4:40 PM
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The Mavericks won to clinch their first NBA title. |
Nowitzki culminated his MVP performance with a 21-point effort in Game 6 on Sunday to give Dallas its first NBA title, five years after the Mavericks let one slip through their hands against the same foe.
Nowitzki did it all through the Western Conference playoffs and was even better in the finals. He put in the game-winning basket to cap Game 2's remarkable comeback using a left hand he injured in the series opener, posted a double-double of 21 and 11 while battling a fever in Game 4 and tacked on 29 points two days later as Dallas grabbed its first lead of the series.
When his shooting touch was off in Game 6, Nowitzki did not shy away, instead trusting his jumper would find its way in crunch time.
Of course, it did. Nowitzki scored 10 points in the final 12 minutes to ice the Heat for good. He netted at least eight points in the fourth quarter in all six Finals games, helping Dallas become the first team since 1985 — when the NBA finals went to the 2-3-2 format — to lose Game 3 of a tied series and go on to win the title.
"I still can't believe it. We worked so hard and so long for it," Nowitzki said in the post-game ceremony after he was handed the MVP trophy by Celtics great Bill Russell. "This is unbelievable. Mavs nation deserves it. It's been an amazing ride."
The Herculean efforts dwarfed that of two-time league MVP LeBron James, a.k.a. Public Enemy No. 1 to the cynics in the sports world.
James' "Decision" last summer struck a definite discord with the nation and swung his popularity 180 degrees. In turn, the Heat became everyone's favorite team to root against, and their usually mundane 82-game regular-season schedule morphed into must-see TV, a win-win for sports junkies who love to hate.
As their season ebbed and flowed, it appeared the Heat weren't the world beaters the triumvirate of James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh boasted they'd become at their excessive welcoming party, slightly curbing the masses' enjoyment when they sputtered out of the gate.
But as the payoffs rolled around and the Heat needed just five games to plow through each of their Eastern Conference opponents — the pesky 76ers, the defending conference-champion Celtics and the top-seeded Bulls — the venom returned ten-fold.
One team remained in the Heat's dynasty-commencing gauntlet, and America needed a hero to knock out the bad guy.
Or maybe it needed a basketball anti-hero, since Nowitzki's game is as about as American as currywurst, since he's a seven-foot German who doesn't rebound in traffic, would rather play on the perimeter with the guards and can be seen as a petulant whiner to the refs.
Nowitzki does have several traits of the hero archetype, though: the ninth overall pick in the 1998 draft has spent his entire career in Dallas, loyalty that does not go unnoticed; he overcame two colossal failures, losing in the 2006 finals, then getting upset by the eighth-seeded Warriors in the first round of his MVP season the next year. Plus, he's humble.
"Every time somebody was down all season long, somebody else stepped in and picked them up . . . it was an amazing effort," said a relieved Nowitzki through a smile. "It feels amazing now to know that nobody can ever take this away from us again, and for one year we're the best team that was out there."
Nowitzki didn't do it alone obviously.
Rick Carlisle outcoached Erik Spoelstra. Jason Terry chipped in with clutch fourth-quarter performances in the Mavs' two wins on their home floor and had a game-high 27 points in the clincher. Shawn Marion played a key role on both ends of the floor. Jason Kidd and J.J. Barea did enough in the backcourt to keep Miami's defense honest. Tyson Chandler controlled the glass while playing extended minutes due to the injury to Brendan Haywood.
"The collective toughness of the group. It's a team that when you view it from afar, it doesn't look like a physically-bruising type of team. So a lot of people don't think we have the grit and the guts and the mental toughness. This team has more resourcefulness and grit and guts than any team I've ever been around," said Carlisle, who became the 11th person to win a title as a player and a coach.
The 2011 title will be remembered as Nowitzki's, though. He did what everyone expected James to do, carry the team that drafted him to a championship without an assist from collusion.
The Heat will likely win a title in the near future with their considerable talent. But in their first year together, Nowitzki and the Mavs showed them there's no easy way to success.
For that, Dallas is America's team. It's just not the Cowboys.
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