Dirk to lift Dallas past Miami in Game 6 of the NBA Finals

Dirk Nowitzki is angry.

First he cleared the basketball from in front of him with a swift foot as if imitating his country's World Cup keeper, Jens Lehmann. And just before he disappeared into the visitors' locker room, Dirk Nowitzki took another kick, this time at a small tree of camera lights.

Except Games 1 and 2, the past three games of this best-of-seven NBA Finals series saw Dirk Nowitzki disappear. There's something about playing in Florida that lessens the German Assassin to a mere mortal. Thankfully, Jason Terry and Josh Howard have been playing tremendously in Dirk's somewhat lack of intensity.

Game 6 could very well be the game when the German Assassin in Dirk Nowitzki returns.

Asked Monday back in the Mavericks' practice gym inside American Airlines Center about his outburst after the Mavericks' third consecutive loss Sunday in the NBA Finals, Dirk explained, ''Sometimes, you got to let it out.''

There are so many reasons why the Mavericks didn't return from a week in Miami with the NBA championship trophy so many expected they would and, instead, came back with lousy tales of woe from South Beach.

Fortunately for the Mavericks, this is a best-of-7 series and Games 6 and 7, if needed, are scheduled for play in Dirk's house.

It is easy to pick on Dirk only because the whole basketball world has seen what he can do when he asserts himself. Drop half a hundred on the Suns in the conference finals. Put up a Tim Duncan-like double-double (26 points, 21 rebounds) against, well, Tim Duncan in the semis.

Dirk can be unstoppable. Game 6 would be a good time for him to remind everyone.

Just like Wade went home and single-handedly took control of this series, Dirk needs to snatch the series back now that he's on his home wood.

That's what superstars do on this ultimate stage. Duncan did it two of the last three years. Shaq did it three years in a row. Michael Jordan did it each of his six times in the season's last set of games.

This is why the league says that the NBA Finals are a place ''where legends are born.''

Dirk NEEDS to be legendary in Game 6 to keep their season alive. More importantly, Dallas needs Dirk to be legendary to keep their hopes of an NBA championship STILL within reach.

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Dallas to bury Miami on the beaches of Florida in Games 3, 4 and 5

Games 3, 4 and 5 will be held at Miami in the NBA's 2-3-2 format during these

NBA Finals.

All three games will be critical, especially for the Miami Heat who are now down three games to nil.

On the other hand, it will be as important for the Mavericks, as they try to at least win one of these three games and hope to win the NBA Championship in front of their fans for Game 6.

Well, with the way the Mavericks are going, they could very well JUST SWEEP the Heat at home. And with a consistent German assassin in Dirk Nowitzki, an explosive high-flying jet in Jason Terry, and a rejuvenated Jerry Stackhouse coming off the bench, the Mavericks are certainly capable of ending this series in Miami's yard.

Shaquille O'Neal was NEUTRALIZED in games 1 and 2. Erick Dampier did a wonderful job against the Diesel in the first two games of the NBA Finals.

Throw in DeSagana Diop, too.

Yes, it's probably unrealistic to expect the Mavericks' tandem to hold O'Neal to another five-point game as they did in Game 2, Shaq's worst game ever in the playoffs. However, with these Mavericks, anything's possible.

They also can't afford to let him run like a bull, dragging the Heat back into the series with him. What the Mavs have done is make it hard for Shaq's teammates to hit him with passes over Dampier or Diop. And they are double-teaming from many angles as soon as O'Neal gets the ball. Basically, the Mavs are admitting that they think O'Neal can beat them. They're just determined not to let it happen.

Heck, if they can stop O'Neal like they did in Games 1 and 2, all that's left to stop is Dwyane Wade, and Josh Howard is Dallas' primary candidate to pick up the assignment.

Truth is, though, that Dallas does have a bit more than hopeful schemes and a prayer to throw at the flu-ridden Wade. It has Josh Howard, too. Which is significant because Wade himself has said that Howard harasses him as well as any defender in the league.

The harassment started in college, where Howard shadowed Wade in two Wake Forest-Marquette duels. Howard's team won in 2001; Wade's team took the 2003 rematch.

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Dallas doesn't have anything to lose in the NBA Finals

The Dallas Mavericks are not ''Overachievers.''

But at the very least, this is a team that got where it wanted to go faster than it expected.

For all the talk from Avery Johnson about championships and going for the ring now, not after a three-year plan is executed, the Mavericks still are a surprise entrant in the NBA Finals. As Johnson himself said last week, if you had Dallas and Miami picked to make it here, you probably made a lot of money.

Del Harris said that the Mavericks entered this season with their realistic goals being to win 52 games and make it past the first round of the playoffs. After winning 58 games last season, they lost Michael Finley and Shawn Bradley. They had replaced them with Doug Christie (later Adrian Griffin) and DeSagana Diop.

Those guys just didn't seem to be the answer to winning more than 58 games, Harris said. Publicly, the goal was higher, of course. Avery Johnson wanted his team to aim for the championship every day from the opening of training camp.

''Realistically, we knew how very difficult it would be,'' Harris said. ''But if we didn't keep it as a goal on a weekly basis, if not daily basis, then we would never get there. We couldn't have as a goal what we thought we'd actually be this year. But by having that goal, even if we fell short this year, it would get us closer to it next year.''

''Now that we're here, we're not sure we'll ever get back again,'' Harris said. ''So we want to make the most of it. We've seen these windows close, for whatever reason. We got to 'peat' before we can repeat.''

The Dallas Mavericks surprised themselves when they made THIS far in the conclusion of the 2005-2006 NBA Season. The Mavericks will face the Miami Heat in the 2006 NBA Finals and coming to this series, the Mavericks would have to be the more dangerous team because after all, they are the team without nothing to lose and everything to gain.

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Piston Season, wasted in the NBA Playoffs?

It was a wasted season for Ben Wallace.

And he meant that in a good way. Because Ben Wallace, being a champion that he is, knows so well that being contended with what they have done this year, settling for second best in the Eastern Conference, certainly is not something a franchise like Detroit's should be proud of.

After the Miami Heat ended Detroit in what would've been their third straight trip to the NBA Finals, Ben Wallace knows so well that once a team settles for simply not being No.1, that team will NEVER be No.1.

The 2005-2006 NBA Season almost dictated another year for the Pistons hopefuls. A 37-5 start and a season where the Pistons ALMOST got to the 70-win plateau certainly made that.

They didn't expect a Miami Heat team coming together at the right place, at the right time.

Fans tend to only see things from the perspective of their team. They tend to overlook that there is a fine line between winning and losing at this elite level, and others want it as badly or more. The Pistons encountered the same thing that took down San Antonio. Other teams have you in their sights and want what you’ve achieved as badly as you wanted it before you got it.

In the Pistons case, Miami had their hearts cut out when the Pistons beat them in games six and seven last spring. Pat Riley, one of the greatest coaches in history, returned to the bench and brought in four proven players to mesh with his two superstars.

He also motivated Shaquille O’Neal to lose 25 pounds and nursed him to health the first half of the season. The Heat had just one mission – dethrone and avenge the Pistons, and their established stars and the new players all bought into it – willing to sacrifice in any way they were asked in order to achieve the greater goal.

Now, looking back at these, the Pistons will look forward for the next season, this time NOT as the team to beat but a TEAM. A team agitated, furious, and pissed off. Next season, the Pistons will come in as the HUNTERS, instead of the HUNTED.

[The Miami Heat dethroned the Detroit Pistons in the East and will be going for their first championship against the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals. Can they finally win a title? Visit and bet on Bodog now.]

Is Miami Ready to Face THEIR Destiny against the West?

Is this the best Miami Heat team ever?

That's what you witnessed Friday night, the Heat growing from excellent to unprecedented right before your eyes.

Heat 95, Pistons 78.

Now, Miami finds itself in a magical place it has never been in 18 years of existence.

The championship round.

Eighteen years it took Miami to climb this high. Miami will play either the immensely talented Dallas team of seven-foot extraterrestrial Dirk Nowitzki or the fun-and-gun Phoenix team of two-time Most Valuable Player Steve Nash.

Beginning Thursday night, Miami will be four victories from being crowned the best basketball team in the world. Miami is hotter than any team in professional basketball, having won 10 of its last 13 playoff games after going a miserable 2-12 this season against division leaders.

There aren't a lot of ways to explain that. ''Magic'' would be one of them.

''Let's go win this [expletive],'' Antoine Walker screamed underneath that trophy, at the center of the madness. You had to read his lips.

You certainly couldn't hear him, not with so many fans thundering around him, refusing to leave this arena, refusing to let go of this feeling.

Against a very very tough team coming out of the West, THAT team just might MAKE Miami let it go.

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Dirk Nowitzki, the Next Larry Bird?

The Dallas Mavericks' German Assassin became Bird-like in this series.

BUT, Dirk Nowitzki already was motivated before Phoenix Suns forward Tim Thomas started blowing kisses in Game 5.

Coach Avery Johnson challenged Nowitzki after Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.

Steve Nash has your MVP trophy, Johnson told Nowitzki. Go take it back, he added.

Nowitzki responded with an epic 50-point game, which included scoring 15 consecutive Mavericks points during the fourth quarter of a 117-101 win.

Asked on Friday about his talk with Nowitzki, Johnson paused.

"No comment," he said before making an acknowledgement to accompanying laughter. "Boy, people can't keep their mouth shut."

With the NBA counting down the top 60 playoff moments, it is possible Nowitzki's performance might crack a future list. Assistant Del Harris, who has seen the league's elite for four decades, provided a historical context.

Harris' coaching career included four best-of-7 series against a vintage '80s Larry Bird, with whom Nowitzki has sometimes prematurely been compared. Although Bird never put together a 50-point, 12-rebound game in the playoffs, Harris remembered his game-dominating presence and passing ability.

"Bird is one of the five best who ever played," Harris said. "But would Bird have been proud of that game? Yes, he would have – and it probably would have gone on his refrigerator, along with a couple other articles."

Dirk Nowitzki certainly is turning out to be one awesome player. However, all this is nothing if he can't come home with an NBA Title. If he can lead his Mavericks past Phoenix, all that stands in his way are those guys from Miami in red. And beating those guys with the play Dirk brings to the table will probably be the easy part.

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The Heat are Happy, Shaq's not... NOT YET

Shaquille O'Neal is Back in the NBA Finals.

This is not the flu season. And yet Dwyane Wade somehow gets the flu. What are the odds? Of the few people in South Florida who have the flu, Wade, of all people, has to be one of them?

It couldn't be a less important player against a lesser opponent at a less important time of year. No, it had to be the Miami Heat's star against the Heat's biggest rival at only the most important time in franchise history. Miami, fortunately, had one monster of a vaccine.

Name of Shaquille O'Neal.

Seven-feet of feel-good-fast.

Three hundred thirty pounds of get-well-soon.

Shaq (28 points, 16 rebounds, two missed shots) helped cure all of Miami's ills. Helps, too, that Jason Williams (21 points, six assists, one turnover) gave Miami an enormous shot in the arm. And now it is the Detroit Pistons who feel sick.

O'Neal didn't celebrate at the center of the madness. Didn't hold up the trophy with a smiling Pat Riley. Didn't hear Wade keep repeating ''Very sweet. Very sweet.'' Didn't hear Alonzo Mourning say, ''I've never had an opportunity to experience a moment like this.''

Shaq, a three-time champion, the Heat's only champion other than Riley, doesn't celebrate the possibility of second place. He said he wasn't satisfied with this celebration. He wants the parade.

Last season at this time, Miami suffered the most heartbreaking loss in franchise history because Wade had a bad rib and Shaq had a bad thigh and Damon Jones had a bad foot and Udonis Haslem had a bad finger. Miami's body, crippled.

This time, it was Detroit that was falling apart in pieces. Rasheed Wallace and Rip Hamilton limped on sore ankles and Ben Wallace and Antonio McDyess had wrapped wrists.

And at the end, just to rub it in, Walker broke out his patented shimmy-shake of the shoulders.

''Only because I don't like Detroit,'' he said. ``Just for them. They kind of disregarded us. A swagger, a cockiness. This isn't the same team they played last year. We didn't really respect them because they didn't respect us.''

However, as sweet as this victory was, the Miami Heat is looking like a team who is HAPPY to just be in the NBA Finals. That may prove to be the weakness the team from the West will be looking for.

The Mavericks will be the ones more likely to face Miami in the NBA Finals. Can these Texans do it against a Phoenix Suns team led by reigning MVP, Steve Nash? Bet on Bodog now.

THIS TIME, it's Miami taking advantage of Detroit's Injuries

It was simply Miami's turn.

With three minutes to play, the fans tossed their white chair covers through the air as they remembered how Detroit eliminated their Heat when D-Wade was hurting.

This time, they have a healthy Wade, a rejuvenated Shaq, going up against a Pistons team with Rasheed Wallace and Rip Hamilton, slowed down by injuries.

With three minutes to play, Detroit could only watch the early festivities, by then, their season was already over. A few minutes later, it was official -- 95-78, Miami wins.

Richard Hamilton did all he could in the fourth quarter of Game 6 on Friday, scoring 14 of his 33 points then to get Detroit within 13.

But it was too late. The Pistons' season, one filled with regular season glory and postseason struggles, ended Friday amid more offensive troubles and a lackadaisical effort.

The 2005-06 season will go down as the one with 64 wins, four All-Star bids, lots of award winners, and no championship ring.

It will be the first time in three seasons that the Pistons won't play for the NBA title.

Instead, they will clean out their lockers and dispatch onto other projects. Summer workouts. Summer homes. Lots of summer what-ifs.

They'll have lots of time to figure out what happened in the last month, how a once well oiled, efficient offense crumbled into a mess in the playoffs, how sure offensive threats like Chauncey Billups, who was 3-for-14 from the field Friday, suddenly came up cold when it mattered most.

This time, it will be Detroit wondering what might have been had they stayed healthy, had Rasheed Wallace, who finished with 10 points Friday, not sprained his ankle.

And they'll question whether the Heat, with two dominating stars and a support cast that gelled at the perfect time, was simply better.

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Dallas - Phoenix, Game 6 is Personal Now.

History, for once, the Dallas Mavericks have a chance to make it, not be it.

There's no question that the chance to make the NBA Finals for the first time in the franchise's 26 seasons is the most important thing to the Mavericks in Game 6 against former Maverick, Steve Nash, in the Valley of the Sun.

It would be a big-time achievement, hallowed-archive stuff. If the Mavs, leading the series, 3-2, could get it done on the Phoenix Suns' court, so much the better.

Especially with Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, and Phoenix Suns head coach, Mike D'Antoni, are already JAWING at each other.

The NBA office has informed the Mavericks that it has reviewed a tape of an elbow thrown by Suns forward Shawn Marion during Game 5 and that no further action will be taken.

Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni wonders what compelled Mark Cuban to submit the tape. Cuban wonders why Suns owner Robert Saver was yelling at Mavericks president Terdema Ussery over the Mavericks' in-game presentation. Let the verbal elbows fly.

"You know, that is so far in outer space," D'Antoni said Friday before he learned of the league's ruling on Marion.

"Why you would even bother the league? They've got more important stuff to think about. That's almost like asking George Bush to worry about this patch in Idaho or something. Shawn Marion is really known to be an enforcer. I mean, he was being held up and he tried to get free. Did he end up hooking a little bit? Maybe. But my gosh, come on, grow up."

Cuban, on the other hand, pointed out in an e-mail response that the league reviews every game, so him pointing something out isn't a waste of time. He said when a player tells him he's elbowed in the jaw, he stands up for him just like he did when Steve Nash was in Dallas and "Karl Malone let him have it."

One thing's for sure, it's personal now. This Dallas Mavericks - Phoenix Suns series is not all about Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash, once teammates, facing each other. No. Now it's all about two teams with pure hate between them.

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Will Miami win Another Game over Detroit?

Perhaps it was Detroit's desperation in these NBA Playoffs.

Desperation that turned Tayshaun Prince into the most effective offensive player on the floor Wednesday night.

Maybe it was the survival instinct that made Ben Wallace look like the league's Defensive Player of the Year for the first time in this series.

And perhaps it was the comfort of knowing it held a 3-1 lead in the series that turned the Heat into a group that could barely hit a free throw or an open jumper.

Whatever the reason, it all means Miami has one less chance to close out the Pistons after falling 91-78 at The Palace of Auburn Hills to narrow its series lead to 3-2.

Game 5 would have been an extra satisfying win for the Heat, which lost to the Pistons in Miami in Game 7 last season. But a Game 6 win now becomes nearly mandatory if the Heat is going to make its first trip to the NBA Finals.

''They came out like we knew they were going to come out, pressuring and playing with a lot of energy,'' said Dwyane Wade, who was 11 of 20 from the floor for 23 points in 45 minutes.

''We took the first couple punches and we still were there. But tonight they beat us to a lot of loose balls, a lot of tip-out rebounds at key times. Give them credit. They played hard. They played like a desperate team.''

The previous two close-out opportunities for the Heat this postseason were the team's best games, according to Wade. Yet the start of Wednesday's game resembled nothing of the sort.

Game 6 will be played in Miami, Florida and this could very well be the Heat's last chance to close out the resilient Pistons. However, knowing the Pistons, they won't let Miami control this best-of-seven Eastern Conference Finals series anymore. Expect the Pistons to win and force a pivotal Game 7.

The Detroit Pistons will win Game 6 and then wrap-up the series in Game 7 to advance to the NBA Finals. Think otherwise? Visit and bet on Bodog today.