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HOT HOT HOOPS: The entire second half consisted of the two teams matching each other blow-for-blow, making small runs that always resulted in responses from the other team. Wade closed this game for the Heat, making several big shots to keep Miami ahead for much of the fourth quarter. He made a 3 over Kidd to give the Heat a six-point lead with four-and-a-half minutes to go and later made a jumper to make it 86-84. Wade was back in his 2006 NBA Finals form, scoring 29 points on 12-of-21 shooting from the field, grabbing 11 boards, blocking a shot and committing no turnovers.
PENINSULA IS MIGHTIER: LeBron James made a great pass to Chris Bosh, who hit a huge baseline jumper with 39 seconds left that would prove to be the game winner. Dallas would get two more chances on offense to tie the game and both times the ball would end up in Dirk's hands. The first time he was forced into a turnover, throwing the ball out of bounds. He would get one more chance with 4.4 seconds left, but Udonis Haslem played superb defense and while we've seen Nowitzki made tough shots before, this one didn't fall and the Heat came away with the amazingly stressful victory. Udonis played him so close that he had barely any room to move, but didn't foul, very similar to the way U-D played Derrick Rose on that last play in the Eastern Conference Finals.
HEAT INDEX: On the road, with a battered eye, amid one of the coldest shooting stretches he’s ever endured, Chris Bosh hit the game-winner on the biggest stage of his career. Bosh was alone. With the game tied and 40 seconds remaining in Game 3, Tyson Chandler left the Miami Heat power forward on the left baseline in order to stop LeBron James’ penetration into the lane. As Chandler met James at the foul line, James immediately turned to his right and flipped a backhanded pass to Bosh, who had missed 11 of his previous 17 shots on the night. “I saw CB wide open,” James said. “I don't care if he missed 15 in a row, he was wide open and that's his sweet spot." Without hesitation, Bosh rose up and knocked down the jumper, instantly bringing the 20,000 Dallas Mavericks fans to a hush in AmericanAirlines Center.
EYE ON BASKETBALL: James promised to be in "attack mode" at shootaround on Sunday morning, and apparently this is what he meant. With the score tied at 22 with less than a minute remaining in the first quarter of Game 3, James beat Mavericks forward Shawn Marion off the dribble. Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki swiped at him to no avail, leaving Mahinmi as the only defensive presence between James and the rim. That's a bad place to be, and James showed why, rising high to dunk with his right hand over the top of Mahinmi. Here's a look at the video of LeBron James posterizing Ian Mahinmi. It's worth sticking around for all the replays.
ESPN DALLAS: The Dallas Mavericks didn't want to pin Sunday night's Game 3 loss on the absence of backup center Brendan Haywood, but there's no question it stretched Rick Carlisle's rotation thin behind starter Tyson Chandler. Little-used Ian Mahinmi couldn't stay out of foul trouble in his first significant postseason stint..............Chandler did grab 11 rebounds (his high of the Finals), blocked three shots and was whistled for just two fouls. But with Mahinmi logging only eight minutes and picking up five fouls, Chandler was forced to bang against the Heat's physical front line of Chris Bosh, Udonis Haslem andJoel Anthony for 40 long minutes. He was averaging 31.1 minutes in the postseason coming into Game 3.
PRO BASKETBALL TALK: “I really believe the fact that we were digging out of holes all night was something that, you know, it was difficult to overcome,” Rick Carlisle said afterward, in a press conference that was streamed live on NBA.com. On this night, it proved to be impossible. Dallas saw a seven-point deficit at the end of the first quarter increase to 12 early in the second. They cut it to five a few minutes later, and then Miami ran it up to 14, before Dallas shaved it down once again to five by halftime. The Heat opened the second half on an 8-0 run to push it back to 13, before Dallas was finally able to take the lead with just over three minutes remaining in the third quarter. The Mavericks’ lead — the team’s first of the game since there was 3:28 to play in the first quarter — lasted exactly one possession, and was followed by back-to-back three-pointers from LeBron James and Mario Chalmers which quickly gave Miami yet another cushion. The Heat’s lead reached as many as seven again in the final period before Dallas made its final run, and found itself down two with possession and 4.4 seconds remaining. Dirk Nowitzki got the ball as time was winding down, but went up for a tough fadeaway from 16 feet out that was heavily contested, and he threw it away trying to pass it off as time expired.
TRUE HOOP: Barea has taken 23 shots over the Finals first three games. 18 missed. It's big letdown for a player who had made 51 of 117 playoff shots in the first three rounds. Watching Chalmers fight over picks to stay with Barea it's easy to see why he's finding space at a premium. Over the course of a season, or a career, Chalmers and Barea are not so different -- decent NBA players who can hit open shots but hurt their teams if they try to do too much. Both players have career production a tick or two below average, with the slightly older Barea generally the more efficient of the two. But in these Finals, whether by luck or quality of opposing defense, Chalmers has been the much more efficient shot maker. Barea has scored 13 points on 23 shots, while Chalmers has taken one fewer shot, but has scored 20 more points, with 33 points on 22 shots over the first three games.
THE POINT FORWARD: What an inglorious job Donnie Walsh had. Yes, he got to run, to some degree, one of the league’s glamour franchises, participate in a once-in-a-lifetime free-agency chase and succeed a man so unpopular that New York fans were almost guaranteed to love him. That is all over after Knicks owner James Dolan announced Friday the team and Walsh will part ways when his contract expires at the end of June. The immediate fear is that Walsh’s departure as team president and general manager opens the door for the return of You Know Who, the Voldemort of Knicks’ fans, the man who made the franchise an on-court laughingstock, played a central role in a humiliating sexual harassment case and whose incompetence set the framework for Walsh’s job.
* Note: Be sure to check out episode 5 of the Chat New England Podcast.
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