The Miami Heat faced off against the Dallas Mavericks last night in South Beach for Game 1 of the Championship Series.
Defense was the key for both teams in Game 1. The Mavericks went with a zone defense & performed it with precision to start off the game. Miami’s man to man defense caused Dallas to miss 5 straight field goals early in the 1st quarter. Both teams shot poorly from the field with both shooting an identical 29% from the field in the first.
The combination of good defense & poor shooting started off the second half as well. Dallas did not score a field goal for over 6 minutes in the 3rd quarter. However, Miami did go on a 12-4 run to close the 3rd quarter.
Both teams shot well from the free throw line & from behind the 3-point arc.
None of the big names on either side had a big game. The Heat bench outscored the Mavs’ bench 17-27 which is one of the big differences in the Miami Heat win.
For the Mavs to win games in this series, the Mavs cannot keep it close towards the end of the game because LeBron James & Dwayne Wade are two of the best closers in the league. Dirk Nowitzki will drop a ridiculous amount of points to get a couple of wins in this series, but he must get better support in the rebounding & scoring areas from his teammates.
Game 1 is in the history books, but there is plenty of basketball left to play in what I expect to be a long series.
By Ray DeVone aka static – Jabberhead, Janitor’s Kid, SJ Contributing Author
http://forums.sportsjabber.net/sjforums/showthread.php?t=89098
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