NBA Finals, Finally!

After an 82-game season and 3 rounds of playoff series, the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks will square off in what is sure to be a fantastic NBA Finals.  The Finals will feature a team that is "as Hollywood as Hell" (Miami Heat...according to Joakim Noah of the Chicago Bulls) and a team that will be trying to avenge an NBA Finals loss to the Heat in the 2006 NBA Finals (Dallas Mavericks).  Although the Miami Heat created all the buzz leading into the 2010-11 NBA season with the acquisitions of LeBron James and Chris Bosh, along with the re-signing of Dwayne Wade, many had hoped for the South Beach Experiment to fail and prevent the Heat from fulfilling LeBron's promise of multiple NBA championships.  I can't remember a team going through so much scrutiny throughout a regular season, yet here they are - four wins from the first of what might be many NBA championships.  The Mavericks have been one of the most consistent teams during the past 10+ years, stringing together 50-win season after 50-win season, but have experienced multiple playoff disappointments and only made the NBA Finals once (2006).  But before the Finals tip off on Tuesday night, here are a few things to think about and watch for during what should be an exciting series of basketball.

Dirk Nowitzki has carried the Mavericks over the past
10+ years, but has yet to lead them to a championship.

Who will guard the German?   How does a man who listens to David Hasselhoff to get himself pumped up for games become the MVP of the playoffs so far?  Germany native Dirk Nowitzki is quickly and impressively earning the title of the greatest European player ever.  The 7'1" sweet-shooting power forward is playing his best basketball of his career, highlighted by one of the best performances in NBA playoffs history when in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, Dirk scored 48 points on 12-15 shooting from the field and an NBA record 24-24 from the free throw line.  To this point in the playoffs, nobody has been able to match up defensively with the shooting guard trapped in a big man's body.  Dirk can be difficult to guard because a lot of big men are simply not accustomed to going out to guard an offensive player outside of 10 feet.  And what makes Dirk so good is that he can also drive the ball to the basket if the defender comes out too hard or tries to block his shot too aggressively.  Four Heat players will primarily take turns guarding Dirk throughout the series (Chris Bosh, LeBron James, Udonis Haslem, and Joel Anthony), with power forward Chris Bosh and small forward LeBron James likely trying to stop him in key situations.  One thing is certain:  if the Heat can't find a way to stop Dirk, then the 'Hoff may be on every NBA player's playlist before every game.

First-time Champion...Dirk/Kidd or LeBron/Bosh?  The Finals will feature superstars on both teams that have yet to win a championship.  Chris Bosh is the only player mentioned in the heading that has NOT been to the NBA Finals previously.  Dirk and Jason Kidd have the shorter window as both players as well as the team seem to be getting along in years while LeBron and Bosh are under contract together (with Dwayne Wade) for the next 6 seasons.  Additionally, the Mavericks have had an unexpected playoff run as they were more challenged by the Blazers in the first round than they were by the Lakers and the Thunder in the second and third rounds -- combined!  (2 losses to the Blazers with only 1 combined loss to the Lakers/Thunder).  That sense of urgency should drive Kidd and Dirk to make 2011 the year that the Mavericks finally pull through and bring a title to the city of Dallas, which within the last year saw the SF Giants beat the Rangers in the World Series and watched the Packers win the Super Bowl in Cowboys Stadium while their Cowboys were sitting at home - waiting for the ol' Mavericks to make one more championship run.

Jason Terry hopes to be able to keep his tattoo long after the NBA Finals.

Will the tattoo be removed?  Dallas Maverick guard, Jason Terry, got a tattoo of the NBA Finals (Larry O'Brien) trophy back on October 19, 2010.  Terry got the tattoo in order to send a message and to inspire his teammates.  Terry has already come out and said that the tattoo (which is located inside of his right biceps) will be removed if the Mavericks are defeated by the Heat in the NBA Finals because he admits that he is a superstitious person and if the Mavericks lose, then the tattoo clearly wouldn't have worked.  "It just symbolized the fact that we had a realistic shot of getting here," Terry said.  "If I didn't think we had a chance, I wouldn't have put it there."  Well, Jason, it seems to have worked so far...why stop now?  How about a tattoo of David Hasselhoff on the left biceps?


Who will win the 4th Quarter?  Both the Heat and the Mavericks showed an innate ability to come back and dominate the 4th Quarter during the Conference Finals.  The experience of the veteran superstars for both teams became evident as they played suffocating defense and made clutch shots against the younger Chicago Bulls and OK City Thunder.  The Mavericks came back from 15 with less than 5 minutes left in Game 4 against the Thunder to tie the game and run past the Thunder in overtime to take a commanding 3-1 series lead, making Game 5 a mere formality.  The Heat showed their ability to impose their will on their opponents in the 4th Quarter by coming back from a 12-point deficit, outscoring the Bulls 18-3 to close out the Bulls in Game 5 on the Bulls home court in front of dazed and confused Bulls fans who remember what it was like to have such an experienced and dominant championship team when Michael Jordan was leading the way in the late-90's.  Both teams have the talent and the experience to win an NBA championship, and the title will most assuredly be decided in the 4th Quarter.  Don't plan on going to sleep early during the next couple of weeks, it will be worth staying up for.

American Airlines will be right along side the Dallas
Mavericks and Miami Heat in this year's NBA Finals.

The Winner?  The sure winner will be American Airlines, who is the named sponsor of the arena for both the Heat and the Mavericks.  The NBA Championship will, in fact, be won at American Airlines Arena.  That's a safe bet.  Having watched both the Western and Eastern Conference Finals, the series will go at least 6 games.  Each team will win at least one road game and I will be extremely surprised if each and every game does not come down to defense and offensive execution in the 4th Quarter, with key stars from each team making big shots in the closing seconds - just as they have done all playoffs and all year.  But I just can not see any team beating the Miami Heat in a 7-game series.  They are too talented, too experienced, and too determined to prove all the haters wrong.  Miami will close it out at home in Game 6 and bring another championship to South Beach over the Dallas Mavericks.  Call Jason Terry's tattoo artist - time to schedule a removal.

NBA Playoff Predictions and Dunks

The NBA playoffs are down to the NBA version of the Final Four.  The Western Conference Finals kick off on Tuesday night with the Oklahoma City Thunder heading to Dallas to take on the Mavericks.  Remember the Mavericks?  They are the team that disarmed and disrobed the world champion Lakers while dismissing legendary coach Phil Jackson 8 whole days ago!  The Mavericks have not had 8 days off since October, so it will be interesting to see how they respond once they take the floor against the Thunder, who just finished a long and exciting 7-game series against the Memphis Grizzlies that included a triple-overtime thriller in Game 4.  Despite the layoff and my personal dislike for Dirk Nowitzki, I'll take the Mavericks in 5 games.

Russell Westbrook will try to lead his Oklahoma City Thunder
teammates over the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Finals.

The playoff seeds held serve in the Eastern Conference as the #1-seeded Chicago Bulls advanced to face the #2-seeded Miami Heat.  The Bulls got off to an impressive start last night who ran past the favored Heat, 103-82.  The Bulls outplayed and outhustled the Heat while outscoring the superstar-laden team by 21 in the second half (55-34).  (Is it just me or does seeing the Bulls as a championship contender make every Jazz fan a little queasy as we all remember the last time they were a contender...MJ ring a bell?)  The latest dominant performance by Chicago was evidenced by the Taj Gibson's highlight reel dunk early in the second quarter when he threw down a ridiculous two-hand dunk over Dwayne Wade, who to make matters worse committed a foul on the play.  Even Wade clapped when he saw the replay.  "That was a good one," Wade said.  "That's a great ratio for me.  First time I got dunked on all year.  I'll take my 90 (really, Dwayne?) to 1 on my blocks to dunked-on ratio.  I really got punked.  It was good."  However, I don't expect the Bulls to be a high-flying act throughout the series.  The Heat will make adjustments, play better defense against the Bulls role players than they did in Game 1 (Deng, Korver, etc.), and LeBron James and Dwayne Wade will match Chris Bosh's 30-point performance in Game 1 and play up to their guarantee of bringing an NBA championship to South Beach. The Heat will win it in 6.

The bleacherreport.com posted the Taj Gibson dunk for our viewing pleasure (unless you're a Dwayne Wade fan) as well as the "10 Greatest Playoff Dunks".  It's a list so stacked with great dunks that they needed to add a few dunks as honorable mention.  I personally would have voted for the Shawn Kemp dunks because he had TWO of them within mere moments of each other...enjoy!

Mother's Day Magic and Misery

Every year on the second Sunday of May, husbands and children everywhere buy flowers, cards, and chocolates for dear Mom to show her how much she means to them and to thank her for everything she does for them.  Baseball players break out the pink bats in order to raise awareness for breast cancer, baseball teams have honorary "bat girls" in the dugouts, and SportsCenter anchors start their broadcast with a classic "Hi Mom!".  Mother's Day can be a really good day for you and the special Woman in your life...or not so much.  You can either be a winner or a loser.  Here are some of the winners of Mother's Day 2011 followed by the losers (hopefully you were not one of them, too):

Winner - Derek Jeter:  The 36-year old Captain snapped out of his early season funk and silenced the doubters by doing his Mom proud with a four-hit, two home run day against the Rangers in a 12-5 Yankee win on Sunday.  Jeter's two home runs were no-doubters, landing deep into the right-center field bullpen - both shots estimated at over 400 feet.  Said Jeter, "Everybody needs a day like this."  Yes, Derek...including Mom.

Derek Jeter is all smiles after his performance on Mother's Day.  Derek, Yankee
Fans, and of course, his Mom, hope that it is a sign of things to come in 2011.

Winner - Dallas Maverick Bench Players:  In completing their four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday, the Dallas Maverick bench stole the show in the 122-86 demolition of the world champions.  Jason Terry went 11-14 from the field, including 9-10 from three-point range.  Peja Stojakovic turned back the clock to go 6-6 from three-point range, and even little JJ Barea went 9-14 as the Dallas Maverick bench outscored the entire Laker team against, ironically enough, the NBA Sixth Man of the Year, Lamar Odom.  Although maybe Lamar is still kind of a winner since his reality show hasn't been canceled...yet.

Winner - The #5:  Even useless stats and numbers are winners on Mother's day as all American League games finished with either the winner or the loser of the game scoring the same number of runs - you guessed it, 5!  According to STATS LLC, it was the first time in 18 years that such an odd and coincidental occurrence had taken place when all 7 National League games had a team with exactly 2 runs.

Fives were wild on Sunday in the American League when every game involved
a team that scored five runs.

Loser - Andrew Bynum / Los Angeles Lakers:  Andrew Bynum's mid-air shove of JJ Barea in the series-ending loss to the Dallas Mavericks was one of the biggest cheap shots I have ever seen in a professional basketball game.  Bynum, clearly frustrated by his worst performance of the playoffs (6 points, 6 rebounds), unfortunately ruined legendary coach Phil Jackson's potential final game of his career.  The Lakers were the seventh defending NBA champion to be swept in a playoff series and their 36-point loss was the largest margin of defeat to end any of those sweeps.  Each of the Lakers should offer a sincere apology to their coach for their pitiful and classless performance on Sunday - not to mention their mothers, too.

Andrew Bynum will have to answer to his Mom after his performance and
classless flagrant foul against JJ Barea.

Loser - Disruptive Airplane Passengers:  A man who has been working as a New York City cab driver was taking a flight on Sunday to California when he decided to grab the cockpit door and start banging on it approximately 30 minutes before landing.  Another passenger on a plane en route to Chicago tried to open a cabin door in midair.  A fellow passenger choked the man into unconsciousness and later told authorities that the disruptive passenger told him that "he had a rough Mother's Day".  Reports have confirmed that the apparently suicidal man was not a member of or a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers.