Brian Cardinal was trending on twitter after subbing in. |
I hate to kick Lebron when he is down, but clearly the man is not made from the same stuff as Kobe and Jordan. He loves the bright lights of stardom, not the heat of pressure moments of playoff games. Everyone always likes to point to that one game where Lebron single-handedly destroyed the Detroit Pistons, going for 25 straight points. He was the one-man show; everyone thought he would have multiple championships by now. Let’s be honest, that year he was barely old enough to drink, he was not even supposed to be there. Lebron and the Cavs had no pressure at all, and were eventually embarrassed in the finals. Like I said during the Bulls series, Lebron needed to win with ease otherwise he would become invisible like he did in the 2010 Celtics series. I stand by my belief that Lebron needs to win with his back against the wall to silence his critics, but unless we see Wade close out games like its 2006, the Heat will have a tough time putting the Mavs away.
And again, I never want to hear people calling Dirk soft. Dirk played a gritty game last night. His silky smooth J was not so smooth, but just like the rest of his teammates, he kept calm and played to what Miami was giving him. Clearly the Heat’s speed on defense is the best in the league, and I have to give them credit for closing out on shooters and forcing the ball out of Dirk's hands. But when it counted, it was the German who game through. Nowitzki made the final 9 points. The Mavs believe in their leader, and Dirk takes that responsibility and expects to come through, something I have yet to see from Lebron. The Mavericks’ age and wisdom has proven to be worth far more than young legs and energy. Miami put on a show last night for 3.5 quarters. There were off-balanced shots and highlight dunks. If it was anyone's team in the finals besides Dallas, we might have seen another Andrew Bynum incident, but not this Maverick team. They never seemed to be rattled. No matter what happens in the rest of the series, last night was truly amazing. We saw one star overcome past demons while another continued to be haunted by the same ghosts he tried to run from by leaving Cleveland.
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