Interesting article on espn.com. I do have to give James credit for his defense, but I also feel Terry may be gliding on his flight path some of the time. Dude needs to step up. I hear tattoo removal hurts like hell.
Dallas got the benefit of the calls minus the missed 3 pointer. I thought both of the Dirk fouls were legit although the 2nd one was not a lot of contact, however there was contact for sure. But James got fouled harder with no call so Mavs got some home cooking there. I thought Bosh got fouled pretty good once as well on a shot with no call early in the game. As to Kidds foul, they are not going to change the rule on pump fakes. If you don't want that foul, don't leave your feet as a defender. And as Wade was coming from the side, he especially was going to get hit with a call. He had no position of verticality there to even have an argument. If you fly at a defender like that, you open yourself up to the pump fake and it's a good move on Kidds part. If he shuffled his feet, didn't see it as I was watching him get run over by Wade and hoping he wasn't hurt.
We are playing TOUGH. If we win this game it is because of Carlisle and Chandler. And the fact that Terry is hitting shots again. Total team effort. And by the way, when healthy, I'll go on record saying Wade is the best player in the league. He is completely outplaying Dirk and LBJ in this series. Dirk gets a pass, somewhat, because of his health. Bu Wade is just awesome.
Heavs/Mavs split games 3 and 4 as I predicted. Game 5 will likely decide the series. Biggest game of the series and it is any team's ballgame. Very tight series thus far and I don't think either team has an advantage right now. Continue to wonder how good Miami would be if Lebron and Wade were playing well offensively in the same series. Thought Lebron would step it up last night but instead he only got 8 points in 46 minutes and missed 2 key FTs in the 4th. That guy didn't disappear at the end of the game he disappeared for the game. Wade needs to be the guy in the huddle getting the team fired up and he needs to get in Lebron's face more and tell him to step his game up.
The referees in the Finals thus far have been atrocious and wildly inconsistent... or... consistently atrocious?
I think the refs have been about average. Some bad calls, but no game changers. The series being tied is about where it ought to be at this point.
I agree that the refs haven't been particularly worse, or better than the norm in this series. People that know a lot more about it than me feel the NBA ref has the hardest officiating job in any sport.
Wait... This is a Mavs board? could have sworn it was a Longhorns board... Then again.. UT probably shouldn't let out of state students enroll.. even then.. What about those darn Rockets and Spurs fans.... The comment about James not producing wasn't anti-Mavs at all from what I read. How about... if Barea could just get it going this series then I wonder if it would be a series at all....
Rex, that picture is awesome! Dirk is the man. His defense is sometimes frustrating to watch, but man do I love him!
In a game like this, convention wisdom says "You're not going to hit 70% of your threes again, and even with all those shots ridiculously going on, Miami still had a lead in the middle of the fourth." And the conventional response is "Yeah, but there's a reason one team was hitting shots and the other team wasn't. You get the shots you want, or get more of them, then you're a better team." The funny thing is, that response isn't all that true. Miami was getting as many quality looks as Dallas, and Dallas wasn't (mostly) hitting wide-open threes, they were hitting reasonably-well-guarded threes and even a couple of ridiculous no-way-should-that-have-happened ones. But even though the conventional response doesn't apply here, the Mavs still, IMO, had the better all-around game. I couldn't quite figure out how the Heat even had the lead in the first place, because it felt like Dallas was passing better, moving better, playing defense better, etc, and maybe only in rebounding were the teams equal. I think if Dallas plays like they did in game 5 they have a very good shot at taking game 6, even on the road and even if they are shooting a more likely percentage from downtown.
Dallas played much better than Miami in game 5. They shot a very high % and had the lead much of the game. This was different than the last few games where Miami had the lead late most of the time and Dallas was always coming back. Dallas shooters finally showed up and made the key shots late in the game. Great game by Terry and Barea made the difference. Barea's crazy shots finally started to fall. I thought going in that the winner of this game would win this series. That is still most likely. I think it was more important for Dallas to win game 5 though b/c Miami is going back home for game 6 and 7. The format for the final series always throws off how you gauge a series. Normally game 5 would have been in Miami (in non finals series). Now I think Miami of course needs to win game 6 and has a great shot to do so. If that happens then it is any team's series in game 7. Great series so far.
Hornpharm, No mention of the blatant travels by wade last night when he was shuffling his pivot foot? I thought this was your speciality?
I only got to see part of the game. Was working. Did they come on a critical late shot or foul though that was reviewed and shown in slow motion? Because the earlier discussion involved the ability to call traveling in this situation. Btw, I had positive comments about the Mavs. Are you hypersensitive Mavs fan as well lost on a longhorn board?
