Jason Terry’s 26-footer rimmed out, and the clock hit triple zeros. Dwyane Wade caught the rebound and emphatically threw the ball towards the American Airlines Center rafters. The Miami Heat just won their first championship. The 20,000+ in attendance stood in awe as what seemed like a foregone conclusion a week before had turned into a brutal nightmare. Just nine days earlier, the Mavericks had taken a commanding 2-0 lead over the Heat. But then it all fell apart, and Dallas lost the series 4-2, letting their first real chance at a championship slip away.
How did we get here?
A total of 1,818 days passed between that day and when the Mavericks entered American Airlines Arena in Miami for Game Six of the 2011 NBA Finals. Dressed in all black, taking only one outfit to South Beach, Dallas had a chance to flip the script from five years earlier. How fitting it was for the Mavs to have a chance to secure their first ring on the road, in a game six, against this Miami Heat team.
Remember, this Miami Heat team had no shortage of star power. The “Big 3” of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh teamed up over the prior summer to win “not six…not seven…not eight…” championships, but also to cripple the league with its trio of stars for the foreseeable future. Miami started the season slowly, but found its rhythm, finishing the season 58-24, earning the East’s second seed. They coasted to the NBA Finals, beating the 76ers, Celtics, and Bulls each in five games. After dismantling the 62-20 Bulls in the Conference Finals, the Heat seemingly had all the momentum heading into the Finals. They looked unstoppable.
While everything felt so new and exciting in Miami, Dallas felt the exact opposite. It was the same old, same old Mavericks. At the beginning of the season, the only people who thought the Mavericks would be on the cusp of their first ring were the 15 players in the Dallas locker room. After a decade of disappointing playoff runs, questions began to swirl about whether Dirk Nowitzki could actually lead a team to a championship. “He’s European. He’s soft. He’s slow.” The criticism was higher than ever entering the finals for Nowitzki. After an early surge of deep playoff runs with co-stars Steve Nash and Michael Finley from 2000 to 2004, Dallas let Nash walk in 2004, and Finley left for the champion San Antonio Spurs in 2005.
Dirk’s new co-star, Jason Terry, was the consolation prize of Nash’s leaving. But that duo just wasn’t enough to get the job done, losing in the 2006 NBA Finals and getting embarrassed by the Golden State Warriors in 2007, losing in the first round as the one seed. Dallas switched gears in 2008, trading for Jason Kidd, hoping he could solve some of the point guard issues. After a second-round exit in 2009 and a first-round exit in 2010, Dallas made big changes coming into the 2010-2011 season. Adding to its core of Nowitzki, Kidd, Marion, and Terry, Dallas signed heavily coveted center Tyson Chandler to bring protection in the middle. The Mavs also had a slew of other veterans to add depth, like DeShawn Stevenson, Peja Stojakovic, Caron Butler, and Brendan Haywood.
The rematch
The season felt different as Dallas secured the third seed with a record of 57-25. But they’ve been there before. Good regular season, then playoff flameout. But this team truly was different. The Mavericks took out the young Portland Trailblazers in six, swept the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, and bullied the up-and-coming Oklahoma City Thunder in five games. They entered the finals also feeling like they could finally get over the hump. But the juggernaut Heat awaited on the other side.
After the Heat opened the series with a convincing win, 92-84 over the Mavs, a miraculous comeback from Nowitzki and company evened the series at 1-1, as Dallas narrowly escaped 95-93. Miami bounced back in game three, taking a 2-1 series lead before the Mavs put them on the brink of elimination, notching two gritty wins, and coming within a game of basketball glory. And of course, all roads led back to Miami, the place where it all fell apart just five years earlier. And while all the noise continued whether Dallas could actually finish it off in Miami, no group seemed more poised to finish the job this time than these Mavericks.
Game 6: first half
Game six started nearly picture-perfect for Miami. LeBron James, who struggled the entire series with his jump shot, started 4-4 from the field, scoring nine quick points. His 20-foot step back jumper from the top of the key prompted a Dallas timeout, as Miami led 14-10 with 7:47 left in the first quarter.
As good as he’d been the entire series, Dirk Nowitzki struggled in the first half, going just 1-13 from the floor, with his only make being in the first quarter, a tough baseline jumper over Joel Anthony to cut the Miami lead to seven, 20-13 with 6:05 remaining. Unlike 2006, it was his partner in crime, Jason Terry, who took the reins for the Mavericks. Terry was 8-10 from the field in the first half, scoring 19 huge points. With Dirk starting ice cold, other Mavericks had to step up, too. DeShawn Stevenson hit a trio of threes spanning from the end of the first quarter to 9:42 left in the second, as Dallas surged to a 40-28 lead. Stevenson, the “3 and D” wing that brought toughness on the perimeter for the Mavs, shot a blistering 56.5% from three in the Finals, going 13 for 23.
The Heat responded. Eddie House was the spark plug for Miami, igniting a 14-0 run with a trio of his own on threes, giving Miami a 42-40 lead. The Mavericks called a timeout with 6:25 remaining in the second quarter, and a mid-court scuffle between the two teams, particularly Mario Chalmers and DeShawn Stevenson, caused a 15-minute delay in action while both teams caught their breath.
Miami pushed the lead to 47-43 before Jason Terry again steadied the ship, scoring the next 10 points for Dallas, as the Mavs held a narrow 53-51 lead at halftime.
Game 6: second half
Twenty-four minutes away from their first ring, the Mavericks came out in the third quarter with something to prove. There was never a plan to play game seven. As the blue shirts read, “The Time is Now.” The first positive sign was Nowitzki hitting an elbow jumper 10 seconds into the 3rd quarter, equaling the number of baskets he had in the first half. But despite an uncharacteristic start from Nowitzki, the Mavs still led 55-51, and the supporting cast continued to rally around their leader.
The third quarter was all about the J’s: J.J. Barea, Jason Kidd, and lots of jumpers. The 5’10 Puerto Rican-born J.J. Barea upended the Heat defense in the third quarter. Barea got the start in the second half and scored six quick points to force the Heat defense to collapse in the middle. This opened free space on jump shots around the perimeter for Dallas. He assisted Nowitzi on another rhythm jumper from the elbow that gave Dallas a 61-56 lead with 9:27 remaining in the third.
Then Jason Kidd found his stroke. Kidd scored his first bucket, a three from the top of the arc, that pushed the Mavs’ lead to 68-62. Kidd did it again with under a minute left in the third quarter, hitting a step-back three to give the Mavs a 79-71 lead. The icing on the cake was when French native Ian Mahimni, who scored a total of nine points in the series, hit a free-throw line jumper at the buzzer, and gave Dallas an 81-72 lead heading to the fourth quarter.
After Miami scored the first five points in the fourth quarter, it was Jose Barea once again who came to life, hitting a three to get the Mavs’ lead back to seven, 84-77. In the game, Barea had 15 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals. Then it was time to hand the steering wheel to the man who the franchise starts and ends with – Dirk Nowiztki.
After the third quarter helped him get his shot rhythm back, Nowitzki took over. He hit an 18-foot jumper with 7:24 remaining to give the Mavs a 91-80 lead, and never looked back. He attacked Haslem on the baseline, going left, and finished at the rim, giving the Mavs a 94-84 lead. Another Nowitzki elbow jumper snapped the bottom of the net with 3:41 remaining, and Dallas still holding control 97-87. The biggest shot of the game came for Nowitzki with under 2:30 to play. With nowhere to go along the baseline and the shot clock winding down, Nowitzki hoisted up a heavily contested jumper that hit nothing but nylon. Miami called timeout and Dirk, tongue out at the Miami faithful pumped his fist all the way to the Maverick sideline.
Finishing the job
Fittingly, Jason Terry hit a dagger free throw line jumper with 1:55 remaining that gave the Mavs a 101-89 lead. Terry ended the game with 27 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. As the Mavericks bench celebrated downcourt and fans who made the trek to Miami cheering loud enough for the AAC to hear them back home, Dallas had one last play up its sleeve. With 35 seconds left, Nowitzki met Kidd at the top of the arc for a slip screen that caught LeBron James sleeping. Kidd found Nowitzki on the cut, and he finished with his left hand at the rim, putting the nail in the coffin for good.
After a Miami miss and foul to put Kidd at the free throw line, the camera found each veteran Maverick with a look of awe. Nowitzki and Chandler both with their hands behind their heads, Shawn Marion with his mouth wide open, Jason Terry with a blank stare of amazement. The jewelry was finally theirs.
The clock hit triple zeros. “And the Dallas Mavericks are NBA Champions, their first title in franchise history,” as Mike Breen called the final buzzer. Nowitzki, overcome with emotion, immediately left the court to take a moment for himself before celebrating with his teammates. “The Mavericks have scaled the NBA playoff mountain and planted their flag, they are the NBA Champions for 2010-2011,” Mavs radio voice Chuck Cooperstein sang over the airwaves.
Five years’ worth of waiting
The job was finally complete. After five long years from the brutal heartbreak of 2006, and 31 years since its inception, the Dallas Mavericks were NBA champions.
And finally, the awkward lanky kid from Germany found his way to what he always deserved – to raise a Finals MVP trophy and the long-coveted Larry O’Brien trophy. As he hoisted the championship trophy towards the rafters, Nowitzki yelled, “Yeah!” to a stunned Miami crowd. What felt like a painful ending five years earlier, was a path to something greater, as it was only a chapter to a storybook ending for one of the greatest players to ever play the game.
This time, it was Mavs in six.
