NBA Finals 2011: 5 Trends That Point to Dallas Mavericks' Championship
There's no doubt about it...the Dallas Mavericks go into the 2011 NBA Finals as the underdog.
While Dallas will have many fans cheering for them (or maybe it's just cheering against Miami) to pull off an upset, most people don't give the Mavericks much of a chance against the Big Three and the Miami Heat.
However, there are some interesting trends that may create some intriguing storylines.
Rather than a series that is signed, sealed and delivered to the South Beach Boys, maybe this will be one of the truly memorable NBA championship battles...and lead to a Dallas Mavericks title.
5. An Erik Spoelstra-Coached Team Has Never Beaten the Dallas Mavericks
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The next win that Erik Spoelstra has against the Dallas Mavericks will be his first.
Spoelstra is in his third season as the head coach of the Miami Heat, and he has NEVER beaten the Dallas Mavericks.
Spoelstra has faced the Mavs six times, and all six times the Heat have gone down in defeat.
The Mavericks' regular season success against the Heat is not limited to the Spoelstra Era. The Dallas Mavericks have beaten the Heat in 14 (yes, I said 14) straight regular season games.
Unfortunately, seven years of regular season success doesn't cancel out the four consecutive losses that Miami hung on Dallas in the 2006 NBA Finals.
4. The Dallas Bench May Be One of the Most Potent of All Time
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One of the factors that made all the difference in the world in the first three rounds of this year's playoffs for the Mavericks is the unbelievable production that Dallas is getting from its bench.
Head coach Rick Carlisle does not hesitate one bit to send in the reinforcements, with good reason.
The Mavs' No. 6-9 players are nearly as good as the Dallas starters.
Jason Terry is having an outstanding postseason, averaging 17.3 ppg and shooting 46.3 from beyond the arc.
J.J. Barea (8.9 ppg; 3.5 apg) has caused the Blazers, Lakers and Thunder to have nightmares about his getting into the lane and creating all kinds of havoc.
Peja Stojakovic (8.8 ppg) is fulfilling the very reason that the Mavericks picked him up before the trade deadline.
Brendan Haywood (3.4 ppg; 4.4 rpg) has provided tough interior defense and timely rebounding.
When his bench is contributing somewhere around 40 points per night, Carlisle can make necessary adjustments that might effect the outcome of individual games or even the series.
3. LeBron Is Far from Being a Dallas Mavericks Mauler
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LeBron James is one of the best players in the NBA.
He deserves being in the conversation for being one of the top players in the 2000s and beyond.
But he has not dominated the Dallas Mavericks, especially in the Rick Carlisle Era.
Over the last three years since Carlisle has been coaching Dallas, LBJ has faced the Mavs six times.
In those six games (four with Cleveland and two with Miami), James is 3-3.
In those six games, LBJ is shooting 47-for-121 (38.8 percent) from the field and averaging 24.1 ppg.
In comparison, for last three years, James has, overall, shot 50 percent from the field and scored 28.2 ppg.
In this year's two games between the Heat and the Mavs, James only scored 42 points (21 ppg, six points below his season average) and only shot 30.6 percent from the field, a full 20 percent less than his season shooting percentage (51 percent).
For a team that has been criticized for being soft and not playing much defense, the Mavericks seem to be doing a decent job at containing one of the best players in the game.
2. Dirk Nowitzki Didn't Dominate in Dallas' Two 2010-11 Victories vs. Miami
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If Dallas needed a mind-blowing, history-making game from Dirk Nowitzki in order for them to have a chance at beating Miami, then the upcoming NBA Finals series might look pretty bleak for the Mavericks.
But in the only two games that these teams played this season (Dallas winning both), Nowitizki scored 22 and 26 points and shot a combined 38.6 percent from the field.
That's 13 percent below his season shooting percentage average (51.8 percent).
In the first of those two games, Dirk was not even the Mavs' leading scorer.
While Dallas is looking for their leader, the Wurzburg Wunderkind, to come up big in the NBA Finals, they have seen firsthand that they can beat Miami without Nowitzki having a game for the ages.
1. Dwyane Wade Is Coming Off of a Dismal Series Against the Chicago Bulls
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After having an outstanding Eastern Conference Semi-finals against the Boston Celtics (30.2 PPG; 6.8 RBG; 4.8 APG; 52.6 FG%), Dwyane Wade struggled in the Eastern Conference Finals (18.8, 6.4, 2.2, 40.5%).
In fact, in the close-out game against Chicago, Wade committed a postseason career-high nine turnovers.
Coming out of the ECFs where he was getting treatment on his surgically repaired left shoulder, Wade faced a lot of questions about his physical readiness for the Finals.
The fact that he was held out of a Sunday workout didn't lessen the amount of speculation and stress among Miami fans (who were relieved though when Wade participated in Monday's workout).
For a player like Wade that usually goes for 25 or more and creates ongoing difficulties for Miami's opponents, the Heat better hope that DWade gets back on track in a hurry.
