Dallas Packs Up Bad Memories of This Trip

You see the ocean, the beach, the palm trees, the coral-tinted skies, the beautiful people, the nightlife....

The Mavericks see a chamber of horrors.

After a week of clubbing in South Beach, bonding in an undisclosed location in Fort Lauderdale and taking nightly pratfalls while losing all three games here, the Mavericks flew back to Texas, assured that if they go out, at least it will be in front of the home folks.

It was a week the Mavericks will never forget, no matter how hard they try.

In Game 3, about to take a 3-0 lead, they blew a 13-point lead in the last 6 minutes 34 seconds.

In Game 4, they were routed, Jerry Stackhouse committed the hard foul for which he would be suspended and Coach Avery Johnson moved his team out of its Miami hotel.

In Sunday night’s Game 5, they finally focused their defense on Dwyane Wade, who scored 43 points anyway, tying the game with a five-foot runner with :02 left in regulation, then drawing a foul with :01.9 left in overtime and making the two free throws that brought the Heat from behind again and gave them a 101-100 victory.

And, for the maraschino cherry atop the sundae of their misery, the Mavericks’ Josh Howard mistakenly called their last timeout before Wade made his second free throw, costing them a chance to inbound the ball at half court.

Instead, they had to go the length of the court and got only a desperate half-court heave by Devin Harris, which bounced off the top of the backboard, leaving Miami with a 3-2 lead in the NBA Finals.

“One of our players was saying, ‘Timeout?’ ” said Johnson, fuming quietly as he had been all weekend. “I said, ‘Yeah, after the second one.’ ”

Crew chief Joe Crawford told a pool reporter that Howard went to referee Joe DeRosa and twice asked for the timeout. “Forced to call it,” said Crawford, “simple as that.”

The Mavericks spent their first five days in the downtown Four Seasons, close to Coconut Grove and South Beach. However, after blowing Game 3 and getting mopped up in Game 4, Johnson packed them up Friday morning and moved north to Fort Lauderdale, decrying their “vacation mentality.”

The collective-bargaining agreement calls for players to get single rooms, but the Mavericks were nevertheless obliged to bunk in with each other. This was presented as a bonding experience, although they may just not have been able to find a hotel with enough rooms for everyone on short notice.

In any case, Johnson’s intention was clear. As Darrell Armstrong put it, he told them: “Don’t leave the property.”

The Mavericks team that showed up here Sunday night was, indeed, a grimmer, more purposeful bunch with a better defensive plan. For the last week, coaches and scouts rolled their eyes while Johnson continued to double-team Shaquille O’Neal, while Wade went for 42 points in Game 3 and 36 in Game 4.

Sunday, the Mavericks came out in a sagging man-to-man that allowed them to double on O’Neal and Wade. Dallas led by as many as 11 points and by eight late in the third quarter when Wade, who was three for 15 from the floor, hit a 19-footer, a 17-footer and then pitched the ball across the floor to James Posey, who hit a three-pointer, cutting the score to 71-70.

The teams fought it out to the end. With :10 left in regulation, Dirk Nowitzki hit Erick Dampier who dunked, putting the Mavericks up, 93-91.

At the other end, Wade drove to the baseline against Howard and banked in a five-foot runner to tie it.

With :09 left in overtime, Nowitzki hit a 17-footer on the baseline to give Dallas a 100-99 lead.

At the other end, Wade got to the hoop again, was fouled by Nowitzki, and hit the two free throws that won the game.

“You tell me,” said Johnson, asked by the Dallas Morning News’ Eddie Sefko what he thought of the call. “What was your impression? You tell me what your impression was.”

“My impression was, he got two free throws,” said Sefko.

“That’s a political answer. Let me ask you again.... I want you to give everybody an honest answer. We have people here from Israel and Minnesota, Chicago, all over....

“We pretty much sent three people at him, if you remember the play and we thought we had him bottled up. But you know, he went to the free-throw line again, pretty much the same amount that our whole team went to the line.”

Wade shot 25 free throws, as many as the whole Mavericks team.

Happily for the Mavericks, Game 6 is at home. Unhappily, Wade will be there.