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Color Me Surprised

The Miami Heat are your 2005-2006 NBA champions. A couple of days ago, I made the following comment about the Heat’s chances of winning this year’s championship:

Seeing how mightily the Heat struggled in Dallas in games one and two, I think the Mavs are going to take this series in seven. I will be more than a little surprised if that doesn’t happen.

Well, I’m more than a little surprised. I really didn’t think the Heat had it in them to work their way back from the shellacking they took in Dallas in games one and two. They were so thoroughly dominated in Dallas, and two of the three games in Miami were so closely contested, that I thought Dallas would turn it back on once they were at home and close the Heat out, a la Houston versus New York in 1994. That didn’t happen.

But how good is Dwyane Wade? I already wrote about this in my previous post, but add on some additional respect now that he’s won a championship, having closed out the opponent on their home court to boot. Yes, he took advantage of some generous calls, but no Maverick was willing to take it to the rim as hard or as often as Wade did, and that’s the difference in the series.

If Josh Howard was the goat of game five, Jason Terry is definitely the goat of game six. He was 7 of 25 from the floor and 2 of 11 from the three point line. He couldn’t buy a bucket in the second half. And of course he had the last second three point attempt to tie, and it clanked off the rim. Hopefully for him he’ll get another shot at the Finals, because you know this particular appearance will leave a bad taste in his mouth.

We already knew this, but I think we can set this in stone: the days of Shaquille O’Neal as a dominant NBA center are over. He’s a good NBA center. An above average NBA center. But no longer a dominant NBA center. As long as the Heat have Dwyane Wade, they can compete for championships. And I think Shaq will be able to contribute to a sufficient degree that the Heat will remain competitive. But Dwyane carried Shaq to this title, and I don’t think anyone is going to argue otherwise.

I did some brief searching around the blogosphere to gauge the reaction of others to these recently concluded NBA Finals. This guy is more than a little pissed off about the result. He starts off his post with the following:

MAN YOU KNOW I HAVE BEEN A MAVS FAN SINCE ABOUT 88 OR 89…….COME ON THIS SERIES WAS REDICULOUS……..IF THE NBA IS WANTING “THE NEXT JORDAN” SO BAD AT LEAST MAKE HIM WATCHABLE LIKE JORDAN WAS…….WADE TO ME IS NOT ALL THAT GREAT…

I found another Mavericks fan who made a comment about the officiating with which I think he’ll find plenty of agreement:

I think if we can take one lesson away from this ordeal, it is this: fart in the general vicinity of Dwyane Wade, and a foul will be called on you.

-JerzeyGurl- provides her analysis with some additional colorful commentary that’s not fit to be reproduced here:

Dallas’ only problem in this past series is them not droppin key buckets…

-Big Ash-22 was happy the Heat won. He gave his take on how Dwyane Wade stepped up his game to help deliver the championship to Miami:

THAT NIGGA DWADE PLAYED HIS HEART OUT AND WANTED IT THA MOST!!!

Dave’s was the first blog I came across that actually provided real commentary:

This series actually looked lost for the Heat with 6½ minutes left in Game 3 when they trailed by 13 on their home court, but the Mavericks relaxed too soon and never got their groove back, earning the dubious distinction of becoming the first team to lose the NBA Finals in the fourth quarter of Game 3.

That’s the blogosphere, people. The signal to noise ratio can sometimes be quite low, but some stuff out there is fun (or funny) to read.