With a thoroughly impressive win over the Miami Heat in Game 5, 112-103 on Thursday night in Dallas, the Mavs are now up 3-2 and one win away from an unthinkable championship. One single solitary victory separates them from winning the first title in franchise history, validating the careers of Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd, and denying the entitlement that LeBron James and Chris Bosh brought to South Beach last summer.
It's a pretty amazing position for the Mavs to be in. But they're not exactly reveling in the glory of a mere 3-2 series lead.
"I really can't enjoy it much," said Nowitzki. "In the playoffs, you're always on edge. You don't sleep much. You think basketball 24/7. I can enjoy it hopefully next week, when we're on vacation. As of now, I'm always thinking ahead, thinking about the next game — what can I do better, what didn't I do, what I've got to do to get other guys more involved. Hopefully I can enjoy myself next week."
As Dirk goes, so go the Mavs. This team emulates its leader — businesslike, pragmatic and focused like a laser on winning one more game.
Dirk has owned this series. He's had a torn finger tendon, he's had a sinus infection, and he's had hordes of critics doubting what he's capable of. And yet he's battled through all of that to compile 135 points and 47 rebounds for a team that's now on the verge of a championship. The postseason is a clash of superstar players' wills, and there's no doubt Dirk has risen above his competitors this last week and a half. Especially in crunch time — Dirk has 52 fourth-quarter points in this series to LeBron's 11.
But his work isn't done yet.
"It's not a best-of-five series," he insists. "It's a best-of-seven. The first team to four wins. So we couldn't celebrate tonight, even though it was a big win for us. This series is not over."
He's right. Bear in mind — the Mavs are in the exact same situation where the Celtics found themselves last June, going up 3-2 in a home Game 5 and hitting the road with two chances to finish the Finals. It didn't happen for them. It might not happen for the Mavs, either.
They can't rely on momentum. In the Finals, that doesn't exist.
They can't rely on Dwyane Wade to give less than 100 percent. The Miami captain may have injured his hip on Thursday night in a collision with Brian Cardinal, but he's said he'll be good to go come Sunday.
Especially, the Mavs can't count on their 3-point shooting to remain at the absurdly fluky rate that carried them to a win Thursday in Game 5. The Mavs made 13 of their 19 attempts from downtown. Six of them (including Cardinal) made at least one trey; three of them made at least three. J.J. Barea, a former player at Northeastern Univeristy, was 4-for-5.
The Mavs have enough veteran wisdom to know the difference between sustained excellence and a one-game flash in the pan. They know they've been good these last two games, but they know the Heat are capable of being better. They know to stay grounded.
"We're going to stay in the moment," coach Rick Carlisle said. "We're going to keep studying how we've played our best. We're going to play whistle to whistle. I've been watching a lot of the hockey series, and a lot of the people in the hockey world use that term. That's what we're going to do. We're going to try to just win each possession, one at a time.
"An NBA Finals is a 16-day deal. It's very long, but somehow or other, it goes by really fast. Staying in the moment and paying attention to what's important for us, that helps us."
As the oft-repeated stat goes, the winner of Game 5 in a 2-2 series goes on to finish the deal 73 percent of the time. It's hard not to like those odds.
It's also hard to block them out entirely, but the Mavs are trying to do just that.
They're one win away from a championship, but they're not getting ahead of themselves. Far from it.
"I haven't thought about it," said Kidd. "I'm just staying in the moment and understanding we've got to find a way to win come Sunday. Everything else will fall into place if we can find a way to win."
