Star search for Dallas
By
Marc Stein,
ESPN.com
MIAMI -- Looks like somebody got it half-right.
Remember when
I wrote that
Dwyane Wade (sprained knee) would be fine and that the
Dallas Mavericks (shaken confidence) would be fine, too?
Well . . .
Wade, as promised, is better than fine.
The Mavs?
They're suddenly facing a long wait until Sunday night to prove me all the way right.
The Mavs' lead is gone in these NBA Finals, erased by Miami's 98-74 hammering in Game 4, and they might actually have a bigger problem than a series scoreline that will be viewed in many precincts as a 2-2 deficit.
That problem: Dallas' stars have gone missing, too.
Regrets about their failure to close out an all-but-iced Game 3 and concerns about what that might to do the Mavs' collective psyche Thursday night have been replaced by a flurry of worries about what happens from here, after a Heat beatdown that oozed confidence and physicality from the home team.
Four games into the Finals, Dallas is still waiting to see the
Dirk Nowitzki who dominated the Western Conference playoffs. Nowitzki is shooting 36 percent from the floor in this series, after a 2-for-14 struggle made twice as confounding because
Udonis Haslem -- Miami's best Dirk defender -- was limited to 18 minutes because of foul trouble.
Four games into the Finals, Dallas also has a slumping
Josh Howard to reignite. The Mavs' collapse Tuesday night was the first time all season that they lost a game in which Howard reached the 20-point plateau, but he went scoreless in that fatal fourth quarter and followed it with a Game 4 no-show . . . just three points on 1-for-8 shooting.
Four games into the Finals, Dallas can't spend too much time fretting about the most meager quarter in Finals history -- a mere seven points in the fourth quarter -- when it first must reconcile what happened in the opening quarter.
That's when Shaquille O'Neal went to the bench with two fouls and the Mavs -- who, incidentally, have yet to score 100 points in these Finals -- fell behind for good.
"It's a different series right now," Shaq says.
It's a series turned upside-down, first by the combination of Miami's Wade-led resurrection and Dallas' epic collapse and now by a Heat rout in which the Mavs did maybe one thing in 48 minutes to placate a coach who was counting on much more.
That would be the jaw-dropping takedown with Dallas trailing by 17 points in the third quarter: Stack tackling Shaq.
Otherwise?
Besides
Jerry Stackhouse reinforcing his rep as maybe the most fearless Mav ever?
"They are beating us to the punch," Avery Johnson said.
And?
"They are just one step quicker," Johnson said. "This is two games in a row where we haven't had anybody [in] double-figure rebounding."
These are painful admissions for the Mavs' boss, who was convinced -- as I was -- that his guys would respond to that 13-point blown lead in Game 3 like they did several times in the San Antonio series.
Or like Wade does when he's banged up: 36 points' worth of feeling fine.
Johnson believed it most about Nowitzki, who was naturally desperate to atone more than any other Mav after missing a Game 3 free throw that could have forced OT. Instead he had a handful of good looks to go with the tough ones and missed almost everything short.
"They are putting a blanket over him," Johnson said. "He's going to have to get that blanket off."
Yet it wasn't just Nowitzki. This was a teamwide non-response from the Mavs, who also appear to have revved up Wade more than ever.
"I think they said I can't shoot," Wade offered when asked if the Mavs gave him too much room on the perimeter. "Why would they contest my shots? I can't shoot."
It was also relayed to Wade, in his postgame press briefing, that a Mav or two questioned the severity of the injury.
"We could care less what they say and they could care less what we say," Wade said. "Everybody knows I don't fake. If I'm hurt, I'm hurt. Y'all have seen me. I don't have to fake."
The only solace for Dallas is that, Johnson aside, none of Wade's victims have to say anything Friday. Instead of the usual two days of media grilling that the Mavs would have faced before Sunday's Game 5, league officials have decreed that the players from both teams don't have to take questions until Saturday.
Questions like the one Johnson got about whether the Mavs are still stuck on the 3-0 lead they didn't take.
"I don't know about 'not recovered,' " Johnson said. "This is a mentally tough team that we have here. You're talking about the same team that won Game 7 in San Antonio against a world champion.
"Why don't you just give Miami credit for playing some (great) defense?"
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.
. This was the Heats best effort and the Mavs still could have sent it into overtime.
