Posted on 06/12/2011 8:29:31 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
MIAMI— The end.
Of the hype. And the hope. Of instant gratification. And of vindication.
Year One of the Big Three ended with a thud Sunday night for the Miami Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena.
There will be no capping of last July's premature celebration over the free-agency signings of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
Instead, there will be reflection on nights such as Sunday, when a 105-95 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 6 of the NBA Finals brought down the curtain on the 2010-11 season.
And started a new waiting game, leaving plenty of questions in the wake of this meltdown.
It was a dreary ending, particularly for James, who again proved unable to match the moment. After making his first four shots when he appeared headed to a big night, he instead closed with 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting, seemingly paralyzed by the moment. It was a finish nearly as humbling as being swept out of the 2007 Finals by the San Antonio Spurs while a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
None of the Heat's Big Three, in fact, were very big, with Wade closing with 17 points and Bosh with 19.
Mavericks guard Jason Terry, though, was plenty big, keeping Dallas afloat through a 14-0 Heat second-quarter run with 19 first-half points. He closed with 27 on 11-of-16 shooting.
That allowed Dallas to persevere even on a night series Most Valuable Player Dirk Nowitzki, hero of the Mavericks' Game 2 and Game 4 victories, shot 9 of 27 for 21 points.
It ended with Pat Riley watching in stunned silence from across the Heat bench, with the Heat allowing Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to celebrate in their building, with the Mavericks shockingly managing to buy nearly an entire section behind the Heat bench
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The statute of limitations has expired. Since that was on Saturday night/Sunday morning, I skipped church that day since I stayed up so late and was so pumped.
Sigh...tomorrow's a work day. Any doctors here to write me an excuse? :-)
You might think differently about Cuban after seeing this. And I was just as hard on the guy as you are....I doubt many other owners are doing what he’s doing for the troops.
Fallen Patriot Fund
http://www.fallenpatriotfund.org/4_16_03.html
Best post in the thread.
Kinda reminds you of a certain presidential candidate a couple of years ago.
As the game ended, the MVP jumped a row of seats and retreated to the locker room rather than waiting for the cameras to swarm him.
The pols could find this instructive.
I haven’t seen the Heat all season, but this series shows that they’re still completely Dwayne Wade’s team. He was the best player on either team during the series, followed by Nowitzki. Lebron looks like he’s afraid to do anything out there.
Fallen Patriot Fund
Thanks for that information about Mark Cuban. I wrongly thought he was a big Obama supporter in 2008 but have discovered he backed Michael Bloomberg, nominally a Republican. I also see he's given $6,000 to Orrin Hatch and that Cuban is an Ayn Rand fan. At best, he's still a dark pink RINO.
He's still not a good guy but maybe not quite the monster of Redacted and Good Night and Good Luck. I hope he'll start taking measures to embrace Texas ways and our brand of patriotism.
Lebron James better than Michael Jordan? Is that a joke??
How 'bout the lamestream media getting egg all over its face with Sarah Palin's e-mails only showing her competence and dedication as Alaska's governor. That's icing on a very good cake, eh?
Dazzled by Dirk!! We’ve waited a long time for this!! Thanks, Mavs!!
And to see Don Carter handed the trophy.....
Priceless.
Somwhere Nelly is smiling.
BTW that is now 7 titles won by Texas teams, over the past 30 years, that’s more than any other state in that time period.....and you thought this was Football Country.
The city of Cleveland approves of this thread!
That, i did not know. Thanks!
I’d still rather would have had the Rangers win the World Series, but this will do.
Now ain’t that a shame. The-Little-Three ain’t gonna get to walk out under flashing strobes low-fiving themselves.
Haven't done the math for other states, but Michigan:
Detroit Red Wings, 4 titles
Detroit Pistons, 3 titles
Detroit Tigers, 1 title
Detroit Lions, 0 titles
8 total titles
Oops, I get it now...you were talking about NBA titles only :-)
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