It became the hot topic Thursday night after the Dallas Mavericks evened the NBA finals 1-1 with a 95-93 win in Game 2 — how Miami’s celebration midway through the fourth quarter sparked Dallas’ comeback. If it did. Players were asked about it and it became the hot discussion on twitter.
What you think of the celebration says more about how you feel about the Heat then it does about what actually happened.
What happened is this: With 7:20 left in the game LeBron James led another Heat break, but he passed to Mario Chalmers, who had defenders getting back collapse on him under the basket. So he kicked it out to Dwyane Wade in for a corner three, right over the arms of Jason Terry. The arena erupted. The Heat were up 15 and in control. That felt like a dagger, except we anyone who knows Dallas knew it was too early.
After the shot Wade stood there for a few seconds with his shooting arm extended, then kept it up as he walked past the Dallas bench (a timeout had been called). Then beyond the bench area LeBron James met Wade, said a few words, did a little head bob and fake punched him in the chest a few times, then moved on. That was it.
Frankly, by NBA standards, it was a four on a scale of 10. Watch the video by following this link. DeShawn Stevenson has had bigger celebrations over a made three this series. Forget someone like J.R. Smith.
But that’s not how Dallas saw it. Look at the quote from Tyson Chandler, via Royce Young at CBS Sports Eye on Basketball.
“He celebrated in front of our bench,” Tyson Chandler said. “I think it angered a lot of us. We came out there and responded.”
As you might imagine, Dwyane Wade felt differently.
“A celebration is confetti, champagne bottles. This was no celebration,” he said. “It was a shot made going into a timeout. Every team does something. That’s the game. If it pumped them up — they won the game. Obviously it did something.”
And that’s what is key here — the celebration itself was nothing. Jason Terry’s airplane takeoff has more taunting in it than what Wade did. It’s really about your perception.
If you hate the Heat and are looking for fuel for that fire, have at it. Dallas talk radio is going to eat this up.
What really matters is it fired up some Mavericks players. Although not Dirk Nowitzki, who didn’t see it. What should have fired them up is how they were getting abused at that point, but the celebration touched a nerve. What we should be talking about is how well they played down the stretch, how they changed the series. It’s an insult to the Mavs to talk about this as the spark to the comeback and not the fire they have shown against the Thunder, Lakers and Blazers.
It didn’t play a huge role in one of the most amazing comebacks in NBA finals history, that was more about double screens for Jason Terry that the Heat could not adjust to (a great play call), it was about the Heat trying to kill the clock then running isolation plays with time winding out, it was about shot selection for both teams. It was about the Heat’s defense slowing down as the Mavericks stepped up. It was about heart.
But the celebration, that was nothing, except when it became something in the minds of the Mavericks.
