By JAIME ARON
updated 12:05 a.m. ET June 1, 2011
MIAMI - Jason Terry slipped past LeBron James and into some free space along the baseline. He had a good look at the basket from about 18 feet ? and his shot didn't even come close to going in.
Terry clanged a 3-pointer from the other side the next time down court. Then Dirk Nowitzki missed a shot he normally makes.
Late in the fourth quarter, with Game 1 of the NBA finals starting to slip away, the guys Dallas rely on most had their chances to keep things close but couldn't do it.
When Shawn Marion got a shot blocked and knocked it out of bounds, Dwyane Wade walked up the court and swished a 3-pointer over Jason Kidd with 3:06 left, the Miami Heat were well on their way to a 92-84 victory Tuesday night that ended Dallas' five-game road winning streak this postseason.
The Mavs played far from the kind of game they wanted to start the championship series.
Nowitzki can't carry the entire load, so he's going to need help from Terry and the bench. And they didn't provide much help in this one.
The reserves scored a mere 17 points combined, which is less than Terry alone often scores.
He had 12 points, none in the second half. J.J. Barea made only 1 of 8 shots for two points, Brendan Haywood scored three points (all on free throws) in 14 minutes and Peja Stojakovic was scoreless in nearly 15 minutes.
Nowitzki scored 27 points, but 12 came on free throws. He made only 7 of 18 shots ? and just 3 of 9 in the second half.
Instead of coming out "guns a blazing," as many players and coach Rick Carlisle said they would, they struggled to get open shots and missed most of those they took instead. Good defense and 3-pointers kept them in it, though, and a 20-8 run that spanned halftime left Dallas up by eight midway through the third quarter.
Then, it was 2006 all over again, with Wade taking over.
Only worse, because now Wade has James and Chris Bosh with him, too.
Miami's trio of stars were the difference, as Dallas knew might be the case.
The Mavs had made a priority of stopping Bosh. He started strong, but then got into a funk so bad that he wound up face-down in the lane with the ball in his belly and the refs calling a 24-second violation early in the fourth quarter. Minutes later, Wade rebounded a miss by Kidd and whipped the ball ahead to Bosh for a dunk that sent white towels flying inside the arena, everyone knowing Miami wasn't about to blow an 89-79 lead with 1:08 left.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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