Game 1: Miami at Dallas (June 8) The FINALS have arrived in Dallas! The Mavs went back to the regular season lineup with Adrian Griffin starting (and Devin Harris back on the bench). And Griff goes down in Mavs lore as scoring the first bucket in a Mavs Finals game (and he also scored Dallas' first basket in the 2nd half). A 3-pointer by Jason Terry (his 2nd of the game) gave Dallas a 12-8 lead with 7:35 to go. The Heat then got white hot in hitting 8 of their next 9 shots (and not all of them were inside shots). A 3-pointer by Jason Williams capped a 13-4 Miami run to give the Heat a 23-18 lead with 4:05 remaining. Dallas committed a dumb turnover after a missed free throw by Dwyane Wade and Antoine Walker nailed a 3-pointer from 3 feet behind the arc with less than 2 seconds left to give Miami a 31-23 lead after 1. Wade had 13 points including 6-7 FG in the quarter. Miami shot 14-20 FG while Dallas shot 7-21 FG (but Miami shot 1-4 FT and Dallas shot 7-8 FT). The teams traded misses to open the 2nd quarter and Walker hit another 3-pointer to give Miami their largest lead at 34-23 with 10:55 remaining. Dallas scored the next 4 points, but Miami then scored 4 points and the Heat led 38-27 with 8:10 to go. After a jumper by Josh Howard, Williams missed an ill-advised 3-pointer and Terry drove for a dunk that electrified the crowd. Shaquille O'Neal did hit a hook shot on the other end, but Terry hit a jumper and Dallas' defense forced a 24-second violation. After a timeout, a hook shot by Erick Dampier pulled Dallas within 35-40 with 5:45 left. A layup by Williams on the break gave Miami a 44-36 lead with 4 minutes to go, but that would be Miami's last points of the quarter as they missed their last 6 shots and committed 2 turnovers. Dallas took advantage of the Heat's struggles in closing the quarter with a 10-0 run, capped by a jumper by Dirk Nowitzki (only his 2nd field goal of the half) at the quarter buzzer. Jerry Stackhouse got hit on the nose by O'Neal with 2 minutes left and after shooting the free throws, Stack went to the lockerroom to get 3 stitches (and he did play in the 2nd half) - it was O'Neal's 2nd foul of the game and the Heat elected to sit him the last 2 minutes. Dallas led 46-44 at the half. Miami only shot 5-19 FG while Dallas shot 10-20 FG in out-scoring Miami 23-13 in the 2nd quarter. Terry had 20 points in the 1st half including 9-11 FG (while the rest of the team shot just 27% FG). [Wade only had 2 points (on free throws) in the 2nd quarter after his strong 1st quarter.] Wade hit a jumper 50 seconds into the 3rd quarter - his first bucket since 2:40 left in the 1st quarter - to tie the game at 46-46. 2 buckets by Griffin surrounded a floater by Howard to give Dallas a 52-46 lead with 9:45 remaining. Wade did halve Dallas' lead with a 3-pointer and a layup by O'Neal pulled Miami within 51-52 with 8:20 left. The game stayed close and a 3-pointer by Williams and 1-2 FT by Wade gave the Heat a 57-56 lead with 5:30 to go. Udonis Haslem collected his 4th foul with 5:45 remaining and sat the rest of the quarter. A 3-pointer by Nowitzki gave Dallas back the lead. Another 3-pointer by Nowitzki gave Dallas a 64-59 lead with 4:15 left (but those would actually be his last points of the game). Miami did score the next 4 points, but Dallas was able to hang on to a small lead the rest of the quarter. Dallas led 70-68 after 3. Wade had 10 points in the 3rd quarter. Miami only shot 2-9 FT in the 3rd quarter - ouch - as each team scored 24 points, but Dallas had their own ughs as the Mavs had 7 turnovers in the quarter. The teams traded 4 points to start the 4th quarter and Dallas led 74-72 with 9:35 remaining. Haslem picked up his 5th foul with 9:15 left and sat for the next 4 minutes. Terry hit a jumper and then nailed consecutive 3-pointers to give Dallas an 82-72 lead with 7:55 to go. After a Miami timeout, Terry stole the ball, but blew the uncontested bunny on the break. James Posey missed inside, but O'Neal got the rebound and and slammed the ball. After a steal by Posey, O'Neal got another dunk to pull Miami within 82-76 with 7 minutes left. The teams traded a couple of misses and Wade found Walker for a layup to pull Miami within 78-82 with 5:15 left. But that would actually be Miami's last field goal of the game. Dallas' own scoring drought continued and Wade was fouled after missing 2 layup attempts after stealing the ball in the backcourt and he hit 1-2 FT to make it a 3 point game with 4:20 remaining. 1-2 FT by Devin Harris (his only points of the game) with 3:30 left ended Dallas' almost 4 1/2 minute scoring drought. Wade missed a 3-point attempt as the shot clock was running out and Dallas pushed it the other way, but Gary Payton knocked the ball loose and Miami got possession. O'Neal fumbled the pass in to the post and banged into Terry and O'Neal was called for a loose ball foul - with Miami in the penalty, that meant 2 free throws for Terry and he hit both of them. Wade simply lost the ball driving. Nowitzki missed a quick 3-point attempt, but Dampier got the rebound and he was fouled. He hit 1-2 FT to give Dallas an 86-79 lead with 2:20 to go. Williams missed a 3-point attempt and Howard missed a 3-point attempt with 1:40 left. O'Neal missed the 7-foot turnaround hook with 1:30 left. Dallas ran the shot clock down and Stackhouse nailed the short jumper to give Dallas a 9 point lead with a minute left - and ended Dallas' almost 7 minute field goal drought. O'Neal hit 1-2 FT with 55 seconds left (his only made free throw), but Miami would not score again. The Heat did not intentionally foul and Dallas ran the clock down again. Stackhouse drove and ran into O'Neal again (the 3rd time the 2 collide with the result each time being Stackhouse on the ground) and Stackhouse hit both free throws to cap the scoring in the game (both teams missed their last shot) Dallas won 90-80 (as confetti rained down on the Mavs fans for the first time this playoffs). Dallas leads the series 1-0! It's definitely wasn't a pretty win for Dallas - Miami has to be kicking themselves for letting such a good opportunity to steal a win slip away. The Mavs never really looked sharp, but had a couple of bursts that got them back in to the game and then gave them a large enough lead that they were able to hang on for the win. Miami only shot 5-20 FG including 0-7 3-pointers in the 4th quarter and Dallas was only slightly better in shooting 6-16 FG, but hit 2 3-pointers (and made 4 more free throws). Dallas out-scored Miami 20-12 in the 4th quarter. Miami got the pace that they wanted and Dallas had very poor performances from Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard (a combined 7-28 FG), but the Heat couldn't hit the shots when it counted (0-7 FG in the last 5:15 of the game). As for the Mavs, they owe the win to the strong performance by Jason Terry - Terry shot 13-18 FG including 4-7 3-pointers and the rest of the team shot a mere 35% FG including 2-11 3-pointers. For the game, Dallas shot 44.4% (32-72) FG including 6-18 3-pointers and Miami shot 43.6% (34-78) FG including 5-20 3-pointers. Dallas shot 20-26 FT and Miami was a pathetic 7-19 FT - only Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal shot any free throws for the Heat. The 36.8% FT shooting for Miami not only shattered the Dallas opponent and Miami playoff free throw shooting lows, but also set the NBA Finals low [though not the NBA Playoff low - an astounding 6-23 FT by Philadelphia in 1960]. For the first time in the playoffs, Dallas was out-rebounded in a game. Miami out-rebounded Dallas 45-43 including 12-7 offensive (the fewest offensive boards Dallas has had in the playoffs). Dallas had 18 assists and Miami had 20 assists. Dallas had 14 turnovers and Miami had 16 turnovers. Miami did not get much help offensively from their 3 bench players as they had just 2 points (Dallas' bench had 24 points). Dallas' largest lead was 10 points and Miami's was 11 points. Game 2 is Sunday in Dallas at 8:00 pm on ABC. All hail the return of Jason Terry! Except for a strong showing in the 2nd half of game 6 against Phoenix, Terry had been having a poor playoff performance. He saved his best game thus far for the big show. No question that Dallas would not have won this game if it wasn't for Terry. He carried the team in the 1st half where he scored 20 of Dallas' 46 points and took the team home with 12 of Dallas' 20 points in the 4th quarter (amazingly, he did not attempt a shot in the 3rd quarter). Terry had a game high 32 points on 13-18 FG, 4-7 3-pointers, and 2-2 FT. I won't even criticize him for having just 1 assist - the way his teammates were shooting and the way he was shooting, he needed to shoot the ball himself. I will criticize him for having the bonehead play of the night where he simply blew the uncontested layup on the break and instead of Dallas up by 12 in the 4th, the Heat mounted a rally that made things a little more exciting than they should have been. But all 3 of Terry's steals came in the 4th quarter and he had just 1 turnover in the game and 4 rebounds. Way to go, JT! On the other hand, Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard had lousy offensive games. Both struggled mightily and it's hard to imagine Dallas winning with those 2 combining to shot a mere 7-28 FG. But they both did rebound and were active on the court. Nowitzki had 16 points including 4-14 FG. He did have 2 3-pointers in the 3rd quarter, but missed the 3 shots he attempted and did not score in the 4th quarter (and passed up a number of looks in the 2nd half and wasn't aggressive in attacking the basket throughout the game). He did have a double-double with 10 rebounds and also had 4 assists and 3 steals. But he normally follows up a bad game with a good game, so here's hoping for better things from Dirk in game 2. Josh Howard shot a mere 3-14 FG including 0-4 3-pointers (and he had been Dallas' best 3-point shooter in the playoffs), but had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. His streak of Dallas wins when he scores 20+ points is more heralded, but Dallas is also a perfect 15-0 this season when Howard has a double-double. He had 4 assists, but also had a couple of dumb turnovers as part of his team high 5 turnovers. Adrian Griffin scored the first points of the game, but also missed 2 layups he needs to make in the 1st quarter. He did score 6 points of his 8 points in the 3rd quarter and played 13 minutes. Jerry Stackhouse got beat up in the game in taking 3 hard hits from Shaquille O'Neal. 4 of his 13 points came in the last minute of the game to seal the win. He only shot 4-11 FG, though, but also had 5 rebounds and 4 assists. The blue-collar award goes to Erick Dampier and DeSagana Diop as the 2 tried to contain O'Neal. Dampier got most of the minutes against O'Neal and did a fairly good job. He even scored some and had 8 points on 3-4 FG and 2-4 FT and also had 7 rebounds including 3 offensive in 27 minutes. Damp had 3 fouls in the 1st half, but didn't pick up his 4th foul until a minute left in the game. Diop started and didn't attempt a shot in 16 minutes. He had 2 rebounds and 2 blocks, but also turned the ball over twice. Keith Van Horn had a nice bucket in his 11 minutes (and missed his other shot) and had 2 rebounds - most of his limited time came when O'Neal was not on the court. Devin Harris didn't do much in 18 minutes - he missed 3 shots, shot 1-2 FT, and had 2 assists. Marquis Daniels played 5 minutes and had 2 assists and 1 foul for his only stats. Dwyane Wade looked awesome in the 1st quarter. Thank goodness he couldn't keep it up. Wade shot 6-7 FG in the 1st quarter and 5-18 FG the rest of the game. He was only a factor in 2 quarters (13 points 1st quarter, 10 points 3rd quarter) as he had just 2 points in the 2nd quarter and 3 points in the 4th quarter (on 1-6 FG and 1-2 FT). He got to the line 10 times, but only once did he make 2 free throws, shooting a poor 6-10 FT overall. Wade did have a team high 28 points, including some pretty moves and 2 power dunks. He also had 6 rebounds including 3 offensive (2 on one play in the 4th), 6 assists, and 4 steals, but also turned the ball over 5 times. The Heat did not get the ball to Shaquille O'Neal enough times. He only shot 11 times, though Dallas' double-teaming defense did have some affect on that. He shot a strong 8-11 FG, but was absolutely terrible from the line. Officially he shot 1-9 FT (with his only make coming on his last attempt with a minute left), but he also missed 2 more free throws that were discounted due to Dallas lane violations. O'Neal had 17 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists (4 of which came in the 1st quarter). Antoine Walker had 17 points, but took a high 19 shots to get that (Dallas was glad to see him shooting). He shot 7-19 FG and 3-9 3-pointers and had 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 6 turnovers (including a few dumb ones). Jason Williams started hot in shooting 3-4 FG in the 1st quarter but only shot 2-7 FG the rest of the way. He had 12 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists (and didn't make any of his bonehead turnovers (though he did have 1 turnover)). Udonis Haslem was content to play defense on Dirk Nowitzki and rebound. He did get into some foul trouble trying to stop Nowitzki. Haslem had 4 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 fouls in 33 minutes. James Posey took over Haslem's duties when Haslem sat. Posey had 2 points (1-3 FG), 7 rebounds, and 5 fouls in 25 minutes. Gary Payton missed all 4 shots he attempted, including 3 3-pointers. He had 5 rebounds, 1 assist, and 3 steals in 19 minutes. Alonzo Mourning barely played. He missed his only shot and had 1 rebound and 1 foul in 5 minutes. Have I said lately how bad of a ref Bennett Salvatore is? You can only imagine my disgust when I saw that not only Salvatore was officiating this game, but Joey Crawford was also reffing - the 2 refs I never want to see officiate any game, much less a Finals game. It wasn't amongst their worst officiate games, but there were plenty of "what are you watching???" calls/non-calls (for and against both teams). Quotes Avery Johnson: "Well, obviously we're glad to get this game under our belt. It was a game where as we didn't get off to a great start, but we were fortunate enough to be pretty steady throughout the whole game defensively. We were fortunate that they missed some shots. This by far wasn't one of our better games, especially offensively. But, again, it's the Finals and you take them however you can get them. And, you know, we had some guys really out there battling. It's been the first time in a long time we've lost the rebound game, so we're going to have to be stronger and tougher on the boards as a team. But again, we take the win. We got something on film now that we can look at. By no means are we satisfied, because we know we're playing against a terrific team." Johnson on if the teams were feeling each other out early: "Yeah, you know, it wasn't obviously the prettiest game. And again, there are things that we wanted to do coming into this game offensively and defensively and it just didn't happen. You know, both teams had a little layoff. And so whether it's just feeling them out or a little rust on both of our parts, we know we're going to have to have a much better overall team effort as this series moves on." Johnson on Dampier and Diop defending O'Neal: "Well again, you know, we tried to get them in and out, trying to save the fouls. You know, we knew that we'd need a lot of energy from Damp - and he was close to getting a double-double tonight - and his experience and energy. But as you saw tonight, we pretty much had our whole team guarding Shaq. We've seen how he's really exploited single coverage. So, we've just got to mix it up. I think on any good player, whether we played against, you know, Gasol with Memphis or Duncan and Parker or Nash, I just think you've got to give these guys different looks. Any steady diet, they are too good." Johnson on Nowitzki: "It wasn't one of his better nights. It wasn't one of his better nights, but Dirk is a warrior. And it will be interesting to see on film tomorrow kind of how he moved and what he did. And I'm sure he's going to be happy with the win now, but I think from an individual standpoint, you didn't really see the real Dirk." Johnson on Wade: "Well, he burned us bad early. It seemed like he had 20 points in the 1st quarter. But, again, we knew all along coming into this series that multiple guys were going to take him. We've seen some other situations where a team has only used like 2 guys on him. You know, we'd like to have a minimum of 4 guys guarding him every night, because we think he's that good. And we think we have different guys that defend in different ways." Johnson on Terry: "Well, we've been asking, you know, for the real JT to come back to us. And we thought he was going to have a breakout game in game 6 against Phoenix, but he got 2 quick fouls or 3 fouls in 3 minutes and he came out, I told him he was going to play out the whole [2nd] half [against Phoenix]. He didn't have a backup and we saw the real Jason Terry. And we need this Jason Terry. This Jason Terry makes us a pretty special basketball team, because on a night like tonight, you know, when Josh and Dirk go 7-28, you need to get some offense from somewhere; which are not many nights. You know, Josh and Dirk normally don't have nights like this. But again, you know, I don't think either team necessarily played their best game. I think there's better basketball left in both of us." Johnson on defensive changes during the game: "Yeah, we had some bad rotations in the 1st half. We let Walker get away from us a little bit for a couple of open 3s. He looked like he was out there by himself and that's not normally our defense. You know, we always try to take pride in making it look like it's more than 5 guys out there and it just didn't look that way. We showed it at halftime and we thought our rotations were a little bit better in the 2nd half, but again, you know, no flawless game for us. But we did what it took to win this basketball game. For them to score 36 points in the 2nd half, when this team has been shooting 55 and 58% from the field and getting in the 100s consistently, you know, we'll take it." Dirk Nowitzki on Terry: "Yeah, that was big. Obviously in the 1st half we couldn't really get anything going and I thought he was the one that kept us in the game. He made some incredible shots. He looked aggressive, he looked comfortable, he looked in rhythm from the beginning on. I mean, he was big. I mean, me and Josh couldn't really get anything going. They played us tough, they contested our shots. And, you know, if you would have told me Josh and myself would go 7-28 and we win this game, I wouldn't have believed it. So, I mean, he was big. He carried us all night. Stack was great, attacking the rim. And obviously defensively, I thought it was a great game down the stretch." Nowitzki on defending O'Neal: "Yeah, I mean, we saw, obviously watched the Eastern Conference Finals and he was so great and so dominant there. They tried to play him 1-on-1, you know, and he got to the basket so close, jump hooks, spin moves; and then he misses, he's right back at the rim getting the offensive rebound. And you know, we try to mix it up a little bit, come a little bit, play him 1-on-1 and then come again. And just, you know, that's what you've got to do is keep great players off guard. I mean, they looked awesome early on. I thought, you know, they had everything going. Dwyane got going, Shaq had a couple turnarounds, their role players did great, made shots from all over the place. And I thought we looked frozen up a little bit at the beginning. But like I said, JET [Terry] was great and we kept mixing it up on Shaq in the 2nd half, and that was big." Nowitzki on if his game was Miami's doing or an off night: "Well, it's a little bit of both. Always when you have an off night, you got to give the defense credit. I thought they really pushed up on me, tried to deny me, tried to front me in the post, tried to get the ball out of my hands some, when I put the ball on the floor somebody was running either from my blind side from behind or from the front and just making me pass off the dribble. Still I had some good looks. I thought early on, my first 3 or 4 shots looked pretty good, and just never really found my rhythm. But, you know, like I said, JET really kept us in the game and won it for us." Nowitzki on if he stayed mostly on the outside due to Haslem: "Well, I thought we ran a couple post-up plays. And, like I said, they were fronting me and there really was no passing angle to even catch the ball in the post. Walker fronted of me, Haslem fronted of me. So I just tried to make some stuff happen where ever really on the court and be aggressive. I thought I wasn't really taking great shots there for a while, but, you know, I just had to get myself going a little bit in the 3rd quarter. But I thought really it was a defensive battle and the defense won us the game the 2nd half." Nowitzki on turnovers: "Yeah, I thought we were a little frozen up. I think this is a big stage, nobody really has been here before besides Avery and Darrell Armstrong, but he didn't even play when he was here with Orlando. So, I thought we were kind of frozen up. You know, we weren't making shots, we weren't making good plays on offense, we weren't swinging the ball, we forced some shots. And obviously that plays right in Miami's hands. If you stay on the strong side, they don't have to move and they can build a wall underneath the basket. And we just played right into their hands. I thought the 2nd quarter, we got loose a little bit, we moved the ball better. We finally got some stops which put us in transition, and that was big and got us back in the game the 2nd quarter." Nowitzki on the crowd: "It was great. I mean, I thought early on, obviously, Miami did a great job quieting them down. But when we made that run and JET just got hot there, they were awesome. You know, we've been feeding off them all season long. We won 60 games with them and took it all the way the Finals. So, you know, this organization, this franchise has never been to the Finals, so obviously they're as excited as we are to be here. And, you know, this is as much for them as it is for us. You know, we got the first one out of the way. Now we can make some adjustments, look at some film. And the crowd is going to be big on Sunday as well." Nowitzki on his poor game: "I think they boxed really well on the strong side. They made me put it on the floor. When I put it on the floor, they were coming from the blind side, get the ball out of my hands. But it was a great team effort. I thought defensively we were awesome. And Jason made shots all over the place, he carried us all game." Nowitzki on winning despite his poor game: "Well, you know, it's a team game. And we didn't win 60 games because of me. We didn't get here because of me. We play as a team, we play defensively as a team, and we rotate for each other, and we swing the ball for the open guy. And [Terry] was hot tonight." Josh Howard on if he'd believed Dallas win in a low scoring game against Miami: "Na. To be honest, na. We didn't know what to expect. We thought we was going to come out and play our style of ball, which we did. But, I think Miami jumped out on us and took the lead. But we clawed back by halftime and was able to take the lead and finish the game out in the 4th." Howard on winning despite he and Nowitzki's poor games: "Well, number 1, Stackhouse came in and gave us a good boost off the bench. And even Adrian Griffin starting the game off on Wade, slowing him down and making him take contested shots was big for us. But guys coming off the bench, of course, Damp, you know, he did a hell of a job on Shaq tonight and kept him away from the basket in the 4th quarter, and that was big for us." Howard on if having a deeper bench makes a difference in the series: "I think so. I mean, we were sending so many different guys at them, they don't really know what to do in certain situations. I mean, it's kind of hard for them. But it's hard for us on the other foot because they have guys, great role players, that are coming in making baskets. So, it's kind of even split, because you have to be ready to compete." Howard on his and Nowitzki's game: "We got our shots off, they just didn't go in. Everybody had good looks; maybe this being the first time in the Finals, is one thing I can think of." Howard on the rebounds: "When part of your game is not working, you have to go to another part, and that's what me and Dirk did." Howard: "We were kind of nervous, but at the end of the night, we found our style." Howard on the end of the 4th: "We came out and decided to lock it down. They were making a run on us." Jason Terry: "Oh, yeah, I mean, tonight I just wanted to come out aggressive, you know, be assertive on both ends of the floor. I thought as a team we got off to a slow defensive start, we picked it up in the 2nd half and we bounced back and got some stops. You know, we had a good defensive 4th quarter. On the [missed] dunk, I thought I was Wade or somebody, got a little too excited, was running a little too fast, and got ahead of myself. But I got 2 days to recover and I'll remember next time when I get on the break to just lay it up." Terry on what his teammates said after his missed layup: "Yeah, they just said, 'Stay focused', you know, 'Shake it off quick.' I kind of grabbed my knee, you know, thinking it was my knee that caught or something, but DA [Armstrong] just shook his head at me and said that wasn't the case. So, I just shook it off, man, and had to bounce back. Stay focused and keep plugging away." Terry: "I just wanted to come out and be aggressive. You know, there was no point where I ever look up at the score board. I mean, I'm just continuing to take shots. You know, they fortunately for me were falling tonight, you know, thank God. But, you know, my teammates did a great job defensively. We were able to get out in transition early and get easy baskets, especially when Miami had the lead. You know, that's what got us back into the game." Terry: "Well, I just wanted to, you know, stay aggressive and, you know, just be assertive. And I'm going to keep repeating that. That's what [Avery] wants me to do. And for my team to be successful, I have to be out there in attack mode at all times, and that's what I was able to do tonight." Terry on his quiet 3rd quarter: "Well, in the 3rd quarter, you know, we wanted to get Dirk going a little bit, you know, let him at least touch it, you know, to just see how he was feeling. But, you know, coach took me out a little early in the 3rd. I went to the bench, I just wanted to stay focused, you know, watch flow of the game. And then when I came back in, a couple quick steals here or there, you know, coach kept me involved with the play calling and my teammates were setting great screens getting me open and I was able to knock down the shots." Terry: "I don't know if my points hurt them particularly more so than our defensive effort. You know, us getting stops and coming back down on the other end and executing and making sure we got good looks at the basket, more than me individually." Terry on attending the Finals in Detroit last year (with the report mistakingly calling it Terry's hometown): "Home city is Seattle. But it felt like Detroit a little bit because I was up there just watching the Finals, seeing every game. Just soaking in the moment and the environment. You know, wishing that one day, you know, I would be able to play in a Final. And, you know, I thank God for the opportunity that I have now, and we just want to keep plugging away. Man, this is game 1 and that's all it is. No series is won in 1 game. And so in game 2, we'll come back focused, watch the film, you know, come back and put together a better defensive performance, because we still have another level to go to." Terry on his first Finals game: "Well it really is no different for me than in the regular season. Really hasn't really kicked in yet. I don't know, I was expecting, you know, to kind of be in awe of the situation. But I think Avery has done a great job of preparing us for this moment, the last year and a half. And so, you know, it's just another game. You know, the rims are still 10-feet, even though it didn't seem like that on my [missed] layup. But, you know, we just want to go out there, stay focused, execute the game plan, and see what happens." Terry on Dallas defending Wade: "I don't know, I don't know, we just want to to change it up, give them different looks. But Dwyane, as you know, is tough to stop. I mean, he's just like Kobe, McGrady, you know, all the great 1-on-1 players in our game. You know, early on it was going to be a long night for us the way he was getting to the basket, you know, making layup after layup. But, you know, credit our guys for contesting his shots and being a little more aggressive on him in the 2nd half. But, you know, it's not going to fall on one guy to try to contain him. It's going to be a team effort. And luckily tonight in the 2nd half, you know, he kind of cooled off a little bit." Terry on if he had anything to prove after poor shooting against Phoenix: "Not anything to prove. I just feel that I'm a much better shooter than, you know, than what I've shown in this year's playoffs. And you know me, it's just all about hard work and perseverance. You know, I had to persevere through those times where I wasn't, you know, making too many shots. But preparation is what got me to this point and I just want to continue to work, stay humble, and hey, let's get back to game 2 and see what happens." Terry: "Man. All the glory goes to God. Man, it was a great effort on both ends of the floors. We got off to a slow start, but we came back and fought back and closed them out." Terry on no FGA in the 3rd quarter: "Trying to get the big fella going a little bit. You know, it's a team game. You know, we wanted to spread it around. But, I was there when they needed me." Terry on holding Miami to 80 points: "Well, it just means that we got 1 win. And, you know, there's another level for us to go defensively. We just got to continue to work hard and stay focus." Jerry Stackhouse on his collision with O'Neal that bloodied his nose: "I'm still alive, you know what I'm saying. It was just a hard play. You know, I think Shaq was in there protecting the basket and protecting the lane and we were driving, trying to put pressure on their defense and just, I don't know what I hit, whether it was an elbow or whatever, but it was just a few stitches and I was ready to go back." Stackhouse on Terry: "I just think JT got looks tonight, you know. He got some good looks and he's comfortable with those shots, the shots that he's been working in practicing on. You know, from his standards and probably everybody's standards for JT now, he struggled a little bit in the Phoenix series, so he wanted to come out and make amends that this series. And I think he got himself off to a great start. And we were just, it was [something], we were moving the ball and when he caught the ball and had any daylight, he was, you know, jumping up and knocking down shots. And that's what we're going to need more of in order to continue to beat this team. You know how they're trying to play, you know, guys when they get on post, they are going to double-team, so we just have to swing the ball and continue to make shots." Stackhouse on Diop and Dampier defending O'Neal: "I think it was, I mean, those guys did a great job of trying to make Shaq catch it off as far as he could. I mean, sometimes with him being, you know, 300 some odd pounds, they're not going to keep him off the block every time. And when they do get him in a bad way, it's up to our team defense to get down there and give them some help, force rotations, and things like that. But those guys did a commendable job tonight, not only I think on the defensive end, but, you know, forcing Shaq to run back on their defensive end by putting pressure on the offense, even though they're maybe not the focal point of our offense, just getting up and down the court and making him work a little more to get back is helping our overall game." Stackhouse on Nowitzki's and Howard's struggles: "I mean, it's the Finals, man. You know, everybody's stepping up and playing. I mean, we don't worry about missed shots. You know, we know guys going to go through stretches where the ball may not fall in or go in the way they would like for them to do, but they did other things. I mean, they competed on the defensive ends. Both of them had, you know, double figure rebounds. You got to look at the whole, you know. Obviously Jason bailed us all out. You know, as a team we didn't shoot the basketball great, but, you know, Jason bailed us out. But it's a team win. We look at it as everybody that was on the floor contributed. Griff, you know, early on in the game, you know, him being able to get a few buckets here, you know, get some rebounds. Everybody contributed." Erick Dampier on O'Neal: "We stuck to the game plan. We ran him in transition and got him involved in pick-and-rolls. DeSagana gave us great minutes, and I played well." DeSagana Diop on defending O'Neal: "We just had team defense. I mean, you can never play Shaq 1-on-1. That's what we tried to do, if he catch the ball deep, come double. If he take a dribble, go deep and double. That's what we did. I think it worked out well, he only take 11 shots." Diop on Dallas' 4th quarter defense: "I mean, Avery told us in the timeout that we got to pick up our D. And, you know, we was aware of that because we don't want to lose at home. And everybody just buckled down. A lot of deflections. Made them take tough shots and get rebounds. And we was able to do that, and we're fine now." Diop on Dallas' defense on Wade in the 2nd half: "I mean, Wade, he's going to make shots. You know, that's an All-Star. He's going to take tough shots and make tough shots. I mean, we just hoping he starts missing, and that's what happened in the 4th quarter. I think he was making a lot of layups and then we started making it hard on him, make him take a lot of jumpers, stuff like that." Diop: "Damp was big defensively on Shaq in the 4th quarter. He was really big tonight." Diop on O'Neal: "He's a big man and I had a lot of help on him. We double-teamed him and we didn't let him catch it too deep." [unlike the previous coaches, Riley doesn't open with a monologue.] Pat Riley on defending Terry: "Well, I mean, we talked a lot about it. I mean, you've got to close down his air space, you've got to be very aware of where he is, and I thought there's no doubt that he kept them in the game the 1st half, you know. We had an 11 point lead and we missed, I think, 6 or 7 shots in a row to close the 2nd quarter. That really sort of hurt us and gave them a lot of confidence. But still it was 82-80 or 70 - it was a 2 point game going into the 4th quarter, and it's a fight, it's a fierce battle, that's what it is, that's what it's going to be. And with a minute and a half or 2 minutes, it goes 10, you know, we're down 10, and we've got a shot to tie it, and that was about it. So we'll come back on Sunday." Riley: "Well, we need a, you know, I liked the tempo of the game for us tonight it. It wasn't a wild up and down game. The only time it got that way is when we turned it over and we didn't get back in transition. We controlled the paint after the 1st half. We out-rebounded them. We were horrendous from the free throw line. So we need balance. Both of those guys [O'Neal and Wade] have to play well, but we need balance and we need a few more guys stepping up and making timely shots, which is how we got here." Riley on O'Neal and Dallas' defense on him: "I thought he really studied the film. I mean, he could catch the ball. There's no doubt that, you know, there were times that they 3-quarters him hard or front him. They came on on the second dribble on the real first hard dribble that looked like a threat dribble, they would come down, and the 1st half he just picked it apart. You know, we were hitting open jumpers, got layups a couple times, and so, you know, we just have to have better spacing out there. But they're tag-teaming him with Diop and Dampier and they are doing a decent job of making him work." Riley on Nowitzki's poor game and Dallas winning: "Well, they are at home and they got a great, great game out of Jason. They hit timely shots. You know, Dirk then hit a couple of 3s, you know, so it isn't whether or not a guy or 2 guys don't score. You know, this is a fight. This is what it's about. It's competitive and it's going to be ugly and sloppy at times. You have both teams going at each other hard. And then somebody gets, you know, exhales for 2 minutes, you might be down 8 or 9 points, you know, that's the way it was. And that's what happened to us in the 4th quarter." Riley on only 12 points in the 4th quarter: "Well, I mean, missing free throws and we didn't make any outside shots. All 5 baskets we got in the 4th quarter were in the paint. So we got at least a half a dozen good looks from the outside. You've got to knock down a few of those. And they did a good job. They threw a zone at us I think 3 or 4 possessions in a row and you have to attack it. We didn't do a very good job of that, so we've got to really study that and I think that's going to be part of their plan is to throw that at us, and we have to do a better job." Riley on Wade's hard falls: "He's okay. Yeah. He falls 8 times, gets up 9, I think." Shaquille O'Neal on Terry in the 4th: "He was very aggressive. You know, I thought we made too many mental mistakes. You know, we can't really leave shooters like him and Dirk open. A couple times we were just, you know, doubling just to be doubling them. You know, they moved the ball very well and they had some big shots. You know, we still had a lot of opportunities to win the games. But we made a lot of mental mistakes, a lot of silly mistakes, and we just got to go back make some adjustments. And they're just doing what they're just supposed to do and just, you know, win on their homestand and so now we just have to try and get us one on Sunday." O'Neal: "We just have to do some of the things that, you know, we were doing. You know, we were getting the ball inside and kicking it out. And, you know, we just got to play smart. You know, we were going to go back and make some adjustments and usually after we go back and make adjustments, we usually play well. You know, we have to get one up here and we're just going to try to get that one on Sunday." O'Neal on Miami's 4th quarter: "Like I said, it's a lot of silly and mental mistakes. You know, just doing things that we're not really accustomed to. You know, we had some costly turnovers. We double covered guys that we shouldn't have doubled and, you know, it was just, you know, hit big shots. And we let them get to the paint too much. You know, Jason Terry had a fabulous game and we have to try to slow him down." O'Neal on if Dallas took him away from the game: "No, I was just, you know, getting the ball to my guys. And, you know, we just have to, you know, mix it up. You know, 1st half, you know, I thought we played pretty good, except for the last 3 minutes in the 2nd quarter. So, you know, we've just got to keep doing what we've been doing - inside-out. You know, today we made a lot of mental and a lot of silly mistakes. And we can not make mistakes against a team like this." O'Neal: "I mean, they're going to double and, you know, we know we can get everybody open. And we've just got to play smart. So, you know, like I said, we're just going to go back and look at the film, see the mistakes that we made, and hopefully we don't make those mistakes on Sunday." O'Neal on his free throws: "Yeah, throughout my career, I know that if I want my team to win a championship, I have to step up to the line and hit them, and I will. And just probably just, you know, thinking about it a little too much. So, but, I mean, we still had a lot of opportunities to win a game. And, you know, on Sunday we're going to look for me to shoot a little bit better." Dwyane Wade: "I felt all right. Of course, I was tired ... trying to get my legs back. I'm going to be all right. I've got some time to rest before Sunday." Wade: "I shot the ball well. I just missed 3 layups after I stole the ball from Josh Howard." Wade: "We had our opportunities. We had it down to 3 with a chance to tie. We just didn't get it done. We came out strong, and they came back and they made their run. They made some big shots." Wade: "I'm not worried about my shots. They're going to go down. It's just one game. We've got many more to go." Antoine Walker: "Well, I think in the 2nd quarter, we had a chance to kind of, you know, to kill their confidence and we took a 10, 11 point lead. And they did a good job of battling back and obviously taking the lead before the half. But, just had too many turnovers, too many mental mistakes. We have to sharpen up a little bit. Make sure we get the ball in to Shaq a little bit more. 11 attempts isn't enough for him, even though he did a great job of passing out of the post. We got to force them to continue to double and trap him." Walker on how O'Neal gets more touches: "We have to watch film, we'll figure that out. We'll make some adjustments and try to get him the ball a little bit more. It's not necessarily try to force feed it into him. It's the situations where times in the games that, you know, down the stretch we had to get it back in to 3, 2 point game. And see if we could get the ball to him, maybe get fouled, or he'll find somebody for a wide open shot. So it's those times when we got to get the ball to him and play off him." Walker on O'Neal's free throw shooting: "He's fine. You know, I'm not worried about that. He's made so many big free throws throughout the playoffs. That's going to come with time, you know, as he continues to get more comfortable at the line, he'll be fine. You know, he's one of those guys, he can miss 9 in a row; but in the 4th quarter, you know, with 2 minutes to go, he'll step up and make 2. So I'm not worried about that at all. We got to continue to make him fight for himself." Walker: "We just got to continue to work, you know, with Dirk. Dirk is great running a lot of pick-and-rolls with them, trying to get the ball to him in every situation. But obviously, we got to pay attention to Jason Terry. His midrange game was going tonight. He's able to make some 3s. So, that's the 1-2 punch. But tonight, we was able to still keep Josh Howard down a little bit. So we just got to continue, we can't have both of them getting off. So we got to force it, if it's just trapping Jason Terry a little bit more, we got to force some other guys to beat us on the floor. So that's something obviously we can adjust to. And he played big for them tonight." Gary Payton: "Shaq didn't touch the ball nearly enough times. We didn't get him the ball, that's all. No one can stop him from getting the basketball. We'll be all right." Payton: "We've got to be better on offense. We were passive against the zone. We have to penetrate more." Payton: "I think we let one get away from us today. Like I said, we let it get away in the 2nd and the 4th quarters. We scored [13] and 12 points. That is not going to get it with this type of basketball team." Udonis Haslem on Nowitzki and Howard: "We felt if we could contain those guys, we would have a chance to win it. We did contain those guys. We just didn't finish them off when we had the 11 point lead." Haslem on Dallas' speed: "We've played against fast teams before. They're not faster than Chicago. We're going to make adjustments." Game 1: Dallas Mavericks 90, Miami Heat 80 at Dallas (June 8) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 23 23 24 20 - 90 .481 .333 .444 .769 Miami 31 13 24 12 - 80 .500 .250 .436 .368 Halftime: Dallas 46-44 3rd Q: Dallas 70-68 Technicals: none Refs: Bennett Salvatore, Joey Crawford, Joe Derosa Attendance: 20,475 (sellout) IL: DJ Mbenga (Dal, suspended), Wayne Simien (Mia) Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Josh Howard 44 3-14 0-4 4-6 10 0-12 4 5 4 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 39 4-14 2-4 6-6 16 2-10 4 2 2 3 0 DeSagana Diop 16 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1-2 0 2 2 1 2 Jason Terry 37 13-18 4-7 2-2 32 0-4 1 1 2 3 0 Adrian Griffin 13 4-6 0-0 0-0 8 1-1 1 0 1 1 0 Erick Dampier 27 3-4 0-0 2-4 8 3-7 0 0 4 0 0 Jerry Stackhouse 29 4-11 0-2 5-6 13 0-5 4 3 1 0 1 Devin Harris 18 0-3 0-1 1-2 1 0-0 2 1 1 0 0 Keith Van_Horn 11 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-2 0 0 0 0 0 Marquis Daniels 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 2 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 32-72 6-18 20-26 90 7-43 18 14 18 9 3 Miami Heat REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Antoine Walker 42 7-19 3-9 0-0 17 0-6 4 6 3 1 0 Udonis Haslem 33 2-4 0-0 0-0 4 3-9 0 1 5 0 0 Shaquille O'Neal 38 8-11 0-0 1-9 17 3-7 5 2 4 0 0 Dwyane Wade 43 11-25 0-2 6-10 28 3-6 6 5 4 4 1 Jason Williams 34 5-11 2-5 0-0 12 0-4 4 1 3 1 0 Gary Payton 19 0-4 0-3 0-0 0 2-5 1 0 0 3 0 Alonzo Mourning 5 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 1 0 0 James Posey 25 1-3 0-1 0-0 2 1-7 0 0 5 1 0 Totals 48 34-78 5-20 7-19 80 12-45 20 16 25 10 1 patricia Go Mavs!