The Miami Heat beat the Dallas Mavericks four games to two for the 2006 NBA Championship. These are NBA Finals notes:
With the win tonight, Miami captures its first NBA championship and becomes just the third team in NBA history to win the Finals after trailing the series 2-0 (has occurred 28 times).
Dallas was the 10th team to win the first two games of the Finals at home since the NBA changed to the 2-3-2 format in 1985. The previous nine teams went on to win the championship.
The last team to win four straight games in the Finals were the L.A. Lakers (with Shaquille O’Neal) when they swept New Jersey in 2002. This is the first time (regular season and playoffs) that Dallas has lost four consecutive games with Avery Johnson as head coach.
The Heat led 49-48 at halftime and 71-68 after three quarters of play. Miami has won 26 consecutive playoff games when leading at the half. The Heat were 14-0 when tied or ahead at the start of the fourth quarter this postseason.
Dallas lost three of the last four games despite leading by double-digits. Prior to the past four games, the Mavericks were 10-0 in games in which they lead by 10 or more points.
FOUR Miami players finished with double-digits in rebounding. Dwyane Wade recorded his second point-rebound double-double of the playoffs with both coming in the Finals. Antoine Walker tallied his second postseason double-double. Udonis Haslem had his seventh double-double of the playoffs.
The Heat outrebounded the Mavericks in four of the six games. Dallas had outrebounded its first 17 opponents this postseason which was an NBA record.
Dwyane Wade scored a game-high 36 points. His 208 points in the series is the second most by a player in his first six games played in the Finals (Rick Barry had 245 in 1966).
Dallas allowed an opposing player to score 30+ points in 12 of the final 19 playoff games after allowing just 16 30-point scorers in the regular season. Dating back to the start of the 2005 playoffs, the Mavericks have allowed an opposing player to score 30+ in 24 of the 36 games.
Marquis Daniels entered tonight with 5 points in the first five games of the series. He scored 6 points in the third quarter and finished with 12. The only other time he scored in double-digits this postseason was the first game against Memphis.
Dallas shot 5-of-22 from 3-point range tonight and finished the series shooting 28.4% (33-116 3FGs). The Mavericks shot just 31.7% from downtown this postseason after shooting 37.4% in the regular season.
Dirk Nowitzki finished with a team-high 29 points and a game-high 15 rebounds. He grabbed 15+ boards seven times this postseason (16 times in 76 career playoff games).
