Category: Dallas Mavericks Blog

Mavericks blog – Dallas Mavericks blog. A great Mavs news blog

LeBron scores 24, Heat take Finals Game 1 over Mavs

The AP reports:

lebron james

LeBron James scored 24 points for his first win in five NBA finals games, Dwyane Wade scored 15 of his 22 points in the second half and the Heat beat the Dallas Mavericks 92-84 in Game 1 of the title series on Tuesday night—holding the Western Conference champions to their lowest point total of the playoffs after a dominant defensive showing down the stretch…

Dirk Nowitzki(notes) scored 27 points—tearing a tendon in the middle finger on his left, non-shooting, hand during the game and revealing afterward that he’ll likely wear a splint throughout the remainder of the series—and grabbed eight rebounds for Dallas, which got 16 points and 10 rebounds from Shawn Marion(notes) and 12 points from Jason Terry(notes), most of those coming in an early flurry. It was Dallas’ fifth straight loss to Miami in finals games, dating to the Heat rally for the 2006 crown.

Dallas held the Heat to 39 percent shooting, Miami’s second-worst showing of the playoffs.

Problem was, the Mavericks shot 37 percent—by far, their worst night of the postseason offensively…

Miami outrebounded Dallas 46-36, got a gritty effort on both ends from reserve Mike Miller(notes)—who left with his left arm in a sling, but insisted he would be fine—and reaped rewards again from another strong fourth-quarter finish by Wade and James…

Bosh scored 19 points and Mario Chalmers(notes) added 12 for the Heat. The Heat trailed by eight points early in the third quarter before pulling away, remaining unbeaten—now 9-0—at home in these playoffs and snapping Dallas’ five-game road postseason winning streak.

Dallas had 51 points after 26 minutes. The Mavericks scored 18 points in the next 18 minutes, 33 over the remainder of the game, as Miami’s defense found another gear.

Reuters reports:

Miami’s Udonis Haslem has the assignment of guarding Nowitzki and said his job is to “try to make it tough” for the 32-year-old German.

“He’s a great player,” Haslem said. “He’s going to make his shots. You can’t get discouraged. You’ve got to keep going and keep chipping away at it.”

Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said he was unsure how to stop Nowitzki, who entered the game with a 28.4 average in the post-season.

“I don’t think it really matters what you do, your schematics, who is defending him, he’s going to get his average at least every single game,” he said.

The Sports Network reports:

Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki said he tore a finger tendon in his non-shooting hand during Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Tuesday.

Nowitzki and the Mavs lost the game, 92-84, after LeBron James and the Heat pulled away in the second half.

He was injured late in the fourth quarter as he lunged with his left hand to swipe the ball from Miami’s Chris Bosh in the paint. He said he couldn’t straighten his finger out after the play.

Live fan discussion of the game took place in this forum topic.

Heat hold four players out of contact during Sunday practice

The AP reports:

Heat star Dwyane Wade and reserves Udonis Haslem, Mike Miller and James Jones were held out of contact portions of Sunday’s practice.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra says they all will practice fully Monday. Miami hosts Game 1 of the NBA finals against Dallas on Tuesday night.

Spoelstra says the moves were given to ensure that everyone is “healthy going into this.”

American Airlines sponsors both 2011 NBA Finals arenas

The AP reports:

If you’re a basketball fan, you’ll hear the name American Airlines a lot over the next couple weeks.

American slapped its name on the arenas of both teams playing in the NBA finals back when stadium naming rights were a hot commodity—the AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami and the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

So whether the Miami Heat or the Dallas Mavericks win the title, American figures to get a lot of TV time. The same thing happened in 2006, when the Heat defeated the Mavericks in six games.

American bought the naming rights to those arenas a decade ago. According to published reports at the time, which American wouldn’t confirm or deny, it agreed to pay $195 million over 30 years for the Dallas rights and $42 million over 20 years in Miami.

Stadium-naming rights were trendy then, and they reached a fever pitch in 2006 when Citigroup agreed to pay $20 million a year to christen the New York Mets’ new baseball home Citi Field when it opened a couple of years ago. But sports sponsorships became harder to sell during the recession, and the business hasn’t fully recovered.

Heat-Mavericks 2011 NBA Finals Schedule

The 2011 NBA Finals will feature the Miami Heat vs the Dallas Mavericks.

In the Western Conference Finals, the Mavs eliminated the Oklahoma City Thunder in five games.

And tonight, the Heat eliminated the Chicago Bulls, also in five games.

Here’s the 2011 NBA Finals schedule:

Game 1 – Tue May 31 Dallas at Miami 9:00PM ABC/R/3D/TSN
Game 2 – Thu June 2 Dallas at Miami 9:00PM ABC/R/3D/TSN
Game 3 – Sun June 5 Miami at Dallas 8:00PM ABC/R/3D/TSN http://www.insidehoops.com
Game 4 – Tue June 7 Miami at Dallas 9:00PM ABC/R/3D/TSN
Game 5 * Thu June 9 Miami at Dallas 9:00PM ABC/R/3D/TSN
Game 6 * Sun June 12 Dallas at Miami 8:00PM ABC/R/3D/TSN
Game 7 * Tue June 14 Dallas at Miami 9:00PM ABC/R/3D/TSN

Mavericks eliminate Thunder in five games and head back to NBA Finals

The Dallas Mavericks eliminated the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5 Wednesday night to reach the NBA Finals. Dallas will play the winner of the Miami Heat vs Chicago Bulls series, which the Heat lead 3 games to 1.

The AP reports:

dirk nowitzki

Dirk Nowitzki stood on the court wearing a baseball hat celebrating the Dallas Mavericks’ return to the NBA finals. As his team received a silver trophy for winning the Western Conference, he looked as if he’d just been named the player of the week in November.

Nowitzki’s indifferent attitude during the pandemonium around him shows just how locked in he is right now.

“We’ve got one of those trophies already,” Nowitzki said. “This is nice for a day, but we set our goals in October to win it all. We haven’t done it yet.”

The superstar who has dominated this postseason added yet another highlight Wednesday night, hitting a straightaway 3-pointer with 1:14 left that put the Mavericks ahead for good on their way to a 100-96 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder that ended the Western Conference finals in five games.

After clawing back from down 15 with 5:06 left in Game 4, the Mavericks were down by six with 4:37 left when they rallied again, outscoring the Thunder 14-4 the rest of the way. The biggest on-court celebration in franchise history followed, with the greatest player in franchise history hardly soaking it in.

More from the AP:

Dallas is 12-3 this postseason, and has won 10 of its last 11. Nowitzki has been at his best throughout, especially this series. He scored nine of his 26 points in the fourth quarter; for the series, he averaged 32.2 points, 11.8 in the fourth quarters…

shawn marion

Marion got Dallas within 94-92 off a pass from Kidd, then Nowitzki stole a pass from Westbrook. Nowitzki actually missed his first 3-point try on that possession and Westbrook got the rebound, but Terry stole it, got the ball to Marion and he fed Nowitzki for the go-ahead 3.

Eric Maynor wound up taking Oklahoma City’s next shot and teammate Nick Collison got the rebound on the baseline. He flung the ball back toward the paint, Marion caught it and took off for a breakaway dunk. He was fouled on the play and hit the free throw for a 98-94 lead.

Westbrook made a pair of foul shots with 39 seconds left to get the Thunder within a basket. Nowitzki missed a shot against tight defense with 18 seconds left, but Kidd got the rebound and passed back to Nowitzki. He was fouled and made a pair of free throws with 13.3 left. Durant and Harden missed 3-pointers, and that was it.

Reuters reports:

Guard Russell Westbrook scored a game-high 31 points for the Thunder, who were unable to prevent the Mavericks from conjuring a second successive come-from-behind win. NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant added 23 points for the visitors.

“They played a small lineup and really tried to jump the game up,” Nowitzki told reporters of the Thunder. “They drilled us on transition all night long and you’ve got to give them credit. They left it all out there today.

“We just had to get some stops down the stretch. We finally got away with a little zone (defense), a little man-to-man, and got some stops. That was big.”

After the Mavericks were presented on court with the Western Conference trophy, team owner Mark Cuban said: “All I can tell everybody is: ‘We ain’t done yet’.” …

With James Harden and Nick Collison sparking Oklahoma City’s bench, the visitors kept the third seeds under continual pressure to grab a 76-72 advantage going into the final period.

Westbrook landed a two-point jumper to put the Thunder ahead 85-77 for the biggest lead of the night with 9.14 remaining.

However, the Mavericks steadily clawed their way back, and had reduced the deficit to 92-90 with a little under four minutes on the clock following consecutive pairs of free throws from Nowitzki and veteran Marion.

Nowitzki then missed a three-point attempt but Dallas stole the rebound and this time the German made no mistake from beyond the arc to put his team ahead 95-94 with 1.14 left.

The Thunder have a bright future. Their best player are all young, and their chemistry should only improve with time. They had a terrific season.

Live fan discussion of the game took place in this forum topic.

Dirk scores 40, Mavs rally from 15 down to stun Thunder 112-105 in OT

The AP reports:

dirk nowitzki

Trailing by 15 points with only 5 minutes to play in one of the NBA’s rowdiest arenas, the Dallas Mavericks were just wishing and hoping for the best.

Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd delivered, and the Mavs suddenly find themselves only one win away from the NBA finals.

Nowitzki scored 40 points, Kidd hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 40 seconds left in overtime and the Mavericks staged an improbable rally to stun the Oklahoma City Thunder 112-105 on Monday night and take a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference finals…

Dallas didn’t lead until Nowitzki hit two free throws 16 seconds into overtime, needing to rally from a 99-84 deficit in the final 5 minutes of regulation. The Mavericks never let the Thunder—who were one win shy of tying an NBA record with eight OT wins in the regular season—go ahead in the extra period…

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

Durant had nine of the Thunder’s 26 turnovers, including the one that led to the big shot by the 38-year-old Kidd…

Kidd scored 17 to go with seven assists, five rebounds and four steals…

Oklahoma City came roaring out of the gates after trailing by as many as 17 points in the first quarter of Game 3. The Thunder hit their first nine shots and took an 18-8 lead after Durant caught a deflected inbounds pass and zoomed in for a right-handed jam.

Live fan discussion of the game took place in this forum topic.

A look ahead to Thunder-Mavs Game 4

By Scott Spangler

It’s funny how perception tends to change drastically after each contest of a seven-game series. Thursday Oklahoma City took Game 2 in Dallas and the series took a turn as the Thunder seized homecourt advantage.

Then in Game 3, it was the Mavericks winning one on the Road at the Ford Center, reclaiming homecourt. So naturally, the talk today in Dallas centered on putting the WCF to bed in five games.

And should OKC respond with a win this evening, we have a best-of-three and all the pressure is on the Mavs again. That’s the nature of playoff basketball. Not quite as dramatic as hockey, but you get the idea.

As for the adjustments coaches are required to make during the course of these series, those, too, can vary greatly from game to game. Despite slow starts in each of the first three games against Dallas, Thunder head coach Scott Brooks has vowed not to alter his starting lineup

That means keeping Kendrick Perkins on the floor, which has been an issue in matching up against Maverick center Tyson Chandler. Perkins is still not at 100 percent (knee) and running with Chandler has been a problem.

To this point against the Mavericks, OKC is minus-32 with Perkins on the floor and plus-23 with him on the bench. He has not been much of a defensive presence vs. Dallas, and his lack of offensive game doesn’t help on the other end.

Saturday night, Dallas was running an extra defender at OKC wing scorers, allowing screeners to go free most of the night. The Mavericks obviously do not respect the ability of Perkins to make them pay for doubling the ball.

There is the notion Oklahoma City should go with a smaller lineup, but Brooks has been reluctant to do so in the past, usually as a last resort. It might come down to that tonight.

Column: Do Thunder and Russell Westbrook have a problem?

By Scott Spangler

russell westbrook

Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Scott Brooks may have won on some levels after Thunder-Mavericks Game 2 with the decision to stick with guard Eric Maynor, but something may have been lost with his starting point guard Russell Westbrook, despite what is being said publicly. There may in fact be a problem.

How do we know?

Despite a horrid offensive showing in the first half of Game 3, Brooks stuck with Westbrook the entire second half. And while Westbrook’s final offensive numbers were respectable, a lot of that came while matched up against the diminutive and defensively-challenged J.J. Barea.

Westbrook did produce 30 points, and yes, he was getting to the foul line, but it took 20 shots and all of that came at the expense of offensive flow (4 assists to 7 turnovers). The Thunder only had 11 assists as a team on 27 made field goals. That tells us there was a lot of pounding the ball and very little ball movement.

That makes life so much easier on a defense.

Credit Dallas for remaining committed to what looked to be a deliberate defensive game-plan. From the outset, the Mavs were using Tyson Chandler to blitz the ball in pick and roll situations. On just about every high screen, the Mavericks left the screener uncovered because they were concentrating on keeping two defenders in front of Westbrook. And what exactly is there to fear by cutting loose Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka?

The result of this strategy was a stagnant offensive performance by the Thunder. OKC did not break the 30-percent shooting mark until late in the third quarter.

Getting back to the Brooks/Westbrook issue, it doesn’t take a Mensan to conclude there is a rift there. Clearly, there was frustration on the part of the player throughout Game 2 in Dallas. After being ripped clean by defensive mastermind Peja Stojakovic and then losing the ball to Jason Kidd in successive possessions, Brooks made the move to Maynor.

We all saw Westbrook boiling over on the bench. We all saw him play the good teammate in timeouts and in huddles. We also read his postgame response. “When we’re winning, I’m good.”

So, Scott Brooks makes the switch to Maynor Thursday night in a game his starting PG and offense were performing rather well, and then sticks with his backup. Conversely, he decides to hang with Westbrook in Game 3 despite suffering through a dreadful first-half performance.

Nothing about that makes sense.

One could certainly understand the Game 2 decision. Brooks’ bench was performing splendidly in Game 2, and the Thunder had seized momentum. Brooks simply stuck with what was working. But when nothing is going well Saturday night and OKC’s guard play had much to do with that, it’s tough to rationalize Westbrook 42 minutes, Maynor six.

Not so tough when considering the likelihood of a coach appeasing the star point guard, doing what he can to not lose the player.

This is not to suggest a move to Maynor would have saved the day, and certainly not to lay all the blame at the feet of Westbrook. It’s just that, the sudden shift in Brooks’ approach leaves many of us scratching our heads.

Read fan reaction and share your own opinion in this forum topic.

Mavericks avoid collapse, beat Thunder 93-87 to take 2-1 series lead

The AP reports:

dirk nowitzki

Dirk Nowitzki shrugged off a rough start and made a few key jumpers in the fourth quarter, helping the Mavericks hold off the Oklahoma City Thunder for a 93-87 victory Saturday night and a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference finals.

The big German had missed 10 of his first 14 shots, but Dallas kept going to him with the Thunder trying to become the second team to rally from a 23-point deficit to beat the Mavericks in these playoffs…

The Mavericks didn’t care that Nowitzki couldn’t seem to make a shot most of the game. They still gave him the ball on 10 of 11 possessions at one point, and he scored three times—enough to keep Oklahoma City at bay.

Nowitzki finished with 18 points on 7 for 21 shooting…

NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant also struggled from the field, hitting just 7 of 22 shots to finish with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Russell Westbrook responded to a fourth-quarter benching with 30 points, helping the Thunder make it interesting in the final minutes.

Dallas had already blown a 23-point lead in the final 13 minutes in the first round at Portland, and led by 22 with 17 minutes to go this time…

Shawn Marion also scored 18, and Kidd and Terry each chipped in 13. Tyson Chandler had 15 rebounds, including six on the offensive end…

The Thunder missed 15 of their first 19 shots and committed eight turnovers while Dallas rushed out to a commanding 35-12 lead, finishing the impressive start by scoring the first eight points of the second quarter.

Durant, Harden lead Thunder past Mavs; series tied

The AP reports:

james harden

James Harden, Eric Maynor, Nick Collison and Daequan Cook did something Kobe Bryant and the Lakers couldn’t do—make big plays down the stretch to hold off Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks.

The four Oklahoma City reserves teamed with Kevin Durant to turn a slim lead into a big one in the fourth quarter, riding it to a 106-100 victory Thursday night that knotted the Western Conference finals at one game each…

The Thunder got going in the closing seconds of the third quarter, when Harden made a four-point play that put Oklahoma City up by one. Coach Scott Brooks then sent out four backups and his superstar for the final period, asking them to protect that lead.

They built on it from the start, never letting Dallas go back ahead. After a few tight minutes, the Thunder broke the game open with a 14-5 spurt capped by Harden hitting a tough jumper near the foul line. It put Oklahoma City up by 10 with 3:15 left, prompting a big scream from the bearded guard and a timeout from the Mavericks…

Harden scored 23 points. Maynor finished with 13, Cook eight and Collison six. Maynor handled the point guard duties that usually belong to Russell Westbrook. The All-Star had a poor opener, but actually was pretty good through three quarters; it’s just that the bench was rolling.

“It was tremendous,” said Harden, who made 4 of 5 shots, including two 3-pointers, for 10 points in the fourth quarter…

Durant still led the Thunder with 24 points. DeShawn Stevenson and Jason Kidd made things a lot tougher for him than in the opener, when he scored 40, but he was still spectacular at times. He had a first-quarter dunk that’s worth going to YouTube to see again and again, and a behind-the-back dribble to clear space for another key basket in the third quarter.

Westbrook scored 18 points, making 7 of 15 shots…

Tyson Chandler had 15 points and 13 rebounds, and Jason Kidd added 14 points and seven assists for Dallas. In the slowed output from the bench, J.J. Barea scored 11 points, and Jason Terry and Peja Stojakovic both had eight.

Live fan discussion of the game took place in this forum topic.