The mavs pulled it off! A playoff series full of historical comebacks and i'm sure lots of "where amazing happens" commercial moments for next year. The path they took was full of twists and turns and all sorts of emotional ups and downs. It was all worth it! All those 4th quarter comebacks, and those clutch shots that have changed the image of this franchise and in particular Dirk. Now the Mavs stand alone at the top after topping the heavily favored Miami Heat in 6 games, Dallas is now the 2011 NBA champions!
The magical playoff run started against the Portland trailblazers, a team that down the stretch in the regular season seemed to have the Mavs number and were popular picks to upset the 3rd seeded 57 game winning Mavs. Dallas started out well taking a 2-0 lead to start the series but everything changed once the series went to Portland. Portland won game 3 despite a good run by Dallas to get back into the game late in the 4th but game 4 was when the real damage was done. Dallas had a 23 point lead at one point late in the third quarter and a large lead in the 4th. Portland pulled off one of the greatest, if not greatest, comebacks off all time to tie the series at 2-2 going back to Dallas. I have to be honest when this happened i thought series was over, this Dallas team isn't any different. They're weak, they're soft, they can't preform in the clutch, they're all scarred to step up and make a big shot and if a team fought back Dallas would give in. But, as it turns out, this game was the wake up call the Mavs needed. It reminded them of what they set out to do, win a title, and nothing was going to stop them. They woke up, blowing that 20+ point lead to Portland awoke the beast hidden deep deep within Dallas and especially Dirk, who from that point just took over the playoffs. The Mavs then won game 3 at home and had to return to Portland, but this time with much success. Dallas beat Portland at home and sent themselves to the second round. Dallas left the Portland arena to the Portland fans chanting "beat L.A." In the second round Dallas had the daunting task of beating the reining 2-time defending champion Lakers.
Once again Dallas was expected to lose, most people including myself gave Dallas a very little chance to win. Personally i was just hoping for a close 7 game series so the mavs may have a chance to steal this series and as it turned out, only 4 games were needed. Mavs took it to the lakers in game one as the lakers had a 15 point lead in the 4th only to fumble it away to the red hot mavs. Game 2, a game i thought was going to be all lakers and I was just pleased we stole one in L.A., turned out to be another huge road win by the mavs making it 3 road wins in a row. Coming from a team that has struggled on the road the past 5 years in the playoffs and even struggled to get out of the first round, this Dallas team had the 2-time defending champions down 2-0 after winning both games in L.A.! Dallas had L.A. on the ropes coming to Dallas for games 3 and 4. Dallas took both sweeping L.A. and stunning the world as this Dallas team showed this is a very different team and they're in it to win it! No quit, or backing down, or softness in this team, this Dallas team was just a monster in the playoffs.
Western Conference Finals, 4 wins away from returning to the NBA finals after the infamous 2006 collapse to the Miami heat (Dallas went up 2-0 on the heat and had a big lead in the 4th quarter of game 3 only to blow it and never winning another game in the series losing 4-2 and watching Miami celebrate on their own court in Dallas) but this Dallas team had one more hurtle to get over, the Oklahoma City Thunder. A very young, quick, athletic team with one of the best scorers in the game today Kevin Durant. The last time the Mavs played a team like this in the plays was in 2007 when the top seeded mavericks we're upset by the Golden State Warriors. Dallas started off well taking the first game in the series at home but then the Thunder hit them hard winning game 2 in Dallas. Dallas didn't panic instead regrouped and headed up to Oklahoma City tied 1-1 determined to not quit now. After a hard fought game 3 Mavs were able to pull away late and after a great comeback (starting to become a habit for Dallas at this point in the playoffs) took the first of 2 in Oklahoma city and shifted momentum back in their favor going up 2-1. Then game 3 hit and the Thunder look like they were going to roll taking a 15 point lead over the mavs with just about 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter, things started to look gloomy for this veteran filled Dallas team. But despite the Thunder's youth, quickness, and all their scorers Dallas had a few things they didn't, leadership, strong chemistry down the stretch, and of cource, Dirk. Dirk went off in the 4th quarter of these playoffs and brought the Mavs back countless times, the mavs roared back to life once again in game 4 and sent the preciously thought of out of reach game into overtime, which the mavs ended up winning taking a 3-1 series lead over this young but incredibly talented team. Thunder started out hot in game 5 but once again mavs had a fantastic comeback filled with outstanding offense by Dirk and company and stellar shut down defense that the mavs had shown throughout all these comebacks in the playoffs. Finally after 5 long painful years of waiting the mavs have returned to the NBA finals.
The Miami Heat, filled with superstars and two of the best players alive today, if not the two best players. A much different and more talented team than the mavs lost to 5 years ago, but this was also a much different team then Miami had faced. Miami had have never trailed in any playoffs series this year, or have they lost 2 games in a row, Dallas had never trailed in a series, was on a 5 game road winning streak, and hadn't lost 2 in a row since the first round. Game 1 went to Miami, it was a tough physical game where Miami's defense looked better than any defense i've ever seen, mavs really struggled against it and besides the struggle they had scoring for the first time in the playoffs they had turnover problems which Miami used to control game 1 and pull away late with no magical comeback for the Mavs this time. Miami looked better all around and their stars dominated, they took advantage of the turnovers and easily controlled rebounding. If Dallas wanted to have any kind of chance in keeping this series close they were going to have to tighten up defensively, minimize turnovers as much as possible to not give up easy points, and win the rebound battle. Game 2 started and look much like game 1 where Miami's star power seemed too much for this Dallas teams and once again caused turnovers and dominated the glass. With D-Wade hitting a huge 3 to put Miami up by 15 with time starting to run out, things looked very bad for Dallas. But yet again Dirk decided the time was now and went to work. Dallas went on a massive run completely shutting down Miami and nearly scoring at will as the pulled off possibly the greatest comeback in the history of NBA finals to stun the heat and tie the series heading back to Dallas at 1-1. 11 previous finals series have been tied 1-1 since the layout went to 2-3-2 format and all 11 times the team that won game 3 has won the championship. So with that in mind things looked very bad for Dallas when Miami came in and beat them on their own court when Dirk's game tying shot as time expired bounced off the back of the rim. Down 2-1 these Mavs were faced with one hell of a challenge, a challenge no team has overcome any time before. These comeback kid Dallas Mavericks would have to pull off a comeback against history and the seemingly overwhelming Miami team. Game 3 once again mavs down in the 4th quarter but dirk with some help from Jason "the jet" Terry put this team on their backs and carried them to a hard fought victory. Series now tied 2-2. Then game 4 both teams desperately fighting for control of this series, if Miami wins it means returning to Miami up 3-2 with 2 chances to win at home and a damn near impossible task, if Dallas wins however that shifts history from being 11-0 against them to showing the mavs would be in a large favor to win. In a tied series the winner of game 5 went on the win the series over 75% of the time! The game went back and fourth neither team wanted to fall behind this battle once again came down to the 4th quarter, the finals seconds and once again thanks to ANOTHER comeback by the mavs they won game 5! Stole the series lead right out from Miami, giving them their first ever consecutive losing streak in the playoffs, the first lead of the series for the mavs, and being the first time in the entire playoffs that Miami has been down to any team they've played in the playoffs (New York, Boston, then 1 seeded Chicago). But they still got to return to the comfort of their home in Miami. Most Dallas fans felt as game 6 was a must win, win the series now no game 7 and dont give Miami any momentum. No Dallas fan wanted to know what would happen in a game 7 if Dallas couldn't win this series now and as it turns out, no one ever will. Dallas put away Miami in the finals in game 6 on their home floor just as Miami did to them 5 years ago, no magical comeback by the mavs this time, in fact they were leading all but once for a few moments in the entire second half! Dirk only had 3 in the first half but came alive in the second half and especially the 4th quarter to finsih with 21 points and help give the mavs a 105-95 win over the heat! Dirk won playoffs MVP and was able to finally get rid of that horrible horrible memory from 5 years ago! The Dallas Mavericks 2011 NBA Champions in 6 games over the Miami Heat final score of game 6 105-95 congrats to the mavs and all of its players, they truely deserved this one.
