Jones on NBA: The better team won

The Dallas Mavericks Game 6 victory in Miami to beat the Heat and claim the NBA title was the ultimate vindication for the entire team.

More particularly, it was a moment for the ages for veteran Dirk Nowitzki. There were comments about him being “soft” after giving up a 2-0 lead and losing four consecutive games to Miami in the 2006 Finals. And we all remember how his regular season MVP campaign in 2007 concluded, right? It was that ugly loss as the Western Conference’s top seed at the hands of the eighth-seeded, Golden State Warriors.

Miami’s Dwyane Wade, the MVP of the 2006 Finals later implied that Dirk was not the leader he should have been, which is what ultimately cost him and his team the championship series in 2006. But Nowitzki returned the favour in Game 6 of the most recent Finals by winning in Miami and claiming the MVP award.

Nowitzki was so overcome with emotion that when his dream was finally realized, he had to leave the court to compose himself before returning to the podium with his teammates.

As the MVP of the Finals, Nowitzki’s numbers spoke volumes in reinforcing how well he played, predominantly when the game was in the balance in the fourth quarter. Over the course of the series, during the final stanza, Nowitzki scored 62 points, the same total as Wade (44 points) and LeBron James (18 points) combined.

His fourth-quarter scoring average that was just over 10 points ranked as one of the highest in Finals history — putting him in a class with the likes of Shaquille O’Neal and Michael Jordan.

James on the other hand, struggled and saw the differential in his scoring average from regular season to Finals register as the largest disparity in NBA history.

But numbers don’t bleed, they don’t always tell you about a person’s competitiveness and confidence in rising to the challenge. Yes, Nowitzki extricates himself from the list of regular season MVP’s without a ring, a list on which James will remain for the immediate future. For the record, James is on that list with five others: Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash and Derrick Rose.

But after a slow start in the first half of Game 6, Nowitzki came alive scoring 18 of his 21 in the second half — including 10 coming in the closing quarter.

James by contrast looked confused as he passed up shots and when he had good looks at the basket. Quite frankly, James appeared to be cracking under the weight of expectations. At one point, he missed an eight foot bank-shot so badly it hit the backboard on the left side and came off on the other side without even hitting the rim.

Unlike previous seasons, James appeared to have help that should have propelled him to success. But he was missing some essentials that you need to win it all.

While Nowitzki had an experienced supporting cast with the chemistry to play together both offensively and defensively, James and the Heat were still trying to figure out what to do. Nowitzki had confidence in his well-rounded offensive game with the ability to score from any spot on the court in any situation, while James continued to be all or none.

When his slashing drives were choked off by the Mavericks zone defence, James’ inability to operate efficiently in the mid-range game was exposed. When long jump shots didn’t fall, James had no other tools in his bag. Nowitzki’s trust in his team’s game plan trumped James, Wade, Bosh and the Heat as Erik Spoelstra did not make the necessary adjustments.

So as Nowitzki basks in redemption, James will continue to field critical questions about why he and his team came up short. As he fires back at the “haters” James needs to go back to the lab this off season and refine his game. This loss should provide motivation for him the same way the close calls fuelled change for the likes of Nowitzki, Shawn Marion, Jason Kidd and Jason Terry.

So close but yet still so far for James. Miami’s time may eventually come but in this series, they were beat by a better team.