NBA Finals Game 2: Dallas at Miami (June 2) Both teams were scoring early and a 3-pointer by Jason Kidd gave Dallas a 12-6 lead with 7:50 left, but Mike Bibby answered with a 3 and Miami went on a 7-1 mini-run to give the Heat a 16-13 lead with 5:20 remaining. The game would stay close with 4 points being the largest lead the rest of the quarter. LeBron James swished a 3-pointer late in the shot clock, but J.J. Barea drove for 2 and it was all tied up at 28-28 after 1. It was a much better (and more entertaining) performance by both teams to open the game as both shot more that 50% FG. Dallas shot 10-19 FG including 3-4 3-pointers and Miami shot 12-21 FG and 4-9 3-pointers. Dallas had a big advantage at the line in shooting 5-6 FT while Miami did not get to the line. It was a little sloppy at times as Dallas had 4 turnovers and Miami had 3 turnovers. Dallas had 7 players score and Miami had 5 players score. Dallas was attacking the basket early and Jason Terry stole the ball and got a breakaway layup to give Dallas a 38-32 lead with 9:10 remaining and Dallas would hold a small lead over the next 5 minutes. After Dwyane Wade missed on a break (with the refs not calling a foul on Tyson Chandler and Wade complaining to the ref instead of getting back), Dallas pushed the ball the other way and Shawn Marion got a dunk to give Dallas their largest lead at 51-42 with 3 minutes to go and Miami called timeout. But it then became a parade to the free throw line for Miami (with Dallas in the penalty) as they would score the next 6 points from the line (with 2 missed free throws thrown in) and Wade nailed a 3-pointer with 25 seconds left to tie the game at 51-51 while Dallas missed their last 4 shots of the quarter. Both teams had 23 points in the 2nd quarter and continued to shoot well (though not behind the arc where both shot 1-5 3-pointers). Dallas shot 8-18 FG and 6-7 FT and Miami shot 8-17 FG and 6-11 FT (missing their first 3 free throws attempted). Wade had over half of Miami's 2nd quarter points with 13 in the quarter including 5-7 FG, while Dallas again had balanced scoring with 6 players scoring. Miami continued to roll and opened the 3rd quarter with a 6-1 mini-run to take a 57-52 lead with 9:40 to go. A postup and hook shot by Marion gave Dallas their first bucket of the 3rd quarter and pulled Dallas within 54-57 with 8:40 left and the game stayed close with Miami this time holding a small lead over the next 5 minutes. A 3-pointer by Bibby (his 4th 3 of the game) gave Miami an 8 point lead and 2-4 FT shooting by Wade complete 7 straight Miami points to give the Heat the first double-digit lead of the game at 71-61 with 3 minutes to go. But Dallas re-found their scoring touch and scored the next 6 points. James drove for the highlight skying one-hand slam with 20 seconds left, but Terry answered with a fade away jumper to cap the quarter scoring. Miami led 75-71 after 3. Miami out-scored Dallas 24-20 in the 3rd quarter in shooting 9-17 FG including 2-5 3-pointers while Dallas shot 8-17 FG and missed 3 3-pointers. Miami shot 4-7 FT and Dallas shot 4-6 FT. Dallas had 6 turnovers in the 3rd quarter on which Miami scored 12 points, while Miami had 2 turnovers on which Dallas scored 4 points. So after a tight 3 quarters, it was going to come down to the 4th quarter. Both teams threw up blanks to open the 4th. Brendan Haywood left the game a minute into the quarter with a strained hip flexor and did not return. A putback shot by Marion pulled Dallas within 73-75 with 11 minutes remaining. But after the teams traded turnovers, Wade got a dunk on a break to get Miami rolling with 13 straight points, capped by a corner 3-pointer by Wade (in front of Dallas' bench and some chest thumping with James after the bucket), to give the Heat an 88-73 lead with 7:15 left and Dallas called timeout. Game over? Not with these Mavs - though you wouldn't know it as Dallas missed on 2 attempts coming out of the timeout, but Wade missed a 3-point attempt on the other end. During Miami's run, Dallas went with a small 3-guard lineup [with Chandler needing some rest, according to coach Carlisle after the game], but went back to their standard 4th quarter lineup (Dirk Nowitzki, Terry, Kidd, Marion, Chandler) coming out of the timeout and stayed with that lineup the rest of the game. Terry nailed an open baseliner with 6:15 left. After Mario Chalmers missed a 3, Kidd passed ahead to Terry for the layup to pull Dallas within 77-88 with 5:45 to go and Miami called timeout. James drove and missed and Terry was fouled at the other end and hit both free throws with 5:20 remaining. Chris Bosh missed a long shot late in the shot clock on one end and Marion drove for 2 late in the shot clock on the other end to pull Dallas within 81-88 with 4:30 left. James was fouled and hit both free throws with 4:10 to go to end Miami's 2:45 scoring drought. But Dallas continued to roll as Kidd nailed an open 3-pointer. James missed a step-back jumper (again late in the clock). Terry drove and hit the pullup 10-footer to make it a 4 point game at 86-90 with 3:10 left and Miami again called timeout. Bosh fumbled the ball out of bounds driving and Nowitzki saw daylight (Miami had been doubling him) and hit the quick 18-foot jumper with 2:45 to go. Udonis Haslem missed a free throw jumper. James blocked Nowitzki late in the shot clock and Miami eventually got control of the ball with 2 minutes left [Dallas had hit 6 straight shots before the block]. James missed a 3-point attempt at the shot clock buzzer, but Wade tipped the ball outside to give Miami another possession. Again with the clock running down, James missed another 3-point attempt (with some of his teammates passing up shots) and Haslem got the rebound, but threw the ball up and out as he was heading out of bounds and Marion was able to tap the airborn ball to Marion and Dallas ran a 3-on-1 and Terry passed to Marion who passed to Nowitzki for the layup to tie the game at 90-90 with a minute remaining and Miami called timeout. Wade missed a 3 (with 7 seconds left on the shot clock). Terry passed the ball to Nowitzki (with Chandler setting a nice screen) and Nowitzki nailed a 3-pointer to give Dallas the lead with 27 seconds left and Miami called their last timeout. Before the inbounds, Kidd lagged behind a curling Wade and Terry stepped towards Wade which left Chalmers wide open in the corner and James made the nice long inbounds pass to Chalmers and he drained the 3 to tie the game with 25 seconds to go [it was Miami's first basket in 6:45]. And Dallas used their last timeout. Kidd held the ball and ran some time off the clock and got the ball to Nowitzki with about 10 seconds left. Nowitzki made his move and then spun left and drove for the sweet lefty layup to give Dallas the lead with 3.6 seconds remaining. Out of timeouts, James passed to Wade and Wade's long running 3-pointer hit the back of the rim and that was game. Dallas won 95-93. The series is tied 1-1. Wow! It was yet another 4th quarter comeback for Dallas. After Miami went up by 15 with 7:15 left, Dallas closed the game with a 22-5 monster run. During the run, Dallas shot 9-10 FG and Miami shot 1-10 FG - and Dallas out-rebounded Miami 7-2. Give Dallas credit for executing down the stretch and playing some nice defense - but Miami also deserves credit for not getting good looks and almost every shot of theirs down the stretch was late in the shot clock. It was an exciting win for Dallas and the team got the split in Miami that they wanted and now needs to take care of their homecourt, while Miami has to win in Dallas. It was Miami's first home loss of the playoffs. All the focus is now on Game 3. For the stats of this game, Dallas shot 48% (36-75) FG including 6-17 3-pointers and Miami shot 46.6% (34-73) FG including 9-30 3-pointers - again a surprise that Miami made more 3-pointers than Dallas, though also surprising that Miami shot 30 3s - probably one of the reasons Dallas had a 40-36 points-in-the-paint edge. Miami actually shot more free throws than Dallas, but the Mavs made 1 more free throw as the line was not friendly to the Heat. Dallas shot 17-21 FT and Miami shot 16-24 FT. Dallas won despite giving up a very high 20 turnovers on which Miami took full advantage and scored 31 points. Miami had 12 turnovers on which Dallas scored 15 points. Dallas did get their Game 1 rebounding problems under control and out-rebounded Miami 41-30 including 30-6 offensive. Dallas had 18 assists and Miami had just 13 assists. All hail Dirk! Injured finger? What injured finger - his game winner was a lefty layup. Nowitzki played with a small splint on his left middle finger (which has a torn tendon), yet he scored Dallas' last 9 points of the game. And it wasn't just a one-man show as Nowitzki had a nice game but not a stellar game. He had a double-double (showing more of an effort to get rebounds than he has in recent games) with 24 points and 11 rebounds. He did have 5 turnovers, but he wasn't the only Mav to fumble the ball in this game, and did have 4 assists. Shawn Marion again played well, both offensively and defensively as guarding Dwyane Wade and LeBron James was part of his responsibilities. He also had a couple of key offensive rebounds to give Dallas some 2nd chance points. Marion had 20 points including 9-14 FG and 8 rebounds. 8 of Jason Terry's 16 points came during Dallas' 4th quarter run and he also had an assist and hockey assist (pass to Marion who passed to Nowitzki for the layup) during the 22-5 run. That made up for the poor game Terry had been having (he had shot just 2-8 FG before the run). Terry was playing with a bone bruise on his right wrist, suffered late in Game 1. Jason Kidd only shot 2-7 FG (including 2-5 3-pointers), but one of the 3s came during the run (as Nowitzki, Terry, and Kidd scored all 22 Mavs points). Kidd had 6 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists, but was one of the butterfingers with 5 turnovers (and some of them were simply sloppy turnovers). And Tyson Chandler manned the middle during the run and set a very good screen that gave Nowitzki an open 3 that gave Dallas a lead late in the game. Chandler had 13 points and 7 rebounds. DeShawn Stevenson was on the court for his defense (the other defender for Wade and LeBron) and contributed 9 points - all on 3s as he shot 3-5 3-pointers and missed his only 2-point attempt and had 3 rebounds and 3 steals in 22 minutes. J.J. Barea contributed 5 points including 2-7 FG - both makes came in the paint and he missed his 3 3-point attempts. Barea also had 3 rebounds in 14 minutes. Brendan Haywood's health remains a concern as he left the game a minute into the 4th quarter and headed straight to the locker room. He has a strained right hip flexor, but the Mavs currently say he'll play in Game 3. Haywood had 2 points and no rebounds in 8 minutes. Peja Stojakovic again struggled and had 1 turnover for his only stat in 5 1st half minutes. He played so poorly that Rick Carlisle even tried playing Brian Cardinal (instead of bringing in Stojakovic) midway through the 3rd quarter. Cardinal didn't do much as that experiment only lasted a minute and Cardinal had a foul for his only stat. It was the Big 2 this night instead of the Big 3 as Chris Bosh had a poor outing. Dwyane Wade and LeBron James played well until the end of the game as both missed their last 3 shots (during Dallas' 22-5 run). Wade had a game high 36 points on 13-20 FG and 8-12 FT and also had 5 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 blocks. James had 20 points including 8-15 FG, 8 rebounds, and 4 steals, but also had 5 turnovers. Not only did Bosh have a poor offensive outing, he was the defender on Nowitzki for the game winner. Bosh had 12 points including just 4-16 FG. He also had 8 rebounds. After a poor Game 1, Mike Bibby found his stroke and made Dallas pay in leaving to double-team James or Wade as Bibby hit 4-7 3-pointers (and 1-1 2-pointers) for 14 points. But he did not have an assist and is their starting point guard. Bibby also had 4 steals. Joel Anthony was out there for defense and it show in that he did not attempt a shot in 27 minutes and just had 1 rebound - but did have 3 blocks. Mario Chalmers had 9 points (but was 0-5 on 3-pointers before his game tying 3 late in the game) in 25 minutes off the bench. Udonis Haslem, also out there for his defense, had just 2 points on 1-3 FG and 3 rebounds in 29 minutes. And Mike Miller missed the 3 3s he attempted (his only shots) and had 4 rebounds in 15 minutes. That's just 11 points including 4-14 FG from Miami's bench after they had 27 points including 8-22 FG in Game 1. [Okay, I have the last 7 minutes of the game running for the 3rd time while I write this and, yet again, I let out a whoop and laugh at Dirk's 3 and have a big grin on my face. And did a "Noooo!" with Chalmers 3. And a "DIIIIRK!" for the game winner.] Quotes Rick Carlisle on going small during the 4th: "We needed to get some stops. That was the biggest thing. The small lineup, we needed to get Tyson a couple of minutes rest, just because Haywood got injured. It was an awful long stretch for Tyson to play. And then when he came back in, we were able to get some traction defensively. And we're down 15, I thought the key was we came out of timeout, went on a 4-0 run and then immediately were able to establish something defensively, and it had been hard the whole game." Carlisle on what was said during the timeout after getting down by 15: "Hang out. Hang around. Keep believing. This team has been through some difficult situations. We've been down big a couple of times in the playoffs. We have shown that we have the ability to come back and the guys believe that if we get stops, we'll always give ourselves a chance. It wasn't going to happen unless we got stops." Carlisle on if his technical inspired his team: "It seemed to inspire the referees. Look, I'm not going to get into a big thing about the officiating. I stand up for my guys. If I think things are going on out there that aren't fair, I'm going to fight for them. That's just how I do business. If you get a technical once in a while, you get a technical once in a while. But that was a long time ago now." Carlisle on Marion: "He was great. Look, we need him on the floor because of his defense. Offensively he's given us points and play making. And his movement on the court makes a lot of good things happen for us. So, you know, he's really important to us. We've got 12 guys we rely on. We went 10 deep tonight. Pending Haywood's situation, we'll probably have to go deeper." Carlisle on what was said before Dallas' run: "Just hang in. Let's get some stops. Let's give ourselves a chance. Let's put some pressure on them. We really hadn't put any pressure on them at all in 2 games to speak of. It's hard because they put you in a lot of tough situations. They have a lot of breath taking ability out there on the court. But by being solid and getting a couple of stops and scoring, we got some momentum, and it worked out." Carlisle on when he thought the Mavs might actually comeback: "5 minutes is a long time. It's a long time. It can be up to I don't know how many possessions. But if you're getting stops and scores, you can make up ground in a hurry. The key thing is to understand that there's no 6-point plays. You're going to have to do it one step at a time, with a stop and then a good shot and then hopefully a score and then a stop. You know, we were able to do that in a championship series, you have to have some good fortune along with playing hard and giving yourself a chance. I thought we missed a lot of good shots again, and we were due to get on a roll, if we could get some stops. And we were able to do that." Carlisle on late in the game: "We were trying to stay solid. James and Wade, they're 2 of the best facilitators ever and they're terrific players. They're going to make it tough. Look, at that point we want to stay in front of them, get a hand up, and hope they missed. They missed a couple of shots and it allowed us to keep our momentum going." Carlisle on each team having large runs: "It can happen. There's 2 good defensive teams that also have great shot making abilities. So you can see some runs. Look, this was not a conventional game. We all know that. If you're going to win a championship, you've got to have the wherewithal to hang in when things are tough. You have to keep believing. All year our guys have believed. And tonight was another good example. They had to win the game. It wasn't easy." Carlisle on rebounding and Nowitzki: "Well, look, the rebounding was the biggest issue we had facing this coming into this game. We did a much better job tonight. Guys were more conscientious. Dirk had a great all-around game. He started out not shooting the ball particularly well. He was getting double-teamed. He was doing a good job of making the passes out that were leading to shots and opportunities for other guys. Defensively, he was keeping a body on his man and he was cleaning up defensive possessions with rebounds. The other night we were getting pushed around. They kept getting the ball and getting it back. His all-around game was great. There are going to be a lot of situations where he's going to be a play maker because teams commit 2 guys to him. We've seen it time and time again in the 3 years I've been here. We've seen times people have thrown 3 guys at him. There's nothing he hasn't seen. Miami makes it tougher because the guys they send are athletic and long, and they anticipate well. So they deflect. There were sometimes they deflected tonight. We made enough plays to get out of here." Carlisle on Nowitzki playing injured: "Look, I played with Bird for 3 years when he was the best player in the world. Guys like that don't feel pain right now. You play, you play and if you're feeling pain, you make yourself numb so you don't feel pain. You've got to play and you've got to be a warrior. Look, Dirk knows for us to win this series, he's going to have to play all-around basketball. He's going to have to fight through periods where the ball isn't necessarily going in the basket, which he did tonight. He's going to have to play a solid all-around game, which he did tonight. Hey, we had a lot of guys who stepped up. This was a great win for us." Carlisle on Marion: "Yes, Marion was great. You know, he had 20 points, 8 boards. He's got the toughest job on the planet right now guarding James. And, you know, he just came off a series where he was chasing Durant around. This is 2 of the top 5 players in the game, easily. What we're really asking him to do is give us everything he can defensively. And the offense he's given us is really helping as well. He's had a great playoffs. He had a great playoffs, and particularly the last 5 games he's been spectacular." Dirk Nowitzki on the comeback: "I thought defensively we really got up and got into them. We pressured them full court. And then we scrambled defensively. We even gave up some offensive rebounds, but we kept scrambling. Offensively, when we get stops, we can move and we can play off the flow. I think they really did a great job on our set offense and we really didn't have much going. So I think the stops and the run-outs really made the game easier for us." Nowitzki on Chalmers' 3: "To get the lead after being down 15 was big, and then we just leave a shooter wide open. So it was a mental breakdown. But, you know, we still had a good position. We still had 24 seconds and we had the ball and a tie game. And they still had a foul to give, so I think I went a little earlier thinking that they might foul and then we'd have to take it out of bounds. And I was able to get by Bosh and get a layup, and that was big." Nowitzki on Terry: "I think they're doing a really good job [of defending Terry]. Like I said, they're running him off the line - they're running all our shooters off the line. They're very athletic on the perimeter. So, finally there in the 4th quarter, we found some openings. They really sucked in off our penetration. And finally he got some open looks. He got a run-out layup, and that was big in the 4th. We definitely need some scoring there." Nowitzki on the last play and foul to give Dallas had: "We talked about it in our timeout. First of all what a huge swing that was. I had a 3. We go up 3 with 24 seconds to go. You figure we guard the 3-point line, make them drive, and I don't really know what happened. We got to look at it. Chalmers was so wide open. Bangs the 3. That was a big emotional play for us. Down the stretch, we talked about it, they had a foul to give. I actually drove a little earlier than I would have, knowing they had a foul to give, and made a move and the foul never came. So I was able to get to the basket and lay it in. That was a big play. And then they didn't have a timeout left, so we had to scramble back, and Wade had to throw one up. So definitely a huge comeback for us. And we never gave up. So that was big." Nowitzki on what he said to Terry after Terry left Chalmers open for a 3 with 25 seconds left: "I'm not going to share that with the media. I'm sure there was a little cussing involved. Yeah, like I said, if you're down 15, you make an amazing run like that and you're up 3, you can't give up a wide open 3. It just can't happen. So we got to go back and look at stuff like that. Still proud of the team. Still proud of the team, how they battled, to be down 15 against a great team like that and we kept plugging. Our defense finally got some big stops, and we rebounded the ball tonight, which we didn't in Game 1, finally. And that really opened up our offense there. I thought their defense was suffocating there throughout 3 quarters. We turned the ball over, made mistakes left and right. Couldn't really make shots. And then down the stretch, what helped us was our defense. It got us in the running game. It got us moving the ball a little better. JET [Terry] finally had some good looks. I had some good looks. And that really ignited our comeback." Nowitzki: "Well, you know, I think in this league you have to play till the end. Especially this is The Finals. You can be down 20. You have to keep plugging. You never know what's going to happen in this league. And we kept on fighting. And we got some lucky bounces there. LeBron went down the middle, had a wide open layup, I thought. Short-armed it a little bit. We were able to get that rebound and go. So you have to be a little lucky, but we kept on plugging. And look, I said it all playoffs long, we're a veteran team. We don't get too high with the highs and too low with the lows. That was definitely a little hole we got ourselves in, but we kept believing, kept playing off each other, and that was big." Nowitzki on Chandler: "Tyson has been our MVP defensively all season long. He's covered a lot of ground for us. We did a better job I thought of pick-and-roll coverage today. He really stepped out there, impacted the ball. We were still able to recover back some and scramble. Look, they have 2 of the best players in the game. So they are going to make you scramble. That's what we did and finally got some rebounds, which we didn't in Game 1." Nowitzki: "We can't turn the ball over against this team. They have 2 of the most athletic players I've ever seen. If you turn the ball over, it's 1 or 2 dribbles there at the rim, laying it in on the other end. So I thought finally there in the last couple of minutes we did a good job of not turning the ball over. And the defense was solid. We forced them into some shots, contested shots. And that was big. And rebounded the ball." Nowitzki on Game 3: "We're not going to approach the next 3. We're going to approach the next one like it's our last. You cannot get a split and get a huge emotional win in Game 2 and then go home and lose Game 3. As far as I'm concerned, the next one is the biggest game of them all. And hopefully our crowd will be rocking. They've been great to us and carried us throughout the playoffs so far. So we're going home to a great building, and hopefully get Game 3." Nowitzki on his injured finger: "It felt great. Like I said, I thought it wasn't going to bother me before the game, and it didn't. We were able to keep the tape a little lower so I was able to keep my grip on the ball, because my palm was open and my fingertips were open. So I was able to get a good grip on the ball. Still didn't shoot the ball the way I wanted to tonight. Missed some open looks again, like in Game 1. I got to be sharper in Game 3 if we want to have a chance. Finger felt fine, and hopefully it's going to stay that way." Nowitzki on Miami's celebration after getting up by 15: "I didn't even see it that much, to be honest. Probably our other players saw it. I kind of had my head down. Obviously that was a big play to go down 15, so I must admit I didn't even watch it." Nowitzki on the comeback: "Well, you kind of chip away one possession at a time. We talked about getting stops. That was the big thing. We scrambled on some pick-and-roll situations, where we forced them out a little bit. Offensively I think we made a couple of big plays in a row. JET got open on the baseline once. He had a run-out. I had a run-out off kind of a loose ball that we were lucky to get. We had a 3-on-1. I laid the ball in to tie it. I actually thought Jason Kidd had a big 3 on the wing when it was like an 8, 9 point game. They doubled me, I swung it out. He had a great look at 3 and made a 3 to cut into the lead more. If you're down 15, every play, every bounce of the ball could be big. We're lucky on a couple and it went our way." Nowitzki: "I mentioned that LeBron had a clean lane, went to the lane, and missed the layup. I thought that was big. I can't remember, I can't recall what the score was at that point. I thought we got really lucky. Obviously he's going to finish those 10 out of 10 times. That was a lucky bounce. But we had a couple of lucky bounces down the stretch." Nowitzki on the comeback: "Well, I think we talked about it in the flow of the game that we just can't turn the ball over every time we mishandle the ball, it's an automatic layup against this team. It's 1 or 2 dribbles, either Wade or LeBron are at the rim at the other end, so quick and athletic. We talked about it during the flow of the game. Sometimes it just happens. They're so good. They have quick hands. They cover a lot of ground, the perimeter. And so turnovers unfortunately are a part of the game. But down the stretch, we did a good job, kept the ball in our playmaker's hands with JET and Jason Kidd and did a good job of protecting the ball. Like I said, we got lucky down the stretch. Hopefully we can carry this momentum in Game 3." Jason Terry on Miami going up by 15: "Right at that moment, it was a turning point in the game. Obviously we come out of that timeout, and if we don't score, than we're pretty much dead. We looked at each guy in the huddle to a man. We specifically looked at Dirk and said there's no way we're going out like this. It's too much time left in this game. And for us to go out in a blowout-type fashion with them dunking on us, shooting 3s on us, it would have been disheartening. We continued to keep faith in ourselves. We went out and grinded it out and got it done." Terry on the comeback: "You can just sense it in us we weren't going to give up. We were going to be resilient. If you look back at the game, we turned the ball over, giving them so many run-outs, so many dunks, so many opportunities that it didn't allow us to set our halfcourt defense. But for 7 minutes there in the 4th quarter, we really buckled down offensively. We started to take care of the ball. We started to get shots at the basket. And then defensively we stayed in front of them, we gave them one shot at it. That's what kept us in the game." Terry on his game during the run: "Jason Kidd seen an opportunity for me in transition where if I can get the ball up ahead in transition, I'm able to work. I'm able to use my speed and quickness and the space on the floor. That was an adjustment we made. We kind of fell into it being that we were down, and it's something that we hadn't done really primarily all playoffs. But with LeBron on me, obviously he's bigger. So I need to utilize all the space on the floor." Terry on keeping his confidence despite early struggles in the game: "My faith is in God. Being resilient and having that tremendous faith, I knew there was plenty of time left in the game. I have had games throughout my career where I've struggled. I've struggled throughout 3 quarters in the game and then, boom, in the 4th quarter the light comes on. Tonight was another one of those examples. In a game with this magnitude, to be down 15 points in that situation, I was just going to do whatever it took to leave it all out on the floor. That's what happened tonight." Terry on Nowitzki: "If we go back to the possession before that [the game winner], I don't want to tell you what he was saying in the huddle [about the missed defensive assignment on Chalmers]. A lot of curse words. That was my mistake, my error that left Chalmers wide open for 3. As we got ourselves together, we got composed. We knew what we wanted to get accomplished on the offensive end. Dirk knew it was coming to him. He does what Dirk always does. He comes through in a big way." Terry on Miami's celebration after going up by 15: "I don't know if they seen me. I was behind them. I can't say what was going through my mind. Seeing them celebrate like that, man, it really was disheartening for us. Then I took another glance at the score and at the time, there was a lot of time left. And so in that huddle in that timeout we looked at each other to a man and said, hey, we have one more opportunity. Let's go make a run at this. Get some stops. Get some baskets. Get back feeling good about ourselves, and the momentum carried us. And we came away with this one. Again, thank God for the opportunity. Tremendous comeback. It was similar to OKC when we were down 15. And we came back on them." Terry: "Each experience, each Finals there's going to be a turning point. There's going to be a moment, so to speak. And tonight the moment was ours." Terry on the missed defensive assignment on Chalmers: "I was thinking, let me buy JKidd some time up here and stand in the way [in not leaving Wade open]. We knew Wade was going to get the look as he came up. I didn't have time to even look. LeBron made a tremendous baseball pass over the top. Chalmers sitting there, he could have spun it, twirled it, wrapped it around behind his back. He had all day to shoot it. Totally my mistake. Something that cannot happen again if we're in that same situation. In that timeout Dirk is like, 'What were you thinking?' And really, honestly, it was my mistake. And I take all the blame for it. Big fellow told me he had my back. And he did. He came down and got the game winning bucket." Terry: "Definitely a good feeling. We did not want to go home down 0-2. It would put tremendous pressure on us. Every game for us has to be like this. For the last 5 minutes we really showed Maverick basketball - getting stops, getting out in transition, taking advantage of every opportunity that presented itself. There is no other way for us to play." Terry on this being the 3rd 4th quarter comeback for Dallas in the playoffs: "It's just as hard every time. This group doesn't surprise me, though. We're very resilient. In Game 1, there was opportunity there down 10. We thought in our mind that we could come back. It didn't happen. We don't want to get in these situations. But if this situation does present itself, we're a veteran team. And we pride ourselves on being calm, being even-keeled, and if there's time on that clock, there's still time for us." Terry on Nowitzki down the stretch: "Unbelievable. But these are shots again that he works on that he practices. I don't know how that finger felt, but I know he didn't care. He was going to do whatever it took for us to get the win tonight." Jason Kidd on Chalmers' open 3: "Well, coming out, there was no switch, we were staying home until after the ball was inbound. So JET was just trying to buy me some time [in getting to Wade off a curl]. And they made a great play, a great pass straight to Chalmers and I started hoping and praying to the gods that he was going to miss it. But he didn't. But, you know, it wasn't my fault cause I know that Wade was going to get the ball - we all thought that coming out of the huddle - and we was going to stay down on the pump-fake and make him make a tough shot. But LeBron made a great pass." Kidd on the comeback: "The big thing is that we were in the same situation in Oklahoma. So we were in that huddle with 7 minutes left, said, 'Hey, we have nothing to lose. Let's go out here and play and make something happen and see if we can get this thing down under double-digits.' And from there, they started missing and we kept playing. And that's what we learned in Portland - you got to play for 48 minutes - and then in Oklahoma City and then it carried over to tonight." Kidd on Wade's 3-pointer to give Miami a 15 point lead: "He followed through and left the hand up. The big thing was he made the shot and at that point we were down 15. For us, we had nothing to lose. We had to keep playing. Everybody who played tonight stayed together and encouraged one another to keep playing it out, and we found ourselves in the ballgame." Kidd on Dallas' run: "We got stops and we maybe gave up 2 offensive rebounds in that last 7 minutes. Guys just stayed together. Even with that last 3-pointer that Chalmers made, everybody just looked forward and said, 'Let's find a way to win the game.'" Shawn Marion: "But we always believed that we could come back regardless of the score. The game is over when the final buzzer rings. And as far as somebody posing, I didn't see that. I was so tuned into the game I wasn't worried about nothing else but playing the game." Marion on the split: "It's a good feeling. We're going back home. We came out here and got one. But we still got a long way to go. It's the best of 7-game series, best of 5-game series now. We have 3 at home." Marion on Nowitzki's game winner: "Oh, man. That was a big finish. Big time move. That's what it takes." Marion on the comeback: "I mean, you know if you watch us play all season, you know we're a resilient team. The game ain't over until the final buzzer rings. We're always very confident and we just stay active. We know we can get consecutive stops in the row and hit some shots we would be back in this and we did that." Marion on his game: "I've been just being aggressive on both ends of the floor. I think I'm seeing some things I can take advantage of and I'm doing it. My teammates are finding me, the balls are finding me in ways to create opportunities for myself and my teammates. I'm taking advantage of it." Marion on his game: "Just when the ball do come to me, being aggressive and taking the ball to the rack. Also, I was able to handle some pick-and-rolls. I like that. I was able to come off and be aggressive and attack more. Find my teammates or attack the basket." Marion on attacking the basket: "I mean, I guess you got to pick and choose your moments out there. The opportunities you get, you have to be aggressive when you do go, because you never know when you're going to get an uncontested layup or just a layup period. So just being aggressive, attacking and seizing the opportunities, you just got to do it." Tyson Chandler: "We just never gave up. We came to the bench, we were down 15. I think there were 7 minutes to go, and coach said, 'Look, we came back from down 15 with 4 minutes to go, so we got a whole lot of extra time.' From that point, we started working the clock, taking good shots and we were able to walk them down." Chandler on Wade hitting a 3-pointer to give Miami a 15 point lead: "He celebrated in front of our bench. I think it angered a lot of us. We came out there and we responded. When we were down 15, we said we have to take it possession by possession. We've got to get stops. Let's just play basketball. We didn't even call any plays. Dirk got in a rhythm, starting making some shots for us. Right before he hit that 3, I told Jason and JET, that when they were coming off a screen-and-roll, they were getting confused and I could probably get Dirk for a good look." Chandler on the win: "Well, it's huge. We came out here to get a game. We felt like we let Game 1 go. We knew tonight would be a hard fought game. To be able to go back to our place tied 1-1, we accomplished what we came out here for." Chandler on Wade's celebration: "It's upsetting. When you're out there playing hard and someone celebrated right in front of your bench. We just wanted to come out and respond to it, continue to play, continue to walk them down. We felt like if we could get the game close tonight, we could win." DeShawn Stevenson on Chalmers being open for the 3 with 25 seconds left: "We messed up our coverage. We were supposed to switch [actually, Kidd said that they weren't supposed to switch and Terry took the blame] and nobody got to Chalmers. Dirk was pretty mad [in the timeout]. At the same time, we knew we had him going back on offense and he delivered." Stevenson on Nowitzki: "Dirk's a warrior. I've been on this team for a year and a half and I never seen nothing like it. He's a true warrior. To hit a game winner on that torn finger, to play the way he played with that torn finger, with people slapping on him, says a lot about him and what he does." Brian Cardinal on Miami's celebration going up 15: "They were emotional and excited. I don't know if it ignited us. I'm sure it helped re-focus everybody. You notice everything. That's the beauty of having 15 guys on the bench. Everybody's got on eyeball on something." Erik Spoelstra: "No question about it, that's about as tough a 4th quarter you can have. When it started to slide, it just kept on going. But we've been a very resilient group all season long. We've been tested. We've had our moments where we feel uncomfortable and feel like our backs are against the wall. That's when we've responded and been our best. We have a lot of guys who have some character and toughness to be able to respond to a game like this. We're not happy about this. Certainly the way we closed the game is so uncharacteristic for us on both ends of the court. Really, I think offensively if we could have executed and moved the ball, we might have been able to stem the tide a little bit, even as poor as we were defensively down the stretch. It was highly uncharacteristic for us on both ends of the court. But we're a resilient group. By the time we get on that plane tomorrow, we'll get our minds and body and spirit ready for Game 3. This is a long series, okay? So we're not happy about what happened, but we got an opportunity in Game 3." Spoelstra: "Well, offensively, that's so uncharacteristic for us. One, to shoot 30 3s in a game is not our style of basketball and then at the end of the game to not be able to execute and move the ball and find an open shot. We were running the clock down to the end. That's not been a successful formula now for us for the last 3 months. So we'll regroup. Like I said, we have a tough group in there. We haven't had it easy at times, so we know how to respond when our back is against the wall." Spoelstra on Dallas' comeback: "You have to give them credit. They're a great shot making team. Our offense, I think, was inefficient enough to spark them and give them some easy baskets. They got a couple in transition where we didn't even get anybody back for court balance maybe to force them into some kind of halfcourt execution. And so they probably scored 8 to 10 of those points on relief where our defense wasn't even set. And then we compounded that with a lack of execution. We will be much better in Game 3, and we found ways to respond under tough times, especially when we feel a great deal of pain, which are we are right now." Spoelstra on the loss: "It happened, so you have to deal with it. We tried to respond in a way to finish up the game. We were unable to do it on both ends of the court. You have to give them credit. We will bounce back." Spoelstra on Dallas scoring 4 quick points after Miami went up by 15: "Yeah. Again, we didn't have the proper floor balance where they ended up getting a 1-on-0 fastbreak. They get it to 11 before we have to call a timeout. That put them at least in striking distance." Spoelstra on not using the foul-to-give on Nowitzki at the end: "It's easy to say it right now. You know, we're aware of it. We talked about it. We've been in that situation before. We didn't use the foul. Obviously, it looks like right now you could second guess that, but we didn't take it." Spoelstra on not doubling Nowitzki at the end: "At that time, they had carved us up enough on that - we left open some shooters and they made us pay. We tried to do it with our normal defense. He made a heck of a drive. We cut him off one time, he spun, our help defense came, and he made a high arcing layup, I believe, with his left hand." Spoelstra on Miami down the stretch: "I'll have to look. We went to our normal package of late game sets. We just didn't have the necessary execution." Spoelstra on Bosh defending Nowitzki at the end instead of Haslem: "Yeah, that's a tough one, also. I know UD [Haslem] probably is really wishing he had that opportunity to defend him. He had gotten a couple over the top, and the end of the game running it all the way down to the clock, could have gone with either guy. Both guys are good defenders." Spoelstra: "Again, we got to our normal package of late game offense. The execution just wasn't there. And the ball movement certainly wasn't there. The ball was sticking, and we were running down the clock and hardly anybody else was involved in our normal actions." Spoelstra on Wade: "I didn't over-analyze Dwyane's play of recent time. The most important thing is he's been making big game saving plays on both ends of the court to help us win at the end. But we weren't able to do it tonight." Dwyane Wade on Dallas' comeback: "Well, I mean, obviously they played very well. We pride ourselves on the defensive end and they were able to break us down at the defensive end. And we made some mental mistakes. They got some open shots. We said in the huddle, we were up 15, that this team is very capable of coming back. They've proven it. They've shown it. So we didn't have to score another point to win the game. Our defense was what we lay our heads on. We didn't play it the way we normally play. They deserved it. And we didn't." Wade on the celebration after going up by 15: "First of all, every team in the league when they go on a run they do something. Whether it's a signal, whether it's a chest bump. It's a part of the game of basketball. A celebration is confetti, champagne bottles. There was no celebration. It was a shot made going into a timeout. Every team does something. That's the game. If it pumped them up, they won the game. Obviously it did something. That's not the first time. It won't be the last time. If we do a great play that we come and our teammates and we do something. Don't make nothing out of that celebration, like you guys did in the Boston series. It's just being excited about the moment. It had nothing to do with the outcome of the game for us. Like you said, defensively we had breakdowns. They made great shots. They made a lot of shots. They're a great team. But we had a lot of breakdowns." Wade: "We had breakdowns before throughout this year. We learned from it. That's why we're the team we are. That's why we're in The Finals. Obviously this one hurts and we got 2 days to think about our mistakes and blowing a 15 point lead. So we made it a lot harder on ourselves. We're going to see what we're made of as a team. Now we have 3 straight games on the road, but I wouldn't want to be in this position with any other team. The things that we've done over the season, the habits that we've built, we're going to lay our hats on it, and we're going to go out there and we're going to, like we said, take each game as its own and get ready for Game 3." Wade: "Obviously you know, we gave them - and they gave themselves - life. We had opportunities to at least put a little doubt in their mind. They're a confident team. No matter what the outcome of this game, they were going to be confident. It's a different story when you're up 2-0. You know what? I have been a part of it. I understand once you don't close a team down, they get confidence and life. Like I said, this is a big challenge for us. We're going to have to live up to the challenge, the hole we dug for ourselves, and we're going to see what we're made of as a team." Wade on the game before Dallas went on the run: "They had 73 points. You know, obviously we felt at certain points in the game where our defense wasn't as crisp as we wanted it to be. A team that scores the ball like this, I thought we were doing a good job. They had 73 points with 7:16, 15 whatever it was, left in the ballgame. We put ourselves in a great position. Offensively I thought we did a great job of getting turnovers and rebounding and getting out in transition and getting easy baskets. That's how we were able to get the lead. Most importantly the reason we had that was because of our defense and the reason we lost the game is because of our defense." Wade on Bibby: "Mike, he shot the ball well tonight. That's the Mike Bibby that we love to see. Just shooting it with confidence. It really was big in us coming back, getting the opportunity, getting his hands on a lot of loose balls where we were able to get out in transition. We want him to continue to shoot with that confidence. He's going to get shots. Obviously this team wants to protect the paint. Want to make sure myself and LeBron, we don't get in the paint. Our shooters are going to get shots. If we can get that production out of Mike Bibby for the rest of the series, we'll be in pretty good shape." Wade on having a foul to give on Dallas' last possession: "We knew coming out [of the timeout] we had a foul to give. We knew we didn't have no timeouts [left]. It was a mental breakdown on us [not using the foul]. We'll take it. We all said in the huddle, our coaches said it. Sometimes when you're in the moment - Dirk made a great move to get a little step on Chris [Bosh]. Obviously if we can go back and do it, we would have grabbed him before he could get up. But we didn't do that. We did know about it. Just a mental breakdown." LeBron James on the celebration after going up by 15: "It was no celebration at all. I was excited about the fact that he [Wade] hit a big shot and we went up 15. The same thing we've done over the course of the season. There was no celebration at all. We knew we had 7 minutes to go still to close out the game. As far as celebration, that word has been used with us all year. But we knew how much time was left in the game still." James: "I think offensively we just weren't in a good rhythm. Offensively we've been out of rhythm before. At the end of the day, we hang our hats on our defense. I think they were 1-10 the first 4 or 5 minutes in the first part of the 4th quarter. It was 88-73, end up scoring 22 points in the last 7 minutes. They only scored 24 in the whole 4th. We're up 15. If they go on a 12-0 run for the rest of the game, if we don't score another basket, we still win by 3. Defensively we just have to be more in tune and not allow a great team, a great offensive team to get as many great looks as they did down the stretch. Jason Kidd had an open 3. Jason Terry had a leak-out layup. He also had a corner jumper. Dirk, he hit a wide open 3. That's not our defense at all. We have to do a better job and be more in tune." James on the series being 1-1: "It's a different mindset, of course. It's a ballgame now. With the series tied 1-1, we're looking forward to the challenge. It's going to be a difficult challenge for us but we're looking forward to it. We're a confident bunch. We play great on the road. It's going to be a hostile environment. Their fans and team are going to bring everything they have. We have to come out with it all. Play as close to 48 minutes as possible on both ends." James: "Absolutely. We're a team that's confident. Every time we have had a pitfall, we've figured out how to bounce back. Right now we have another one. As a veteran ballclub and a team that's been through a lot, we understand how important this next one is with Game 3 being in Dallas and we look forward to the challenge." James: "It's not going to affect us for Game 3. It hurts right now because it's right now. We're competitors. We want to win the game. We feel like we have a 15 point lead in the 4th quarter, that our defense will prevail. That's how much confidence we have in our defense. It hurts now, but we'll be fine. I don't feel like our confidence will be down going into Game 3. We'll be back to square one and figure out how to win the game." James on Nowitzki's injured finger: "We were asked about it after Game 1, I said it would be a non-issue. He's a great scorer. He understands he can use both hands. He got the left hand layup to tie the game up at 90, and then the game winner going left once again. So as you can tell, it has no effect on his left hand at all, if any." James on Dallas trapping him late in the game: "They did. They did a great job of playing 2 on the ball. They used Tyson Chandler to come off pick-and-rolls, Tyson Chandler or Dirk. They blitzed me and DWade's pick-and-roll. Something different. Something we can go to the film to figure out how to exploit that or do a better job of executing later in the game. They didn't do that till the 4th quarter. They picked up the aggression and it got us out of the flow of the offense where we were taking shots at the end of the shot clock. I know I took a few fade away 3s at the end of the shot clock because we couldn't get into our offense. It's something we'll work on and be better on in Game 3." Mario Chalmers on the end of the game: "We just got passive. I think we stopped attacking there for a minute, and they had us down to the end with the shot clock where we had to force things up, and their defense held them steady." Chalmers on his 3-pointer with 26 seconds left: "Just a play set up for DWade to come up off the pick, and Terry just left me, and I was able to knock out the shot." Chalmers on Nowitzki at the end: "I think he got multiple picks and we didn't know really what to do, so that's what hurt us." Chalmers on the loss: "Very difficult, because they got on a run and we couldn't put their fire out." Chalmers on what was said after the loss: "There's nothing that needs to be said. We all know, we all feel the pain, and we all know what we need to do, so we go to the drawing board, figure it out, and get ready for Game 3." Mike Bibby on the end of the game: "To sum it up, we started missing shots, they started making them. They started the quarter out 1-11 [FG], and they finished out 8-10 [FG], so it just went the other way." Bibby on if Miami took bad shots down the stretch: "I wouldn't say that. The shots that they hit, no one said that none of them could hit them. So, we've got to make up for it in Dallas now." Bibby on the feeling after the game: "Not a good one. Not a good one. It's going to be tough to sleep." Bibby on his game: "It means nothing. We came out of here with an L, and that's the biggest thing. Having won Game 1, we had taken charge and we were playing good all the way up until we let them have their run." Bibby on Miami during Dallas' run: "You just try to get some stops. The ball's kind of bouncing their way on the missed shots, they get the rebounds. It happens that way sometimes. You don't want it to, but we weren't scoring the ball towards the end." Bibby: "Yeah, it hurts. Like I said before, it hurts. It definitely hurts." Bibby on if Miami felt they had the game won during the game: "There might have been, but whatever it is, we've got to win, so whether we're in Dallas or here, we've got to win." Joel Anthony on Dallas' run: "You need something positive on either end. They just kept chipping away, scoring on their end, and getting stops on our end." 2011 Playoffs - NBA Finals: Game 2 Dallas Mavericks 95, Miami Heat 93 at Miami (June 2) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 28 23 20 24 - 95 .517 .353 .480 .810 Miami 28 23 24 18 - 93 .581 .300 .466 .667 Halftime: 51-51 3rd Q: Miami 75-71 Technicals: Mike Miller (Mia) 7:22 2nd, Rick Carlisle 6:06 3rd Refs: Joey Crawford, Ed Malloy, Ken Mauer Attendance: 20,003 (sellout) IL: Dallas - Caron Butler, Dominique Jones, Rodrigue Beaubois Miami - Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Jamaal Magloire, Dexter Pittman Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Shawn Marion 41 9-14 0-0 2-2 20 3-8 3 3 2 1 1 Dirk Nowitzki 42 10-22 1-2 3-3 24 1-11 4 5 2 0 1 Tyson Chandler 38 4-6 0-0 5-8 13 4-7 0 0 5 1 0 DeShawn Stevenson 22 3-6 3-5 0-0 9 1-3 0 1 2 3 0 Jason Kidd 38 2-7 2-5 0-0 6 1-8 5 5 1 1 0 Peja Stojakovic 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 Jason Terry 31 5-11 0-2 6-6 16 1-1 5 2 4 2 0 Brendan Haywood 8 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 1 2 0 0 J.J. Barea 14 2-7 0-3 1-2 5 0-3 1 0 1 0 0 Brian Cardinal 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Totals 48 36-75 6-17 17-21 95 11-41 18 20 20 8 2 Miami Heat REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK LeBron James 40 8-15 2-7 2-4 20 1-8 4 5 4 4 1 Chris Bosh 40 4-16 0-0 4-4 12 2-8 0 2 3 1 0 Joel Anthony 27 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 3 0 3 Dwyane Wade 42 13-20 2-7 8-12 36 2-5 6 1 2 3 2 Mike Bibby 22 5-8 4-7 0-0 14 0-1 0 1 0 4 0 Udonis Haslem 29 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 1-3 0 2 2 1 0 Mario Chalmers 25 3-8 1-6 2-4 9 0-0 3 1 1 1 0 Mike Miller 15 0-3 0-3 0-0 0 0-4 0 0 2 1 1 Totals 48 34-73 9-30 16-24 93 6-30 13 12 17 15 7 Go Mavs! patricia ---- Patricia Bender pbender@eskimo.com For Trianglons puzzles: http://www.trianglons.com For NBA stuff: http://www.eskimo.com/~pbender/index.html For Mavs stuff: http://www.eskimo.com/~pbender/mavs.html