Great win for the Heat.
 

Contrary to CW, I think the Heat are the better team and will win the series. A game 5 win will really put the Mavs on the ropes.

The key to winning tonight was Shaq. He was everywhere on defense. He got out to the perimiter quickly on rotations and was fast enough to jump back and clog the lane when necessary. It seemed to really throw Dirk and the others to have Shaq so active on the floor.

He looked like his old self tonight.

I agree that a win in game 5 could put too much pressure on Dallas, but it's awfully tough for a team to win 3 in a row in a series this deep in the playoffs, though it has been done before.

No matter which team wins, there will be a former Ute with a ring at the end. It's a win-win for a guy like me. ;)

Maybe they could give Van Horn a special ring with diamonds in the shape of a brick hooked onto the top...

Ouch, lol. I notice that the Mavs got to this point with Van Horn replacing Shawn Bradley. ;)

The Heat played with great intensity tonight. And the Mavs looked terrible tonight. A tale of two teams.

What Pat Riley did defensively was not all that complicated; play a matchup zone and make Dallas beat you from the outside. I am sure that the scheme worked far beyond his wildest dreams as the Mavs couldn't hit the broadside of a barn even with the countless looks that they were given. The Mavs were 31.6% from the field. It was nothing short of ridiculous. Couple this with getting outrebounded by 12 and its not hard to see a 20+ point loss.


The mavs choke away game 3 and now look at their position(2-2 as opposed to 3-1 or 4-0 if the heat folded tonight). I wouldn't be surprised to see the heat win this thing, maybe even in 6 games.

I hope that the mavs come out with more energy and mojo than they did tonight. They just weren't mentally prepared to play the game.


I would try to explain this more in depth on cb but the place has so many Suns, I mean Heat fans that the comments are likely to be, 'Stackhouse commited a flagrant on Shaq. Now I want Dallas to lose bad.' And, 'Mark Cuban is such a jerk. I want to see the look the on his face when the Heat win the championship.' Tell me I'm wrong about this.

Another great win for the Heat. Wade has really stepped it up late in games this series. And to think that he'll get better, along with LeBron, is scary. The NBA is in for some good years.

So much for those who say you can't win all 3 at home in the Finals. Just another reason why past stats are no predictor of future results.

Give the Mavs 25 more free throws and it's a blow out.

I can't wait to read Cuban's blog after this one. I can't wait to hear how much he gets fined.

I heard FIFA just sent Salvatore and Crawford applications.

Have the Mavs not use the Hack-a-Shaq strategy and watch the disparity diminish.

that game was a complete joke.

I don't think I'll be watching anymore.

The fix is in. I wonder if Josh Howard made his bookie happy.

The hack-a-Shaq accounted for 4 FTs more. The Heat had shot 40 FTs to the Mavs 12 before the first hack-a-Shaq. And Wade's 21-25 from the stripe equaled the entire Mavs team.

The Hack-a-Shaq may have only given Shaq 4 free throws, but it put Dallas into the penalty a lot earlier than they would have been normally.

Dallas has had its games with a lot more free throws than the Heat. It hasn't been a one-way fix for Miami, not by a long shot.

Lingo we're talking 24 more FTs. And, the Hack-a-Shaq was employed while already in the penalty except for in OT which didn't account for any FTs because Wade's phantom call was whistled on the shot.

And as far as the Mavs getting their share of calls, the Heat have shot 38 more FTs in this series, and Dallas has only had more attempts in a game once. Again, I understand the offense dictates many of these calls, but the types of plays whistled are not consistent at each end.

If this were a BYU-Utah game and there was this much disparity there would be officials dangling by their whistles.

Ya, Howard must have had a big bet riding in Vegas. Two missed free throws at the end of the game... come on. And that timeout. It's becoming a trend with him. At Wake Forest Howard called a timeout he didn't have with just under two seconds left against Maryland. There was a resulting technical foul and Juan Dixon made a free throw to win the game. Sound familiar? He's been betting on his own games for a while now. :p

I am still confused as to what happened with that timeout. It looked like Avery was signaling for the timeout and Howard just did what he was asked. Then, after he called timeout, Avery tried to waive it off. Avery clearly does the timeout signal before Howard called timeout. What is the story?

As far I understand it, Avery was saying that he wanted the TO called after the second free throw, so that they could advance the ball up past half court. I'm not that familiar with all of the finer points of the rule book in this area, but that is what I got out of it.

I actually thought the game was fairly well called. The fact that there is a disparity in the number of fouls called on each team is not, in and of itself, indicative of poor officiating. It seemed to me that Miami just works harder to get to the basket, and they have some very big people working down low too. That will lead to a lot of free throws if they are doing their job. I didn't see a lot of really bad calls last night.

The bottomline is that if the officiating is that visible, meaning the officials are bigger than the game itself, there is a problem. Just because it is a foul doesn't mean it needs to be whistled. I'd rather have Bevetta over Crawford any day of the week. Ask Barkley how he feels about Joey. I wish the TNT crew was running the halftime and post game reports.

Okay, coming out and declaring your support of Bavetta is enough to convince me you are messed up when it comes to the NBA.

Thanks for making it so clear.

Bavetta over Crawford any day of the week. Bavetta may just be old and blind, but he's not vengeful like Crawford who officiates at times like he's after a certain player. He needs to suck on his whistle a bit more than blow it.

It's not really support either. It's more like voting in the presidential election. All the candidates are poor, just choosing the best of the worst.

Fair enough. The lesser of two evils, I suppose.

Makes sense to me.

Excellent game by the Heat to close it out.

Wade is special. This is his first of many.

Dallas had their shots, but couldn't convert.

Maybe next year, Dirk. Glad to see Cuban lose.

Lingo, you said Arenas sucked at FTs on CB...do you always talk out of your ass? Arenas is a better FT shooter than Wade...both this season and for their careers.

I went to bed at halftime. The east coast kills me when it comes to sports. Good for the Heat. Shaq should retire now. Zo should retire now.

I'd bet the farm that neither of these two teams return to the finals next year.

You can also throw Gary Payton into that list of players who should retire now. I especially liked how he almost gave the game away by arguing with the ref when the ball was coming his way and the game on the line. Done like a true veteran.

My bad, I was thinking Baron Davis.

But it's good to know that if you make one mistake, you're suddenly "talking out of your ass".

Thanks.

That was embarrassing. You can't knock Payton too much, though. Without him, the Heat would have already lost the series. His shot in game 3 was HUGE.

Good point. He had 2 huge shots this series which couldn't have come at better times. Its just hard to see someone decline as much as he has over the past several years when he was consistently in the top 2 or 3 of the NBA point guards.

You do talk out your ass:

http://www.cougarboard.com/noframes/...tml?id=1190293

http://www.cougarboard.com/noframes/...tml?id=1189454

This is just the topic of number one picks. I'm sure I could find plenty more on other topics if I really wanted to takethe time to look.

Give me a break, old man. No one saw that coming other than the most delusional of Ute fans. Even you weren't remotely confident that both of them would go #1.

And besides, how am I supposed to account for the fact that both the Bucks and 49ers were stupid enough to pick who they did? I figured at least one would have brains in their head.

I guarantee that both organizations would take a do-over if they could.

I was only pointing out that you do talk out your ass.

It would seem that you're a bit bitter about two Ute athletes going number one in the two big sports the same year.

And I suppose you're again talking out your ass when you're so certain that both the 49ers and Bucks would choose others if they had that chance.

I was wrong about one thing - you're a much bigger ass than your dad. I need to apologize to him for making that erroneous comparison.

It appears you define "talking out of your ass" as "anytime you say something that turns out to be wrong."

And why don't you go look up my dad and tell him he's an ass, but not as big a one as his son is?

That sounds like a great idea. I'm sure he'd be glad to know that someone has harbored a Brokeback-like grudge against him for well over 20 years.

How would you define "talking out your ass"? Is there more than one definition? If so, do tell. I can accept that I don't know everything, because it's true.

Not sure I see the Brokeback comparison here, but then, I'm not the guy with a tub of KY Jelly.

I'd be happy to talk with your dad. I really do hold no grudge and never have. The funny thing is that you really have no idea in what context I made the comparison, as you're not cool enough to get into the crypt. But if you'd like to know what I actualy said, I'll tell you. Your assumption is so far off it's actually quite hilarious.

I define "talking out of one's ass" as:

Saying things are are completely and obviously wrong without putting any thought into it whatsoever.

There you go.

Regarding The Cool Guyz Club:

I don't know why I have to keep saying this, but I have no desire whatsoever to be part of your club. I never have. I have never once indicated in even the tiniest way that I wish I could be in. Never in posts, never in boardmails, never. And I never will.

But keep trying to taunt me with my lack of membership. It's akin to bashing your head against a brick wall... something I get the feeling you've done a lot of in your life.

The fact that you remember him and remember that you dislike him and feel the need to bring that up all the time tells me you're lying.

Again, you are talking out your ass. You have no idea what I said about your dad. I don't ever remember posting that I dislike him, though I may be wrong - if you want to prove it, go ahead.

From a boardmail you sent me.

And after I say

"Every day I ask myself, "How long until someone here bitches and moans like a woman scorned about the mods on CB?"

For a sports board, there sure is a lot of estrogen flowing."

You post:

And here's a quote from a guy who's never met my dad. Where did he get the idea that my dad's a dick? Hmmm.....

Yes, you remind me of your dad. However, notice that I did't say I dislike him. You may get that when you read those coments, but you're reaching.