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DALLAS — At the outset, every eye was fixated on LeBron James who, after his Game 4 fourth quarter no-show, was the object of more scrutiny and attention than a certain politician’s twitter pictures.
Attention eventually drifted. First it shifted to Dwyane Wade, who twice needed to retreat to the locker room for treatment of a left hip injury suffered early in the game. Then it shifted to the Mavericks who were shooting lights out most of the night.
And finally, the attention went back to James late, and he failed. Despite a triple double (17 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists), despite brilliant passing out of double teams in the fourth quarter, when the game was in his hands, he failed. With the score tied, he missed a face-up jumper. With the Mavericks up two, he turned it over on a charge, then bricked an open 3-pointer up top.
James did score in the fourth with 29.6 seconds left — after the Mavericks went up by seven and all hope for the Heat realistically vanished.
Now the all scrutiny will be on James and the rest of the Heat Dream Team trying to avoid extinction Sunday in Miami, where the Mavericks will try to close out the Finals and win their first-ever title after their 112-103 Game 5 victory last night, the highest scoring game in the series.
“We didn’t want to go to Miami and give them basically two shots to close us out,” said Dirk Nowitzki (29 points), fully recovered from the fever and sinus infection that dogged him Tuesday. “So we kept plugging in the fourth.”
James, however, could not shake whatever ailed him when it mattered most in what he said would be “the biggest” game of his career. But he also said there is no added pressure that he can handle the moment.
“I don’t think so. I don’t believe so,” he said. “As a team we played good enough to win. Guys made plays they just made more than we did. The only thing that applied to me is a win. Win or loss. I could have made a couple [of] more plays. At the end of the day a triple double doesn’t mean anything in a loss.”
The Mavericks used a balanced scoring with five guys in double figures, including Jason Terry (21 points), J.J. Barea (17 points in his second straight start). And everyone, it seemed, chipped in for a sparking 15-3 close to the game that began with a Terry 3-pointer — one of 13 (yeah, thirteen in 19 attempted) — that the Mavericks stuck in the Heat’s collective mug.
Terry tied at 100 (James missed an 18-footer). Nowitzki drove and dunked (James charged into Tyson chandler then bricked his triple after a Mavericks miss). Then Terry took over. He drove and slipped a beautiful pass to Kidd for a 3-pointer to make it 105-100 and after one free throw by Chris Bosh (19 points, 10 rebounds) Terry hit his own triple with 33.3 seconds left to make it 108-101.
“That’s kind of defines us as a team,” said Dallas coach Rick Carlisle of the Mavericks balance. “There’s no set formula, other than we need each other.”
Oh, at 108-101, then James scored to complete his triple double.
“Triple double, we just didn’t win the game,” said Bosh. “He shot 19 shots. . . . Shot some shots he normally makes.”
Wade (23 points in 34 minutes) suffered a left hip contusion when he drove into Brian Cardinal who was called for a blocking foul at 4:01 of the first quarter. Wade left for the locker room after the quarter and re-emerged at 8:52 of the second. But then he did not start the second half. He came back again at 4:33 when the Heat trailed by four. Wade did not want to discuss the injury.
“I don’t talk about injuries,” Wade said. “It was unfortunate I had to leave the game but I came back and I finished it. I’ll be fine on Sunday.”
And the Heat, who lose two and a row for the first time since March, hope James can say the same in the fourth quarter.
