[caption id="attachment_797" align="aligncenter" width="418" caption="I can only hope sleeveless tees was the topic that broke the ice here - either that or sleeper holds."]
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ESPN DALLAS: DeShawn Stevenson understood the move to the bench Tuesday night despite starting every previous game of the playoffs. And he sees no reason to go back after the Dallas Mavericks knotted the NBA Finals at 2-2 by nipping the Miami Heat, 86-83, in a must-win Game 4. "We need anything," Stevenson said of the switch to J.J. Barea in the starting lineup. "We went with that and just got to keep going with it." Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle's decision to change up the rotation wasn't just about swapping Stevenson for Barea. Carlisle also had to manage the minutes of a fever-stricken Dirk Nowitzki and an overworked Shawn Marion.
BALL DON'T LIE: Had Miami squeezed out a few more points, Dwyane Wade would have been the obvious hero as he dropped 32 points with two steals and two blocks. But Wade missed a crucial free throw late as Miami attempted to tie the game in the final minute, and Dirk's spinning right-handed lay-up helped seal the deal soon after. Both teams managed to combine to miss 27 of 33 three-pointers, as both offenses (finely-tuned, this late into the season) moved the ball expertly only to clang away on good look after good look. But, as it's been all series, the winner had just enough to eke it out late in the final two minutes. From here, the storyline will shift to what will be a beyond-crucial Game 5, still played in Dallas. If the Mavs fall short, they'll be faced with the task of pulling out two wins in Miami just to win these Finals. If Miami loses during Thursday's Game 5, their backs will be against the wall for the first time in these playoffs.
PRO BASKETBALL TALK: It makes little sense to discuss LeBron’s struggles without making note of the incredible defense played by the Dallas Mavericks. They didn’t pit Shawn Marion or Jason Kidd or DeShawn Stevenson against James and leave that poor, solo defender to their own devices; every Maverick on the floor was tuned to James’ frequency. They had his pick-and-rolls swarmed. They had his jump passes covered. They had five defenders functioning in harmony in an attempt to limit the best player in the NBA, and they succeeded. The pressure is still on James to find his way out from under the constant zone coverage geared to thwart him (and he’ll have to do better than the brand of idle facilitation he tried to fly with in Game 4) but Dallas did a hell of a job in executing their game plan.
EYE ON BASKETBALL: For starters, Jason Terry's talk about LeBron James proved accurate. The focus will be on James not producing enough offense, but defensively during the Mavericks' furious fourth-quarter rally, Terry took James to the rack four times. On a key possession he pump-faked and blew right past the former-MVP, having his shot blocked by Joel Anthony, but on the recovery, Tyson Chandler was left wide open for a put-back dunk. In the ensuing timeout, Dywane Wade expressed his frustration, clapping and glaring at his superstar teammate.
HOT HOT HOOPS: Skip Bayless and other sports talking-heads will point the loss directly at LeBron James, who scored a playoff career-low eight points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field and committed four turnovers. Although James did not play as aggressively as he did in Game 3, he played mostly within the offense. On two consecutive possessions in the second quarter, James posted up Jason Kidd, finding Joel Anthony for an open dunk on one trip and Wade for a layup on the next. The two-time MVP had nine rebounds and seven assists, and the Heat could have won this game with him only scoring eight points.
HEAT INDEX: Let's get the fairness qualifier out of the way: Every player is entitled to and even expected to have a dreadful game at some point. This game happened to be James’ 99th of the season and it was certainly like no other. In fact, it was like no game for him in more than four years. That was the last time he scored in single digits as he did on Tuesday night with his eight points on 3-of-11 shooting. These things happen, even to prolific scorers. Earlier this season Dwyane Wade had a three-point game when he shot 1-of-13. Chris Bosh had a game in which he shot 1-of-18. But for James, Game 4 enters a new realm because of the way it happened. He lapsed into detachment, which seems like a severe sin for a game of this magnitude. It was eerily like a year ago in that game against the Celtics, an emotion that appeared so out of character that rational people started doing and saying irrational things to try to explain and justify it.
TRUE HOOP: Has this been the most exciting Finals ever? According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this is just the third NBA Finals to have three straight games decided by three points or fewer. The only others were in 1947 and 1948 -- the first two Finals series ever played. The series is now tied at two and Game 5 in Dallas Thursday night looms large. In NBA Finals history, the Game 5 winner of a tied series goes on to win the series 73 percent of the time (19-7).
SB NATION: The press conference following NBA Finals games have turned into somewhat of a circus this year as players and reporters engage in an ongoing battle of wits and thinly-veiled insults. On Sunday, it was LeBron James and Gregg Doyel, with the Miami Heat superstar getting the better of the CBS columnist at the time. On Tuesday, it was Rick Carlisle vs. Jason Whitlock, and Carlisle easily came out on top.
ESPN BOSTON: As he suggested he would in the aftermath of Boston's season-ending Game 5 loss to the Miami Heat last month, Ray Allen on Tuesday formally exercised the second-year player option in the two-year deal he inked last offseason and will be back with the Celtics next season. Allen inked a two-year, $20 million contract last summer and will earn $10 million again next season. "This has been my team," Allen said at his postgame press conference in Miami after the Heat won an Eastern Conference semifinal series, 4-1. "I have been full steam ahead with this team. I don't have any plans to go anywhere else." Allen, who will turn 36 next month, shot career bests of 49.1 percent from the floor overall and 44.4 percent from beyond the arc last season.
WARRIORS WORLD: But, I would caution those who think they know (Marc) Jackson from his TV commentating: You don’t. Announcing is a projection of whatever “personality” is thought to work best, it’s not a coaching Bar Exam. Citing a football example: John Madden was a fantastic HC, but the booth often reduced him to “Boom!” Per basketball: Doc Rivers was never my favorite announcer, but few are better-gifted at calling plays out of a timeout. Years ago, John Amaechi visited Cal–he was on a college tour, prompted by his coming out as the first gay player in NBA history. I asked him about secretly brilliant athletes, if any of them were much smarter than we’d been led to believe. The response was quick: “Mark Jackson.”
LIBERTY BALLERS: On really bad teams, someone needs to score. The Golden State Warriors, are, have been, and will be a really bad team. But under coach Don Nelson, they were often in the top tier of teams in possessions per game, allowing them to score more points. And specifically, for Monta Ellis to take more shots. Extensive scientific research has proven that the more shots a player takes, the more points he will score. It's kind of like Ricky Davis when he was on the Cavaliers with the likes of Dajuan Wagner, Tyrone Hill, and Bimbo Coles. No one else was going to score the ball, so he had to take 19 terrible shots per game at terribly inefficient percentages. People hate on Kevin Martin because all he does is score but at least he does it at generally high percentages. With Ellis, that sort of ball-hogginess is what you're going to get. This Sixers team may not be the most efficient offense in the half-court, but what they don't need is an Iverson clone without the once-in-a-generation ability.
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