NBA Finals 2011: Dirk Nowitzki and LeBron James Team Defense Making Mavs Champs

Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks had all one would want in a championship game. Close play throughout most of the game. Great shooting. A lead change in the fourth quarter, with the Heat seeming to take momentum from the Mavs.

And a lot of team defense at the end of the game, again provided by the Mavericks at the Heat's expense.

As we come to Game 6 of the playoffs, the clear winner on the defensive side of the court is not the team with the self-anointed "Three Kings." Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James do not play the best team defense in the NBA.

The Dallas Mavericks are clearly the better defensive team on the court, especially in the fourth quarter. And the glue that makes that defense work, no matter how much emphasis is given to Tyson Chandler, is Dirk Nowitzki.

True, Wade can play and has played defense in these Finals. But he is better known for the points he puts on the board. For that matter, all "Three Kings" are better known for their offensive prowess. Especially LeBron James.

Offense is exciting but defense wins games. True in almost any sport, the run-and-gun form of offense has been able to keep up but rarely, if ever, wins it all. Just ask the great quarterbacks who never won an NFL championship. And any hockey finals loser.

Despite the fact that defense wins championships, the media fawn over great offensive players, emphasizing this skill above all others. Indeed, even the most knowledgeable NBA pundits have emphasized that Game 4 is the first game in James' professional playoff career where he failed to score even 10 points, and that James has averaged about two points for the five fourth quarters he has played so far in these Finals.

It is therefore no coincidence that LeBron James "disappearing" in the games of the NBA Finals is discussed more for his lack of offense than for his poor fourth-quarter defense.

But James' lack of defensive prowess and failure to work on the defensive end of the floor were far more noticeable, and in the end, fatal, to Miami than his lack of offense in Games 4 and 5.

The NBA thrives on offensive players, in large part due to the exposure they receive in the media. They are more often revered and treated as the greatest in the game. There are far more players like Miami's LeBron James than the Celtics great Bill Russell, who was the center of the Celtics defense despite his size.

There are also far more with a LeBron James personality than a Bill Russell personality on and off the court. Russell was self-effacing, and would never have been seen posturing, chest-pounding and carrying on like LeBron James.

Today, almost all great offensive players thrive on self-promotion and outsized egos.

In part for this reason, these players lack the ability to play great team defense. Instead, they tend to think so much of themselves that they also need attention on the defensive side of the court, leaving their defensive assignments to snatch a basketball, to dig for the double-teamed turnover, and to roam around the court wherever they feel they might make the next highlight reel.

In the meantime, they often miss their assignments, expecting others to cover for their own lapses.

Watch last night's game and you can see James scolding a player in more than one of these situations. Watch Kobe Bryant and you will see the same thing in their four losses to the Mavs in these playoffs.

Watch the film of the last two games. You will see LeBron James standing and looking for the ball. Then going in that direction, even if it puts him out of position for a defensive rebound or a blocked shot. He is drawn to the ball like an insect going for a light at night.

Nowitzki has neither the outsized ego, tendency to self-promote, or posturing that James and Wade have. He will have none of that.

Instead, he stays firm and makes a difference to the Dallas team defense in position and technique.

James wants the smashing dunk after the takeaway far more than the tough defense denying someone the ball. And it shows.

Nowitzki does what it takes to get the job done, no matter what is happening on the offensive end of the floor.

It is ironic that the biggest knock against Dirk Nowitzki before these playoffs was that he was a "shooter" and not a great player. His self-effacing personality has been as critical as any other trait in maintaining his team defense. Nowitzki, perhaps more than almost any other great player than Bill Russell, plays great team defense.

And so it is that LeBron James is not the best player in the NBA—much less another Michael Jordan. His defense is far from the best, especially in fourth quarters.

Nowitzki excels on defense in crunch time. So much so that Nowitzki, not Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, is the best in the NBA today.

Influenced by his huge ego, "King" James talked about running and being more aggressive on the offensive end of the floor after Game 4.

His focus on his own scoring, leading to losses in the last two games, may have been fatal to Miami's chances. And his talking about himself, whether his failures or his successes, speaks volumes about his failure to work as part of a team.

The only way to stop great defense is with the referees' whistles. James flopped in Game 4 and got a call against Tyson Chandler.

And the only way to help a bad defense is with the referees' whistles. Nowitzki has been hammered, has had players draped all over him, and has been pushed and pulled, with no foul called.

You can say that Nowitzki had an off night offensively in Game 4 because of his fever. But the reality is that he remains the only NBA superstar whose offense has to work through clear fouls that even normal players do not face without a call.

So what did Nowitzki do, when facing huge deficits in his normally efficient offense, constant bumping, pulls and vice-like grips by multiple players? When his teammates needed a lift in the fourth quarter Tuesday with Miami seemingly going for the final game of the NBA Finals on his home court?

He played defense in Games 4 and 5, and mustered some offense as well. He has played tough, suffocating defense, missing few, if any, assignments during this year's playoffs.

Tyson Chandler's defense on LeBron James has been outstanding.

Still, in Game 4, James has had the benefit of quick whistles. The fake flop foul call in Game 4 was the most egregious. And if Chandler had gotten into foul trouble in either Game 4 or Game 5, it would have been from the calls James gets rather than Chandler's miscues.

While this was Chandler's misfortune in Game 4, it was not fatal to the Mavs. Even in the clutch fourth quarter when even biased referee have trouble calling such fouls, Chandler has excelled.

Game 5 was different. The best example was the charge taken by Chandler in Game 5. James was off to the races for another thundering dunk. But Joey Crawford had none of that in this game. And history is about to be written for the Mavs.

But no more than for Nowitzki whose defensive boards were critical in getting the win in Game 4, and was in position to rebound in Game 5, even though it wasn't needed because the other players hit their shots.

In the end, Game 6 should be more of the same. The old guys, even if feverish, will get back together in the fourth quarter. They will show more poise, energy, strength and grit.

So far, there is something no one can deny about these Finals.

Close games seem made for the Mavs. Not the Three Kings. And certainly not King James, the most self-righteous king of them all.

Of course, Jason Terry and Nowitzki, the two Mavs still with the 2006 NBA Finals team that lost to Miami in six games, have their nemesis Dwayne Wade on the floor once again. And his injured hip does not seem to have made much difference after he returned to the game in the third quarter.

And although the referees still could have decided each game, their whistles have stayed relatively silent and balanced in the last two fourth quarters.

Playing in Miami, the whistles could still decide the outcome. But unless the refs call fouls against the Mavs with abandon, another mugging of Nowitzki will not matter.

The Mavs will then take these Finals in six games, a mirror-image payback for the Heat's 2006 championship.