Sure enough, those Finals came down to the two stars. The Mavs got back-to-back double-doubles out of Dirk in Games 1 and 2 at home, the Heat got 42, 36, 43 and 36 points out of Wade in the last four games, and it was that simple. Miami in six.
This year, it's a little different.
There were stretches Sunday night in Game 3 of the 2011 Finals, especially late, when it looked like more of the '06 routine. Wade scored seven consecutive Miami points toward the end of the fourth quarter; LeBron James was mostly used as a highly paid, glamorous decoy. Dirk outdid Wade, bringing Dallas back from a seven-point deficit with 12 consecutive points. He was the only Maverick to score in the game's last 6:48.
The difference this time, though, was how the two stars performed with the game on the line. Dirk, with his team down two and 4.4 seconds to play, found himself isolated behind the free-throw line against Udonis Haslem. He chucked a fadeaway jumper in desperation, and it rimmed out.
Wade, earlier in that final minute with the game tied? He was double-teamed, so he flicked it to LeBron. LeBron was double-teamed too, so he deferred to Chris Bosh. Bosh had a wide-open look from 16 feet. He pulled up and nailed it.
In other words, Wade had help. As for Dirk?
"We've got to have somebody else step up," Jason Kidd said. "Just Dirk is doing his part. Everybody else has to pitch in."
No kidding.
Dirk finished with 34 points in Game 3, shooting 11-of-21 from the field, 3-for-5 from 3-point range and 9-for-9 from the free-throw line. The other nine Mavericks combined to go 17-for-49 from the field, 5-for-16 from 3 and 13-for-18 from the line. You don't need a Ph.D. in math to figure this one out — the rest of the Mavs have been putrid lately. That puts all the responsibility on one guy, and that's no way to win a championship.
"He knows that he's going to have to carry a certain load," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said of his superstar. "Not just the scoring load, but he's going to have to make plays. He's going to have to facilitate. He's going to have to get guys involved. So I don't think this is anything that he doesn't expect. But we'd like to make it easier for him."
There are a lot of ways to do that. One would be for the Mavs' perimeter scorers — Jason Terry, J.J. Barea and Kidd to name a few — to snap out of their slump and hit some shots from outside. That would keep the Heat defense honest a little bit, easing the pressure on Dirk. They've got to get more bench scoring — they got 15 points from Terry on Sunday night, but the rest of the unit was pretty much dead.
The Mavs reached these Finals by playing as a team, and that concept is beginning to erode. Now it's all Dirk. It has to be.
"They've been doing a pretty good job on our shooters," Nowitzki said. "But if we have the open looks, we've just got to make them. We haven't made enough of them, and if we keep shooting in the low-40s, it's going to be tough to win. I've got to keep making plays, keep being aggressive and look for my shot."
Something like that.
Dirk's saying all the right things. He's pledging to do more, and that's what a good leader does. Give him all the credit in the world. But if you really want him to win this series? Give him some help. It looks like that's what he really needs.
