NBA Finals Super Preview: 5 Match-Ups to Look Out For

SOME QUESTIONS THAT NEED ANSWERS

How many games before somebody complains about the referees?
If it doesn’t happen after the first quarter of Game 1, we’d be very surprised. With all the animosity surrounding these two teams stemming from that highly-controversial 2006 Finals, we expect a tweet coming from one of these teams complaining about this blown call and that unjustified flagrant foul.

Will Mark Cuban cry this time?
Almost a certainty here. If they lose again to the Heat, you can expect him to pop a vein and instantaneously start bemoaning the ineptitude of the NBA to field fair and impartial referees for the Finals. If they win, he’s probably going to give David Stern a big man-hug while tears stream down his face to the commish’s suit. Then he might just plant a big wet one on his rival before saying, “I forgive you, David.” Love to see that happen.

Who needs to play better for his team to win, LeBron James or Dirk Nowitzki?
Dare we say, LeBron James. Dirk can have a bad offensive game but he can still attract enough attention to give his team some looks, similar to what happened in Game 3 of the West Finals. He’s got a steady group of guys that can hit shots and most importantly, these “steady group of guys” aren’t going to get rattled when their numbers are called.

But if LeBron has a bad game, D-Wade and Chris Bosh can still carry a lot of the load, but they’re going to need the help of their bench to counter the Mavs attack. From what we’ve seen in the play-offs so far, those corpses sitting on Miami’s bench have as much a chance as getting ass marks on their seats than they do hitting shots in the Finals.

Who’s the X-Factor for each team?
For Miami, it’s Udonis Haslem. The veteran forward has shown (i.e. 2006 Finals) that he’s capable of bottling up Dirk in the post and making him work for his shot. There’s no guarantee that he can stop him, but if he can play the part of Nick Collison and give him as much trouble to catch the ball, post up, and get good shots up, then he could spell the tide in Miami’s favor. 40 points on 25 shots is a better day than 40 points on 12 shots.

For Dallas, it’s that Puerto Rican spitfire JJ Barea. The Heat are similar to the Lakers in that they have trouble guarding the pick-and-roll. We all know what Barea did to the Lakers defense in that series. Heck, he even got a forearm shiver from Ron Artest and Andrew Bynum for completely shredding them. If Barea can get to the teeth of the Miami defense with the Heat scrambling, he could cause some serious damage. And if he could entice Momma James to a night out on town, then he should be named the MVP of this series.

Will the memories of 2006 play a huge part in this series?
You can bet your house – and your momma  - on it. Technically, it’s two completely different teams. The only holdovers from the Heat in that series are D-Wade, Udonis Haslem, and Pat Riley while on the Mavericks’ end, we have Dirk Nowtizki, Jason Terry, and Mark Cuban. This plays more to the Mavs, actually, because to this day, those three guys, Terry most notably, have been open about the lingering effects they still have over that catastrophic meltdown.

Getting another shot at it against the SAME team that inflicted those wounds will be one of the central rallying cries of that Mavs locker room. Add that to the fact that you have established vets on that team that knows the feeling of heartache and we’d be surprised if Rick Carlisle doesn’t pull a “15 Strong” motivational technique on the Mavs.

And the most important question of all…

Who wins, and who goes home fishing?
Tough call, to say the least. But we’re going to go with Dallas to win this in six games.

The Heat having home court advantage in this series probably won’t be as important a lot of people think. Sure, Miami’s 8-0 at the Triple-A this playoffs but conversely, the Mavericks are 5-2 in the road this play-off, including sweeping the Lakers and the Thunder on their home floor, arguably two of the toughest places to play in for a visiting team.

Heck, one of their two losses came during that infamous 23-point collapse against Portland when Brandon Roy went bananas on their tails. So no, we don’t think home court advantage is that important in this series.

There are so many critical points to this series that we find it hard to believe that all of it will ride on the shoulders of LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki. How will Mario Chalmers handle the point guard duties against Jason Kidd? How will the Mavs slow down Dwyane Wade? Is Chris Bosh going to be a factor? How will Erik Spoelstra and Rick Carlisle adjust to the pressure and intense scrutiny of this stage?

But the most important question of all, and what ultimately will decide this series, can Miami’s bench give anything to the cause? Because if they come up as duds against a well-oiled Mavericks second unit, then we can’t see the Big 2 ½ being able to carry the Heat to four more wins against a team that, we feel, is too stacked for them to handle.

It’s going to be a slugfest, but in the end, Dallas’ overall depth will be too much for Miami’s Big 2 ½.
Give us Dallas in six games, celebrating on Miami’s home floor as a karmic pay back, and maybe, if the stars are aligned, we’ll finally see the long-awaited bro-mance between Mark Cuban and David Stern.

NEXT PAGE: Conference Finals recap