Miami Heat choke in 2011 NBA Finals as Dallas Mavericks make way to the championship
Ever since the National Basketball Association Finals between Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks culminated, a new debate has begun. While the majority believes, that Miami could have done better to restrict Dirk Nowitzki and the
Mavs, some people are of the view that the Heat did not choke, but the Mavs made their way to earn the title.
The Mavs were now way near to win the title when the regular-season started and the analyst were considering San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, and Los Angeles Lakers as the favourites for the championship. To determine whether
the Mavs earned the title or did the Heat and LeBron James sprawled in the series, the crunch moments of the games are put together.
In game-2 the Heat were leading the Mavs by 15 points with more than seven minutes to go in the fourth quarter, when the Mavs took the full timeout and came out with a aggressive strategy all round in which they didn’t just launched
the assault on Miami, but also limited their offensive unit. The strategy worked for the Mavs as they used a 22-5 burst that blew away the Heat’s advantage and Dallas clinched a key win by a meagre margin of two points (95-93).
Some believe that the Mavs didn’t allow the Heat to adjust against their new moves, but actually it was Miami which failed to capitalize on the momentum and blew away the lead. The Heat missed many chances to score points, especially
from the three point range and their All-Star James tallied just two points in the entire final quarter.
Not only Miami’s offensive unit let them down, but their defenders also chocked, that derailed the Heat’s whole run, as Nowitzki hit the go-ahead shot with just three seconds to go and put his team on the winning stand.
With this win the Mavs tied the series 1-1 and geared up to avail the home court advantage in the next games. However, the Heat used a dominated first half to secure game-3 in their favour and didn’t allow the Mavs to gain the
home-court benefit. The major reason behind Miami’s success was their quality defence that held the Mavs well in the absence of aggressive offensive play.
The Heat went 2-1 up in the series and put the Mavs in a pretty shaky position, but in game-4 an inspiring play by Nowitzki, who was suffering from temperature and Miami’s same old mistakes of game-2 allowed Dallas to overcame
them. James failed to score even a single point in the fourth quarter and acted more like a facilitator rather playing aggressively and with the defence letting the Heat down once again the Mavs rallied from behind to steal another win.
The Mavs stunned all and sundry with their comeback, as they knotted the series 2-2 after game-4. Dallas then used some big plays in game-5 and became the first team to defeat the Heat in back to back games during the 2011 playoffs.
James and company once again failed to answer the questions of the Mavs.
Although, James scored nine of his 21 points in the final period of game-6, but he remained in effective in the first three frames so his effort didn’t affect the Mavs much. Many are off the view that since James joined the Heat
his role has changed and Wade is their key player, who provides them good finishing. However, this point is not considered as valid because James was a finisher from the Cavs period and during the regular-season with the Heat LeBron has provided Miami many
clean finishes in numerous games.
This proves that the roles didn’t change and key players need to step up during the clutch situations because that’s what makes them great at the end of the day. James failed to rise to the occasion and with his down fall Miami
also lost the grip on the series, exactly the way Cleveland Cavaliers lost the 2010 NBA playoffs semi-finals against the Boston Celtics. James was named the Most Valuable Player of NBA in that season.
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