Are we witnessing the slow death of a giant?
It may well be. It got so bad for the Miami Heat on Sunday night in its 99-85 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 2 of the NBA Finals that Miami’s only response was to leave Shaquille O’Neal pinned to the bench while his teammates tried in vain to wrestle their way back into the game.
The Mavericks have a 2-0 lead, and just two teams–the 1969 Boston Celtics and 1977 Portland Trail Blazers–have come back from a 0-2 deficit to win the title. Game 3 is Tuesday in Miami.
O’Neal, who vowed to re-establish his kingdom after just 17 points in the Game 1 loss, had little fe fi fo or fum and was merely feeble in a career-worst playoff effort of five points and six rebounds in just under 28 minutes. It was so bad for O’Neal that he also missed six of seven free throws, making him 2-for-16 in the two games with three more misses that didn’t count because of lane violations.
It was so bad that Erick Dampier, whom O’Neal has mocked, calling him Ericka and saying he belongs in the WNBA, outplayed O’Neal with six points and 13 rebounds and active defense on O’Neal, who sat out the fourth quarter when the Heat made its best run of the game behind Alonzo Mourning.
It was so bad that O’Neal’s postgame exodus without speaking to reporters resulted in a $10,000 fine for O’Neal and $25,000 for the Heat.
In 24 Finals games, O’Neal has career averages of 32.6 points and 13.8 rebounds, but he’s averaging just 11 points and 6.5 rebounds against the Mavs. And it’s hardly just O’Neal as the Heat has now been outscored by 18.3 points per game this season against the Mavericks and hasn’t scored more than 90 points in any game.
“Everybody’s written our team off,” Heat coach Pat Riley said defiantly. “Even in Chicago. We lost two games to Chicago and then we got buried by New Jersey the first game. We were history, and then we were history against Detroit. Even when we were ahead 3-1, we were history. I’m sure we’re history right now.”
Not officially, but despite brave comments from Heat players other than O’Neal, the Mavs have exposed the Heat’s weakness like no one in the Eastern Conference could. They’re using superior quickness and youth to dominate Miami.
“This game was about another team’s competitiveness and energy,” Riley said. “They doubled [O’Neal] every single time he caught the ball. He made the pass he was supposed to make. But they know who to stay home on and they know who to leave open. That’s what the answer is now: Who is going to be stepping up and making shots in the double team?”
It hasn’t been Antoine Walker, who was 1-for-4 in the first half as the Heat fell in a 50-34 halftime hole that only got deeper. The Mavs repeatedly beat Miami to the ball, outrebounding the Heat 46-32 and getting 23 assists to just 16 for Miami.
“We were hustling on defense,” said Dirk Nowitzki, who led Dallas with 26 points and 16 rebounds. “We moved the ball to the open guy. And we’ve been doing a great job, obviously, on Shaq. We’re playing to send help as soon as we can.”
Nowitzki praised Jerry Stackhouse, who had 19 points, including four three-pointers.
“But we haven’t done anything,” Nowitzki said. “We won two at home. We know they are a different animal at home.”
But the Heat is a wounded animal–outrun, outthought, outplayed end to end on Sunday night.
Miami again kept the game to its pace early in falling behind 19-17 after when one quarter when Stackhouse fired in a late three-pointer, a harbinger of things to come.
The Mavs were rotating off Walker, whose shots were awry again (though he made a few threes after the outcome was decided) and crowding the erratic Jason Williams on drives. And with Gary Payton disappearing again, the Heat had few options.
Josh Howard tied the score 28-28 with a three-pointer midway through the second quarter, setting the Mavs off on a run to a 16-point lead at halftime with Stackouse scoring 10 points on three three-pointers in the last 79 seconds of the half. The Mavs, the deepest team in the playoffs, got 41 bench points to 20 for Miami.
Dallas eventually blew the game open, going up 74-49 on a three by Jason Terry. Stackhouse and Howard gave the Mavericks two four-point plays–a first in Finals history. There had been just six such plays in Finals history before the game.
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“Can’t really explain it,” said Dwyane Wade, who led Miami with 23 points. “It’s a best-of-seven series. Shaq understands. He’s been in this situation more than anybody. I’m sure we’ll bounce back.”
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