June 5, 2023 • 46 mins
In Episode 3 of "Four Years of Heat" Israel Gutierrez dives deep into the Heat's 2011 run to the Finals and the crippling failure vs. the Mavs. Joakim Noah talks about the intense competition between the Heat and the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals, and Brendan Haywood gives incredible insight into the Dallas game plan and motivations that stifled LeBron, Wade and Bosh and shocked the world in the NBA Finals.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
I mean it's different eras. So there was regular seats, which.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Are beautiful, and there was woods, which are beautiful too.
So you probably see me when I started to be
able to touch them woods, because the energy in the
regular seats is unbelievable. Anywhere in that arena is beautiful,
you were saying. But it's also a blessing to be
able to sit on the woods right beside the heat
(00:30):
and just feel that energy and hear the conversations and
the thought processes and then the pressure, you.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Know, up coach and personal. It's a blessing.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Just about everyone who was anybody wanted to be near
this Miami Heat team once things turned around, not just
DJ Khaled. Welcome back to four years of Heat. I'm
your host, Israel Dutierrez and this is episode three, The
Big Failure. Last we checked, the Miami Heat were rolling
into twenty eleven, winning twenty one of twenty two games.
(01:05):
In fact, they'd won twenty two of twenty four, with
the only two l's being those foreshadowing losses to the
Dallas Mavericks. But there would be another formidable foe testing
every last nerve of the Miami Heat. That team was
the Chicago Bulls. But unlike the rivalry with the Mavericks,
(01:27):
this conflict had a couple more layers to it. This
one began before Miami even signed Bosh, Wade and James,
because the Bulls were trying to do the exact same thing.
Signed Bosh, Wade and James, probably in that order.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
We were trying to get all those guys to come
to Chicago. You know, the goal was always to get
the team as strong as possible.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
That was Joe Kim Noah. He was a thirteen year
NBA veteran, a two time All Star, and the Defensive
Player of the Year in twenty fourteen. He also won
a pair of national titles for my Florida Gators in college,
which is probably an unnecessary note, but hey, the host
gets a little leeway. He spent the first nine years
of his career with the Bulls, and given that his
(02:08):
teammate Derek Rose wasn't the most vocal or outgoing of stars,
the gregarious Noah was offering his best recruiting pitches when
Miami's trio were free agents in twenty ten.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
But I remember Chris Bosh coming to Chicago and he
wasn't sure yet. I could tell and I mean Chicago
would have been such a good fit for himself. I
always felt like if Bosh came that he could get
those other guys too.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
This wasn't some desperate dream for Chicago either. Remember when
Wade said he didn't talk to Lebron for a few
days prior to the decision. Well, Wade wanted to make
sure all his bases were covered before he resigned with
Miami as well, and that meant checking in with his
hometown team of Chicago one more time before committing. As
(02:56):
Brian Windhorst a ESPN tells it, Wade made one final
visit to Chicago with the very real intention of trying
to bring the trio to a Bulls team already featuring
Rose and Noah.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
When Dwayne Wade had two meetings with the Bulls, he
didn't have that second meeting for fun. He was seriously
wanting to listen to them. And the dynamics around that
were very interesting because in the first meeting with the Bulls,
the Bulls didn't give Dwayne Wade their entire pitch because
(03:30):
they were afraid that Dwayne was going to take their
ideas and their plans for free agency immediately back to
the Heat, they thought they were getting a cursory meeting,
and after meeting with the Heat and hearing the triple
threat idea from pat Riley to get himself to stay
and to add Bosh and Lebron, when Wade asked for
(03:53):
the second meeting with the Bulls, he asked the Bulls
if they could create enough salary cap space to be
all to be able to bring in Bosh and Lebron,
and so in a way, when the Bulls first met
with Dwayne, they were concerned that he was going to
be a mole, when in fact, at the end, it
was actually Dwayne that took the Heat's plan to the
(04:14):
Bulls and presented it because frankly, with Joe, Kim, Noah
and Derek Rose on the roster, their team could have
been even better with the big three than the Heat
could have been.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
In the end, the Bulls wound up signing free agent
Carlos Boozer from Utah to add to their youthful mix
of talent. With the Bulls having been the closest team
outside of Miami or Cleveland to sign Lebron Boscher Wade,
it provided the backdrop for what would be a contentious
season between the teams. Noah and the Bulls settled comfortably
into that rivalry, not just because they had a talented
(04:48):
roster headed by a player who would be named MVP
at the end of the season, but because they felt
the support from around the country from people who wanted
to see Miami fail.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
There was a lot of people who hated the Heat,
so we actually kind of felt like we were like
the underdog, you know, the guys who had a chance
to get them, and that was that was pretty cool,
you know. I felt that not just for love from Chicago,
but from from all around the country, you know, because
there wasn't too many teams that could even compete with them.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Indeed, the Heat were thirty and eleven going into the
first regular season meeting with the Bulls. Miami had lost
too straight went without James to start a road trip,
but it was nothing like the panicky losses from the
start of the season. That is, until the Heat got
to Chicago. January fifteenth was the first of three regular
season losses to the Bulls, all agonizingly close games. And
(05:42):
if there were major questions hovering around the Heat at
the time, among them was the classic who lead the
way late in a close game. Not so much for
the ninety nine to ninety six first loss to the
Bulls because Lebron sat that game out and Bosh was
playing through an aggravated back injury. The second meeting with
the Bulls happens five weeks later, again in Chicago. Here's
(06:03):
where it really started to look like the Bulls had
the Heat's number. Miami had its three stars available, but
only two really showed up to play on this night.
Bosh not only had his worst career shooting night, going
one for eighteen from the field with Noah guarding him
most of the night, but he had probably the floppiest
moment of his career, falling to the ground and grabbing
(06:25):
his face after Boozer maybe grazed it with his elbows.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
Boser and Bosh.
Speaker 7 (06:34):
Offensive time.
Speaker 8 (06:36):
Now did they collide?
Speaker 9 (06:37):
That Ooser and Bosh collide for the offensive Albert, because
all of Boozer did was turn right into him.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
This is all about selling it.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Caw, which sometimes you've got.
Speaker 10 (06:49):
To sell it.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
And if it was support from the others Bosh was
hoping for, he wouldn't get that either. The Heat bench
scored all of two points in this game, and Eddie House, Bucket,
Oh and Lebron, Wade and Bosh all played more than
forty minutes in a regular season game in February. That's
almost unthinkable in today's regular season NBA. Miami still only
(07:13):
lost that game by four points. Then there was the
third and final meeting of the season, the only one
in Miami, just two weeks removed from the last matchup.
This time, the Heat bench tripled its output, giving the
Heat six wopping points from reserves. Rose out scored everyone
with twenty seven points, and the Heat lost a one
point game, scoring just eighty six points, the lowest total
(07:36):
of the three meetings, and it was a painful finish
that fed into all of the Heat teams and securities.
Here's a portion of the NBA TV highlights from that
night with Mark Fine and Brent Barry.
Speaker 11 (07:47):
Now Chicago off won last play, Who's going to get
the ball?
Speaker 12 (07:51):
Lebron Oh, Lebron James here on an isolation on Noah,
you take your chances here, But again, Miami Heat is
the talk of the town. Not Able to finish, gets
a second chance and no good.
Speaker 13 (08:03):
Two of the three d missed there and hey, great
win for the Chicago Bulls on the road beating a
Miami t team that again desperately wanted to win.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
They have lost four straight.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Now after the game, head coach Eric Spolster wanted to
get across to the media and viewing audience just how
much his players cared. But Sposter apparently broken unwritten rule
that professional basketball players can't show emotional vulnerability.
Speaker 14 (08:30):
That's the only thing that's about right now, and this
is painful for every single one of us going through this.
There a couple guys crying in the locker room right now.
It is not a matter of want. It is a
matter of doing and continuing to put ourselves in this
position until we break through.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Spolster's revelation led to Wade being asked about the emotional
locker room.
Speaker 15 (08:55):
I know, you guys get tired of sitting up here
explaining the same thing over and over again. But sposually
said it was an emotional locker room. Afterwards, some guys
were crying and that kind of thing. What where is
this team right now? Mentally just from a psychic standpoint, well,
right now.
Speaker 16 (09:10):
You know we we we f we lost four in
a row. You know, we lost three, three out of four.
That we should have won, could have won at home,
so you know we had to figure it out. You know,
we it'side our locker room. You know, we stay together.
You know we're brothers. You know we win together, we
(09:32):
lose together. Outside of the Miami Heat are exactly what
everyone wanted, you know, losing games. The world's better now
since the Heat is losing. But we're figured out. You know,
it's just it's just painful.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
It hurts.
Speaker 16 (09:47):
You know, we're competitors' winners, we're human, and and we'll
move on and try to learn from it through frustration.
You wanna know IFOU was cr why you wanna know
if I was crying? The question is I'm not gonna
tell you that.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
I remember leaving that postgame news conference with Spolster thinking, Wow,
regular season basketball doesn't get more intense than this, And
Spoe really brought that home with just the one observation.
What the rest of the country seemed to be saying, though,
was some combination of the Heat or a weak minded group,
and Spolster is not the coach for them if he's
(10:21):
betraying locker room confidences. Frankly, it was some of the
harshest overreaction to this Heat team, and that's saying a lot.
I mean, how often does a sports viewing audience love
to see the raw motion of competition? It humanizes athletes,
and we love it. Apparently not when it's Lebron weighed
in bosh. As reports eventually surfaced that players on other
(10:44):
teams were quietly mocking the emotional Heat, it would be
regular season wise the Heat's lowest point lower even than
the nine and eight start, because those were expected growing
pains from a group of new teammates. Tim Reynolds of
the Associated Press believes the Heat actually needed to experience
both the losses to the Bulls and the reemergence of
(11:06):
all the questions surrounding the team.
Speaker 10 (11:08):
Every loss was enormous, and there was no joy in
the wins. So it just seemed like with every loss
when they was twenty seven that first year, I think
they went fifty five something like that, it just felt
like they went o in twenty seven, the wins were forgotten,
and so with every loss it just got progressively angrier,
(11:31):
The questions got louder, The joy for a lot of
people got heightened by They're not good enough, They're not
good enough, They're not good enough, They're not good enough.
Chicago probably was one of a lot of tipping points
that year. But again, that team, it didn't know it then,
(11:52):
but it needed nine to eight. It needed something to chase,
It needed to stumble against certain teams. It needed to
have questions, It needed to have doubters. If they'd gone
seventy three and nine like the Warriors did in sixteen,
they probably wouldn't have won either. They needed that for
whatever reason. They needed these opponents, real or imagined, to
(12:13):
pop up and get in their path.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
The Bulls were very real, not imagined, and they would
definitely pop up again. The Heat ended that season winning
fifteen of their last eighteen games, settling into the number
two seed behind those Chicago Bulls. The first round against
the Philadelphia seventy six ers of Drew Holliday, Elton Brand
and Andrea Aguadala was a drama free five game series
(12:36):
win for Miami. The second round was another five game series,
this time over the hated Celtics. This felt like such
an accomplishment. Lebron got on his knee and bowed his
head after the game.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Jeez over Pears, he the tugger something still.
Speaker 9 (13:03):
One demastating turnover.
Speaker 17 (13:06):
But thanks to after another less just going into the chess, Lebron,
Miami is going to close it out. Drain Wade and
Lebron James exercised.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Some demons dramatic for a second round win. But that's
how big a rival the Celtics were to Lebron, who
would apologize to the city of Cleveland afterward for having
to leave there just to beat Boston. It was a
bit of a tease, though, as the most intense series
against Boston was still a year away. So we'll just
move on to the Eastern Conference Finals against those confident Bulls.
(13:44):
It was the first time the Heat were actually expected
to fail. They were facing the number one seeded Bulls
that matched up well against Miami, and they had the
explosive MVP and Derrick Rose, who was threatening to take
the league right from under Lebron in the Heat. The
Bulls took Game one of the series in Chicago with
relative ease, one o three to eighty two. Bosh, who'd
(14:08):
had his career worst shooting performance against the Bulls earlier
in the season, managed to drop thirty in Game one,
but James and Wade combined for just thirty three, had
a very.
Speaker 18 (14:18):
Quiet night full of Ron James just five for fifteen
fifteen parts to Wayne Wade seven of seventeen just eighteen
parts his Paul Bull.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
But here by the Bulls they sling it out watch
him for three Hopson, I have been.
Speaker 17 (14:37):
To the mountain top of back tas Gibson with the
followed dunk Jr. Bowles is excited about this young, energetic team.
Speaker 18 (14:49):
Nine parts, seven rebounds and a couple of sensational dunks
by Gibson. The Bulls just brought out for Cluck a
sensational right put the balls.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Here like take final series like you what.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
That Prodically After the game, however, Joe Kim Noah made
note of what he saw from the heat, or rather
what the heat made him notice.
Speaker 19 (15:18):
You know, we won, game won, And something I remember
from that was the whole Miami team was just waiting
outside outside the locker room after the games.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Usually you go straight back to the bus, you handle
your business. But the whole they really send a message
by just all being outside like like.
Speaker 8 (15:38):
We've been here before.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
I'll never I'll never forget that they wanted us to
see them, you know, before we left and let them
know like bro right you know this is a long series,
so yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
And you think that was one intentional like they wanted
you to see that.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
You know, that's that's the game with in the game,
you know that people you forget, but talking about it,
I never talked about these things.
Speaker 6 (16:06):
But you know, it's a real war out there.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
It's not check as it's chest. The Heat made their
presence fell despite the loss, and the team had another
surprise for the Bulls in Game two. You remember all
the hullabaloo around you Donnis Haslam and the Heat's main
players taking pay cuts to bring him back.
Speaker 20 (16:25):
To the team.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Well, all that sacrifice didn't result in much to this point,
thanks to a foot injury early in the season. Haslam
had surgery to repair a list frank fracture in November
twenty ten, and it was believed to be season ending.
But by the time the Eastern Conference Finals arrived, Haslam
had played three brief minutes late in the Boston series
(16:47):
and the final four minutes of garbage time in Game
one against Chicago. He was ready for more.
Speaker 21 (16:53):
I remember that. I remember that. I mean Joe Kim Noah,
I remember Joe Kim Noah and Bouza was kicking our
eyes physically. Yeah, they were young, they were they were ambitious,
they were physical, and they were giving us everything we wanted.
And you know, even though we had you know a
lot of bron and a lot of the Wade, they
(17:14):
were a good team. They were a good team that
Kirk Heinrich, you know there was they were solid. They
were if it was any team that was probably built
to give us you know, hell, there's probably that team.
You know what I'm saying them in Indiana. So I
just remember coming in practice the day before and telling
Sport I want to play. I'm ready, I want to play.
(17:37):
I think I can help us. I went through that
practice the day before I got okay, and I just
knew the next day I was I was going to play,
and I just knew that I was going to have
an impact because I've been watching that series. I've been
watching the physicality, and I'm thinking in my in my mind,
I'm saying to myself, if I'm in their locker room,
I'm going to try to beat these guys up. You know,
(17:58):
this is how I'm going to come back. The greatness
and the athleticism and the speed and the skill I'm
just gonna beat them up. I'm making physical and once again,
that's right up my alley. Like I told you, they can't.
They wanted me to be here for a reason. You know,
they sacrificed for me for a reason. So once again
I'm gonna give them the money's worth.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Haslam's toughness, rebounding, defense, and leadership where elements the Heat
had been missing all season, and in this game too,
Haslam provided it all in his first real game.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Back Ice passed that couch you file killing drawer.
Speaker 22 (18:38):
Now the Rebottles handled five again the Heat in the
open form.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
You thought us hauslo down. I know, Pads Gibson was
playful way every this game. Who's got Haslem is got
Battle's a channel right here for Miami.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
The Heat held the Bulls to seventy five pointints and
they outrebounded Chicago by four after getting buried on the
glass in game one, all part of the haslm effect.
Now Lebron did his thing also more. Actually, he not
only led the Heat to victory, but he helped calm
some of the concern that he would fold under pressure.
(19:20):
Back in Miami, the Heat managed two more wins and
headed back to Chicago to close the series. Even that
required a superhuman finish from the duo of Wade and James.
Down twelve with just over three minutes left in the game,
the pair scored sixteen of the game's next eighteen points
to take the lead with thirty seconds remaining. What couldn't
(19:41):
they do?
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Seventy seven sixty five? Chicago waight on a wrong mike shit.
Speaker 23 (19:48):
Halway James for free? Yes, Lebron, James down job wait
on a step light for prey and he was foul.
Oh Drames for free. I'm the Davis time.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
That's seven nine The polls call for time. So Lebron
with the strip five.
Speaker 23 (20:09):
Yes, Miami, that's taken away.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
A pair of Boss free throws and excellent defense by
Lebron against the MVP rows sealed the eighty three eighty
win and a berth in the NBA Finals. A regular
season of aggravation and tears versus Chicago turned into just
another five game series win for Miami.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Battle three, Battle two. Here's Rose, can it get it off?
It is block have come for the high to the
three forty cargos.
Speaker 24 (20:41):
Eighty three eighty and Miami is headed to the NBA
Finals for another match up the Bawds.
Speaker 20 (20:53):
So this we came together for get back to the
finals and give ourselves an opportunity to host that trophy.
De Way's done it once and I've been working my
tail off for eight years to try it to do it,
and uh, you know, this is a big step for us.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
It felt like the fairy tale had already been written.
The Dallas Mavericks would eventually await them in the finals,
but that team couldn't possibly provide the nightmare fuel the
Bulls did throughout the season. Sure, they swept Miami in
the regular season, but both of those happened before the
Heat found their true groove. Yep, that's pretty much what
the rest of the basketball viewing audience figured as well.
(21:31):
He'd be MAVs. It was going to be a coronation
for King James. This is where the narrator is supposed
to say.
Speaker 13 (21:38):
It wasn't Terry move me to his right, to the
top of the ark and down a dark He's open
for three all the way.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
God, that's God. What twenty six? What seven seconds remaining
a twenty to two run.
Speaker 9 (21:52):
One of the most incredible comebacks in the NBA Finals history.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
The twenty eleven Dallas Mavericks finished third in the Western Conference.
They finished second in the Southwest Division. They had one
All Star, Dirk Novisky, and a reputation for not getting
it done in the playoffs, whether it was a finals
loss after being up two games to none in two
thousand and six.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Jerry puts up go break Way the Bay Heat. They've
done it. They won their first championship in franchise.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
History or a first round exit with the MVP version
of Navisky, the greatest.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Up shop in the history of the NBA Finals.
Speaker 22 (22:44):
Their half of pre books Up Dallas coveris in such
as for sin Freddy Comes from Above, You Want to
Love It eighty six a Final four.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
But entering the twenty eleven finals, they had just accomplished
three series victor. Is that, at least in their own minds,
erased all of those past frustrations. Series wins over the
Brandon Roy led Trailblazers, the two time defending champion Los
Angeles Lakers, and the young Oklahoma City trio of Kevin Durant,
Russell Westbrook, and James Harden had the Mavericks believing they
(23:17):
were prepared for any challenge.
Speaker 13 (23:20):
For the second time in franchise history, the Dallas Mavericks
will play for the NBA Championship, and five years after
the fact, there's this matter of unfinished business.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Mark Cuban may have been one of the few who
actually thought the Mavericks could win the series. All I
can say is, there's twenty.
Speaker 9 (23:40):
Some thousand people in this building who believed in us
when nobody else did. There's all the guys in this
organization and on the court who believed in us and
thought every game, every minute of the way.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
And all I can tell everybody is we ain't done yet.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
And sure it'd be great to get a detailed look
back at those finals with Novitzky or even Jason Kidd,
the point guard on the team who's now the Mavericks
head coach. But trust me, Brendan Haywood is going to
provide the twenty eleven finals recap you didn't know you needed.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
See.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Haywood was a center on that MAVs team, but he'd
also had plenty of experience playing against Lebron in the playoffs,
as he was part of a Washington Wizards team that
lost to James and the Cavaliers in three postseason series.
He already knew how to lose to Lebron, so he
was confident his coaching staff in Dallas, led by head
coach Rick Carlisle, would teach him how to beat Lebron.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
We had a great coaching staff I'm talking about. You
got Rick Carlile on there. You got Dwayne Casey leading
our defense. You got Terry Stotts who's our offensive coordinator.
We had an incredible coaching staff. So we were more
focused on, let's focus on what they're saying on how
we can beat this team. Because every single series that
(25:05):
they gave us the blueprint to how we were gonna win,
we won doing exactly what they said do and it
worked every single time. So we weren't worried about what
the heat were doing. Like, hey, if we listen to
these guys, we have a chance.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
So what was the game plan?
Speaker 6 (25:21):
The first thing was Rick Carlile showed us lebron shooting
percentages for the playoffs and it was something ungodly like
fifty eight percent or something like that. And then he said, okay,
this is what he shoots outside of fifteen feet and
it was something incredibly low, like seventeen percent. It was
this kind of similar, similar strategy that we had with
Russell Westbrook, and so we were like, okay, so what
(25:45):
are we going to We have to make sure that
the paint is walled off. If you go back in
that series, you'll see Jason Kidds on Fast Break sprinting
back to make sure that Lebron doesn't see an open
painted area or is Sean Mary and whoever it is.
So the first thing we had to do with we
got to load up and stop him from getting into
the paint. I don't care if we're giving up shots
(26:05):
on the weak side. We're gonna help off Dwayne Wade.
We understand he's great, but he doesn't really want to
shoot from three. We might even give up a couple
of threes to make sure that Lebron doesn't go superhero
mode in the lane that was number one. We're going underscreens.
But we did it differently. And here's where guys mess
up with Lebron.
Speaker 8 (26:24):
James.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
They give him space because, like I said, especially early on,
because he doesn't shoot it as well from three as
like a step Curry. So they back up. That's the
worst thing you can do because he takes up the space.
So Rick wanted Sean Marrion, Shawn Stevenson, Jason Kidd pick
him up full court as much as possible. I want
(26:45):
you even in the half court. I want you to
be into him. And then when Tyson on myself call
out scream, we want you to recognize where the screen
is coming from and meet him on the other side.
We'll give up as many jumpers as possible, and if
you get beat, don't worry you have weak side head.
We'll even give up some of those jumpers. But everything
was pressure Lebron and don't let him get into the lane.
(27:05):
Where people mess up guarding Lebron is they back up
off of them and they let him see everything. So
now he sees the whole floor and he can attack, you,
get downhill, dunk on you, create free throws or even
when he misses, three guys had to try to block
his shot. So now the week's side rebound is open,
and we just did We just did things slightly differently at.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
That point, So it was it was obviously a big
three from them, but you were more concerned. The game
planning was around Lebron and then Dwayne and Bosh were
like secondary defensive strategy.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
We really didn't have a game plan for those guys. Wow,
And that's no disrespect. That's we were like, yo, like
that's the guy. We got to stop that. If we
don't stop that guy, the rest of this stuff doesn't matter.
Like Chris Bosh, obviously, hey man, we don't want him
shooting easy jumpers. We don't want him get hi left.
But there was there was no second and third tier
coverages for Chris Bosh like we had for Lebron And
(27:57):
with Dwayne Wade, it was more play him straight up,
don't take his pump fake. You know, he was great
in the mid range and you were a pump and
get guys up in the air. But for the most part,
we were like, hey, we feel like if we switched
Sean Marion onto him that we liked that matchup.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Well, Wade didn't mind that matchup much either. In fact,
Wade led the Heat to a Game one win with
twenty two points, ten rebounds, and six assists.
Speaker 13 (28:25):
Here's a kid around of the yard to the right,
had it stripped by Bibby up the head left side
for James touch pass way down the lane.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Later in with a foul ox Stevenson, where he continued
their assault. The MAVs fought hard, but once again Miami
learned to close love of the rid.
Speaker 22 (28:41):
It takes those it down for the Dagger in Game one,
dominant performance from Minami Heat.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
One to oh in the best of seven for Miami.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
The series shifted in Game two, not because of a
strategy or injury. It turned because of a celebration. It
was the ex Zach type of sports mythology fans want
to believe all the time, but Heywood insists this was
one hundred percent real. Wade had just hit a three
(29:10):
pointer that put the Heat up eighty eight to seventy
three with just seven minutes and fourteen seconds left in
the game.
Speaker 22 (29:16):
Lebron straight down the middle inside Chalmers, don't wait for three?
Speaker 5 (29:22):
Got it?
Speaker 8 (29:23):
Wait?
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Pop down down.
Speaker 13 (29:26):
I was like, he'd have closed this game up, but Miami,
they're largest late.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Of the night fifteen Wade always want to savor the moment,
left his hand in the air for a few extra
moments in front of the MAVs bench, and with Wade
on his way back to his bench for a time out,
James walked backward in front of him before eventually shadow
boxing with the superstar teammate. It apparently set the Mavericks ablaze.
(29:52):
Here's Heywood, Lebron James comes in front of him.
Speaker 6 (29:54):
They do the little rap video punch thing and all that.
I remember it like it was yesterday in the back
watching it, and I'm livid, like I had strained my hip.
And then it was like from that point on, Dirk
and Jason Terry went on demon time and it was
they Miami didn't score again. I don't think, or if
(30:15):
they did, it was like some free throws. I don't
think they had another bucket for the rest of the game,
and we end up coming back. If we don't win
that game, we probably don't win that series.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
The Heat managed exactly five points after that, a pair
of Lebron free throws and a Mario Chalmers three pointer
that actually tied the game at ninety three, all with
twenty four seconds left. Then, with just three seconds remaining,
Novitsky completed the comeback with the drive past Bosch for
a layup. Wade missed a three that would have won it,
and the Mavericks cracked the Heat armor.
Speaker 23 (30:45):
The wet street spit inside the Repsky the easy layup
and end with three point six left.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Wait Cull Lebron, Jay st wait wait for the way,
No dallass Miami and went ninety five ninety three.
Speaker 22 (31:04):
Bill remember June second in the Dallas Mavericks franchise Forever?
Speaker 1 (31:10):
What a comeback?
Speaker 20 (31:13):
Give up?
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Never give up, I never give went light up there.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
Jason Terry recalled the huddle just before the Mavericks began
their comeback.
Speaker 25 (31:25):
We looked at each each guy in the huddle. To
a man, me specifically looked at Dirk and said, there's
no way we're going out like this. It's too much
time left in his game. And for us to go out,
you know, in a blowout ty fashion, with them dunking
on us, shooting threes on us, it would have really
been disheartening.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Not enough to keep the momentum.
Speaker 14 (31:42):
Though.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
The Heat won Game three in Dallas by two points
behind another strong performance from Wade, But there was another
element coming into play. By Game four, Lebron hadn't been
his dominant self at all in this series. All the
game planning from the Mavericks appeared to be getting in
his head. His point totals dropped from twenty four to
(32:04):
twenty to seventeen in the first three games to this point,
with the Heat leading in the series. It was more
of an interesting note than a sign of panic. Wade
seemed well on his way to a second Finals MVP.
If the series kept trending in this direction, Lebron would
almost certainly be labeled the Scottie Pippen of the pair.
Hardly an insult, but certainly not the sidekick moniker James
(32:27):
was hoping to take on. Then Game four happened, and
Heat fans would have loved a Scottie Pippen type game
from Lebron.
Speaker 12 (32:33):
In that one.
Speaker 11 (32:34):
They got far less James. This is go freethrows. He's
struggling from le Field. This is a couple of free
throws too. Of eight tromble Field two four for the
free throw on.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Carlile made some adjustments that flummox Lebron mid series. In
Game four, he started Jj Barrea, a five foot ten
point guard, and brought to Shaun Stevenson off the bench.
It was a move designed to boost the Mavericks offense,
with Carlisle figuring Berea can defend Miami's starting point guard
Mike Bibbie without much concern, and while it didn't have
(33:22):
quite the effect on the offense in Game four that
Carlile had hoped. The coach's other adjustment made that a point.
Carlile went to a zone defense that in twenty eleven
was still quite rare in the NBA. It was Lebron's
kryptonite insomuch that his sudden weakness was inexplicable.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
James fires away short.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Brian Windhorst had seen a version of this just a
year earlier. Lebron's last in Cleveland, in a Game five
with the series tied, James put up just fifteen points
on three or fourteen shoot in forty two minutes at
home against the Celtics, and the Calves lost by thirty two.
One game later, he was pulling his jersey off on
(34:10):
his way out of the city.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
So to have that happen and back to back years,
you know, in with at the highest stakes against teams
that his team was better than to be honest, and
for him to do that two years in a row,
I wondered, because in my view, a lot of people
felt that Lebron quit on the Calves and that's why
he played poorly in that series. He didn't play poorly
(34:31):
in that series. He played poorly in that one game.
And I never believed he quit. I believe that the
pressure got to him, and I think the pressure got
to him in Dallas. And so after two years of
seeing that happen and back to back times, and this
is a guy who always raised his level. He never
before in his career could you ever say his team
(34:53):
lost because of him. You know, they made the finals
in two thousand and seven. In two thousand and eight,
he played one of the classic games of that decade
in Game seven when they got eliminated against the Celtics
eventual champion Celtics. He and Paul Pierce both went over
forty points in Game seven. In two thousand and nine,
when they lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Magic,
(35:13):
Lebron had one of the greatest series in history by
a player on a losing team. It was comparable to
Jerry West at the Lakers in nineteen sixty nine when
Jerry West won the MVP as a losing team. That's
how comparable that series was. Dominated So never before I
ever could I ever look at Lebron and say you
were the reason your team didn't win. And that happened
(35:34):
in twenty ten and twenty eleven at the highest level,
and so It made me wonder if something within him
had been broken and whether or not he was going
to be able to get to the highest level.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
The signature failure from James was when he couldn't successfully
post up Berea, who was nearly a foot shorter and
probably eighty pounds lighter. James managed only eight points in
an NBA Finals game in which he played forty six minutes.
It's commonly considered his worst game as a professional. Chalmers
(36:05):
believed college would have helped Lebron.
Speaker 7 (36:08):
No seriously, now this is my personal opinion. I don't
know if this is how he felt everything. I felt
like he was a little confused. And what I mean
by that is like when you go to college, you
get to see every type of defense you want through.
Pretty much when you get to the NBA is man
up guard. Your man will help you this way or
will help you that way. It's not a lot of
(36:29):
zones to play. So when Dallas perfectly formed that zone
to slow down Lebron, I don't think. I don't think
we had the mindset to really help him, you know,
get to the spots he needed to to make him
more successful, to make ourselves successful as a team. I
think we just kind of forced things, and the more
we forced them, it played into their hands instead of
spacing it. So I just don't think That's when I
(36:51):
go back to saying IQ, I just don't think we
had the total IQ to be ready for what everything
that Dallas threw at us. It was just thinks he
wasn't comfortab like he's used to being getting the ball,
being on top, being able to drive, see what's in
front of him, see how to attack.
Speaker 10 (37:06):
And when you got little J. J.
Speaker 7 (37:09):
Berrera, you know, swimming around, you can't really just put
the ball down freely. You gotta always be aware of looks.
So I just don't think he was comfortable in the positions.
Speaker 12 (37:16):
That he was.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Adding to that sense of lost opportunity was the condition
of Dallas's lone star Dirk Noovisky was suffering through a
sinus infection and who knows what else. That night. It
was evident throughout as he had his worst game of
the series, shooting just six of nineteen from the field.
Speaker 13 (37:34):
We've confirmed that Dirk Nooviski is playing to night's basketball
game with a fever, perhaps as high as one hundred
and one or one hundred and two.
Speaker 24 (37:40):
Degrees.
Speaker 20 (37:41):
Levinsky has been brilliant here in the finals, but he
desperately needs some help.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
But that zone defense and Lebron's subsequent disappearing act kept
the Mavericks in the game. The Heat went scoreless for
more than five minutes in the fourth quarter, and Dirk
managed to fight through any discomfort and score ten of
his twenty one in the period.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
And there it is in the hands of a visky
who's got about a hundred two fever.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Lebron meanwhile, managed only one shot attempt in the fourth quarter.
He missed it and had two turnovers.
Speaker 4 (38:11):
Wait he gets it back up top to teams, James
Stakes drives.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Pull up Tupper, won't go Miller the offensive rebound.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
As if it wasn't bad enough to try to explain
why the league's best player was apparently shrinking Under the
brightest of lights, James and Wade fanned the flames with
an attempt at humor that fell horribly flat. In between
Games four and five, cameras were surrounding the pair as
they appeared to mock Novitsky's acknowledgment of his illness.
Speaker 15 (38:40):
Oh did all hit me?
Speaker 8 (38:41):
Called thin' gonna say? Hey, just web man that weather's
ray hard to go from eighty five degree, whether man
go to mountain, that's switch.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
It might have been an attempt from Wade to take
the attention away from Lebron and his dwindling numbers. It backfired.
Here's heywood.
Speaker 6 (39:06):
It just that's one of those things that it just
gives you a little bit more buzz when you run
around the court, because they were disrespecting all League, and
Dirk already felt a certain way because of what happened
in the finals when he lost to Miami the first time,
and people were saying that, you know, like there's rumors
that Dwayne Wade and said Dirk would never be a leader.
So Dirk already it wasn't like he had a beef
(39:28):
with Dwayne Wade, but he was already looking at Dwayne
Wade's sideways. And so then him and Lebron out there
laughing at the fact that he's sick. So Dirk's looking
at it funny, the locker room's looking at it funny,
and so and that was the first time in our
eyes we were like, yo, these guys really think they're
better than us. Like they they think it's they think
it's playtime. They think they just gonna flip a switch
(39:48):
and beat us, and so that it just became like
a rallying cry. It's just one of those things that
when everybody went out there on the court, it was like, Yo,
if we come out here and just play hard to
the best billies, we can punch these guys in the mouth.
And once we punch them in the mouth, do not
let your foot up off the gas. And like just
the mentality, like Jason Terry was literally sitting there talking
(40:11):
about Lebron can't guard me, and he really and he
didn't mean that. Like one on one he's like, man,
I'm about to run hi ragged. He don't want to
run around these screens, and at that point he didn't.
To this day, Braun hates guarding guys that run around
in screens, Like Jason Terry, hit, I'm gonna running ragged.
Get any shout out of want Ain't none he could
do about it. He up here, and he's like he's
up here laughing at dirt. I want to see him laughing.
Come check me. Like that was the mentality. These were
(40:31):
conversations that were actually had.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
The Mavericks scored eighty six points or less in three
of the games at this point, and somehow the series
was still tied at to a piece, and now Dallas
had added motivation. Noviitsky was feeling better in Game five,
and the Mavericks offense re energized, managing to pull away
in the fourth quarter to take the game and the
(40:55):
series lead.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Got it and the.
Speaker 13 (40:58):
Mavericks are one went away from an NBA championship.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
What a performance from the veteran Dallas Babriicks.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
The finals format at the time was still two three
to two, which meant Game six and seven would be
back in Miami. Carlisle wasn't the coach of the Mavericks
when they lost to Miami in the two thousand and
six finals, but he did borrow a move from then
Heat head coach Pat Riley. But knowing that if you
don't win a night, you have a second chance.
Speaker 8 (41:26):
Not even thinking about it, you know, I packed one suit,
one shirt, and one tie.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
When the Heat were headed back to Dallas after taking
a three to two series lead, he told his team
to pack one suit and one tie because they wouldn't
need a second game to win the title. It worked then,
as Miami won that sixth game and the championship. So
Carlisle put his own twist on it. Here's Heywood.
Speaker 6 (41:52):
Well maybe that's where they felt it from, but we
didn't know that. So all we knew was and if
you go back and look, everybody had one suit, but
everybody in black, whether it was a black button up,
a black polo, a black jacket, everybody was wearing black.
There was in our mind, there was no Game seven.
It's game six. We're winning the game, and then we're
(42:13):
getting out of here, getting ready for our parade, and
oh yeah, let's let's we're all black because it's funeral music.
Time you get down towards the end of that game,
it's probably like anywhere from three to five minutes left.
I looked down there, and the heat down like ten,
still enough time to possibly come back. It's probably like
three minutes left. And I looked over there and the
(42:36):
only person in the huddle speaking or showing any type
of heart was Mario Chalmers.
Speaker 8 (42:41):
Like you can tell, like bron was.
Speaker 6 (42:43):
Thinking about what he's gonna sayt the press conference. Dwayne
Wade's over here, Like I looked though, and I remember
I'm tapping Toshoun Steepens.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
I'm like, yo, dog, look at look at the huddle.
Speaker 6 (42:52):
I said, they're done.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Do They're done?
Speaker 6 (42:54):
That was when I knew the series was over. There
was no camaraderie, there was no cohesion, there was no
raw ross beats. That was when I knew they were done.
Three minutes left to play Game six, it was over.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
The Heat didn't have a response left in them. Novitzky
and the Mavericks celebrated their first championship in franchise history
on Miami's floor with a Game six win.
Speaker 18 (43:17):
Novitsky pucks it up, puts it in, makes it up
time one game and only fitting Dirk Nevinsky sealing the deal,
elevating his status sunks the NBA's greats.
Speaker 13 (43:29):
The Mavericks had scaled the NBA playoff mountain, had had played.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
That their flag. They are the NBA champions for two thousand.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Tag twenty eleven, Bosh was in tears again, falling to
his knees in the hallway leading to the heat locker room.
An entire season of extremes ended in stunning fashion, and
the examination of just how that happened was well underway.
All eyes were fixed firmly on Lebron James. The Heat
(44:02):
didn't withstand all the hatred from everyone outside of Miami
all season long, just so James could fail them when
they needed him most. The ending to his first season
with the Heat couldn't have gotten much worse for Lebron,
and then it did. If his performance in the finals
wasn't enough ammunition for an entire off season of mockery,
(44:24):
his performance on the postgame podium would prove just as bad.
In a series where Lebron James had never looked more human,
he managed to appear less relatable than ever with an
answer to one question, and it would set the tone
for a dark, lonely extended off season.
Speaker 26 (44:45):
Does it bother you that so many people are happy
to see you fail? Absolutely not, because at the end
of the day, all the people that was rooting on
me to fail, No, at the end of day, they
gotta wake up tomorrow. I had the same life they
had before they woke up today. You know, they got
the same personal problems that they had today, you know,
(45:07):
And I'm gonna continue to live the way I want
to live and continue to do the things that I
want to do with me and my family and be
happy with that. So you know, they can get it
a few days or a few months, or whatever the
case may be on being happy about not only myself
but the Miami heating and not accomplishing their goal. But
you know, they got to get back to the real
world at some point.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
Coming up next on four years of the Heat.
Speaker 14 (45:32):
When Lebron and Savannah got into the house, he was
looking over the balcony on the second floor.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
And jumped over the balcony into the pool bellout.
Speaker 21 (45:40):
He got in the lab, and he came back and
completely different basketball player, which was crazy because you already
thought he had reached the pinnacle who he could be
and what he could be.
Speaker 3 (45:48):
I looked around and I hadn't felt like this edge
ever in the NBA.
Speaker 21 (45:51):
You know.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
It reminded me of my days a duke, like, oh
but this.
Speaker 6 (45:56):
This, you're right then we're winning this.
Speaker 21 (45:59):
I understand Lebron and Dwayne is great, but don't disrespect
the work that I put in. Don't disrespect my craft,
don't disrespect who I am. And I felt like that
was disrespectful.
Speaker 22 (46:09):
I don't believe that there is ever in my lifetime
covering sports in this market a more pressurized game than
that one that Lebron James played.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
In Game six in Boston. We knew what was on
the line, right, but the look, the look on you know,
Lebron's face. I got this, I got this. Four Years
of Heat is a production of iHeartRadio and the NBA
I mean it's different eras. So there was regular seats, which.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Are beautiful, and there was woods, which are beautiful too.
So you probably see me when I started to be
able to touch them woods, because the energy in the
regular seats is unbelievable. Anywhere in that arena is beautiful,
you were saying. But it's also a blessing to be
able to sit on the woods right beside the heat
(00:30):
and just feel that energy and hear the conversations and
the thought processes and then the pressure, you.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Know, up coach and personal. It's a blessing.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Just about everyone who was anybody wanted to be near
this Miami Heat team once things turned around, not just
DJ Khaled. Welcome back to four years of Heat. I'm
your host, Israel Dutierrez and this is episode three, The
Big Failure. Last we checked, the Miami Heat were rolling
into twenty eleven, winning twenty one of twenty two games.
(01:05):
In fact, they'd won twenty two of twenty four, with
the only two l's being those foreshadowing losses to the
Dallas Mavericks. But there would be another formidable foe testing
every last nerve of the Miami Heat. That team was
the Chicago Bulls. But unlike the rivalry with the Mavericks,
(01:27):
this conflict had a couple more layers to it. This
one began before Miami even signed Bosh, Wade and James,
because the Bulls were trying to do the exact same thing.
Signed Bosh, Wade and James, probably in that order.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
We were trying to get all those guys to come
to Chicago. You know, the goal was always to get
the team as strong as possible.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
That was Joe Kim Noah. He was a thirteen year
NBA veteran, a two time All Star, and the Defensive
Player of the Year in twenty fourteen. He also won
a pair of national titles for my Florida Gators in college,
which is probably an unnecessary note, but hey, the host
gets a little leeway. He spent the first nine years
of his career with the Bulls, and given that his
(02:08):
teammate Derek Rose wasn't the most vocal or outgoing of stars,
the gregarious Noah was offering his best recruiting pitches when
Miami's trio were free agents in twenty ten.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
But I remember Chris Bosh coming to Chicago and he
wasn't sure yet. I could tell and I mean Chicago
would have been such a good fit for himself. I
always felt like if Bosh came that he could get
those other guys too.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
This wasn't some desperate dream for Chicago either. Remember when
Wade said he didn't talk to Lebron for a few
days prior to the decision. Well, Wade wanted to make
sure all his bases were covered before he resigned with
Miami as well, and that meant checking in with his
hometown team of Chicago one more time before committing. As
(02:56):
Brian Windhorst a ESPN tells it, Wade made one final
visit to Chicago with the very real intention of trying
to bring the trio to a Bulls team already featuring
Rose and Noah.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
When Dwayne Wade had two meetings with the Bulls, he
didn't have that second meeting for fun. He was seriously
wanting to listen to them. And the dynamics around that
were very interesting because in the first meeting with the Bulls,
the Bulls didn't give Dwayne Wade their entire pitch because
(03:30):
they were afraid that Dwayne was going to take their
ideas and their plans for free agency immediately back to
the Heat, they thought they were getting a cursory meeting,
and after meeting with the Heat and hearing the triple
threat idea from pat Riley to get himself to stay
and to add Bosh and Lebron, when Wade asked for
(03:53):
the second meeting with the Bulls, he asked the Bulls
if they could create enough salary cap space to be
all to be able to bring in Bosh and Lebron,
and so in a way, when the Bulls first met
with Dwayne, they were concerned that he was going to
be a mole, when in fact, at the end, it
was actually Dwayne that took the Heat's plan to the
(04:14):
Bulls and presented it because frankly, with Joe, Kim, Noah
and Derek Rose on the roster, their team could have
been even better with the big three than the Heat
could have been.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
In the end, the Bulls wound up signing free agent
Carlos Boozer from Utah to add to their youthful mix
of talent. With the Bulls having been the closest team
outside of Miami or Cleveland to sign Lebron Boscher Wade,
it provided the backdrop for what would be a contentious
season between the teams. Noah and the Bulls settled comfortably
into that rivalry, not just because they had a talented
(04:48):
roster headed by a player who would be named MVP
at the end of the season, but because they felt
the support from around the country from people who wanted
to see Miami fail.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
There was a lot of people who hated the Heat,
so we actually kind of felt like we were like
the underdog, you know, the guys who had a chance
to get them, and that was that was pretty cool,
you know. I felt that not just for love from Chicago,
but from from all around the country, you know, because
there wasn't too many teams that could even compete with them.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Indeed, the Heat were thirty and eleven going into the
first regular season meeting with the Bulls. Miami had lost
too straight went without James to start a road trip,
but it was nothing like the panicky losses from the
start of the season. That is, until the Heat got
to Chicago. January fifteenth was the first of three regular
season losses to the Bulls, all agonizingly close games. And
(05:42):
if there were major questions hovering around the Heat at
the time, among them was the classic who lead the
way late in a close game. Not so much for
the ninety nine to ninety six first loss to the
Bulls because Lebron sat that game out and Bosh was
playing through an aggravated back injury. The second meeting with
the Bulls happens five weeks later, again in Chicago. Here's
(06:03):
where it really started to look like the Bulls had
the Heat's number. Miami had its three stars available, but
only two really showed up to play on this night.
Bosh not only had his worst career shooting night, going
one for eighteen from the field with Noah guarding him
most of the night, but he had probably the floppiest
moment of his career, falling to the ground and grabbing
(06:25):
his face after Boozer maybe grazed it with his elbows.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
Boser and Bosh.
Speaker 7 (06:34):
Offensive time.
Speaker 8 (06:36):
Now did they collide?
Speaker 9 (06:37):
That Ooser and Bosh collide for the offensive Albert, because
all of Boozer did was turn right into him.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
This is all about selling it.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Caw, which sometimes you've got.
Speaker 10 (06:49):
To sell it.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
And if it was support from the others Bosh was
hoping for, he wouldn't get that either. The Heat bench
scored all of two points in this game, and Eddie House, Bucket,
Oh and Lebron, Wade and Bosh all played more than
forty minutes in a regular season game in February. That's
almost unthinkable in today's regular season NBA. Miami still only
(07:13):
lost that game by four points. Then there was the
third and final meeting of the season, the only one
in Miami, just two weeks removed from the last matchup.
This time, the Heat bench tripled its output, giving the
Heat six wopping points from reserves. Rose out scored everyone
with twenty seven points, and the Heat lost a one
point game, scoring just eighty six points, the lowest total
(07:36):
of the three meetings, and it was a painful finish
that fed into all of the Heat teams and securities.
Here's a portion of the NBA TV highlights from that
night with Mark Fine and Brent Barry.
Speaker 11 (07:47):
Now Chicago off won last play, Who's going to get
the ball?
Speaker 12 (07:51):
Lebron Oh, Lebron James here on an isolation on Noah,
you take your chances here, But again, Miami Heat is
the talk of the town. Not Able to finish, gets
a second chance and no good.
Speaker 13 (08:03):
Two of the three d missed there and hey, great
win for the Chicago Bulls on the road beating a
Miami t team that again desperately wanted to win.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
They have lost four straight.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Now after the game, head coach Eric Spolster wanted to
get across to the media and viewing audience just how
much his players cared. But Sposter apparently broken unwritten rule
that professional basketball players can't show emotional vulnerability.
Speaker 14 (08:30):
That's the only thing that's about right now, and this
is painful for every single one of us going through this.
There a couple guys crying in the locker room right now.
It is not a matter of want. It is a
matter of doing and continuing to put ourselves in this
position until we break through.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Spolster's revelation led to Wade being asked about the emotional
locker room.
Speaker 15 (08:55):
I know, you guys get tired of sitting up here
explaining the same thing over and over again. But sposually
said it was an emotional locker room. Afterwards, some guys
were crying and that kind of thing. What where is
this team right now? Mentally just from a psychic standpoint, well,
right now.
Speaker 16 (09:10):
You know we we we f we lost four in
a row. You know, we lost three, three out of four.
That we should have won, could have won at home,
so you know we had to figure it out. You know,
we it'side our locker room. You know, we stay together.
You know we're brothers. You know we win together, we
(09:32):
lose together. Outside of the Miami Heat are exactly what
everyone wanted, you know, losing games. The world's better now
since the Heat is losing. But we're figured out. You know,
it's just it's just painful.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
It hurts.
Speaker 16 (09:47):
You know, we're competitors' winners, we're human, and and we'll
move on and try to learn from it through frustration.
You wanna know IFOU was cr why you wanna know
if I was crying? The question is I'm not gonna
tell you that.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
I remember leaving that postgame news conference with Spolster thinking, Wow,
regular season basketball doesn't get more intense than this, And
Spoe really brought that home with just the one observation.
What the rest of the country seemed to be saying, though,
was some combination of the Heat or a weak minded group,
and Spolster is not the coach for them if he's
(10:21):
betraying locker room confidences. Frankly, it was some of the
harshest overreaction to this Heat team, and that's saying a lot.
I mean, how often does a sports viewing audience love
to see the raw motion of competition? It humanizes athletes,
and we love it. Apparently not when it's Lebron weighed
in bosh. As reports eventually surfaced that players on other
(10:44):
teams were quietly mocking the emotional Heat, it would be
regular season wise the Heat's lowest point lower even than
the nine and eight start, because those were expected growing
pains from a group of new teammates. Tim Reynolds of
the Associated Press believes the Heat actually needed to experience
both the losses to the Bulls and the reemergence of
(11:06):
all the questions surrounding the team.
Speaker 10 (11:08):
Every loss was enormous, and there was no joy in
the wins. So it just seemed like with every loss
when they was twenty seven that first year, I think
they went fifty five something like that, it just felt
like they went o in twenty seven, the wins were forgotten,
and so with every loss it just got progressively angrier,
(11:31):
The questions got louder, The joy for a lot of
people got heightened by They're not good enough, They're not
good enough, They're not good enough, They're not good enough.
Chicago probably was one of a lot of tipping points
that year. But again, that team, it didn't know it then,
(11:52):
but it needed nine to eight. It needed something to chase,
It needed to stumble against certain teams. It needed to
have questions, It needed to have doubters. If they'd gone
seventy three and nine like the Warriors did in sixteen,
they probably wouldn't have won either. They needed that for
whatever reason. They needed these opponents, real or imagined, to
(12:13):
pop up and get in their path.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
The Bulls were very real, not imagined, and they would
definitely pop up again. The Heat ended that season winning
fifteen of their last eighteen games, settling into the number
two seed behind those Chicago Bulls. The first round against
the Philadelphia seventy six ers of Drew Holliday, Elton Brand
and Andrea Aguadala was a drama free five game series
(12:36):
win for Miami. The second round was another five game series,
this time over the hated Celtics. This felt like such
an accomplishment. Lebron got on his knee and bowed his
head after the game.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Jeez over Pears, he the tugger something still.
Speaker 9 (13:03):
One demastating turnover.
Speaker 17 (13:06):
But thanks to after another less just going into the chess, Lebron,
Miami is going to close it out. Drain Wade and
Lebron James exercised.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Some demons dramatic for a second round win. But that's
how big a rival the Celtics were to Lebron, who
would apologize to the city of Cleveland afterward for having
to leave there just to beat Boston. It was a
bit of a tease, though, as the most intense series
against Boston was still a year away. So we'll just
move on to the Eastern Conference Finals against those confident Bulls.
(13:44):
It was the first time the Heat were actually expected
to fail. They were facing the number one seeded Bulls
that matched up well against Miami, and they had the
explosive MVP and Derrick Rose, who was threatening to take
the league right from under Lebron in the Heat. The
Bulls took Game one of the series in Chicago with
relative ease, one o three to eighty two. Bosh, who'd
(14:08):
had his career worst shooting performance against the Bulls earlier
in the season, managed to drop thirty in Game one,
but James and Wade combined for just thirty three, had
a very.
Speaker 18 (14:18):
Quiet night full of Ron James just five for fifteen
fifteen parts to Wayne Wade seven of seventeen just eighteen
parts his Paul Bull.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
But here by the Bulls they sling it out watch
him for three Hopson, I have been.
Speaker 17 (14:37):
To the mountain top of back tas Gibson with the
followed dunk Jr. Bowles is excited about this young, energetic team.
Speaker 18 (14:49):
Nine parts, seven rebounds and a couple of sensational dunks
by Gibson. The Bulls just brought out for Cluck a
sensational right put the balls.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Here like take final series like you what.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
That Prodically After the game, however, Joe Kim Noah made
note of what he saw from the heat, or rather
what the heat made him notice.
Speaker 19 (15:18):
You know, we won, game won, And something I remember
from that was the whole Miami team was just waiting
outside outside the locker room after the games.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Usually you go straight back to the bus, you handle
your business. But the whole they really send a message
by just all being outside like like.
Speaker 8 (15:38):
We've been here before.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
I'll never I'll never forget that they wanted us to
see them, you know, before we left and let them
know like bro right you know this is a long series,
so yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
And you think that was one intentional like they wanted
you to see that.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
You know, that's that's the game with in the game,
you know that people you forget, but talking about it,
I never talked about these things.
Speaker 6 (16:06):
But you know, it's a real war out there.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
It's not check as it's chest. The Heat made their
presence fell despite the loss, and the team had another
surprise for the Bulls in Game two. You remember all
the hullabaloo around you Donnis Haslam and the Heat's main
players taking pay cuts to bring him back.
Speaker 20 (16:25):
To the team.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Well, all that sacrifice didn't result in much to this point,
thanks to a foot injury early in the season. Haslam
had surgery to repair a list frank fracture in November
twenty ten, and it was believed to be season ending.
But by the time the Eastern Conference Finals arrived, Haslam
had played three brief minutes late in the Boston series
(16:47):
and the final four minutes of garbage time in Game
one against Chicago. He was ready for more.
Speaker 21 (16:53):
I remember that. I remember that. I mean Joe Kim Noah,
I remember Joe Kim Noah and Bouza was kicking our
eyes physically. Yeah, they were young, they were they were ambitious,
they were physical, and they were giving us everything we wanted.
And you know, even though we had you know a
lot of bron and a lot of the Wade, they
(17:14):
were a good team. They were a good team that
Kirk Heinrich, you know there was they were solid. They
were if it was any team that was probably built
to give us you know, hell, there's probably that team.
You know what I'm saying them in Indiana. So I
just remember coming in practice the day before and telling
Sport I want to play. I'm ready, I want to play.
(17:37):
I think I can help us. I went through that
practice the day before I got okay, and I just
knew the next day I was I was going to play,
and I just knew that I was going to have
an impact because I've been watching that series. I've been
watching the physicality, and I'm thinking in my in my mind,
I'm saying to myself, if I'm in their locker room,
I'm going to try to beat these guys up. You know,
(17:58):
this is how I'm going to come back. The greatness
and the athleticism and the speed and the skill I'm
just gonna beat them up. I'm making physical and once again,
that's right up my alley. Like I told you, they can't.
They wanted me to be here for a reason. You know,
they sacrificed for me for a reason. So once again
I'm gonna give them the money's worth.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Haslam's toughness, rebounding, defense, and leadership where elements the Heat
had been missing all season, and in this game too,
Haslam provided it all in his first real game.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Back Ice passed that couch you file killing drawer.
Speaker 22 (18:38):
Now the Rebottles handled five again the Heat in the
open form.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
You thought us hauslo down. I know, Pads Gibson was
playful way every this game. Who's got Haslem is got
Battle's a channel right here for Miami.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
The Heat held the Bulls to seventy five pointints and
they outrebounded Chicago by four after getting buried on the
glass in game one, all part of the haslm effect.
Now Lebron did his thing also more. Actually, he not
only led the Heat to victory, but he helped calm
some of the concern that he would fold under pressure.
(19:20):
Back in Miami, the Heat managed two more wins and
headed back to Chicago to close the series. Even that
required a superhuman finish from the duo of Wade and James.
Down twelve with just over three minutes left in the game,
the pair scored sixteen of the game's next eighteen points
to take the lead with thirty seconds remaining. What couldn't
(19:41):
they do?
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Seventy seven sixty five? Chicago waight on a wrong mike shit.
Speaker 23 (19:48):
Halway James for free? Yes, Lebron, James down job wait
on a step light for prey and he was foul.
Oh Drames for free. I'm the Davis time.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
That's seven nine The polls call for time. So Lebron
with the strip five.
Speaker 23 (20:09):
Yes, Miami, that's taken away.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
A pair of Boss free throws and excellent defense by
Lebron against the MVP rows sealed the eighty three eighty
win and a berth in the NBA Finals. A regular
season of aggravation and tears versus Chicago turned into just
another five game series win for Miami.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Battle three, Battle two. Here's Rose, can it get it off?
It is block have come for the high to the
three forty cargos.
Speaker 24 (20:41):
Eighty three eighty and Miami is headed to the NBA
Finals for another match up the Bawds.
Speaker 20 (20:53):
So this we came together for get back to the
finals and give ourselves an opportunity to host that trophy.
De Way's done it once and I've been working my
tail off for eight years to try it to do it,
and uh, you know, this is a big step for us.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
It felt like the fairy tale had already been written.
The Dallas Mavericks would eventually await them in the finals,
but that team couldn't possibly provide the nightmare fuel the
Bulls did throughout the season. Sure, they swept Miami in
the regular season, but both of those happened before the
Heat found their true groove. Yep, that's pretty much what
the rest of the basketball viewing audience figured as well.
(21:31):
He'd be MAVs. It was going to be a coronation
for King James. This is where the narrator is supposed
to say.
Speaker 13 (21:38):
It wasn't Terry move me to his right, to the
top of the ark and down a dark He's open
for three all the way.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
God, that's God. What twenty six? What seven seconds remaining
a twenty to two run.
Speaker 9 (21:52):
One of the most incredible comebacks in the NBA Finals history.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
The twenty eleven Dallas Mavericks finished third in the Western Conference.
They finished second in the Southwest Division. They had one
All Star, Dirk Novisky, and a reputation for not getting
it done in the playoffs, whether it was a finals
loss after being up two games to none in two
thousand and six.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Jerry puts up go break Way the Bay Heat. They've
done it. They won their first championship in franchise.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
History or a first round exit with the MVP version
of Navisky, the greatest.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Up shop in the history of the NBA Finals.
Speaker 22 (22:44):
Their half of pre books Up Dallas coveris in such
as for sin Freddy Comes from Above, You Want to
Love It eighty six a Final four.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
But entering the twenty eleven finals, they had just accomplished
three series victor. Is that, at least in their own minds,
erased all of those past frustrations. Series wins over the
Brandon Roy led Trailblazers, the two time defending champion Los
Angeles Lakers, and the young Oklahoma City trio of Kevin Durant,
Russell Westbrook, and James Harden had the Mavericks believing they
(23:17):
were prepared for any challenge.
Speaker 13 (23:20):
For the second time in franchise history, the Dallas Mavericks
will play for the NBA Championship, and five years after
the fact, there's this matter of unfinished business.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Mark Cuban may have been one of the few who
actually thought the Mavericks could win the series. All I
can say is, there's twenty.
Speaker 9 (23:40):
Some thousand people in this building who believed in us
when nobody else did. There's all the guys in this
organization and on the court who believed in us and
thought every game, every minute of the way.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
And all I can tell everybody is we ain't done yet.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
And sure it'd be great to get a detailed look
back at those finals with Novitzky or even Jason Kidd,
the point guard on the team who's now the Mavericks
head coach. But trust me, Brendan Haywood is going to
provide the twenty eleven finals recap you didn't know you needed.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
See.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Haywood was a center on that MAVs team, but he'd
also had plenty of experience playing against Lebron in the playoffs,
as he was part of a Washington Wizards team that
lost to James and the Cavaliers in three postseason series.
He already knew how to lose to Lebron, so he
was confident his coaching staff in Dallas, led by head
coach Rick Carlisle, would teach him how to beat Lebron.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
We had a great coaching staff I'm talking about. You
got Rick Carlile on there. You got Dwayne Casey leading
our defense. You got Terry Stotts who's our offensive coordinator.
We had an incredible coaching staff. So we were more
focused on, let's focus on what they're saying on how
we can beat this team. Because every single series that
(25:05):
they gave us the blueprint to how we were gonna win,
we won doing exactly what they said do and it
worked every single time. So we weren't worried about what
the heat were doing. Like, hey, if we listen to
these guys, we have a chance.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
So what was the game plan?
Speaker 6 (25:21):
The first thing was Rick Carlile showed us lebron shooting
percentages for the playoffs and it was something ungodly like
fifty eight percent or something like that. And then he said, okay,
this is what he shoots outside of fifteen feet and
it was something incredibly low, like seventeen percent. It was
this kind of similar, similar strategy that we had with
Russell Westbrook, and so we were like, okay, so what
(25:45):
are we going to We have to make sure that
the paint is walled off. If you go back in
that series, you'll see Jason Kidds on Fast Break sprinting
back to make sure that Lebron doesn't see an open
painted area or is Sean Mary and whoever it is.
So the first thing we had to do with we
got to load up and stop him from getting into
the paint. I don't care if we're giving up shots
(26:05):
on the weak side. We're gonna help off Dwayne Wade.
We understand he's great, but he doesn't really want to
shoot from three. We might even give up a couple
of threes to make sure that Lebron doesn't go superhero
mode in the lane that was number one. We're going underscreens.
But we did it differently. And here's where guys mess
up with Lebron.
Speaker 8 (26:24):
James.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
They give him space because, like I said, especially early on,
because he doesn't shoot it as well from three as
like a step Curry. So they back up. That's the
worst thing you can do because he takes up the space.
So Rick wanted Sean Marrion, Shawn Stevenson, Jason Kidd pick
him up full court as much as possible. I want
(26:45):
you even in the half court. I want you to
be into him. And then when Tyson on myself call
out scream, we want you to recognize where the screen
is coming from and meet him on the other side.
We'll give up as many jumpers as possible, and if
you get beat, don't worry you have weak side head.
We'll even give up some of those jumpers. But everything
was pressure Lebron and don't let him get into the lane.
(27:05):
Where people mess up guarding Lebron is they back up
off of them and they let him see everything. So
now he sees the whole floor and he can attack, you,
get downhill, dunk on you, create free throws or even
when he misses, three guys had to try to block
his shot. So now the week's side rebound is open,
and we just did We just did things slightly differently at.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
That point, So it was it was obviously a big
three from them, but you were more concerned. The game
planning was around Lebron and then Dwayne and Bosh were
like secondary defensive strategy.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
We really didn't have a game plan for those guys. Wow,
And that's no disrespect. That's we were like, yo, like
that's the guy. We got to stop that. If we
don't stop that guy, the rest of this stuff doesn't matter.
Like Chris Bosh, obviously, hey man, we don't want him
shooting easy jumpers. We don't want him get hi left.
But there was there was no second and third tier
coverages for Chris Bosh like we had for Lebron And
(27:57):
with Dwayne Wade, it was more play him straight up,
don't take his pump fake. You know, he was great
in the mid range and you were a pump and
get guys up in the air. But for the most part,
we were like, hey, we feel like if we switched
Sean Marion onto him that we liked that matchup.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Well, Wade didn't mind that matchup much either. In fact,
Wade led the Heat to a Game one win with
twenty two points, ten rebounds, and six assists.
Speaker 13 (28:25):
Here's a kid around of the yard to the right,
had it stripped by Bibby up the head left side
for James touch pass way down the lane.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Later in with a foul ox Stevenson, where he continued
their assault. The MAVs fought hard, but once again Miami
learned to close love of the rid.
Speaker 22 (28:41):
It takes those it down for the Dagger in Game one,
dominant performance from Minami Heat.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
One to oh in the best of seven for Miami.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
The series shifted in Game two, not because of a
strategy or injury. It turned because of a celebration. It
was the ex Zach type of sports mythology fans want
to believe all the time, but Heywood insists this was
one hundred percent real. Wade had just hit a three
(29:10):
pointer that put the Heat up eighty eight to seventy
three with just seven minutes and fourteen seconds left in
the game.
Speaker 22 (29:16):
Lebron straight down the middle inside Chalmers, don't wait for three?
Speaker 5 (29:22):
Got it?
Speaker 8 (29:23):
Wait?
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Pop down down.
Speaker 13 (29:26):
I was like, he'd have closed this game up, but Miami,
they're largest late.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Of the night fifteen Wade always want to savor the moment,
left his hand in the air for a few extra
moments in front of the MAVs bench, and with Wade
on his way back to his bench for a time out,
James walked backward in front of him before eventually shadow
boxing with the superstar teammate. It apparently set the Mavericks ablaze.
(29:52):
Here's Heywood, Lebron James comes in front of him.
Speaker 6 (29:54):
They do the little rap video punch thing and all that.
I remember it like it was yesterday in the back
watching it, and I'm livid, like I had strained my hip.
And then it was like from that point on, Dirk
and Jason Terry went on demon time and it was
they Miami didn't score again. I don't think, or if
(30:15):
they did, it was like some free throws. I don't
think they had another bucket for the rest of the game,
and we end up coming back. If we don't win
that game, we probably don't win that series.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
The Heat managed exactly five points after that, a pair
of Lebron free throws and a Mario Chalmers three pointer
that actually tied the game at ninety three, all with
twenty four seconds left. Then, with just three seconds remaining,
Novitsky completed the comeback with the drive past Bosch for
a layup. Wade missed a three that would have won it,
and the Mavericks cracked the Heat armor.
Speaker 23 (30:45):
The wet street spit inside the Repsky the easy layup
and end with three point six left.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Wait Cull Lebron, Jay st wait wait for the way,
No dallass Miami and went ninety five ninety three.
Speaker 22 (31:04):
Bill remember June second in the Dallas Mavericks franchise Forever?
Speaker 1 (31:10):
What a comeback?
Speaker 20 (31:13):
Give up?
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Never give up, I never give went light up there.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
Jason Terry recalled the huddle just before the Mavericks began
their comeback.
Speaker 25 (31:25):
We looked at each each guy in the huddle. To
a man, me specifically looked at Dirk and said, there's
no way we're going out like this. It's too much
time left in his game. And for us to go out,
you know, in a blowout ty fashion, with them dunking
on us, shooting threes on us, it would have really
been disheartening.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Not enough to keep the momentum.
Speaker 14 (31:42):
Though.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
The Heat won Game three in Dallas by two points
behind another strong performance from Wade, But there was another
element coming into play. By Game four, Lebron hadn't been
his dominant self at all in this series. All the
game planning from the Mavericks appeared to be getting in
his head. His point totals dropped from twenty four to
(32:04):
twenty to seventeen in the first three games to this point,
with the Heat leading in the series. It was more
of an interesting note than a sign of panic. Wade
seemed well on his way to a second Finals MVP.
If the series kept trending in this direction, Lebron would
almost certainly be labeled the Scottie Pippen of the pair.
Hardly an insult, but certainly not the sidekick moniker James
(32:27):
was hoping to take on. Then Game four happened, and
Heat fans would have loved a Scottie Pippen type game
from Lebron.
Speaker 12 (32:33):
In that one.
Speaker 11 (32:34):
They got far less James. This is go freethrows. He's
struggling from le Field. This is a couple of free
throws too. Of eight tromble Field two four for the
free throw on.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Carlile made some adjustments that flummox Lebron mid series. In
Game four, he started Jj Barrea, a five foot ten
point guard, and brought to Shaun Stevenson off the bench.
It was a move designed to boost the Mavericks offense,
with Carlisle figuring Berea can defend Miami's starting point guard
Mike Bibbie without much concern, and while it didn't have
(33:22):
quite the effect on the offense in Game four that
Carlile had hoped. The coach's other adjustment made that a point.
Carlile went to a zone defense that in twenty eleven
was still quite rare in the NBA. It was Lebron's
kryptonite insomuch that his sudden weakness was inexplicable.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
James fires away short.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Brian Windhorst had seen a version of this just a
year earlier. Lebron's last in Cleveland, in a Game five
with the series tied, James put up just fifteen points
on three or fourteen shoot in forty two minutes at
home against the Celtics, and the Calves lost by thirty two.
One game later, he was pulling his jersey off on
(34:10):
his way out of the city.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
So to have that happen and back to back years,
you know, in with at the highest stakes against teams
that his team was better than to be honest, and
for him to do that two years in a row,
I wondered, because in my view, a lot of people
felt that Lebron quit on the Calves and that's why
he played poorly in that series. He didn't play poorly
(34:31):
in that series. He played poorly in that one game.
And I never believed he quit. I believe that the
pressure got to him, and I think the pressure got
to him in Dallas. And so after two years of
seeing that happen and back to back times, and this
is a guy who always raised his level. He never
before in his career could you ever say his team
(34:53):
lost because of him. You know, they made the finals
in two thousand and seven. In two thousand and eight,
he played one of the classic games of that decade
in Game seven when they got eliminated against the Celtics
eventual champion Celtics. He and Paul Pierce both went over
forty points in Game seven. In two thousand and nine,
when they lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Magic,
(35:13):
Lebron had one of the greatest series in history by
a player on a losing team. It was comparable to
Jerry West at the Lakers in nineteen sixty nine when
Jerry West won the MVP as a losing team. That's
how comparable that series was. Dominated So never before I
ever could I ever look at Lebron and say you
were the reason your team didn't win. And that happened
(35:34):
in twenty ten and twenty eleven at the highest level,
and so It made me wonder if something within him
had been broken and whether or not he was going
to be able to get to the highest level.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
The signature failure from James was when he couldn't successfully
post up Berea, who was nearly a foot shorter and
probably eighty pounds lighter. James managed only eight points in
an NBA Finals game in which he played forty six minutes.
It's commonly considered his worst game as a professional. Chalmers
(36:05):
believed college would have helped Lebron.
Speaker 7 (36:08):
No seriously, now this is my personal opinion. I don't
know if this is how he felt everything. I felt
like he was a little confused. And what I mean
by that is like when you go to college, you
get to see every type of defense you want through.
Pretty much when you get to the NBA is man
up guard. Your man will help you this way or
will help you that way. It's not a lot of
(36:29):
zones to play. So when Dallas perfectly formed that zone
to slow down Lebron, I don't think. I don't think
we had the mindset to really help him, you know,
get to the spots he needed to to make him
more successful, to make ourselves successful as a team. I
think we just kind of forced things, and the more
we forced them, it played into their hands instead of
spacing it. So I just don't think That's when I
(36:51):
go back to saying IQ, I just don't think we
had the total IQ to be ready for what everything
that Dallas threw at us. It was just thinks he
wasn't comfortab like he's used to being getting the ball,
being on top, being able to drive, see what's in
front of him, see how to attack.
Speaker 10 (37:06):
And when you got little J. J.
Speaker 7 (37:09):
Berrera, you know, swimming around, you can't really just put
the ball down freely. You gotta always be aware of looks.
So I just don't think he was comfortable in the positions.
Speaker 12 (37:16):
That he was.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Adding to that sense of lost opportunity was the condition
of Dallas's lone star Dirk Noovisky was suffering through a
sinus infection and who knows what else. That night. It
was evident throughout as he had his worst game of
the series, shooting just six of nineteen from the field.
Speaker 13 (37:34):
We've confirmed that Dirk Nooviski is playing to night's basketball
game with a fever, perhaps as high as one hundred
and one or one hundred and two.
Speaker 24 (37:40):
Degrees.
Speaker 20 (37:41):
Levinsky has been brilliant here in the finals, but he
desperately needs some help.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
But that zone defense and Lebron's subsequent disappearing act kept
the Mavericks in the game. The Heat went scoreless for
more than five minutes in the fourth quarter, and Dirk
managed to fight through any discomfort and score ten of
his twenty one in the period.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
And there it is in the hands of a visky
who's got about a hundred two fever.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Lebron meanwhile, managed only one shot attempt in the fourth quarter.
He missed it and had two turnovers.
Speaker 4 (38:11):
Wait he gets it back up top to teams, James
Stakes drives.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Pull up Tupper, won't go Miller the offensive rebound.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
As if it wasn't bad enough to try to explain
why the league's best player was apparently shrinking Under the
brightest of lights, James and Wade fanned the flames with
an attempt at humor that fell horribly flat. In between
Games four and five, cameras were surrounding the pair as
they appeared to mock Novitsky's acknowledgment of his illness.
Speaker 15 (38:40):
Oh did all hit me?
Speaker 8 (38:41):
Called thin' gonna say? Hey, just web man that weather's
ray hard to go from eighty five degree, whether man
go to mountain, that's switch.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
It might have been an attempt from Wade to take
the attention away from Lebron and his dwindling numbers. It backfired.
Here's heywood.
Speaker 6 (39:06):
It just that's one of those things that it just
gives you a little bit more buzz when you run
around the court, because they were disrespecting all League, and
Dirk already felt a certain way because of what happened
in the finals when he lost to Miami the first time,
and people were saying that, you know, like there's rumors
that Dwayne Wade and said Dirk would never be a leader.
So Dirk already it wasn't like he had a beef
(39:28):
with Dwayne Wade, but he was already looking at Dwayne
Wade's sideways. And so then him and Lebron out there
laughing at the fact that he's sick. So Dirk's looking
at it funny, the locker room's looking at it funny,
and so and that was the first time in our
eyes we were like, yo, these guys really think they're
better than us. Like they they think it's they think
it's playtime. They think they just gonna flip a switch
(39:48):
and beat us, and so that it just became like
a rallying cry. It's just one of those things that
when everybody went out there on the court, it was like, Yo,
if we come out here and just play hard to
the best billies, we can punch these guys in the mouth.
And once we punch them in the mouth, do not
let your foot up off the gas. And like just
the mentality, like Jason Terry was literally sitting there talking
(40:11):
about Lebron can't guard me, and he really and he
didn't mean that. Like one on one he's like, man,
I'm about to run hi ragged. He don't want to
run around these screens, and at that point he didn't.
To this day, Braun hates guarding guys that run around
in screens, Like Jason Terry, hit, I'm gonna running ragged.
Get any shout out of want Ain't none he could
do about it. He up here, and he's like he's
up here laughing at dirt. I want to see him laughing.
Come check me. Like that was the mentality. These were
(40:31):
conversations that were actually had.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
The Mavericks scored eighty six points or less in three
of the games at this point, and somehow the series
was still tied at to a piece, and now Dallas
had added motivation. Noviitsky was feeling better in Game five,
and the Mavericks offense re energized, managing to pull away
in the fourth quarter to take the game and the
(40:55):
series lead.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Got it and the.
Speaker 13 (40:58):
Mavericks are one went away from an NBA championship.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
What a performance from the veteran Dallas Babriicks.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
The finals format at the time was still two three
to two, which meant Game six and seven would be
back in Miami. Carlisle wasn't the coach of the Mavericks
when they lost to Miami in the two thousand and
six finals, but he did borrow a move from then
Heat head coach Pat Riley. But knowing that if you
don't win a night, you have a second chance.
Speaker 8 (41:26):
Not even thinking about it, you know, I packed one suit,
one shirt, and one tie.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
When the Heat were headed back to Dallas after taking
a three to two series lead, he told his team
to pack one suit and one tie because they wouldn't
need a second game to win the title. It worked then,
as Miami won that sixth game and the championship. So
Carlisle put his own twist on it. Here's Heywood.
Speaker 6 (41:52):
Well maybe that's where they felt it from, but we
didn't know that. So all we knew was and if
you go back and look, everybody had one suit, but
everybody in black, whether it was a black button up,
a black polo, a black jacket, everybody was wearing black.
There was in our mind, there was no Game seven.
It's game six. We're winning the game, and then we're
(42:13):
getting out of here, getting ready for our parade, and
oh yeah, let's let's we're all black because it's funeral music.
Time you get down towards the end of that game,
it's probably like anywhere from three to five minutes left.
I looked down there, and the heat down like ten,
still enough time to possibly come back. It's probably like
three minutes left. And I looked over there and the
(42:36):
only person in the huddle speaking or showing any type
of heart was Mario Chalmers.
Speaker 8 (42:41):
Like you can tell, like bron was.
Speaker 6 (42:43):
Thinking about what he's gonna sayt the press conference. Dwayne
Wade's over here, Like I looked though, and I remember
I'm tapping Toshoun Steepens.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
I'm like, yo, dog, look at look at the huddle.
Speaker 6 (42:52):
I said, they're done.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Do They're done?
Speaker 6 (42:54):
That was when I knew the series was over. There
was no camaraderie, there was no cohesion, there was no
raw ross beats. That was when I knew they were done.
Three minutes left to play Game six, it was over.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
The Heat didn't have a response left in them. Novitzky
and the Mavericks celebrated their first championship in franchise history
on Miami's floor with a Game six win.
Speaker 18 (43:17):
Novitsky pucks it up, puts it in, makes it up
time one game and only fitting Dirk Nevinsky sealing the deal,
elevating his status sunks the NBA's greats.
Speaker 13 (43:29):
The Mavericks had scaled the NBA playoff mountain, had had played.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
That their flag. They are the NBA champions for two thousand.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Tag twenty eleven, Bosh was in tears again, falling to
his knees in the hallway leading to the heat locker room.
An entire season of extremes ended in stunning fashion, and
the examination of just how that happened was well underway.
All eyes were fixed firmly on Lebron James. The Heat
(44:02):
didn't withstand all the hatred from everyone outside of Miami
all season long, just so James could fail them when
they needed him most. The ending to his first season
with the Heat couldn't have gotten much worse for Lebron,
and then it did. If his performance in the finals
wasn't enough ammunition for an entire off season of mockery,
(44:24):
his performance on the postgame podium would prove just as bad.
In a series where Lebron James had never looked more human,
he managed to appear less relatable than ever with an
answer to one question, and it would set the tone
for a dark, lonely extended off season.
Speaker 26 (44:45):
Does it bother you that so many people are happy
to see you fail? Absolutely not, because at the end
of the day, all the people that was rooting on
me to fail, No, at the end of day, they
gotta wake up tomorrow. I had the same life they
had before they woke up today. You know, they got
the same personal problems that they had today, you know,
(45:07):
And I'm gonna continue to live the way I want
to live and continue to do the things that I
want to do with me and my family and be
happy with that. So you know, they can get it
a few days or a few months, or whatever the
case may be on being happy about not only myself
but the Miami heating and not accomplishing their goal. But
you know, they got to get back to the real
world at some point.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
Coming up next on four years of the Heat.
Speaker 14 (45:32):
When Lebron and Savannah got into the house, he was
looking over the balcony on the second floor.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
And jumped over the balcony into the pool bellout.
Speaker 21 (45:40):
He got in the lab, and he came back and
completely different basketball player, which was crazy because you already
thought he had reached the pinnacle who he could be
and what he could be.
Speaker 3 (45:48):
I looked around and I hadn't felt like this edge
ever in the NBA.
Speaker 21 (45:51):
You know.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
It reminded me of my days a duke, like, oh
but this.
Speaker 6 (45:56):
This, you're right then we're winning this.
Speaker 21 (45:59):
I understand Lebron and Dwayne is great, but don't disrespect
the work that I put in. Don't disrespect my craft,
don't disrespect who I am. And I felt like that
was disrespectful.
Speaker 22 (46:09):
I don't believe that there is ever in my lifetime
covering sports in this market a more pressurized game than
that one that Lebron James played.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
In Game six in Boston. We knew what was on
the line, right, but the look, the look on you know,
Lebron's face. I got this, I got this. Four Years
of Heat is a production of iHeartRadio and the NBA
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