Heat - Suns Game 6 Review

Stunned I am. What happened to the Mavs run and gun? What happened to the great Dirk Nowitzki - the 7 Footer who can shoot threes and drive to the basket (and who's skillset and height should make him the best player around). Was it the Heat defense backed by Riley coaching or the Mavs inexperience? Why does Dampiere deserve $60mm? (didn't i hear that was his contract size from the telecast)

As for those Mavs fans and viewers who didn't like the fouls on Wade at the end of the last two games, I say get over it. The Mavs had their chance to close this series in Game 3 and blew it. The Mavs had emotion at their back after losing 3 in a row (previously almost unthinkable) and coming to their home crowd with Stackhouse back. They had a 14 point lead and blew it.

I was all ready to write how the NBA's defensive rules on hand checking and others that have quickened the pace of the game so much that there is no defense and just track meet basketball ala Dallas vs. the Suns. But scrap that email...a slower hard hitting team just took the championship. Is it ironic that 2 questioned fouls in 2 separate games got so much attention when increasing the fouls on defense in general by league rule changes is one of the reasons the Mavs style is so potent!

There might be some who will be quick to annoint Dwyane Wade the king of the world and dismiss Shaq as riding the Wade wave. I am not so quick to do so. Wade has shown he is a big time player rising to the occasion that I previously commented that there is such lack of in the NBA. But let's not lose sight of the importance of Shaq. Without Shaq, Kobe got how far? Impressively to the 2nd round, but not to the finals like so many years prior. Without Shaq, Lebron got how far? 2nd round, but not to the finals. Single great players cannot win on their own. Even Michael Jordan had a constant Scottie Pippen and at the time fans truly appreciated the value of Scottie Pippen (as he was one of the ones chosen to be on the NBA top 50 of all time category, and the US olymplic dream team).

I am happy for the Heat, because I now like Shaq. I didn't always feel that way; I used to just believe he was a big body. But Shaq "gets it" and he wants to win. At least when he speaks, he speaks about the team and respect for Wade. He could be cocky and talk about how he is the one who got doubled teamed so much of the time to free up other players, but he doesn't. Overall I think Shaq was an underdog this year and proved he's still got something left. Though I can't have this discussion with out mentioning my disgust with his free throws. I don't understand how someone can have a bad free-throw percentage. It is the exact same shot in the exact same place every time. It should be automatic. In fact I think every GM is a FOOL for not including a salary penalty for low free throw percentages. They are free points that you have to take advantage of.

Lastly on the much talked about Mark Cuban...I am not sure I care enough to write about it, but this espn writer makes some interesting points in the second to last paragraph of his piece with the Iverson analogy. The ESPN Article