It was definitely a game for the ages. The Dallas Mavericks battled back from a 15 point deficit in the 4th quarter to beat the Miami Heat and tie the series 1-1. Dirk Nowitzki scored the game-winning shot on a left handed layup with 3.6 seconds left in the game. Nowitzki started slowly in the first three quarters going 6-16 but upped his intensity and dug deep to get it going in the second half and scored the Maverick’s final nine points. Dallas snapped Miami’s undefeated (9-0) home record in this postseason with a 22-5 run in the final 7 minutes.
The game started with some great offense. The first quarter both teams were trading buckets. The Mavs had the lead for much of the first half but the Heat bounced back with a 8-0 run of their own to tie it at 51 going into the half. The story of the 3rd quarter was turnover, turnovers, turnovers. Dallas played sloppy for much of the 3rd quarter but somehow managed to hang around. Mavs had 11 turnovers in the 3rd. The Heat set franchise playoff record with 31 points off turnovers tonight though I give more credit to Dallas’ turnovers then to the Miami’s defense.
Jason Terry woke up right when the Mavs needed it the most scoring 8 points in Dallas’ run to make it a 4 point game with just over 3 minutes to go. Mavs tied the game up with just under a minute left to play capping off an incredible 17-2 run at that point. Dirk hit a clutch 3 to take the 3 point lead but a miscommunication on a Miami inbound play left Mario Chalmers wide open to hit the biggest 3-pointer of his career and tie it back up at 93 apiece before Dallas eventually took the lead.
D. Wade showed why he is Batman on his team going for 36 points in the first three quarters. When the game was on the line he only had two touches in the final 6:20 seconds. He was clearly the hot hand but Miami coach Eric Spolstra went with James down the stretch instead of wade and Robin took over and jacking up contested jumper after contested jumper. The Heat took 73 shots and 30 of them were from behind the arc. They went away from the offensive executions that got them the lead in the first place and settled for jump shots.
I’m tempted to say Dallas stole this game after digging themselves into such a deep hole and nearly handing the game to the Heat with all those turnovers, but they battled back on both sides of the ball and they deserved to win this game. They now travel back to Texas to play three home games. Game 3 could potentially decide this series. According to ESPN only 11 teams in NBA History have split the first two games of the Finals and the winner of game 3 has gone on to win the series 100 percent of the time.
**Stats provided by ESPN Sports Center**
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