LeBron James Finals Re-Watch Diary: Game 6, 2011 NBA Finals

LeBron James falls to 0-2 in his NBA Finals career as Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks close out the Heat in the 2011 Finals.

During the NBA’s indefinite hiatus, I will be rewatching every game of LeBron’s NBA Finals career. Every Finals game from the last 20 years is available to NBA League Pass subscribers on the NBA app or through apps like YouTube TV. We will be going chronologically through LeBron’s Finals career. 

Previous Games

Game 1, 2007 NBA Finals: LeBron’s first Finals game.

Game 2, 2007 NBA Finals: LeBron bounces back but falls down 0-2.

Game 3, 2007 NBA Finals: LeBron gets the last shot but it doesn’t go.

Game 4, 2007 NBA Finals: Staying home.

Game 1, 2011 NBA Finals: LeBron’s first Finals victory.

Game 2, 2011 NBA Finals: Heat blow 15-point 4th quarter lead.

Game 3, 2011 NBA Finals: Bosh game-winner helps put Heat up 2-1.

Game 4, 2011 NBA Finals: LeBron has 8 points in Finals loss.

Game 5, 2011 NBA Finals: LeBron bounces back, but Mavs shoot the lights out.

Erik Spoelstra has gone to the hot hand, finally in desperation, starting Mario Chalmers, who has been the best point guard on the Heat all series. Chalmers would end the series shooting 40 percent from the 3-point line and was the lone Heat player to hit double-digit 3-pointers in the series, with a series-best 14 3-pointers. LeBron kicks off the game with a 3-pointer, looking like he’s more comfortable at home after having a mostly anonymous Game 4 and a couple of poor decisions at the end of Game 5 in Dallas. LeBron then works as the screener and Chalmers creates a look for him that has been rare in this series: a move towards the rim. Ultimately the rhythm started going for James early as he hit his first four shots, with back-to-back mid-range pull-ups, pacing the Heat with his scoring in a way that was absent since the Heat left Miami earlier in the series. 14-10 Heat, with nine points from LeBron, but the Mavs have been here many times in this series, as well as this dramatic postseason, and come out winners.

Dirk picks up an early 2nd foul while defending Chris Bosh and rather than leave him in, Rick Carlisle makes the conservative move to save Nowitzki from a disastrous 3rd foul with just over 5 minutes left in the 1st quarter. The Heat go up 22-17, but the Mavs have proven to be more than just Nowitzki throughout the entire postseason. On cue, Jason Terry hits a pull-up. Then Shawn Marion, one of the pioneers of the Pace and Space revolution with the Phoenix Suns, finds Terry for another 3-pointer and just like that the Heat lead is only 2 despite while Dirk is watching from the bench. It didn’t appear this way at the time, but the Mavs really had a group of avengers that had been passed over or beaten in the past era by the San Antonio Spurs or the Los Angeles Lakers, of the 2006 Heat, or in the case of DeShawn Stevenson, the Cavaliers. Finally, the whole lot of them, from Marion, to Kidd, to Terry, to Stojakovic, to Chandler, to Dirk they had a collective hunger that couldn’t be matched by the Heat’s spotlight. Heck, Corey Brewer is on the team and has barely played in this series.

After LeBron put the team on his back to start the game and after Dirk picked up two early fouls midway through the 1st quarter, the Heat got sonned in the back half of the quarter like a bunch of college kids visiting their local rec center back home over break. After Ian Mahinmi out-works Bosh for an offensive rebound, the sense of urgency for the Mavs is fueling activity while the Heat’s desperation is leading to paralysis. Stevenson again from 3! We don’t talk enough about the All-Time villain performance from Stevenson in this series. Top-3 LeBron villain All-Time. Then he does it again! 3 3-pointers in a row. That Stevenson is the one throwing major daggers at the heart of the Heat is a poetic circle LeBron himself can especially appreciate.

The Heat, because this is basketball and because it’s the Finals, make a 7-0 run but history and the constant 3-point barrage from the Mavs in these last two games seem like a wave the Heat won’t be able to escape. Miami’s defense has been better, but only when the Mavs are overpassing. Now it’s a 9-0 run and Dirk has missed seven of his first six shots, then Haslem makes it a 40-39 game. And now here’s Eddie House to rue the day, exactly 3 minutes ago, that I ever spoke ill on him. The Heat lead 42-40, but we have scuffle! Stevenson and Haslem start jawing, but then Mario Chalmers makes his most boneheaded play of the series as he runs up on Stevenson to shove him and Stevenson gives him a double forearm shove. Both teams spilled onto the court.

Meanwhile, LeBron remains on the bench. Despite the long break without game time going by, the Heat are opting to rest him until a few possessions after play resumes. Then Chalmers feeds Haslem, making it a 16-1 run, with both teams making their best runs in this game with their stars on the bench. James returns to the game with 4:33 left in the game and the Heat up 44-43 after Marion missed a pair of free-throws. Obviously, the path to a championship will not be without another kind of comeback. A LeBron lay-up makes the Heat lead 47-43 but the Heat’s big momentum play was answered by another 3-pointer, which has been the story of the series. Dirk is 1 for 9, but the collective 3-point shooting is the rising tide that is raising all Mavericks boats. Another Terry 3-pointer restores order in the flow of the series, giving the Mavs a 49-47 lead. Dirk is missing everything, now 1 for 12 to start but the Mavs have Terry. He scored the last 10 Mavericks points in the 2nd quarter to help them hold a 53-51 lead into halftime.

A 3-point play by Wade on a backdoor cut gives the heat a little life, but Wade leaves another point on the table, the 13th missed free-throw of the game for Miami. The Heat have over 30 free-throw attempts but they still trail by four, mostly due to the 3-point line. Again, the Mavericks just had too many 3s to answer the big plays by the Heat. And there is JJ Barea with a pull-up 3 on House to push the lead back to 84-77.  Terry then makes another 3-pointer to make it an 87-77 lead. Then a Barea floater gives the Mavs their biggest lead of the game at 89-77 with 8 minutes left. Dirk is having an inefficient elimination game, but it doesn’t matter and he keeps shooting because that’s why the Mavs are here. He makes a huge one keep Dallas up by 9 on a Terry assist. Terry ended with a game-high 27 in a spot as he continued to back-up his trash talk. 

A couple of minutes later as the two teams remain in the same distance, Dirk hits another big 3-pointer to push the lead to 10. And Mark Jackson says an ominous note that the basketball lives and legacies of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade will never be the same if Dallas doesn’t close this out. While history is still being sorted on that front, the statement is an accurate reflection of the stage the Heat. But off the pedestal, they come. Dirk gets a lay-up with 30 seconds left to put the Mavs up by 11 and the celebration starts.

With LeBron having had a terrible game in Game 4, he will be the scapegoat and the Mavs will be one of the most celebrated champions in recent memory because their entire team finally got over the hump and Dirk’s years of work in Dallas, from losing to an 8-seed in 2007 to losing Steve Nash, are finally validated. Now LeBron will have to wait through an NBA lockout and a compressed season to finally get his. But we will pick that story up once we get to the Finals, in 2012 as LeBron and the Heat look for redemption in the 2012 Finals.

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