Rick Carlisle - Nothing Goes Right For Mavs In Game 1 Loss To Heat - Sporting News - Nba

MIAMI For the Mavericks, the box score from the 92-84 loss in Game 1 of the NBA Finals might as well have been written in Swahili, it was so foreign-looking. What s that, 84 points? Dallas has posted a number that low only once in this postseason, back in Game 4 of the opening-round series against Portland and the last time before that was in March. Who s that shooting 37.3 percent from the field? Us? Wait, aren t we the same team that shot 46.3 percent during the playoffs to this point? Weren t we averaging 99.7 points?

That wasn t us, forward Shawn Marion said. You hold a team to 38 percent (shooting) and 92 points, that s usually a victory. To score 84 points is very rare for us. To only get 67 shots as well. Even to shoot 37 percent.

Ah, but in this game, there was plenty that was unrecognizable for the Mavericks, as it sure appeared that the slickness of the Dallas offense was thoroughly blunted by Miami s stifling defense. The Mavericks had established some dominating characteristics in their 12-3 run through the Western Conference playoffs, but here against the Heat, that all seemed to grind to a halt.

And if the Mavs don t recapture their mojo on these aspects quickly, this series will be a short one:

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The bench. If there was one area in which the Mavericks were supposed to have a profound advantage, it was the reserves. Throughout the postseason, the Dallas second unit bolstered the team with a significant scoring advantage and, conversely, Miami s bench is considered one of the thinnest in the playoffs. Dallas s bench was just 4-for-22 from the field in Game 1, with 17 points and eight rebounds, while Miami s bench was 8-for-22 from the field, with 27 points and 15 rebounds. I actually thought coming in that our bench was going to be a key for us, Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki said. But (the Heat bench) did a good job in there.

The boards. Dallas generally doesn t outrebound its opponents on the offensive end, for a couple of reasons: one, they tend to make a higher percentage of shots, leaving fewer opportunities for offensive rebounds, and two, they play a fair amount of zone defense, which leaves opposing players unaccounted for and opens chances for offensive rebounds. In the playoffs, the Mavericks allowed 11.6 offensive rebounds per game and got 9.9 themselves. In Game 1, though, that disparity was much wider the Mavs had just six offensive rebounds to 16 for the Heat. That s a big reason why Dallas took 67 shots to Miami s 80. The biggest issue is that there s 10 more times we don t get the ball and they have it, coach Rick Carlisle said. So the possession of the ball is the key.

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The 3-point line. This just didn t add up. In the playoffs, the Mavericks defense had allowed just 26.2 percent shooting from the 3-point line, and Miami had been subpar from the arc, at 32.2 percent. That figured to set the Heat up for a tough series from the perimeter, but Miami bucked that trend in the opener. Miami made 11 of 24 3-pointers on the night, with LeBron James knocking down 4 of 5 from long range.

The fourth quarter. The final period had been Dallas domain for much of the postseason, with the Mavericks able to flip tight games their way against the Trail Blazers, Lakers and Thunder. Not so in the fourth quarter of Game 1, which saw the Heat outscore Dallas, 27-23, and the Mavs allow Miami to shoot 9-for-19 from the field. Nowitzki held his own with 10 points in the fourth, but his attempted heroics were no match for the combined scoring of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, who combined for 17 in the quarter. We ve worked so hard that you just know who is there in the foxhole with you, Bosh said. You know, that s a confident feeling.