Back in the 2011 Finals against the Mavericks, the Heat wrapped up
the three-game road portion of the series in Dallas with a loss, putting
them down, 3-2, and leaving no further margin for error in the quest
for a championship.
When they got back to Miami for Game 6, they took an early lead, but
watched Dallas—and guard Jason Terry, who had 27 points—take control of
the game and pull away in the third quarter. The Mavs led by as many as
12 in the fourth, and the Heat couldn’t catch up.
NBA championship, Dallas.
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Here we are two years later, and the Heat have put themselves in the
exact position they were in during the first Finals of the LeBron
James-Dwyane Wade-Chris Bosh era. They’re down after five games, heading
home for Game 6.
This is where we find out a little something about this Heat team.
They showed very little by the way of guts in the ’11 Finals. Has that
changed?
“I mean, we challenge ourselves to see if we’re a better team than
we was,” Wade said. “Same position, no matter how we got to it. We’re in
the same position going back home with Game 6 on our home floor. So
we’re going to see if we’re a better ballclub and if we’re better
prepared for this moment.”
It’s not necessarily as simple as that, of course. No matter how the
Heat play, they’re facing a Spurs team that is deep and experienced,
anchored by a star and coach—Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich—who are 4-0
in the NBA Finals.
In the last eight postseasons, San Antonio has gone 11-2 in
close-out games. The numbers are obviously stacked against the Heat, and
even with a top-shelf effort from Miami, the Spurs could still deny
them the Larry O’Brien trophy.
Just three years ago, the Lakers left Boston down, 3-2, but won the
final two home games to win the championship. So the numbers don’t
always dictate how these things play out. “You can’t win a game with a
statistic,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “You’ve got to win it on
the court.”
It’s almost impossible to compare the ’11 Heat bunch to this team,
if only because that team was so incredibly parsed and scrutinized.
Throughout the season, the narrative was that the team couldn’t get out
of its own way in crunch time, that James either shrank from the
difficult shots or simply missed them.
When the Heat showed signs of fourth-quarter struggles against the
Mavericks, the narrative kicked into high gear and snowballed. Miami had
a hard time in pressure situations, which resulted in questions about
pressure situations, which led to more pressure being put on those
pressure situations.
The positive for the Heat is that they’ve gotten much better at
dealing with these things since the Dallas loss. They backed themselves
into a corner in last year’s Eastern Conference finals, falling behind
the Celtics, 3-2—and in that situation, Game 6 was in Boston. James
logged his epic 45-point outing in that one, and the Heat cruised at
home in Game 7 on their way to a championship. They had a Game 7 just 14
days ago, too, against Indiana in the East finals, and won that by 23
points.
And all of this is no picnic for the Spurs, either. Trying to close
out a 66-win team like Miami on the road, even with two tries, is
difficult.
“It don’t matter if you are up, you need one more win, or if you’re
at one more win and you’re out,” James said. “You can’t sleep,
especially at this point. It’s a great opportunity for both teams. For
them, to close this out for them to win it, and for us, to force a Game
7. So we look forward to the challenge. We’ve been here before. We’ve
been on both sides of the fence.”
In their first try, that fence collapsed on them. Two years later,
with a championship on the line, the Heat have to prove to themselves
that they can get over it.
