The Dallas Mavericks flipped the script on the Miami Heat Thursday night. Behind a very strong shooting performance, Dallas led most of this game, and held off the Heat in the fourth quarter to win 112-103 and take a crucial 3-2 lead in the series, which is now heading back to Miami.
The Dallas scoring attack was absolutely scorching. The Mavericks shot a hot 56.5% from the field, and were 13-19 from three point range in what was the highest scoring game of these finals. For really the first time in this series, Dallas led most of the way as the Heat found themselves playing catch-up.
It didn’t help that Dwyane Wade went down with a hip contusion towards the end of the first quarter and headed to the Heat locker room. Wade would come back in the second quarter, however, and posted 11 points in 24 minutes. Then after not coming out of the locker room to begin the second half, returned again and finished the game with 23 points.
LeBron James had a triple-double finishing with 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. Chris Bosh added 19 points and 10 rebounds, and Mario Chalmers added 15 for the Heat in a losing effort.
LeBron James was all the talk following the game, catching criticism once again for a fourth quarter where he scored just two points (Nowitzki is outscoring James 52-11 in fourth quarters these NBA Finals), despite his triple-double.
Dallas sported an impressively balanced scoring attack behind their collection of hot hands. Dirk Nowitzki led all scores with 29 points, J.J. Barea had 17 points, Tyson Chandler and Jason Kidd both had 13, and Jason Terry added an important 21 points including a few clutch baskets down the stretch to lead the Mavericks to victory.
With the Heat clawing to within four points with just 33 seconds remaining, Jason terry hit a 26-foot 3-pointer above the outstretched arms of LeBron James to put the nail in the Heat’s coffin and put the Mavericks up for good.
The series now heads back to Miami. The Mavericks will get their first chance to close out the Heat and get their ring on Sunday night at 8 p.m..
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