Game 3 of the NBA Finals brought to center stage another defensive battle between the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat.

In the first two games, the Dallas defense had been superb. Sunday was no different. Unfortunately for Jason Kidd and Mavs, the Miami defense was just a little better in Game 3.


Jason Kidd and the Mavs fought back again in Game 3, but couldn’t bring home the win this time.

Despite trailing for most of the game, the outstanding defensive effort, especially in the fourth quarter, allowed the Mavs to overcome their early mistakes. Dallas came up with enough stops to get Dirk Nowitzki a final shot to send the game into overtime. But the shot that has fallen so many times for Nowitzki this postseason would not go and the Mavs dropped Game 3, 88-86.

Miami now leads the best-of-seven series two games to one. J-Kidd spoke after the game about how Dallas’ early mistakes, which included 14 turnovers, came back to bite them.

"We have to take care of the ball against this team," he said. "Make or miss shots, you can’t just give these guys easy layups on the other end. That’s what they’re doing to us right now."

Jason did his best to lead the Mavs offense against a stout Miami defense. The veteran came within a point of a double-double, firing off 10 assists and dropping in nine points to go along with six rebounds and a block.

He also played well on the other end, where the defensive struggle favored the Mavs in every quarter but the first. Dallas surrendered 29 points in the opening quarter while scoring just 22 themselves. It was the third straight game that the Mavs had dug a hole to climb out of.

Over the next three quarters, Dallas held the vaunted Heat to a mere 59 points and Miami didn’t score over 21 in a quarter for the rest of the night. But coach Rick Carlisle said that the effort on the offensive end must be better, not only in the first, but throughout the game:

"Look, it’s as much a first quarter league as it is a fourth quarter league," he said. "Things that happened in the first, they add up and they count in the total number of events that happen through the course of the game. Yes, we have to be better in the first. Again, our overall game has to be better."

However, the Mavericks realize that the series is far from over. The ebb and flow of the first three games is a clear sign that the Finals won’t be decided for a while as Rob Mahoney of The Two Man Game writes:

"Don’t call it a miraculous comeback. All Dallas did was play, and though they spotted Miami points here and there, it’s not as if they were horrid — even at their worst. The difference between the bumbling Mavs and those blazing the comeback trail was actually fairly thin; hitting the defensive glass and taking care of the ball was all it took for Dallas to give themselves a chance in this game, and so it will be for the remainder of the series.

Miami is a great team, but they’re not the only great team in this year’s NBA Finals. Provided that Dallas stays away from their bad habits, we should be heading for at least a few more amazing, highly competitive games with singular displays of greatness and brilliant collective execution."

Bob Sturm of The Dallas Morning News echoed those sentiments, noting that Dallas must come back with a counterpunch in Game 4 as they have all postseason.

"The good news is that this Mavericks team is proving to be one of the most resilient and persistent teams we could ever imagine. They will not negotiate a peaceful surrender or hang their heads in defeat. They play with a passion and resolve that is flat-out admirable. And no matter how big of a mess they find themselves in, they put all of their efforts into working their way out of it.

But, this one is the biggest challenge yet.

The Mavericks must scratch and claw. They must fight and battle. And when the game comes to its climactic conclusion, the Mavericks must play perfectly."

HELPING DIRK
One way Jason believes the Mavs can come up with an effective counterpunch is by identifying and unleashing a secondary scoring option for forward Dirk Nowitzki.

Through the first three games of the series, Nowitzki is averaging 28.3 points per game. The next highest average on the Mavs is Shawn Marion’s 15.3. Only two other players have even cracked double digits in any games. Jason Terry has done it three times, averaging 14.3 points per game. Tyson Chandler scored 13 points in Game 2, the only other double-digit showing on the team.

"We have to have somebody step up besides Dirk. Dirk is doing his part," J-Kidd said. "Nowitzki loves that stage late. He wants the ball, and he’s always come through. So, again, somebody else has to step up and help him on the offensive end."

With Jason at the helm, the Mavs did manage to get a great deal of open looks on Sunday. The problem was, those shots refused to fall.

"When we have those open looks, we have to be able to knock them down no matter if it’s our bench players or the starters," No. 2 said. "Right now, Dirk and Jason Terry are the only ones scoring."

Jason had his scoring stroke going early on in Game 3. He hit the bottom of the net on a short jumper just two minutes in. Mere moments later, he added a triple from the left corner to put the Mavs ahead 7-5. But after making 2-of-4 shots in the first quarter, Jason would take just four more shots for the rest of the game.

Instead, No. 2 turned his gaze from the cylinder to his teammates as he assisted on the Mavs’ next three scoring possessions. First he found DeShawn Stevenson for three, then Peja Stojakovic for a jumper to make it 16-13 Mavs. Jason was particularly pleased to get Stojakovic involved early in the game and hopes to get him more opportunities to score as the series progresses.

"I think Peja can find a place," No. 2 said. "When he’s open, he has to knock down shots just like everybody else. For that, we have to get him open shots and get him off some screens."

After a Chris Bosh dunk cut the Mavs’ lead to one, J-Kidd fed Shawn Marion for a runner to put Dallas back up by three. Miami would, however, score 14 of the next 18 points, including a 7-0 run in the final 35 seconds of the frame to take a 29-22 advantage into the second quarter.

That run would expand to 12-0 before the Mavs finally hit a bucket at the ten-minute mark of the second to pull within 10, 34-24. The Mavs slowly cut into the deficit, as J-Kidd dished to Jason Terry and later Nowitzki. They closed the first half with a 10-2 run of their own to pull within five.

"We got down

[14 in the second] and we’re fighting our way back, and we cut it to five at halftime," Jason said. "But the big thing is, you know, they win the first quarter, and that’s pretty much — if you want to look at it, that’s the game because we won the next three."

Dallas continued to battle in the third as J-Kidd hit his second trey of the night with just under eight minutes remaining in the period. Some four minutes later, No. 2 handed the ball to Marion, who finished with a drive to the hoop, which tied the game at 57.

Jason wasn’t finished just yet. He fed Jason Terry for a bucket to give the Mavs the lead, 59-58, and found him again on the ensuing possession, this time for three. By the end of the third the Mavs had cut their deficit to just three points, 67-64.

In the fourth J-Kidd ran the offense through Dirk, and found the big man with 2:27 to go in the game for a jumper that again tied the game, this time at 84, but a Chris Bosh jumper and a Dirk miss in the closing moments spelled the end of the Mavs’ hopes.

NEXT UP
Jason and the Mavs face a big Game 4 on Tuesday in Dallas as they seek to regain the momentum in the best-of-seven series.

With Sunday’s Game 3 loss, the Mavs are in a position where they must win three of the final four games of the series to be crowned champions. It’s a tough task, but Dallas has always known that this wasn’t going to be easy:

"It’s seven games. Any notion that it was going to be easy would have been foolhardy by us or anybody else," coach Carlisle said. "Every game has been extremely difficult.

"I think we have to look at this we’ll break down the film, and I think one of the things we need to do is point out some situations where execution needed to be better. Point out that there were many positives. Sometimes missed open shots can be positives, because they’re opportunities that we did create that were good."

Tip-off of Game 4 is set for 8 p.m. CST Tuesday night and the game will be televised on ABC.

RELATED STORIES