By David Moore, Dallas Morning News

DALLAS — Shawn Marion has a home in Chicago. Once Dwyane Wade saw it, he bought one close. The two are neighbors.

Who knew Marion would also find himself in the same statistical neighborhood as Miami’s other star through the first two games of The Finals?

LeBron James has more points than Marion, but not as many as you might think. James has just two more assists even though he has the ball in his hands the majority of the time.

Marion holds the edge over James in rebounds, blocked shots and field-goal percentage. He’s even made more trips to the free throw line than the league’s most powerful perimeter presence.

In the category of “outcomes no one envisioned,” this ranks second behind the Heat blowing a 15-point lead in the final 6:20 of a home game to arrive in Dallas with the series tied.

Marion’s rise in the offensive pecking order and his defense on James are positive developments for the Mavericks as they prepare for today’s Game 3.

“He’s been phenomenal taking the challenge on both ends,” Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki said.

Nowitzki is the team’s primary scoring threat. Jason Terry is usually the second option. But the nature of Terry’s game, along with the Mavericks unselfish flow offense, means the team’s No. 2 scorer is determined on a rotating basis.

The spin of the dial has landed on Marion lately. Terry has struggled with his shot since the second game of the Western Conference finals. Marion has responded by averaging 17.4 points and shooting 57.3 percent from the field over the last five games.

He’s averaged 18 points in The Finals, which is six points higher than his average this post-season.

“I think Shawn Marion has done a great job, especially offensively,” James said. “He’s picked up his game offensively.”

This is part of the plan. The Mavericks want to reduce the ability of James and Wade to roam defensively. The best way to do that is to have Marion attack the basket and force Miami’s defense to account for him.

“He’s been cutting for us, he’s been posting up,” Nowitzki said. “He’s been getting offensive rebounds, put-backs.

“He looks really comfortable right now. He’s got a bounce in his step, and it’s fun to watch.”

DeShawn Stevenson opens the game on James, but Marion has actually spent more time on him. The Mavericks forward has worked hard to keep James out of transition and off the free throw line. He fights over the top of screens on pick-and-rolls and tries to obstruct James’ line of vision.

“A lot of his fouls come in transition,” Marion said. “I’m able to get back and stop him from doing that. In the halfcourt, I’m able to get in front of him and contest his shot without fouling.

“It’s just been good, solid defense and me moving my feet and staying down.”

Nearly 40 percent of the shots James has taken in this series have come from 3-point range. Why so many?

“A few of them are open,” Marion said. “A lot he took last game were at the end of the shot clock. He had no choice but to hoist it because I wouldn’t give him a look at anything else.”

Marion’s decision to poke the two-time MVP with this verbal stick is questionable. But there are no questions about his performance on offense and defense so far in this series.

“I’ve always prided myself on playing both ends of the floor,” Marion said. “I thrive on competing. I feel I can do just about anything I want to do out on that floor.

“It’s about getting opportunities.”

Marion has made the most of these opportunities.

He’s put himself in a pretty good neighborhood.

DALLAS —
Dirk’s different.

So we hear.

Different from the guy who shot just 39 percent in the 2006 NBA Finals, who
was distracted by David Hasselhoff placards, who sometimes deferred when
Dallas needed him to dominate.

“He is a much different player,” ABC/ESPN analyst Mark Jackson said
Saturday. “Much more comfortable in the post area, much more
comfortable reading double teams, much more comfortable with physical play
against him defensively, has a whole different swagger about him. And he was
great then.”

Sure was.

Great enough to score 50 in Game 5 of the 2006 Western Conference finals
against Phoenix, to earn the NBA MVP Award in 2006-07 and to establish
himself as one of the unquestioned greats of his era.

But, as Pat Riley likes to say, there is no way to greatness.

Greatness is the way.

So is it finally time for Nowitzki – taking a 1-1 tie in the NBA Finals into
three home games against the Heat – to lead the way to a title?

For Miami, there are troubling signs it might be.

Forget the whats and whys and hows.

The major problem with the Heat’s Game 2 meltdown is the now.

Now, after allowing Nowitzki to steal Thursday’s contest, by scoring the final
nine points, the Heat has put him in striking distance to steal this series
and to earn an even more exalted spot in basketball history.

The legend grows daily.

Nowitzki is on one of the all-time playoff runs, averaging 28.1 points on 50.5
percent shooting – even after sinking just 42.5 percent in the first two
games of the Finals.

He has scored at least nine points in each of the past seven fourth quarters,
and did so in Game 2 with a splint on an injured left middle finger that he
now says is “really good.”

Nowitzki has helped the Mavericks eliminate the old (Lakers) and new (Thunder)
powers in the West, and, Wednesday, his teammate Jason Terry shared a
contribution from the opening series against Portland, when it appeared the
Mavericks were doomed to another first-round failure.

“When I first came to Dallas (in 2004), Dirk’s leadership was questioned
all the time with the media,” Terry said. “They didn’t see him
vocal enough, getting on guys enough.”

“Obviously, at the beginning, I had a little language barrier,”
Nowitzki said. “Over the years, I got more comfortable taking the guys
to the side and addressing something when I see something. I guess that
comes with experience.”

Nowitzki had experienced the Mavericks’ collapse in Game 3 of the 2006 NBA
Finals against Miami, as well as their first-round flameout against the
eighth-seeded Warriors in 2007.

Then, in Game 4 of this year’s first round, Portland’s Brandon Roy took his
team apart.

“We come in the locker room after the game,” Terry said. “Coach
(Rick Carlisle) wasn’t the first one to talk. It was Dirk. I think guys
looked at that and seen that, ‘Hey, this is our leader.’ We’re going to ride
with him.”

Nowitzki has taken the Mavericks back to the brink of glory.

Yet even now, back in his house for three games in five nights, he’s still
playing with house money. Most around the game believe he can enhance, but
not diminish, his legacy during these Finals.

That is something that few will say of LeBron James, the “Chosen One”
who switched teams to chase a title, and likely won’t satisfy the masses
until snagging several. Nowitzki has already established himself as the
greatest of something – greatest European to play his prime years in America
- and has exceeded any expectation anyone had when Milwaukee took him ninth
overall and dealt him to Dallas.

Jackson calls him “a top 30 player that has ever lived, a Hall of Famer
and an all-time great, win, lose or draw. If he has on his resume, he got to
the Finals but lost to Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal, and then lost to
Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh also, I mean, how could you hold
that against him? To me, it’s a shame for people to think that.”

Jackson’s television partner, Jeff Van Gundy, believes it will be “a
benefit” to Nowitzki’s legacy to prevail but would still define him as
a champion even if he doesn’t, just as he does Charles Barkley, Karl Malone,
John Stockton and Patrick Ewing. Van Gundy argues that for many ring-less
greats, the biggest problem has been date of birth.

“Sometimes when you are the best player on your team and (Michael) Jordan
is the best player on his team, guess what, you’re bleeped,” Van Gundy
said.

Nowitzki is the best player on his team, same as in the 2006 NBA Finals. Now
he sees James on the other side as well as Wade, but he’s a different
player, a better player, and playing by different rules than his star
opponents in terms of what the public demands. He won’t make it easy for the
Heat to achieve the same result.

The Mavs say they’re playing for the injured Butler, whom despite being a very long shot, head coach Rick Carlisle still hasn’t completely ruled out of returning this season. From ESPN: “The Dallas Mavericks understood that however hard he worked, forward Caron Butler probably would not be joining this team of ring-less veterans on its pursuit of an NBA title. So they dedicated the journey to him. ‘We all said when the playoffs started we wanted to do it for him,’ guard Jason Terry said. ‘And if you ask him, I’m one of the guys that told him, ‘Hey, we’re doing this for you this time, big boy.’ I told you we’d do it and it’s here now.’ … Mavs coach Rick Carlisle reiterated that Butler is a long shot to play during the Finals, but he refuses to shut the door on a possible return. Butler has yet to practice with the team and Carlisle continues to be vague about a potential timeline even though he said Butler’s recovery is well ahead of schedule. Butler was away from the team Saturday to attend to a family situation. He is expected to fly with the team to Miami on Sunday. ‘He gets closer all the time. Really, I don’t want to close the door on it because with him, he’s never a guy you want to bet against,’ Carlisle said. ‘He’s just one of those special guys. He’s a month-and-a-half, two months ahead of the normal rehab schedule for a normal human being. It just shows the kind of work he’s put into it, the sort of single-minded compulsiveness of his approach and how diligent he’s been. It’s been an inspiration to have him around. I just don’t think it’s the right thing to close the door even though I think it’s unlikely [he'll play].’”

FP – Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki insists he carries no mental scars from five years ago as his team prepares to battle it out with the Miami Heat for the NBA title.

The best-of-seven championship series starting in Miami on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) is a rematch of the 2006 season decider, which saw the Mavericks fall apart after jumping out to a 2-0 series lead.

Dallas even led game three by 13 points halfway through the fourth quarter before the Heat snatched victory.

Nowitzki missed a chance to tie that game at the free throw line with 3.4 seconds to go.

Nowitzki can’t stop thinking about the 2006 finals loss but denies he’s motivated by revenge.

“It doesn’t really matter that much to me,” Nowitzki said.

“We had a huge chance in ’06 and let it slip away, so we’ve got another crack at it. You never know in this league if you ever get another chance.

“Obviously, it was one of the toughest losses we’ve ever gone through as a franchise.

“To be up 2-0 and not find a way to win another game, that was tough. It took us a long time to get back to this stage.”

One of the key matchups is at power forward where Chris Bosh will go up against Nowitzki.

Bosh will have his hands full with the lanky German, who has missed just two free throws in 61 tries.

Nowitzki posted a couple of 40-point performances over Oklahoma City and averaged 32.2 points per game in the Western Conference finals.

The Heat will be hoping for more of the best from LeBron James, who is in the midst of the best playoffs of his career and has proved his value when post-season games are on the line.

James thoroughly outplayed Chicago’s Derrick Rose in the semi-finals, making some wonder if the league MVP should have gone to James for a third-straight year.

Expectations were always great when Dwyane Wade persuaded James and Chris Bosh to sign with Miami less than a year ago, and the team is now living up to them.

However it wasa rocky start to the season for the Heat.

“We’ve had to go through a lot of adversity,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

“That struggle that we went through in March, where we lost five straight, that helped us. As painful as it was, we had to go through that fire together to be able to gain the confidence where we could be successful now in the postseason.”

Miami’s early season struggles hit a low when they lost 106-95 to the Mavericks on November 22.

The soul searching after that loss resulted in a closed-door meeting where the Heat players ironed out their differences.

Four weeks later, the Mavericks edged Miami 98-96, snapping the Heat’s 12-game win streak.

Miami host games one and two on Tuesday and Thursday before the series shifts to Dallas for up to three games.

COMMENTARY | After watching the Oklahoma City Thunder lose Game 4 against the Dallas Mavericks, I actually felt sorry for Kevin Durant. In his post-game teleconference, Durant showed a side that I did not know. In the teleconference, I felt sorry, sympathetic, and empathetic for him as he felt that he let his team and city down. With such a heartfelt announcement, I hoped for an exciting Game 5 and for the Thunder to win at least one more game.

With the Mavericks only one game away from the NBA Finals, Dallas began the game playing quick, up-tempo basketball. The Mavericks demonstrated strong offense by scoring the first six points in the first quarter. Led by Dirk Nowitzki and Tyson Chandler, the team played a great quarter, but so did the Thunder. James Harden responded strongly, and the Thunder was able to lead at the end of the first quarter with the score 27-26.

The Thunder also played an excellent second quarter, again led by Durant and Harden. One of my first thoughts during the second was that as long as Harden does not foul out, as he did in game four, then Oklahoma City may be able to play one more game this season. Off the bench, Harden played very safe basketball and was a dominant force. In game five, he scored 23 points, had six assists, and garnered five rebounds. The Thunder was able to end the half with the score of 55-52.

As the third quarter began, I believed the Thunder would pull away or that the Mavericks would continue to show the NBA that they are the team to beat in 2011. Instead, both teams played great basketball, entering a “tug-of-war” match. The score at the end of the third was 76-72.

Playing at home, the Mavericks in the fourth quarter played enthusiastic and invigorating basketball. Shawn Marion played with renewed faith in himself, scoring an astonishing 14 of 26 points in the final quarter to help end Durant’s and the Thunder’s 2011 season.

The Mavericks will play the Miami Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals. In my opinion, a series between the Mavericks and Heat will be one of the most exciting and most watched finals runs in years.

Sources:

Jaime Aron, Associated Press, “Nowitzki, Marion send Mavericks back to NBA finals”, Yahoo! Sports.

Dirk Nowitzki, AFP Photo

Dirk Nowitzki scored 40 points Monday as Dallas erased a late 15-point deficit and beat Oklahoma City 112-105 in overtime to move to within one win of reaching the NBA finals.

Jason Kidd hit the go-ahead three-pointer with 40 seconds remaining in overtime and the Mavericks took a three-games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals.

The winner of the series will face either Chicago or Miami for the NBA crown.

“I believe that was all about getting stops,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. “Every guy who was in there made big plays.

“The one thing about this team all year is we have been a resourceful group. They keep believing. They have been extremely opportunistic. I don’t know how you quantify that. But this comeback was fantastic.”
The Mavericks trailed by 15 points in the final five minutes of regulation.

They didn’t take the lead until Nowitzki drained two free throws 16 seconds into overtime.

Kevin Durant missed a three-pointer on Oklahoma City’s opening possession of overtime then didn’t get another shot until he missed a three-point attempt off the front rim in the final 10 seconds, when the Thunder trailed by five.

Durant finished with 29 points and 15 rebounds. Serge Ibaka had 18 points and 10 rebounds for Oklahoma City. Russell Westbrook added 19 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists.

The Mavericks, who struggled all night to rebound, pulled within 99-91 with 3:14 remaining.

After Oklahoma City’s Westbrook scored off another offensive rebound, Nowitzki answered with a three-pointer.

Dallas’ defense then stopped Oklahoma City on four straight possessions and the Mavericks closed the gap to 101-99.

Two free throws from Nowitzki knotted the score with 6.4 seconds remaining and Shawn Marion’s block on Durant made sure the Thunder didn’t close it out.

The game was tied 105-105 with 1:15 left in overtime when Kidd stripped the ball from Durant and drained a three-pointer at the other end with 40.3 seconds to go.

Kidd then rebounded a Westbrook miss, Jason Terry hit 2 free throws for Dallas and Kidd added two more free throws to let the Mavs celebrate a victory that looked anything but likely when the Thunder opened the game by hitting nine straight shots.

The Mavericks were able to stay in touch, never falling more than 12 points behind. Thanks in large part to free throws, they trailed just 59-54 at halftime.

However, with the sell-out crowd cheering them frantically, the Thunder put together two runs of seven straight points early in the fourth quarter.

Durant had a two-handed dunk and a three-pointer in the second burst, which made it 99-84 with 5:06 left to play.

But the Mavs were already closing in when Thunder guard James Harden fouled out. Dallas limited Oklahoma City to just one basket from there and Nowitzki scored 12 points in Dallas’ 17-2 scoring run to close regulation.

“There’s times and situations where they are going to test the courage and the mental inner strength of your team,” said Terry, who scored 20 for Dallas. “This was one of those times.

“This was a defining moment in our season where we look back and say, ‘Hey, that was the game.’”

The Mavericks will host game five on Wednesday, and Durant said the Thunder must stay positive.

“It’s not over yet,” he said.

AFP

Read More: Rick Carlisle (H – DAL), Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder

Though it’s not an elimination game, tonight’s Game 4 in the Western Conference Finals is generally regarded as a do or die game for the Oklahoma City Thunder, as they are down 2-1 in the series against an obviously formidable opponent in the Dallas Mavericks. SB Nation’s Oklahoma City Thunder blog, Welcome To Loud City, has picked out a few points of emphasis for their team tonight. One of them is protecting the lane, something they haven’t done the best job of thus far. Regarding Game 3 of the series:

Later in the game, the Thunder were on a mad dash to get back in the game, and they darned near pulled it off. However, it was their inability to protect the rim in terms of rebounding that ultimately doomed the Thunder. My unofficial count was that the Mavericks were able to grab about six of their offensive rebounds in the 4th quarter alone. In a quarter where the Mavs only managed to score 23 points, those additional attempts kept the lead at an eight point level for what seemed like half the quarter. It was truly unfortunate, because until the game turned into a free throw shooting contest, the Thunder defense had held Dallas to 18 points. 

With players like Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins on the roster, it seems like this would be the least of the Thunder’s worries. They’ve been great on the boards so far in the playoffs, but they absolutely let themselves slip in this department in Game 3.

Meanwhile, SB Nation Dallas has a post up about Rick Carlisle’s message to his team. Though the Mavericks won Game 3, Carlisle is looking for hunger from his team, and he’s told him that he wants them to go out and play with the intensity that they would have if they were coming off of a loss.

“We’ve got to concentrate and we’ve got to be ready for what’s coming at us tonight, which is going to be a lot of force. They’re going to play a desperate game, for sure. For 48 minutes, we’ve got to bring a level of intensity.”

Down a few energy drinks, then chase them with some espresso. Then you’ll be ready for tonight’s INTENSE THUNDERMAVS encounter.