Special to End Score from Dropping Dimes

As Rod Stewart sang - “Tonight’s the night!  It’s gonna be alright.”  Actually, it’ll be alright for one team in tonight’s NBA Finals when they win the opening game of the series.  So, who will it be?  The Miami Heat led by Wade and O’Neal?  Or the Dallas Mavericks who ride the shoulders of Nowitzki?  We’re no Nostradamuses (or would that be Nostradami?), but we’ll break down how each team can win by pointing out some keys to victory.  For your viewing (dis)pleasure, here’s our opinion on how the Miami Heat can win.

To see how the Mavs can win, check it out here!

Three Keys On Offense:

1) Feed the Diesel - And I’m not talking about sandwiches, I’m talking about the pill. The way Shaq has looked lately, you must feed the big fella down in the box. Consider Game Six against the Pistons when O’Neal went off for 28 points on 12-for-14 shooting from the floor, 16 boards, and five “get that shiznit out of here” blocks. The man looked ridiculously like the Shaq of old and not an old Shaq. Just give the man the ball and he’ll do it up like Karl Malone did and deliver.

2) Know Their Roles, Jabronis - My apologies to The Rock for paraphrasing his line, but it seemed fitting. Offseason acquisitions - Jason Williams, Gary Payton, Antoine Walker, and James Posey - must contribute somehow, whether it’s a three and a shimmy afterwards or an explosive 21 points out of nowhere. We know what we’re going to get with Shaq and Dwyane Wade. The difference makers are the “other” guys.

3) Dwyane Has to Be the Man and I’m Not Talking Kadeem Hardison - Wade has to touch the ball every single time down the court because he’s like Earvin Johnson’s parents - he makes Magic. Seriously, the offense must roll through him because he is the Heat’s best decision-maker and has the ability to finish if that’s what the defense is giving him. But, as much as he is known for scoring (it’s not his fault he can cut through a defense like my Uncle Willie “cuts the cheese” at family functions), Wade can drop dimes as well if that’s what he has to do.

Three Keys On Defense:

1) Detain Dirk… Duh - Do I really need to explain this one? Oh, I may as well. Nowitzki has been showing that he can hit it from anywhere. Much like a limber Wilt the Stilt did back in the day. But back to this generation’s Dirk Diggler - Nowitzki can post up and shoot that fadeaway against shorter defenders (and they’re almost always shorter when you consider his height of 7’0”), he can take it to the hoop, and he can hit the triple. He was without question the assassin that killed the Phoenix Suns’ hope of getting to the NBA Finals. Instead of allowing Nowitzki to score anywhere from 25-50 points, the Heat need to keep him consistently in the low 20’s for the whole series. Getting Dirk to score anything less than that is gravy on the meat. As they used to say about Jordan - you can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him. I’m not saying Dirk is MJ, but he’s proven he can light it up this postseason.

2) Oh, Quit Joshin’ - It’s proven that when Josh Howard scores 20+ points the Mavs win. The Heat forwards will need to limit Howard’s touches and make sure to box him out because Howard can board like he was a fat kid and the ball was a pack of Twinkies. You can’t let Howard get it going and drop a string of points on you.

3) Get Back! - The Mavs have some quick guards, some REALLY quick guards in Jason Terry, who can run 100mph with the ball in his hand down the court and stop on a dime, and Devin Harris who is breaking out in these playoffs like a teenager who just hit puberty. It would behoove the Heat to slow the game down and limit fastbreak chances for the Mavs.

Look Out For:

- How the refs call fouls.  Shaq needs to stay on the court and can’t commit dumb fouls because the Heat offense is different without him. With him, they have an excellent half-court offense and the Heat will need to utilize that to lessen the ball possessions for the Mavs by moving at tortoise-like speed when the tempo gets out of hand.

- How will the Heat defend Dirk Nowitzki? Will they actually keep one player on him for the whole game or guard Nowitzki with various defenders to keep him on his toes?

Prediction:

The Heat pull the upset on the Mavs’ homecourt and win it 95-86.

And… I’m SPENT!