Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert

About 15 minutes after the Dallas Mavericks defeated LeBronJames and the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the 2011 NBA Finals, Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert sent a message on his Twitter page to Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, a statement that included a shot at LeBron.

“Congrats to Mark C.& entire Mavs org.,” Gilbert wrote. “Mavs NEVER stopped & now entire franchise gets rings. Old Lesson for all: There are NO SHORTCUTS. NONE.”

Obviously, Gilbert is still steaming over what transpired last summer when James left the Cavaliers and joined his good friends Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. Gilbert accused James of quitting in the playoffs the past two seasons and, moments after LeBron made The Decision to take his talents to South Beach on ESPN, the Cavs owner promised that karma would prevent James from winning a championship and predicted his Cavaliers would win their first title before “the self-proclaimed King” won one.

He can thank the Mavericks for keeping the “Curse of White Man from Town” alive. But Gilbert wasn’t the only one who posted a message on Twitter shortly after the Mavs defeated the Heat in Game 6.

Former Cavaliers guard Mo Williams, who was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers in February, said the Mavericks’ victory has helped ease some of his pain. Williams wrote: “Dallas just healed my HEART.”

Mavericks guard Jason Terry is ready for takeoff, especially in the fourth quarter. (GETTY IMAGES)

TNT’s Kenny “The Jet” Smith has said on more than one occasion that Jason Terry got his “Jet” nickname not because of his game, but because it stood for his full name: Jason Eugene Terry.

After Terry’s performance in the 2011 NBA Finals, Smith may have to revisit his little jab at the Mavericks guard. And Terry may have picked up a new nickname as well: The Closer.

When Mavericks franchise player Dirk Nowitzki struggled in the early part of Game 6 in Miami, it was Terry who shouldered the load with 19 points in the first half. Once Nowitzki regained his shooting touch, the Mavericks took off and shot their way to a 105-95 victory to claim the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

It was Dallas’ first championship as an NBA franchise, and although Nowitzki was named MVP of The Finals, it was Terry who complemented Dirk and took some pressure off him when it mattered most – the fourth quarter.

“That’s my job. All season long and every since I’ve been a Maverick I’ve been a guy that in the fourth quarter they’ve depended on either make plays or make shots,” Terry said. “I really relish in that role, and regardless of what’s going on for three quarters of the game in the fourth quarter I know I’m depended on to come through.”

Nowitzki was absolutely magnificent down the stretch in each of the games. He scored 62 points in the fourth quarter in the six games, tying the combined total for Dwyane Wade (44) and LeBron James (18). But right behind Wade in fourth-quarter scoring is Terry with 31.

“He was unbelievable,” Nowitzki said of Terry, who finished with a game-high 27 points in the series-clinching Game 6. “He watched me struggle early and he took it upon himself to really attack and look for his shot, and get going early. Oh man, he kept coming all night long and he was phenomenal.”

Nowitzki added, “On one timeout, he kept pushing me and kept telling me, ‘Remember ’06! Let’s not let it happen again.’ ”

In the games the Mavericks lost in the 2011 Finals, Terry was shutout in the fourth and was ineffective. In the games the Mavs won, Terry was a total play-maker and made big-time shots, especially in the pivotal Game 5 in Dallas.

There was a stretch in the final two minutes of the game in which Terry carried the Mavs. When the Mavs went down 100-97, Terry buried a 3-pointer to tie the game at 100. On the next Mavs possession, he found Nowitzki on the baseline for a dunk to give Dallas the lead. Then, with 1:33 remaining, he drove to the basket, blew past LeBron, drew three defenders and kicked the ball out to Jason Kidd for a 3-pointer to build the lead to five. He delivered the dagger shot when he drilled a three from the American Airlines Center logo right in the face of LeBron to give Dallas a 108-101 lead with 33 seconds left in the game.

“During periods where Dirk was out of the game, we were going to him and he was delivering,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said of Terry after Game 5. “It’s the total game that we’ve all been preaching to Jet really since the playoffs began.”

When the season began, Terry inked a tattoo of the Larry O’Brien Trophy on his right bicep. It was bold and very brash move for someone who has only been to the NBA Finals once in his career. When Terry was asked what he would do if the Mavs don’t win the NBA title, he said he’d remove the tattoo. Fortunately for Terry and the Mavs, that won’t be necessary.

Dirk Nowitzki was not amused by the stunt Dwyane Wade and LeBron James pulled prior to Game 5 of the 2011 NBA Finals. (US PRESSWIRE)

Dirk Nowitzki saw the video of Dwyane Wade and his buddy LeBron James mocking him before a Miami Heat shoot-around and the Mavericks star didn’t find the whole bit amusing. In fact, Nowitzki was a little offended.

During Saturday’s news conference, the Mavericks All-Star said Wade and James were “childish” and “ignorant” to mock his illness, although he didn’t say that it would add more motivation for him. “I’ve been in this league for 13 years. I’ve never faked an injury or an illness before,” Nowitzki told reporters.

“It happened. It’s over to me,” he said. “It’s not going to add anything extra to me. This is the NBA Finals. If you need an extra motivation at this time of year then you have a problem. We’re one win away from my dream, what I’ve worked on for half of my life.”

In the video, Wade and James appear to be faking a cough and covering their mouths when cameras were following them as they left Dallas’ American Airlines Center. Both Heat stars claim they were joking, but it was an obvious shot at Dirk who suffered through a bad sinus infection after Game 4.

“First of all, it wasn’t fake coughing,” Wade said. “I actually did cough. And with the cameras being right there, we made a joke out of it because we knew you guys were going to blow it up. You did exactly what we knew. We never said Dirk’s name. I think he’s not the only one in the world who can get sick or have a cough. We just had fun with the cameras being right in our face about the blowup of the incident, and it held to be true. You blew it up.”

James, on the other hand, avoided the whole issue. “I’m not feeding into that,” he said. “If you guys want to feed into everything that not only myself or D-Wade or the Miami Heat do, I think that’s a non-issue. There’s bigger issues in this series than that.”

James is right about one thing. There are bigger issues in this series than pretending to be sick. However, anything Wade and LeBron do on and off the court will be scrutinized, whether it’s real or not. And why add more fuel to the Mavericks’ fire? Though Nowitzki said he has already moved on, you know deep down he is steaming over this and will be extra fired up for Game 6. Any great athlete is always looking for an edge, and in the end the joke may be on Wade and LeBron.

LeBron James (middle) can't hide from all the criticism for his poor play in crunch time in the 2011 NBA Finals. (GETTY IMAGES)

When a reporter called him out after Game 3 for “shrinking” in the fourth quarter and not playing like a true NBA superstar, LeBron James responded by saying he’s a two-way player and you can’t look at the stat sheet as the barometer for his overall game. Then James told the same reporter to ask a better question next time.

Well, if I’m CBS Sports reporter Greg Doyel, I’d ask LeBron the same exact question after Game 4, a game in which the self-proclaimed king and two-time NBA MVP posted the worst offensive performance of his playoff career.

James made just three of 11 shots from the field and scored eight points – the first time he has been held under 10 in 90 postseason games  – and none in the all-important fourth quarter. ZERO points in the final 12 minutes of a game in the NBA Finals from the man who was supposed to claim the basketball throne vacated by Michael Jordan and rented by Kobe Bryant is absolutely unacceptable. Not exactly the way you respond after being challenged by a scribe.

Dirk Nowitzki didn’t have a good shooting night but he found a way to score 21 points, including a huge layup with 14.4 seconds left, despite being slowed by a sinus infection. What’s LeBron’s excuse? Is he afraid to fail? Is the pressure of the NBA Finals too much for him? Does he have what it takes to be a champion? These questions linger as long as LeBron keeps coming up short in the big moments.

One thing is for certain. LeBron’s decision to come to Miami and join forces with Dwyane Wade was a clear admission on LeBron’s part that he can’t lead a team to a championship. He needed someone to hold his hand and lead him through the dark.

And the way he’s been performing in the NBA Finals, forget about wearing Robin’s cape. LeBron is playing more like Alfred the Butler.

Even former NBA players are doubting him.

“I don’t mind zero points, but you have to give more of an effort and I did not like his body language,” former Heat star Steve Smith said about James who looked almost lost and disengaged in the fourth quarter of Game 4 when the Wade and the Heat needed him most, something three-time NBA champion and newly minted Houston Rockets coach Kevin McHale noticed as well. “Inexplicably, LeBron was really passive. I mean he was unbelievably passive. He’s too good to have eight points. He took 11 shots and just wasn’t aggressive,” McHale said.

Former NBA player Brent Barry, who now works for NBA TV, said James “wasn’t the reason why the Heat lost [in Game 4], but he was the reason why the Heat didn’t win.”

In four fourth quarters in the NBA Finals against the Mavericks, LeBron has scored a total of nine points. Nine points! He’s getting outplayed by role players Mario Chalmers and Udonis Haslem late in games, and neither one is near LeBron’s caliber in terms of basketball ability. Since Game 1 when he led the Heat in scoring with 24 points, LeBron’s point total has fallen like the stock market: 20, 17, 8.

Let’s get real. If LeBron James played at Dwyane Wade’s level, this series would be over by now.

Wade scored a game-high 32 points in Game 4, but he got a little sloppy at the end with a missed free throw and dropped the ball on the Heat’s final possession because he was fatigued from having to carry LeBron for four quarters and Chris Bosh for two quarters. With an ineffective James and a very shaky Bosh (who was 1-for-7 in the second half), the Mavericks rallied in the fourth quarter and won, 86-83, tying the series at 2.

“I definitely didn’t play great offensively,” James said during his postgame news conference after Game 4. “I gotta do a better job of being more assertive offensively, and not staying out of rhythm offensively the whole game. One thing I try to concentrate is if I get two guys on me I try to get my teammates better and get them some great looks. But at the same time I gotta keep myself in rhythm while I’m doing that as well.”

When LeBron was asked how he’s going to fix his shooting stroke and bust out of his slump, he gave this excuse: “With these games every other day there’s not much gym time. If I feel like I need to come to gym to get some extra shots I will. Absolutely. I’m confident in my ability. It’s just going out there and knocking them down. When you have an opportunity to gotta knock them down. My teammates give me the confidence. They have given me the confidence all postseason, all year.”

OK, LeBron. Keep telling yourself you’re still confident in your shot. But from the looks of it, you need to find time and make the necessary adjustment to correct your stroke because Wade and Co. need more than just eight points from a guy who averages almost 27 points per game. Find a custodian (and I’m not talking about Brian Cardinal), ask for the keys to the gym and starting shooting jumpers until your arm gets numb. That’s what Jordan will do, that’s what Kobe will do, and that’s what your teammate D-Wade will do. That’s what superstars do.

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter at: twitter.com/onemanfastbreak.

Dwyane Wade is the biggest reason why the Heat are up 2-1 on the Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals. (US PRESSWIRE)

Every great team has a pecking order. For the Miami Heat, it goes something like this: it’s Dwyane Wade first, LeBron James second, and Chris Bosh third. Everyone else falls in the back of the line.

That was evident in Game 3 of the 2011 NBA Finals when Wade decided to take the lead and everyone else should follow him. And they all did, including LeBron and Bosh.

The Heat won Game 3 because of Wade. Not LeBron. Not Bosh. It was Wade. He carried the Heat offensively when things got tense, he grabbed every rebound within his reach, he played aggressive defense, and he motivated his teammates – mainly James and Bosh – by getting in their face and letting them know what is at stake. History has shown that when a series is tied in The Finals the winner of Game 3 usually wins the series. Wade knew the importance of Sunday’s game in Dallas so he sent his message on Saturday by going extra hard in practice. His teammates definitely noticed.

“They can tell I wanted this game,” said Wade, who finished with a team-high 29 points on 12-of-21 field goals and had 11 rebounds. “I’ve been here before so I’m just trying to lead, and my guys did a great job of following that lead.”

With Wade leading the way, the Heat were able to hold off Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks and reclaim home-court advantage in the series. If the Finals MVP was handed out after three games, Wade easily wins it. He has been the Heat’s best player in all three games, and his only competition for MVP is Nowitzki.

“He played spectacular basketball today,” Bosh said of Wade. “He took all good shots, and we kinda rode that wave for a little while. He really set the tone for us.”

There was a point during the game when ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy mentioned that Wade was playing at a different speed than anyone else. He was. After dropping a heart-breaker in Game 2, the Heat needed one of their Big Three to step up and play like a superstar and Wade embraced the moment and took on that challenge.

“We felt this was a must-win and we had to put it upon ourselves to take back home court in a sense, by any means necessary,” said Wade. “I took it upon myself as a leader to try to lead my guys by example.”

When asked about his animated conversations with James and Bosh during the game, Wade said: “Them guys understand. They know me. The things said was all for the better of the team. It’s all about winning. I want it. And LeBron knew that. Things that I was saying to him and saying to Chris was the same they would say to me. We have enough respect for each other, but at the same time I wanted it.”

While Wade was busy putting his entire team on his shoulders and matching Nowitzki shot-for-shot late in the game, LeBron – who only had 17 points and was a nonfactor in the fourth quarter – sort of disappeared. During the postgame conference, a reporter brought up the fact that LeBron hasn’t played like a superstar in each of the fourth quarters in the NBA Finals, even suggesting that the self-proclaimed king is “shrinking” on the game’s biggest stage.

Obviously bothered by the question, LeBron gave a very terse response. “I think you’re concentrating on just one side of the floor, and all you’re looking at are the stat sheet,” James said. “Honestly, I’m a two-way player. Tonight D-Wade had it going offensively so we allow him to handle ball and we allow him to bring us home offensively. You can watch the film again and see what I did defensively. You ask me a better question tomorrow.”

As for getting an getting an earful from his buddy Wade, LeBron said: “We’re teammates. There is no room to hold anything back. Our friendship allows us to don’t care about that moment. In that situation, he had to say what he had to say to me and as a competitor you love when guys challenge you. He challenged me in the locker room at halftime, he challenged me on the court and as a competitor I respect him.”

And what exactly was said? “It’s about winning,” said the captain of the Miami Heat. In case you don’t know who that is, he’s the one introduced last when the starting lineup of the Heat are announced and he’s the one wearing the championship ring.

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter at: twitter.com/onemanfastbreak.

Dirk Nowitzki is four victories away from finally winning that elusive NBA championship ring. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

For the majority of Dirk Nowitzki’s career, he’s been labeled soft. Why? Just look at his body of work. There’s nothing about him that looks imposing or intimidating.

He is a 7-footer who prefers to play away from the basket and settle for jump shots rather than drive in for power dunks. He goes down faster than Michael Spinks on the first sign of physical contact, and he doesn’t seem interested in pushing back. And when Nowitzki goes to his patented fadeaway jumpers, he looks like a baby horse trying to walk for the first time and is about as graceful as Master P in “Dancing With the Stars.”

What compounds matters is the fact that Nowitzki experienced two epic failures in the NBA playoffs: blowing a 2-0 lead in the 2006 NBA Finals and getting knocked out by eighth-seeded Golden State in the first round of the 2007 Western Conference playoffs. It wasn’t because he lost in the postseason, it was the way he lost. Both times Nowitzki and Mavs were bullied physically and they folded like tents. Those two major collapses, more than anything else, have defined Nowitzki’s career so far, and the only way he can erase them is to win an NBA title.

“The year after went to The Finals, we won 70 games and then we ran into a hot team that was a bad matchup for us. Next thing you know, you’re a first-round exit,” Nowitzki said. “In this league, you never know. It took a long five years to finally get back to this stage. It’s good to be back and hopefully we can make the most out of it.”

Nowitzki added: “A lot has been made about my legacy. I’m not worried about all that. I’m trying to be on the best team; I trying to win for this organization, for the owner, for myself and for the team. That’s really all I’m worried about. I’m not worried about my legacy without a ring, or with the ring. I live in the moment.”

Dirk may say he’s not worried about his basketball legacy, but let’sget real here. Any NBA player who strives to be the best is absolutely concerned about his legacy. It’s all about the ring, and that’s the reason why Dirk is still pushing himself because he’s still chasing that elusive ring. It’s the very reason why he has elevated his game to new heights this season – his 13^th in the NBA – and has gotten better as a vocal leader and playoff performer.

Heat guard Dwyane Wade, the MVP of the 2006 Finals, has been impressed with Nowitzki’s evolution as a player during the past five years especially the way the Mavericks star has risen to the occasion when it matters most.

“I thought he was good then. Now he’s phenomenal,” Wade said of Nowitzki, who is 10-0 against the Heat in the regular season since the 2006 Finals.

“Obviously, his shot-making ability, it’s one of the best this league has seen. What he has gotten better at is taking over games in the fourth quarter,” Wade said. “What’s phenomenal is he’s very efficient. You’ll see a game with Dirk when he’s 8-for-14, but it seems like he’s taking more shots. He just makes big shots. I think he’s a smarter player, I think he’s a hungrier player and even more efficient player than he was in ’06.”

Nowitzki has carried the Mavs back to the NBA Finals with a postseason comparable to the game’s greats. In 15 playoff games in 2011, Nowitzki averaged 28 points, 7.5 rebounds and shot 51% percent from the field and from 3-point range. Nothing “soft” about those numbers.

His two 40-point games in the conference finals against the Thunder was stuff of legends. He saved his best in the fourth quarter of Game 4 in Oklahoma City when his team was down by 15 with under three minutes left. He swished 3-pointers, dropped off-balance fadeaway jumpers even with Nick Collison draped all over him and buried crucial free throws. Simply, he refused to lose that game and he willed his team to victory.

Nowitzki is a man on a mission and now standing in his way are Wade and the Miami Heat, the team that basically slapped the “soft” label on his face. What better way to conquer demons than face the devilishly good and red-hot Heat.

“We have another chance and I’m going for it,” Nowitzki said. “Everything after that will fall into place. Next couple of years we can talk about my legacy when my career is over. But I’m really just focusing on winning and being on the best team.”

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter at: twitter.com/onemanfastbreak.