June 13, 2011 - Mavericks beat Heat to win first championship
Photo: cbcsports.ca
The Dallas Mavericks ended three decades of frustration by capturing
their first championship with a 105-95 victory over the Miami Heat on
Sunday to win the best-of-seven NBA Finals 4-2. Guard Jason Terry came
off the bench to score 27 points and lead a long-range assault by the
Mavericks, who connected on 11 of 26 from beyond the arc. "We're a
resilient bunch, and we saw it," said Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki,
who averaged 26 points per game and was named the series MVP. "This
whole series we were down. We kept battling back. Kept believing in
each other. This is a win of team basketball." Nowitzki hit only nine
of 27 shots but, as he had been all series, excelled as the game
entered its final stages, scoring 10 of his 21 points in the final
quarter to snuff out any Miami hopes of a comeback. The Mavericks
reached the finals in 2006 but lost to Miami in six games. Read more here.
June 10, 2011 - Mavericks stifle Heat and edge closer to first NBA title
The
Dallas Mavericks used a storming late run to move to the brink of their
first NBA title with a 112-103 victory over the Miami Heat on Thursday.
With a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven Finals, Dallas can now claim the
crown by winning one of the two remaining contests, but they will have
to complete the feat in Miami, where the teams split the opening two
games. The Mavericks went on a 15-3 run to finish off the Heat, turning
a three-point deficit into the comfortable victory amid chants of "Beat
the Heat" from a boisterous crowd of 20,433. "That was a big win for
us, obviously," said Dirk Nowitzki, who paced the Mavericks with 29
points. "We didn't want to go to Miami and give them basically two
shots to close us out. "So we kept plugging there in the fourth. And
now we have to go down there and basically approach Sunday's game as
Game Seven. You don't want to give this great team any hope." Read more
here.
June 9, 2011 - Mavericks claw way back into NBA finals
Dirk
Nowitzki called out his Dallas teammates before game four and Jason
Terry responded with his best game of the 2011 NBA finals. Dallas
outscored the Heat 21-14 in the fourth quarter and no one stepped up
bigger for the Mavericks off the bench on Tuesday than guard Terry. "He
took it upon himself to really drive and be in attack mode," Nowitzki
said of Terry during Wednesday's practice at the American Airlines
Center. "That's what we need out of him. He's one of our closers."
Terry scored 17 points as Dallas held on for an 86-83 win over the
Miami Heat to even the NBA finals at 2-2. Nowitzki shook off a fever to
hit the game-winner on a driving layup with 14.4 seconds remaining. He
scored 10 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter for Dallas who ensured
a trip back to Miami for at least game six. Read more here.
June 6, 2011 - Wade, Bosh lift Heat to 2-1 lead in NBA finals
Dwyane
Wade kept soaring and scoring, doing everything he could to get the
Miami Heat a crucial win towards an NBA title. Chris Bosh and Udonis
Haslem provided the final push. Bosh made a 16-foot, go-ahead jumper
from the baseline with 39.6 seconds left and Haslem pestered Dirk
Nowitzki the rest of the way as the Heat held on for an 88-86 victory
over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night for a 2-1 lead in the NBA
finals. "This is a total win," said Wade, who led Miami with 29 points
and 11 rebounds. "You want to win the game on the defensive end of the
floor and we got a stop." Recent history says this is a huge win for
the Heat. The Game 3 winner in a tied finals has won the championship
all 11 times since the 2-3-2 format began in 1985. Read more here.
June 3, 2011 - Mavericks erase double-digit road deficit - again
Down
by 15. Only 7:14 left. On the road. Headed toward an 0-2 deficit in the
NBA finals against a Miami Heat team ready to be crowned NBA champions
since LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade last summer. It's
pretty remarkable that the Mavericks overcame it all to win the game
and even the series. It's also pretty typical of what they've done this
postseason. "If you're going to win a championship, you've got to have
the wherewithal to hang in when things are tough," Mavs coach Rick
Carlisle said. "You have to keep believing. All year our guys have
believed. And tonight was another good example." Read more here.
June 1, 2011 - Miami triple threat strikes first in NBA finals
LeBron
James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade paced the Miami attack as the big
three combined for 65 points and the Heat beat Dallas 92-84 in the
opening game of the 2011 NBA finals. James finished with a team high 24
points, Wade had 22 points and 10 rebounds and Bosh scored 19 points
for the Heat, who are a perfect 9-0 at home in the post-season. "That's
who they have been their entire careers," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra
said of James and Wade. "Every playoff game for us goes down the
stretch. The more time you are in it, the more confident you get." Read more here.
May 27, 2011 - Heat rises over Bulls to reach NBA finals
The
Miami Heat star players cast off their struggles and staged a furious
finish to beat the Chicago Bulls 83-80 on Thursday and advance to the
NBA finals. The soaring comeback from a 77-65 deficit in the last three
minutes propelled the Heat to the NBA finals against the Dallas
Mavericks, a repeat of the 2006 championship series which Miami won
4-2. Led by their Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris
Bosh, Miami went on a closing 18-3 run to stun the Bulls and complete a
4-1 triumph in the best-of-seven series for the Eastern Conference
title. James, who missed nine shots in a row before catching fire at
the end, led the Heat with 28 points as Miami swept the last four games
after dropping the opener in Chicago. Read more here.
May 25, 2011 - Heat top Bulls 101-93, move 1 win away from finals
The
first 48 minutes of Dwyane Wade's night were unremarkable. The five
minutes of overtime changed all that. And Miami's Big Three is one win
away from playing for the NBA's biggest prize. LeBron James scored 35
points, Chris Bosh added 22 and Wade perked up to block as many shots —
two — as Chicago made in overtime, as the Heat topped the Bulls 101-93
in a scintillating Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday
night. Miami will go for the clincher Thursday in Chicago, where the
Heat can wrap up their first finals trip since 2006. "It's one game
away," James said. "We're not taking anything for granted." Derrick
Rose scored 23 points for the Bulls, who got 20 apiece from Luol Deng
and Carlos Boozer. Chicago has lost three straight games for the first
time this season, and afterward, the league's reigning MVP pointed the
finger of blame at himself. Read more here.
May 23, 2011 - Bosh carries Heat over Bulls 96-85 for 2-1 lead
Chris
Bosh has fought the perception all year. He's the third wheel, the
forgotten star, the one who would never shine alongside LeBron James
and Dwyane Wade. The Miami Heat never saw it that way. This was why.
Bosh made 13 of his final 15 shots on the way to a 34-point night,
James finished with 22 points and 10 assists, and the Heat remained
unbeaten at home in the postseason by beating the Chicago Bulls 96-85
in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals on Sunday. A 9-0 run in the
fourth quarter helped Miami pull away for good and grab a 2-1 lead in
the series. Read more here.
May 21, 2011 - Heat, Bulls expect another physical test in Game 3
They
were bloodied, bruised and battered. Just about everyone had icepacks
strapped to various regions of their bodies, and many all but limped
toward the bus out of the arena. That was the Miami scene after Game 2
of the Eastern Conference finals. Imagine what the losing team must
have felt like. The East finals resume with Game 3 in Miami on Sunday
night, when the Heat host the Chicago Bulls with a 2-1 series lead at
stake. Read more here.
May 19, 2011 - Late James magic pushes Heat past Bulls
LeBron
James produced some more fourth-quarter magic to propel the Miami Heat
to a scrappy 85-75 win over the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, evening
their NBA Eastern Conference final at a game each. Dead-locked at 73-73
late in the fourth and the Bulls on the charge, James took over,
scoring nine of Miami's final 12 points to earn the Heat a split in the
Windy City. The best-of-seven series moves to South Beach for Games
Three and Four on Sunday and Tuesday. James finished with a game-high
29 points and 10 rebounds while Dwyane Wade contributed 24 points and
nine boards. Read more here.
May 17, 2011 - In East finals, Luol vs LeBron a key matchup
The
Chicago Bulls saw it all year from Luol Deng, so what he did against
LeBron James and the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference
finals hardly shocked them. Hit big shots? Hit the boards? Limit the
game's most talented player? Check, check and huge check. The Bulls
lead the Heat 1-0 after a 103-82 victory on Sunday, and a big reason
for that is Deng. All he did was score 21 points, grab seven rebounds
and contribute four steals while neutralizing James in an all-around
performance that helped lift Chicago to an impressive victory. Yes,
Derrick Rose was up to his usual MVP tricks, scoring 28 points, but it
was Deng providing a big assist whether he was scoring or clamping down
on The King. Read more here.
May 15, 2011 - Restless Durant eager to make amends in Game 7
Kevin
Durant had trouble sleeping, trying to shake off the worst playoff
performance yet in his young NBA career. After the league's scoring
champion managed just 11 points in Oklahoma City's loss that set up
Game 7 Sunday against the Memphis Grizzlies, Durant woke up Saturday
still thinking about what went wrong. Durant took nine of his 14 shots
from behind the arc, and he made only one basket over the last 45
minutes of the game. "It was tough," Durant said. "That's a part of
this league. It's going to happen. "Especially being one of the main
guys, I tend to take a lot of the pressure and put it on myself. But it
is what it is. I've got to fight through it, I've got to continue to be
positive around my guys and go from there." Read more here.
May 12, 2011 - East finals bound: Miami ousts Boston, 97-87
He
scored the game's final 10 points. He knelt on the court when it was
over. He even apologized afterward for any feelings that may have been
hurt last summer when he left Cleveland for Miami. For LeBron James,
the night was emotional and unforgettable. And imagine: The Miami Heat
are only halfway through the pursuit of an NBA title. Finally
vanquishing their rivals from Boston, Dwyane Wade scored 34 points,
James added 33 — including a spectacular closing flourish — and the
Heat went on a 16-0 run over the final 4:15 to beat the Celtics 97-87
on Wednesday and win their Eastern Conference semifinal series in five
games. Read more here.
May 10, 2011 - The Mavericks are Back
The
Dallas Mavericks are grooving through this years playoffs. They
beat the Blazers and then swept the Lakers. More notably, the
Mavs showed their true capabilities in game 4 against the Lakers, in
which they won by 36 points. This was an embarrassing game for the
Lakers because throughout the game the Mavs bench just exploited
them. Jason Terry scored 32 points and went 9 for 10 not from the
foul line, not from the field but from the three point line! Read
more here.
April 29, 2011 - Lakers squash Hornets to march on
Kobe
Bryant and Pau Gasol exploded for 23 of Los Angeles' 29 points in the
third quarter to propel the two-time defending NBA champions to a 98-80
victory over Western Conference rivals the New Orleans Hornets on
Thursday, sending them into the next round of the playoffs. The Lakers
were joined in the second round by the Atlanta Hawks, who held off the
Orlando Magic 84-81 to clinch their Eastern Conference series 4-2, and
the Dallas Mavericks who closed out the Portland Trail Blazers 4-2 with
a 103-96 win. Los Angeles held a slim 40-34 lead following a low
scoring first half, but Bryant and Gasol then took over to post a
12-point lead by the start of the fourth quarter, which they built on
despite resting most of their starters. Read more here.
April 23, 2011 - Lakers take 2-1 series lead with win over Hornets
The New Orleans Hornets didn't expect Pau Gasol to
toss up a 3-pointer from the corner any more than the Lakers star's
growing chorus of critics expected him to make it. Gasol stunned them
all by draining the shot, then scored twice more during a key
fourth-quarter surge that helped secure a 100-86 victory Friday night
and put Los Angeles in control of the first-round playoff series. "It's
funny how a shot can kind of turn the momentum around for him when he's
had a hard time making shots around the basket and in the paint — and
he knocks down a 3," said Kobe Bryant, who led the Lakers with 30
points. "That kind of got him going." The win gave the Lakers a 2-1
lead in the best-of-seven series, with Game 4 in New Orleans on Sunday.
Just as important, the performance re-established Gasol as one of the
Lakers' primary scoring threats following two poor outings. He finished
with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Read more here.
April 19, 2011 - Rose scores 36, Bulls beat Pacers 96-90
The way this series is going for the Chicago Bulls,
Derrick Rose wasn't sure if he should feel relieved or concerned. "It's
kind of both," he said. The 2-0 lead sure looks good. How they got it,
though, is a different matter. Rose scored 36 points, Carlos Boozer
added 17 points and 16 rebounds, and the top-seeded Bulls pulled out
another dramatic victory over Indiana, beating the Pacers 96-90 on
Monday night in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series. "It's
always good to win in this league," Rose said. "It's very hard to win.
But the way that we're winning, we're just trying to sharpen up things
especially on the defensive end so that we can control the game more
instead of us having to play crazy at the end of the game." Read more here.
The
Dallas Mavericks used a storming late run to move to the brink of their
first NBA title with a 112-103 victory over the Miami Heat on Thursday.
With a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven Finals, Dallas can now claim the
crown by winning one of the two remaining contests, but they will have
to complete the feat in Miami, where the teams split the opening two
games. The Mavericks went on a 15-3 run to finish off the Heat, turning
a three-point deficit into the comfortable victory amid chants of "Beat
the Heat" from a boisterous crowd of 20,433. "That was a big win for
us, obviously," said Dirk Nowitzki, who paced the Mavericks with 29
points. "We didn't want to go to Miami and give them basically two
shots to close us out. "So we kept plugging there in the fourth. And
now we have to go down there and basically approach Sunday's game as
Game Seven. You don't want to give this great team any hope." Read more
Dirk
Nowitzki called out his Dallas teammates before game four and Jason
Terry responded with his best game of the 2011 NBA finals. Dallas
outscored the Heat 21-14 in the fourth quarter and no one stepped up
bigger for the Mavericks off the bench on Tuesday than guard Terry. "He
took it upon himself to really drive and be in attack mode," Nowitzki
said of Terry during Wednesday's practice at the American Airlines
Center. "That's what we need out of him. He's one of our closers."
Terry scored 17 points as Dallas held on for an 86-83 win over the
Miami Heat to even the NBA finals at 2-2. Nowitzki shook off a fever to
hit the game-winner on a driving layup with 14.4 seconds remaining. He
scored 10 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter for Dallas who ensured
a trip back to Miami for at least game six. Read more 
Dwyane
Wade kept soaring and scoring, doing everything he could to get the
Miami Heat a crucial win towards an NBA title. Chris Bosh and Udonis
Haslem provided the final push. Bosh made a 16-foot, go-ahead jumper
from the baseline with 39.6 seconds left and Haslem pestered Dirk
Nowitzki the rest of the way as the Heat held on for an 88-86 victory
over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night for a 2-1 lead in the NBA
finals. "This is a total win," said Wade, who led Miami with 29 points
and 11 rebounds. "You want to win the game on the defensive end of the
floor and we got a stop." Recent history says this is a huge win for
the Heat. The Game 3 winner in a tied finals has won the championship
all 11 times since the 2-3-2 format began in 1985. Read more 
Down
by 15. Only 7:14 left. On the road. Headed toward an 0-2 deficit in the
NBA finals against a Miami Heat team ready to be crowned NBA champions
since LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade last summer. It's
pretty remarkable that the Mavericks overcame it all to win the game
and even the series. It's also pretty typical of what they've done this
postseason. "If you're going to win a championship, you've got to have
the wherewithal to hang in when things are tough," Mavs coach Rick
Carlisle said. "You have to keep believing. All year our guys have
believed. And tonight was another good example." Read more 
LeBron
James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade paced the Miami attack as the big
three combined for 65 points and the Heat beat Dallas 92-84 in the
opening game of the 2011 NBA finals. James finished with a team high 24
points, Wade had 22 points and 10 rebounds and Bosh scored 19 points
for the Heat, who are a perfect 9-0 at home in the post-season. "That's
who they have been their entire careers," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra
said of James and Wade. "Every playoff game for us goes down the
stretch. The more time you are in it, the more confident you get." Read more 
The
Miami Heat star players cast off their struggles and staged a furious
finish to beat the Chicago Bulls 83-80 on Thursday and advance to the
NBA finals. The soaring comeback from a 77-65 deficit in the last three
minutes propelled the Heat to the NBA finals against the Dallas
Mavericks, a repeat of the 2006 championship series which Miami won
4-2. Led by their Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris
Bosh, Miami went on a closing 18-3 run to stun the Bulls and complete a
4-1 triumph in the best-of-seven series for the Eastern Conference
title. James, who missed nine shots in a row before catching fire at
the end, led the Heat with 28 points as Miami swept the last four games
after dropping the opener in Chicago. Read more 
The
first 48 minutes of Dwyane Wade's night were unremarkable. The five
minutes of overtime changed all that. And Miami's Big Three is one win
away from playing for the NBA's biggest prize. LeBron James scored 35
points, Chris Bosh added 22 and Wade perked up to block as many shots —
two — as Chicago made in overtime, as the Heat topped the Bulls 101-93
in a scintillating Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday
night. Miami will go for the clincher Thursday in Chicago, where the
Heat can wrap up their first finals trip since 2006. "It's one game
away," James said. "We're not taking anything for granted." Derrick
Rose scored 23 points for the Bulls, who got 20 apiece from Luol Deng
and Carlos Boozer. Chicago has lost three straight games for the first
time this season, and afterward, the league's reigning MVP pointed the
finger of blame at himself. Read more 
Chris
Bosh has fought the perception all year. He's the third wheel, the
forgotten star, the one who would never shine alongside LeBron James
and Dwyane Wade. The Miami Heat never saw it that way. This was why.
Bosh made 13 of his final 15 shots on the way to a 34-point night,
James finished with 22 points and 10 assists, and the Heat remained
unbeaten at home in the postseason by beating the Chicago Bulls 96-85
in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals on Sunday. A 9-0 run in the
fourth quarter helped Miami pull away for good and grab a 2-1 lead in
the series. Read more 
They
were bloodied, bruised and battered. Just about everyone had icepacks
strapped to various regions of their bodies, and many all but limped
toward the bus out of the arena. That was the Miami scene after Game 2
of the Eastern Conference finals. Imagine what the losing team must
have felt like. The East finals resume with Game 3 in Miami on Sunday
night, when the Heat host the Chicago Bulls with a 2-1 series lead at
stake. Read more 
LeBron
James produced some more fourth-quarter magic to propel the Miami Heat
to a scrappy 85-75 win over the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, evening
their NBA Eastern Conference final at a game each. Dead-locked at 73-73
late in the fourth and the Bulls on the charge, James took over,
scoring nine of Miami's final 12 points to earn the Heat a split in the
Windy City. The best-of-seven series moves to South Beach for Games
Three and Four on Sunday and Tuesday. James finished with a game-high
29 points and 10 rebounds while Dwyane Wade contributed 24 points and
nine boards. Read more 
The
Chicago Bulls saw it all year from Luol Deng, so what he did against
LeBron James and the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference
finals hardly shocked them. Hit big shots? Hit the boards? Limit the
game's most talented player? Check, check and huge check. The Bulls
lead the Heat 1-0 after a 103-82 victory on Sunday, and a big reason
for that is Deng. All he did was score 21 points, grab seven rebounds
and contribute four steals while neutralizing James in an all-around
performance that helped lift Chicago to an impressive victory. Yes,
Derrick Rose was up to his usual MVP tricks, scoring 28 points, but it
was Deng providing a big assist whether he was scoring or clamping down
on The King. Read more 
Kevin
Durant had trouble sleeping, trying to shake off the worst playoff
performance yet in his young NBA career. After the league's scoring
champion managed just 11 points in Oklahoma City's loss that set up
Game 7 Sunday against the Memphis Grizzlies, Durant woke up Saturday
still thinking about what went wrong. Durant took nine of his 14 shots
from behind the arc, and he made only one basket over the last 45
minutes of the game. "It was tough," Durant said. "That's a part of
this league. It's going to happen. "Especially being one of the main
guys, I tend to take a lot of the pressure and put it on myself. But it
is what it is. I've got to fight through it, I've got to continue to be
positive around my guys and go from there." Read more 
He
scored the game's final 10 points. He knelt on the court when it was
over. He even apologized afterward for any feelings that may have been
hurt last summer when he left Cleveland for Miami. For LeBron James,
the night was emotional and unforgettable. And imagine: The Miami Heat
are only halfway through the pursuit of an NBA title. Finally
vanquishing their rivals from Boston, Dwyane Wade scored 34 points,
James added 33 — including a spectacular closing flourish — and the
Heat went on a 16-0 run over the final 4:15 to beat the Celtics 97-87
on Wednesday and win their Eastern Conference semifinal series in five
games. Read more 
The
Dallas Mavericks are grooving through this years playoffs. They
beat the Blazers and then swept the Lakers. More notably, the
Mavs showed their true capabilities in game 4 against the Lakers, in
which they won by 36 points. This was an embarrassing game for the
Lakers because throughout the game the Mavs bench just exploited
them. Jason Terry scored 32 points and went 9 for 10 not from the
foul line, not from the field but from the three point line! Read
more 
Kobe
Bryant and Pau Gasol exploded for 23 of Los Angeles' 29 points in the
third quarter to propel the two-time defending NBA champions to a 98-80
victory over Western Conference rivals the New Orleans Hornets on
Thursday, sending them into the next round of the playoffs. The Lakers
were joined in the second round by the Atlanta Hawks, who held off the
Orlando Magic 84-81 to clinch their Eastern Conference series 4-2, and
the Dallas Mavericks who closed out the Portland Trail Blazers 4-2 with
a 103-96 win. Los Angeles held a slim 40-34 lead following a low
scoring first half, but Bryant and Gasol then took over to post a
12-point lead by the start of the fourth quarter, which they built on
despite resting most of their starters. Read more 
