

Austin Daye: #swaggedout yesterday

Marcin Gortat: What a fuc.... Game!!!!! Dirk u r the best man!!!wow what a game!!! Amazing!! yesterday

Ty Lawson: Wowowoowowoowow!!!!!!!!!! yesterday

Quentin Richardson: Wow!! Speechless!! yesterday

Darren Collison: Heat should be up 2-0 yesterday

Kevin Love: We have a series. yesterday

Jorge Sierra: Not the best defense in the world by Bosh there, but so much finesse by Nowitzki in that play. yesterday

Patrick Patterson: #hahahahahahaha yesterday

Austin Daye: That's what MIA gets for actin like that up 15 yesterday

Charlie Bell: Bosh can't hold Dirk. yesterday

Justin Harper: I can't believe what I just witnessed yesterday

DeJuan Blair: HAHAHAHAAHAAAAA!!!! THATS DIRK 4 U!!! yesterday

Jared Dudley: We NOW have a series!!!!!!!!! WOW!!!! Unbelievable comeback!!!!!! yesterday

Dorell Wright: Wooooooooow again for the 10th time. Smh yesterday

Darren Collison: Wow!!! Great come back for Dallas. yesterday

Kevin Love: Wow...and I almost changed the channel. yesterday

Danny Servick: Dirk!!!!!!!!! yesterday

Craig Smith: Dirk!!! yesterday

Hakim Warrick: Wow! yesterday

Dorell Wright: WooooooooooooW. Wait why wasn't Udonis Haslem on Dirk. Com'Son Son!!!! Smdh. yesterday

Elliot Williams: That's crazy yesterday

Chris Singleton: #DIRK! yesterday

Chris Kaman: Done deal, Mavs win!!! yesterday

Steve Nash: Burgers....... yesterday

CJ Watson: Yes Dallas!!!!! yesterday

Jorge Sierra: Shocker! yesterday

DeAndre Jordan: Dirkington!!! yesterday

Josh Selby: Toughhhhhh yesterday

What?

Charlie Bell: Dirk time yesterday

Charlie Bell: Poor defense on the inbounds. Just stay solid. Unreal yesterday

Greivis Vasquez: Big shot for Chalmers... yesterday

Greg Monroe: Big shot yesterday

Quincy Pondexter: Super Mario!!! yesterday

Bernie Lee: They r killing Jason Terry but they were clearly supposed to switch.. yesterday

Josh Selby: Big shot Mario #jayhawks yesterday

Steve Nash: 2 wide open looks in the last 30 sec in the finals........both good. #greatgame yesterday

Jamie Skeen: Big shot chalmers yesterday

Dorell Wright: Rio for 3. Wth was Dallas doing. Sleepin. U knw the drill hand down man down. yesterday

Justin Harper: This is an unreal series! yesterday

Patrick Patterson: Speechless? yesterday

DeJuan Blair: WOWWWW yesterday

Eric Bledsoe : #dirk yesterday

Jorge Sierra: Bad threes galore by the Heat. Why look for the hero shot rather than run an actual play? yesterday

Austin Daye: O SHeeeeT Dirk for 3 yesterday

Jamie Skeen: Wade played a great game but thats the worst shot of the game yesterday

Eric Bledsoe : exciting game! #crunchtime whos got heart? yesterday

Quincy Pondexter: Dirk!!!!!!!!!!!! yesterday

JaJuan Johnson: THE GREATEST GERMAN BASKETBALL PLAYER OF ALL TIME yesterday

Bernie Lee: It does seem like the turning pt was D.Wade posing in front of Dallas bench doesn't it? yesterday

Dorell Wright: Woooooooow eye ball sandwich. Dirk BIG shot!!! Woooow. yesterday

Greg Monroe: Wooowww.... yesterday

Jorge Sierra: Great three by Nowitzki, but what kind of offensive plays is Miami running? yesterday

Shelvin Mack: This is crazy....... yesterday

Chris Singleton: #DIRK yesterday

JaJuan Johnson: these ninjas tied this game up! #NBAfinals yesterday

Greivis Vasquez: Now it's anyone's game! #NBAFINALS yesterday

Charlie Bell: Wow. Dallas. Last game they talked about how great Miami closers are. They haven't showed up yet. Let's go Dallas. Great 4th qtr comeback yesterday

Dorell Wright: Woooooooow. #finals yesterday

Bernie Lee: If ur Dallas anytime someone other then Lebron and D Wade shoots the ball uve done ur job yesterday

Justin Harper: WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?!? yesterday

Shelvin Mack: Tough Defensive....... yesterday

Elliot Williams: Them boys playing out there yesterday

Chris Singleton: Crazy gameeeeeeeeee yesterday

Austin Daye: It's tight in American Airlines Arena yesterday

Greg Monroe: "Stop on a dime, give em 9 cents change" - Mark Jackson.... Can someone explain plz. Lol yesterday

Jorge Sierra: Miami pulling a Thunder. yesterday

Jamie Skeen: Umm its time for the closer to close this thang out right now.. Stay tuned folks yesterday

Shelvin Mack: Here we go....... yesterday

Steve Nash: American Airlines Arena is LEED certified..... #respect yesterday

DeJuan Blair: Did SOMETHIN happen 2 my man wiz yesterday

Anthony Tolliver: If Miami could shoot fts they wud b up by 15+ right now lol. They r ridiculously good. Not gonna lie, I thought it wud take a year to mesh.. yesterday

Jorge Sierra: Officially jumped the gun. yesterday

Elliot Williams: Wow yesterday

Austin Daye: Miami is swagger out lol yesterday

Greg Monroe: I wonder if they have a stat for the most dunks in a finals game.... yesterday

Greg Monroe: -____- somebody jus told me they fone types by itself... #rlytho yesterday

Ty Lawson: Knocked out like a newborn yesterday

Justin Harper: D-Wade from the '06 Finals is back yesterday

Steve Nash: How can I watch the game when I just got a thousand texts for being on tv?! Been there before people... #kindofabigdeal yesterday

Wesley Matthews: Whhhhaaaaaaa!!!?!?!? New planet of the apes!? Hyped like a 5 year old at a toys r us convention yesterday

Chris Kaman: Who's winning the game tonight? I know who I want to win! yesterday

Ron Artest: What's the score? yesterday

Jamie Skeen: Best fast breaking team in the nba #heat yesterday

Shelden Williams: Just got back from taking my mother in law out to dinner for her bday and now watching the game. yesterday

Anthony Morrow: Is this NBA jam or am I TRIPPIN yesterday

Chandler Parsons: Dunk contest in Miami. yesterday

Demetri Mccamey: Kid why did u jump in that picture??? Lol LBJ to much for Dallas yesterday

Evan Turner: The heat dancers are toughhhhhh yesterday

Demetri Mccamey: Joel Anthony nose look like the back of a Wii Controller. LOL yesterday

Anthony Morrow: God is Great man foreal yesterday

Bernie Lee: Corey Brewer has to love that his coach just put Brian Cardinal in the game in front of him.. yesterday

Steve Nash: At the game. You know I had to support @Dirk Nowitzki! But @Dwyane Wade and @LeBron James are grillin' too... http://lockerz.com/s/107168448 yesterday

Anthony Morrow: Smh, talent, just talent yesterday

Morris Peterson : Listening to' Living Better Now' with Jamie Foxx and Rick Ross....wheww this ish goes hard.... yesterday

David West: Bron n DWade running dat break Tough... yesterday

The Point Forward Marion takes advantage | Give Credit

Fact: The Dallas Mavericks’ offense is much better when Shawn Marion is on the bench.

With Marion on the court, the Mavs are a run-of-the-mill offense prone to droughts. With Marion on the bench, they are the best offense in the league.

But Marion can’t afford to spend much time on the bench in this series, for three reasons:

1) He is by far Dallas’ best long-term option in defending LeBron James.

2) Backup small forward Peja Stojakovic has been exposed so badly on defense that coach Rick Carlisle could not even play him in the second half of Game 3.

3) Carlisle is riding, for now, with man-to-man defenses and not zones that might afford players like Stojakovic more minutes.

Friday’s narrative will be that the Heat devolved into hero ball and ran a bunch of isolation plays. That’s not really true. The Heat ran plays, including some of their best sets, on just about every trip down the court over those final seven minutes. They just didn’t score, for three reasons:

1. With one or two exceptions, the Mavs defended the primary action beautifully.

2. The Heat did not commit often enough to moving on to second or third options after the first one failed.

3. The Heat weren’t quite as precise as they are at full throttle. Screens didn’t hit their target flush, and passes came a beat too late or not at all, when perhaps they could have been squeezed into open lanes.

2MG's The Difference

Dallas only came back in such spectacular fashion because they played the pick-and-roll with LeBron as the ball-handler so aggressively, and that doesn’t happen without Tyson Chandler — who was pressuring like mad, despite having five fouls at the time and Brendan Haywood unavailable with a strained right hip flexor — shutting down LeBron’s options.

Stats

FT-Watch

Haywood bricked nil of [twiceasmuch] from the line. Why oh why don't you chop that wood more, Portland Lakers Thunder Miami? He is now 20-43 on FTs in 16 games. Celebration for our third-best Center, Beaches! [nsfw]

Dirk missed zero FTs on 3 Attempts. Wait, 3 Attempts? Kidding, right?

Miami bricked 8 of 24, Dallas 4 of 21.

20-20-4 Watch

Chandler 13-7-0 Haywood 2-0-0+strained right hip flexor. Mahinmi DNP-Playoffs/French  Tough task, eh?

Field Goals

Mavs 36, Heat 34 OK!

Boarding

Mavs 41 (11 O) Heat 30 (6 O) Nice response

PIP-Boys

MIA 36 DAL 40. Rare but logic.

Bench

MIA 11 DAL 23 Minimum

Break it FAST

DAL 13 (but allowed 'only' 31 Points off 20 Turnovers)

MIA 16 (allowed 15 Pts off 12 To) Running back, y'all!...

The TEAM STAT

DAL 18 Assists MIA 13 Assists  Heroballers

 Bonus

That begs for many captions, though i really like this one

from Angrytrey via Maximilian

Disclaimer: If you couldn't tell by now, all italic sentences are made up thoughts, not actual quotes. Also, 732 Photos. That may take a little while...

Finally....KneeJerk Recap (TM) Jonthefon v5.02

The Mavs (beat/lost to) [the Miami Heat]¹ tonight (thanks to/despite) rebounds and totol reliance on Dirk’s Awesomeness late in the 4th Quarter. The (cloud in the silver lining/major culprit) once more as usual was the (reliabilty/lack) of support from his team-mates, with the exception of Shawn Marion/Jason Terry². Especially useless was Jose Barea/Peja Stojakovic/Brendan Haywood/DeShawn Stevenson/Jason Kidd/Tyson Chandler³ and it is (GUESS WHAT) THEY’RE ALMOST NOT ALL USELESS!

¹ Inserted Opponent

² Only one of them, mind you. 

³ Two at the minimum, up to all six seven of them.