The Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks will square off in the NBA Finals starting Tuesday in a 2006 finals rematch that features two teams with reason to believe they can win the title. The Heat have LeBron James and his gang while the Mavericks depend on star German forward Dirk Nowitzki and his band of merry men in the best-of-seven championship series.
Less than a year after Dwyane Wade persuaded James and Chris Bosh to come to South Beach, the Heat are living up to expectations by making it all the way to the NBA's showcase.
After a rocky start, the superstar trio have come a long ways and they are backed up by as good a supporting cast as Miami could afford under the salary cap.
"We have to go through a lot of adversity," said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. "That struggle that we went through in March, where we lost five straight, that helped us. As painful as it was, we had to go through that fire together to be able to gain the confidence where we could be successful now in the postseason."
Miami will host games one and two on Tuesday and Thursday before the series shifts to Dallas for up to three games.
The Mavericks were the first team to reach the finals by beating Oklahoma City 100-96 on Wednesday in game five of their Western semifinal series.
The Heat followed them a day later by defeating the Chicago Bulls 83-80 in game five of the Eastern final.
This is just the second post-season meeting between Miami and Dallas, the Heat having taken the first for the crown five years ago.
Dallas won both games against Miami during the regular season. Both contests took place in the first two months of the season.
Miami's early season struggles hit a low when they lost 106-95 to Dallas on November 22. The soul searching after that loss resulted in a closed-door meeting after the Dallas loss where the Heat players ironed out their differences.
Four weeks later, the Mavericks edged Miami 98-96, snapping the Heat's 12-game win streak. The Heat went on a 22-2 run with their only defeats coming at the hands of the Mavericks.
The Mavericks are built around depth. They rely on Nowitzki for most of their scoring. Their bench is deeper than Miami's so their number two scorer usually depends on who has the hot hand on any particular night.
"I like the team," Nowitzki said. "I think we're deep and we can play all sorts of styles. So, we'll see what happens."
Nowitzki can't stop thinking about the 2006 finals loss but says he's not motivated by revenge.
"It doesn't really matter that much to me," Nowitzki said. "We had a huge chance in '06 and let it slip away, so we've got another crack at it. You never know in this league if you ever get another chance, and we're able to get to this stage again and it feels good."
Dallas fell apart five years ago after jumping out to a 2-0 series lead. The Mavericks even led game three by 13 points halfway through the fourth but then the wheels fell off the bus.
"Obviously, it was one of the toughest losses we've ever gone through as a franchise," Nowitzki said. "To be up 2-0 and not a find a way to win another game, that was tough. It took us a long time to get back to this stage."
History shows teams with two superstars have been able to capture NBA titles, notably Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen with the 1990s Chicago Bulls and Kobe Bryant with Shaquille O'Neal or Pau Gasol on the Los Angeles Lakers.
Miami certainly has that sort of tandem but Dallas lost their No. 2 man when Caron Butler went down with a torn tendon in his right knee on January 1.
One of the key matchups is at power forward where Bosh will go up against Nowitzki, who along with James are the hottest players in the playoffs.
Bosh will have his hands full with Nowitzki, who has missed just two free throws in 61 tries.
Nowitzki posted a couple of 40-point performances over Oklahoma City. He averaged 32.2 points per game in the Western Conference final for Dallas.
Another intriguing battle will see the league's dominant player, James, go against Dallas' Shawn Marion.
James is in the midst of the best playoff of his career and has proved his value with post-season games on the line, making key three pointers and stepping up defensively. He outplayed NBA Most Valuable Player Derrick Rose of Chicago in the semifinals.
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