Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks hit the game-winner during Game 2 of the 2011 NBA Finals. Posted by Ben Golliver.

Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki has been looking for redemption against the Miami Heat, and he got some in a big way on Thursday night.

Nowitzki capped off an improbable fourth quarter comeback during Game 2 of the 2011 NBA Finals by beating Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh off the dribble to hit a running left-handed layup in the game's closing seconds. Nowitzki's layup provided the winning margin of the 95-93 final score and finished off an astonishing 22-5 run in the final 6:20 seconds of the fourth quarter.

Mavericks guard Jason Kidd set up Nowitzki's big moment by finding him with a bounce pass near the three point line with the score tied at 93 apiece with roughly 10 seconds remaining. Nowitzki was being guarded solo by Bosh and he said in a post-game interview that he started his drive to the basket a bit earlier than usual.

"They actually had a foul to give, so I think I went a little earlier thinking they might foul," Nowitzki said.

Bosh didn't, electing to play straight up defense, and Nowitzki didn't hesitate.  

After a hard dribble to the right and a spin back to his left, Nowitzki used a hitch dribble to free his body from Bosh's and attacked the paint with his left hand. Heat forward LeBron James elected not to double-team, leaving Nowitzki a fairly clean entry into the paint.

Heat forward Udonis Haslem attempted to rotate over from the weak side, but was too late, and Nowitzki tossed up a running left-handed runner which banked in off the glass, rounded the rim and dropped with less than four seconds to play. The finish was particularly impressive given that Nowitzki tore a tendon in his left ring finger during Game 1 on Tuesday night.

"I made a move and the foul never came," Nowitzki said flatly. "I was able to get to the basket and lay it in. That was a big play."

Miami, out of timeouts, inbounded the ball and rushed up court quickly, but Heat guard Dwyane Wade could not hit a running desperation three-pointer as time expired. 

Here's a look at Nowitzki's game-winning heroics.



Nowitzki finished with a team-high 24 points, to go along with 11 rebounds, four assists and a block on 10-for-22 shooting in 42 minutes.

The NBA Finals series is now tied at one game apiece. The teams head back to Dallas to play Game 3 on Sunday night.

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh throw down a number of spectacular dunks in these videos from Game 2 of the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks. Posted by Ben Golliver.

Game 2 of the 2011 NBA Finals was an absolute dunk parade for the Miami Heat. 

Here's a look at the top five Miami Heat dunks against the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night. 

5. Dwyane Wade steal & flush

Midway through the second quarter, Dwyane Wade takes off in transition and rises high to throw down with his right hand as Mavericks guard J.J. Barea does his best to simply get out of the way.



4. LeBron James isolation hammer

Near the end of the third quarter, LeBron James sizes up the Mavericks' team defense from the top of the key. He quickly decides that he is unstoppable and simply goes hard to his right, throwing down a vicious right-handed hammer dunk.



3. Chris Bosh putback dunk

The Heat's third wheel gets in on the dunking action in the fourth quarter, taking advantage of some lazy fourth quarter boxing out by the Mavericks to hammer home a putback finish. He punctuates it with one of his usual creepy screams.



2. Dwyane Wade behind the back & reverse

Here's Wade in transition yet again, this time in the third quarter with a little bit more flair. Wade runs out and sizes up Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki in transition, beating him with a simple behind the back dribble. With his path clear, Wade cruises in for a two-hand reverse flush.



1. LeBron James putback dunk

James rises high in the first quarter to throw down a vicious putback dunk after a Mike Miller missed three-pointer.

For really no reason other than it's terrifying. 

This is the tongue of an Eastern Conference Champion.


 

Via @bubbaprog on Twitter.  

Posted by Matt Moore

The Miami Heat at one point were down in FT advantage 11-0. Late in the second quarter, however, they forced the bonus and they took advantage. At the half, the Mavericks lead in free throws 13-11.

The bigger story is that LeBron James has three fouls. James was dominant at times, with 12 points and 5 rebounds, including 2-4 from downtown. But with three fouls, his impact could be limited. Then again, Dwyane Wade with 21 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists with 13 in the 2nd quarter.

The crowd was resless as you can imagine after the first half, particularly at the technical foul on Mike Miller. J.J. Barea dove for a loose ball Miller had also dove for and wound up kneeing Miller in the face. Miller reacted by shoving Barea off and picking up the technical. 

Beyond that, it's been quality shooting from everyone outside of Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry, particularly for the arc, that's keeping Dallas in this game. It's unclear if the hand is bothering Nowitzki, but the aggressive double from Miami defenitely is.

Can Miami survive between Dwyane Wade's heroics if James is in foul trouble? Can Dallas survive without Dirk? Questions for the second half.  

Posted by Matt Moore

At the end of Game 1 in Miami, fans at the AAA threw their white seat covers forward. Play was stopped when a few landed on the floor and the P.A. announcer (who you may know from such films as "The Obnoxious Miami P.A. Guy, Private Dectective," and "Two minutes, dos! Dos minutos!: A Love Story") warned fans there would be ejections for throwing anything on the floor.

Before Game 2, the Heat showed a promotional video on the jumbo-tron featuring Dwyane Wade reading a prepared statement warning fans of the same. For a fanbase that was so often ridiculed in the press and by other fanbases for their quiet and often absent presence, the Heat's fans in the postseason have had multiple run-ins with authority, including the incidents with Charles Barkley and Joakim Noah's slur-ridden problem. The fans are remarkably calm in the lower bowl at times, but the middle and upper decks, it's your prototypical, ridiculous drunken crowd. Miami fans are just like you! Okay, maybe not. 

It would be a real shame if the fans wound up affecting the game in terms of technicals. But I have to say from the top of the arena the affect of what looks like thousands of Heat fans throwing in the towel for the opponent did look pretty cool, even if they weren't actually towels. 

Join us at 9 p.m. EST as we discuss Mavericks vs. Heat Game 2 of the NBA Finals. Royce Young and Matt Moore are live in Miami to bring you the sights and sounds of the AA Arena as the Mavericks try and even the series. Topics of discussion include:

• Splints, are they a myth?
• Mike Miller and whether Erik Spoelstra would classify him as "fine" if he caught the bubonic plague.
• Your favorite Shaq nickname.
• Pants! 

Join us at 9 p.m. EST:

 

MIAMI- Potent quotables and other notes from Heat and Mavericks shootaround before Game 2 Thursday morning.

Heat notes from Matt Moore

Carlisle: LeBron guarding Terry is "a compliment"

No one saw LeBron James guarding Jason Terry coming before Game 1. It was a huge adjustment and one that worked to near perfection as James obliterated the Terry-Nowitzki pick and roll with his length and athleticism.

Rick Carlisle was asked about whether he thought James would have the assignment repeated in Game 2.

"He's going to see their best players. James will guard him for sure. It's quite a compliment that they put him on him, because he's a great defender, and he draws a lot of respect that way, and we'll have to be ready to get him in a position to make plays."

Yeah, it's a compliment. It's also an extremely difficult thing to counter.

Pants!

The Matrix was asked about pressure and the conversation suddenly devolved into an existential question of how everything in life is difficult in some regard. It was pretty incredible.

"Everything is tough. Nobody said anything is going to be easy. We try and do something, if you want something, you gotta work at it to be good at it. Sometimes it's hard to put your pants on in the morning. Some people try and put on both legs at the same time. They have real problems!"

That's Shawn Marion. Leaving you a lot to think about through a pants analogy. I spent the rest of the morning thinking about how difficult it is to put on pants. Instert blogger joke here.

Zone: A weapon not an answer

After Game 1, Rick Carlisle said he had to look at the tape but he thought the zone looked pretty good versus the Heat. I later noted the Heat scored 20 points on 18 possessions against the zone, which is not pretty good, so Thursday I doubled back and asked Carlisle about what he thought of how effective the zone was after watching the tape.

"I thought it was... okay. We're not going to make a living with our zone. It's something we can use during certain stretches. It's a weapon, but it's not a cure-all."

The big debate is whether you live with the damage the Heat did to the zone in Game 1 and dare them to repeat the performance or alter your strategy. That'll be something to watch in Game 2.

Cool Mav Cats

The Mavericks' demeanor on Wednesday was predictably a bit down, with the team having to deal with media and the weight of the loss. But Thursday morning they seemed to be back to their happy-go-lucky selves. There was an atmosphere of pleasant energy, with Shawn Marion ebullient and J.J. Barea feeling more confident. We'll have to see how that translates on the floor in Game 2. 

Heat notes from Royce Young

The unconventional side of history.

Erik Spoelstra was asked about a pretty unique stat that his team produced in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.  The Heat are the first team in some 35 years to have two starters not score in the NBA Finals, and win. Both Joel Anthony and Mike Bibby didn't add a point to the Heat's total of 94. That's pretty remarkable.  "We probably had a lot of things, statistically, that was a bit unorthodox," Spoelstra said. "Our team is built different. I don't really compare it to other teams." Bibby missed all four of his shots, all being of the 3-point variety.   "He's due," Spoelstra said. "It could be just the time for him to knock down a couple big ones for us." Mike Miller, totally cool you guys.

Mike Miller has had some shoulder issues this post season to go along with a list of other injuries. Funny how Dirk's getting all the attention though right?  Miller wore a pretty obtrusive-looking shoulder brace in Game 1 and appeared to be in some pain during the second half. Nothing to see here though, says Spoelstra. "He's fine. Occasionally, it gets tweaked during the game and it'll look worse than it is," he said. With the Mavs zone, Miller is a pretty important part to breaking that because of his outside shot. But that's if he's healthy and has no tweaks to speak of, I'd say.  Going home isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Chris Bosh is a native of Dallas so naturally when Game 3 rolls in next week, it'll be a homecoming for him on the biggest NBA stage.  But he's not all that excited about it. He mentioned the headaches of people wanting a piece of you were you're home but also that he's been back so many times that it's not all that special anymore.  He was asked about whether he likes playing in Dallas.  "Pros and cons. Pros, and cons," he said.  The way he said it, it really seemed like there was a lot more to it. What are some pros and what are some cons?  He thought for a minute and almost exasperated even thinking about it he just said, "I don't know. I really don't know."

Posted by Matt Moore

When LeBron James and Dwyane Wade only took seven combined free throws in Game 1, the Mavericks had to feel pretty good about it. After all, these are two of the biggest stars in the league and they get calls comensurate with such a status. Especially after 2006, the Mavs have to be thrilled with how that worked out. Rick Carlisle's never thrilled about anything with the media, but he did describe the fact that the two superstars were limited at the free throw line as "a good sign."

Carlisle attributed to the low foul total in part to Dallas' defense, which has elected to attack Wade and James by staying in front of them and bringing help, encouraging those long-range and mid-range jumpers. 

"Someof it was the kind of defense we were playing," Carlisle siad Thursday morning, "we were in a containing mode. But they jumped up and hit some shots, which they can do."

That's part of what has to frustrate the Mavericks so much about Game 1. James and Wade were 7-11 at the rim in Game 1, which is a decent amount but to be expected. But they were 8-14 from beyond 16 feet including 3-pointers. That's a difference of 1.57 points per possession from longer range shots compared to 1.27 points per possession at the rim. Both were effective. But if what you're giving the Heat isn't working, and what you can't give the Heat isn't working, how do you adjust? 

Carlisle's answer is rebounding. If the Mavericks can't get back their defensive identity, it's going to be a long flight back to Dallas, and Carlisle knows it. 

"It's important for us to play our game better," Carlise said. "We do that, we get our rebounding shored up, we play better defensively, we'll put ourselves in a good position."