The Heat have two chances to clinch the crown and Riley wants to get the job done in Game 6 this morning (Manila time). Dallas must beat Miami twice in a row to capture the title but the Mavericks like their chances because of what coach Avery Johnson calls "home cooking."
Dallas is 8-2 at home in the playoffs and Miami hasn’t beaten the Mavs here in four years. In the Finals so far, the Mavs are unbeaten on their homecourt and they’re confident of beating the Heat in Game 6 and forcing a winner-take-all showdown in Game 7, also on their homecourt.
But momentum is on Miami’s side. The Heat are coming off back-to-back-to-back wins and swept the three middle games to move ahead, 3-2, in the best-of-7 series.
Two of Miami’s three victories could’ve gone either way. Game 3 was decided by two points and Game 5, by one in overtime. Clutch free throws decided both cliffhangers.
The Mavs played Game 5 without suspended Jerry Stackhouse and are convinced they could’ve pulled it off if only their key sixth man, averaging 13 points in the Finals, saw action.
Stackhouse will be back in uniform in Game 6 and that’s a big plus considering the Heat reserves outscored the Mavs bench, 23-12.
Johnson’s main problem is how to contain Heat guard Dwyane Wade who has scored 113 points the last three outings. Shaquille O’Neal is another headache although he’s a liability when taking free throws. Still, the Big Diesel compiled 18 points and 12 rebounds in Game 5 even as he was the target of a Hack-A-Shaq strategy, forcing Riley to bench him until the last two minutes of the fourth period and overtime.
Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard missed pressure charities which could’ve changed the complexion of Game 5. The Miami atmosphere probably made their stomachs turn. Things will be different here.
Johnson said the Mavs let Game 5 slip away. They won’t make that mistake in Game 6 with their fans fueling their energy.
"We were pretty confident for Game 5," said Johnson. "We had great focus, we had great energy, we rebounded the ball well, had a chance to win at the end of regulation. And Wade got away from us then (Jason) Terry missed a shot, his shot. We had another chance to bottle up Wade. We pretty much sent three people at him, if you can remember that play and we thought we had him bottled up. But he went to the free throw line again, the same amount that our whole team went to the line. We thought we played good defense on that play but just weren’t rewarded for our hustle."
Wade hit 21-of-25 from the line. That was exactly how the Mavs were from the stripe as a team.
Johnson said he’s not losing hope of stopping Wade.
"Wade is obviously playing great," he said. "We tried a lot of different things on him. You know, we’ve just got to stick with it. We had a stretch there where we denied Wade and then Gary Payton scores on a flip left-handed layup over one of our centers. Hopefully, we can put together more of a complete game than what we did in Miami."
No team has come back from a 0-2 deficit to win the title since the Finals format of 2-3-2 was instituted in 1985. Miami hopes to make history this season.