Thursday, June 2, 2011

NBA Finals Game 1: Miami Heat Prevails; SHAQ Retires

Game 1 of the 2011 NBA Finals has started with the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat competing for the Larry O'Brien trophy.

The 2011 NBA Finals is more like a rematch of the 2006 NBA Finals that saw the Mavs going on a 2-0 lead but eventually losing to the Miami Heat in 6 games with Dwayne Wade and Shaq guiding the Heat to every victory. Of course, the 2011 NBA Finals is different with both teams very much beefed up. The Heat (Wade and Haslem left from the 2006 team) and Mavs (Nowitzki, Terry and Barea left from the 2006 team) having made big acquisition for the past 2 years (the Miami Heat revamped only this year with the 2010 Free Agency).

Game 1 saw a battle for every possession with Dallas holding the Heat to 39 percent shooting, Miami’s second-worst showing of the playoffs but the Mavericks shot 37 percent—by far, their worst night of the postseason offensively. Miami also outrebounded Dallas 46-36.

Dallas led 17-16 after the first quarter, which was the lowest two-team output in the first quarter of Game 1 of a finals in the shot clock era, according to STATS LLC. It tied the fourth-lowest total for any finals quarter since 1955, bettering only the 30 points by the Magic and Lakers in Game 2 in 2009, and the 31 posted by the Jazz and Bulls in 1998’s Game 3 along with the Lakers and Celtics in 1969’s Game 4. Due to the defensive intensity, everyone was struggling with their shot. Lebron James was 3 for 6 in the first quarter, while the rest of the Heat were 3 for 15 while half of Dallas’ four first-quarter baskets were 3-pointers by Jason Kidd.

The Heat trailed by eight points early in the third quarter before pulling away, remaining unbeaten—now 9-0—at home in these playoffs and snapping Dallas’ five-game road postseason winning streak. It was a close game until a strong fourth-quarter finish by Wade and James. Dwayne Wade had a highlight alley-oop to James which made the sell-out crowd at the American Airlines Arena go berserk.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 27 points—tearing a tendon in the middle finger on his left, non-shooting, hand during the game and revealing afterward that he’ll likely wear a splint throughout the remainder of the series—and grabbed eight rebounds for Dallas, which got 16 points and 10 rebounds from Shawn Marion and 12 points from Jason Terry.

James scored 24 points for his first win in five NBA finals games (he was swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2007 Finals), for the Heat Wade scored 15 of his 22 points in the second half, Bosh scored 19 points and Mario Chalmers added 12 and the Heat beat the Dallas Mavericks 92-84 in Game 1 of the title series on Tuesday night—holding the Western Conference champions to their lowest point total of the playoffs after a dominant defensive showing down the stretch.

GAME 1 on the BOOKS! 1-0 MIAMI!

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On another note, a former teammate of Dwayne Wade in Miami Heat and Lebron James in Cleveland Cavaliers, "The Big Aristotle", Hobo Master", "The Diesel", "Shaq Fu", "The Big Daddy", "Superman", "The Big Agave", "The Big Cactus", "The Big Shaqtus", "The Big Galactus", "Wilt Chamberneezy", "The Big Baryshnikov", "The Real Deal", "Dr. Shaq" "The Big Shamrock", "The Big Leprechaun", "Shaqovic", "The Big Conductor and simply "Shaq", Shaquille O'neal has called it a basketball career after announcing his retirement through social networking site Twitter.

Here is the video announcing Shaq's retirement.

Click here

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