Game Five: Overtime (and an untimely time-out)

OK, if I were Mark Cuban, I'd be hoppin' mad too. First he has to swallow the Stackhouse suspension in the aftermath of Thursday night's hard foul on Shaq, and then this fiasco in the last two seconds of overtime - a phantom foul against Dwayne Wade on a out-of-control, one-on-three drive, followed by a crippling miscommunication between the bench and the court which resulted in Josh Howard calling the Mavs last time-out before he should have, and the Mavs are heading home down 3-2 with tempers short and plenty of recriminations to go around. The good news is that this is the last that the Mavericks have to see of the City of Miami this year, and while they still have to take care of business at home with the Heat, they are at least finally free of the humidity.

Personally, I thought Thursday's hard foul was a little excessive myself, and was relieved at the time that it didn't result in a bench-clearing fist-fight and suspensions all around. D-Wade held Shaq down until Superman recovered his temper, and only Antoine Walker foolishly lost his cool (or perhaps foolishly acted like he'd lost his cool), which resulted in a truly unnecessary technical foul shot for the Mavs. And I was sorry to see Stack suspended for a game, although not especially surprised by it, since his foul was only slightly less egregious than Jason Williams punching former-Mav Michael Finley in the crotch during the Phoenix series. The guy I really feel sorry for is DJ Mbenga -- who was suspended six games just for attempting to rescue a damsel in distress. But this is all still in response to the ugly situation with the Pistons and the Pacers and the Ron Artest suspension at the beginning of the 2004-05 season. The League just doesn't ever want to see anything like that ever again.

As for end of the overtime, I was kinda hoping that the headline would be the Glove's driving left-handed lay-up, another clutch shot for a long-time prime-time performer now taking his minutes off the bench. But Nowitzki answered to put the Mavs back up by one with 9.7 seconds left, which put the ball back in D-Wade's hands. And yes, there were fouls...but still it's a pretty brave call to bail out a falling-down shooter with only 2 seconds left in an overtime game. Even if the shooter was pushed (and pushing too). I will say this: if it had happened on the playground, it would have CERTAINLY resulted in SOME sort of "altercation." But what can I say? You gotta respect the call....

In many ways, this game was really all about the Charity Stripe. Dwayne Wade's record-setting 21 made free throws, which broke a record that was ALMOST as old as I am (Bob Pettit's 19 made against Boston in 1958). Not to mention the Little General's puzzling "Hack-a-Shaq" strategy (although the big guy did end up only 2-12 from the line), and the Mav's own almost-perfect performance there (I think at one point they were 19-19)...until they missed three critical shots at the very end of the game. And except for his mistake at the end of OT, Josh Howard and his teammate Jason Terry truly showed their stuff as big-game ballers. 25 points for Josh in 50 minutes; 35 for Jason in the same amount of time. They definitely picked up the slack for their missing teammate.

Meanwhile (at the risk of sounding like a broken record) I'm actually starting to feel sorry for Antoine Walker. Turned down a wide-open look at a three the first possession of the game, choosing instead to drive the lane and attempt an assist that resulted in a turnover. Mavs gain possession, come down court and Josh Howard scores easily on him, almost as if he wasn't even there. Mav's next possession Howard gets another easy look and misses, then on the next misses again...but this time Antoine fouls him out on the perimeter, so Howard converts the free throws instead. Antoine finally drains a three (after first pulling it back), then with his next touch forces up one of the ugliest bricks I've ever seen, commits a second stupid foul and goes to the bench with less than four minutes gone in the first. Comes back to start the second quarter, misses another three, commits another foul, and is back on the bench for the rest of the half after playing only six and a half minutes total. Walker did return to the game in the second half, and made a nice driving lay-up along with one of two free throws. But I also noticed Wade talking with him near the center circle at the start of the fourth...and then just a few seconds later D-Wade tried to dish the ball off to Walker as Dwayne attacked the basket and drew the help defender, but Antoine was late to the spot and missed the pass, and after that Wade refused to give him the ball again, and Walker ended up spending much of the rest of the game on the bench. 6 points in 26 minutes on 2-7 shooting with two rebounds, two assists, two turnovers and four personal fouls.

At first glance Gary Payton's line looks pretty similar: 8 points in 30 minutes with two rebounds, two assists, no turnovers and four personal fouls. But Payton was 3-5 from the field, including 1-1 from beyond the arc and 1-1 from the line. And his hoops came at key times: the three to break both a Dallas run and a double-team on Wade to pull the Heat back within one, and of course the left-handed lay-in with less than half-a-minute to play in OT which gave the Heat the lead again. And even though Jason Terry gave him fits (as he does anyone who tries to guard him) Payton handled him like an old pro...not quite the all-league, All Star, Dream Team defender he once was, but close enough.

And at the end of the day, this is all about D-Wade anyway. Another 40+ (43 to be precise) night for #3, and a wrecking-ball of a fourth quarter and overtime. Now the series returns to Texas. I can hardly wait to hear what Mark Cuban has to say now.