MIAMI—The end.
Of the hype. And the hope. Of instant gratification. And of vindication.
Year One of the Big Three ended with a thud on Sunday night for the Miami Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena.
There will be no capping of last July’s premature celebration over the free-agency signings of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
Instead, there will be reflection on nights such as Sunday, when a 95-105 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in Game Six of the NBA Finals at AmericanAirlines Arena brought down the curtain on the 2010-11 season.
And started a new waiting game, leaving plenty of questions in the wake of this meltdown, such as whether James has performance-anxiety issues.
“You’re never really prepared for a moment like this,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That’s certainly not what we were expecting.
“There’s certainly an emptiness right now with our group.”
It was a dreary ending, particularly for James, who again proved unable to match the moment. After making his first four shots when he appeared headed to a big night, he instead closed with 21 points on nine-of-15 shooting, seemingly paralyzed by the moment. It was a finish nearly as humbling as being swept out of the 2007 Finals by the San Antonio Spurs while a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“When he was able to be aggressive, the zone took him out of that,” Spoelstra said, trying to offer a basketball-related answer.
“There’s no excuses, there’s no blame, sometimes you simply come up short. All the storylines and noise out there that had nothing to do with this series or the outcome.”
None of the Heat’s Big Three, in fact, were very big, with Wade closing with 17 points and Bosh with 19.
“Dallas earned it and they should be congratulated,” Spoelstra said. “When it was time for them to make tough plays...they did.”
Mavericks guard Jason Terry, though, was plenty big, keeping Dallas afloat through a 14-0 Heat second-quarter run with 19 first-half points. He closed with 27 on 11-of-16 shooting.
That allowed Dallas to persevere even on a night series Most Valuable Player Dirk Nowitzki, hero of the Mavericks’ Game Two and Game Four victories, shot nine-of-27 for 21 points.
“This isn’t a good feeling,” Bosh said. “We just have to move forward. We can’t do anything about it right now. We can never do anything about it. All we can do is look ahead.”
It ended with Pat Riley watching in stunned silence from across the Heat bench, with the Heat allowing Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to celebrate in their building, with the Mavericks shockingly managing to buy nearly an entire section behind the Dallas bench for their fans, much to the apparent chagrin of Heat owner Micky Arison.
“Hands down they were the better team in this series, and they played together well,” Bosh said. “We have a lot of work to do. We have to go back to the drawing board. It hurts to come this far and come up short.”
It, indeed, was sweet revenge, for Cuban and the Mavericks, after losing the 2006 Finals to the Heat in six games.
“In the moment of truth,” Spoelstra said, “they played better than us four times.”
Even before the opening tip, the Heat acknowledged what they weren’t, namely, capable of keeping up with the Mavericks’ small ball, with starting point guard Mike Bibby benched in favor of Mario Chalmers, and then removed from the rotation in favor of Eddie House.
It was a desperate move at a desperate time, and it wasn’t nearly enough, not with James shrinking to depths that will haunt him for months, if not years.
“One day we’ll probably be able to look back on this,” Spoelstra said, “sometime this summer...and we’ll feel better.”
Oh, there was fight, just not enough.
No sooner did House cap the Heat’s 14-0 rally with a three-pointer to produce a 42-40 lead in the second quarter, than Heat forward Udonis Haslem and Mavericks guard DeShawn Stevenson traded shoves with 6:25 to play in the period, with Chalmers joining in the scrum.
The result was technical fouls on all three, with Nowitzki’s ensuing free throw ending Dallas’s scoreless streak.
From there, Dallas seized control, the Heat left with little more than hero three-point attempts against the Mavericks’ remarkably cohesive zone defense, while struggling much of the night from the foul line.
“Obviously what we did wasn’t enough,” Bosh said.
Spoelstra said he deserves his share of blame as well.
“No question about it, it will start with the leadership,” he said. “It starts with the head coach.”
Until Sunday, Bibby had started each of the Heat’s previous 20 playoff games. House then pushed Bibby, his brother-in-law, completely out of the rotation, likely the last time Bibby will be seen in a Heat uniform.
Dallas entered aware that home teams have gone 14-3 in Game Seven of the Finals, fighting desperately to avoid such a test.
The Heat entered 9-1 at home this postseason, with that lone previous defeat a Game Two 95-93 loss to Dallas in this series.
Coming off consecutive losses, the Heat ended the season with their first three-game losing streak since March 8.
The Mavericks entered 6-3 on the road this season, having followed Game Three victories with victories in Game Four in each of their previous three series, and doing it again in this one.
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle is now 11-3 in closeout games as a coach, the highest winning percentage among coaches with at least 10 such games.
In Photo: Two-time MVP LeBron James and 2006 Finals MVP Dwyane Wade are not laughing around this time. (AP)
