DALLAS, 10 June 2006 — Jason Terry sparkled with 32 points to power the Dallas Mavericks to a 90-80 victory over the Miami Heat on Thursday in a scrappy opening game of the NBA finals.
Terry scored 12 of his points in the final quarter and hit 13-of-18 shots for the game to give the Mavericks the early advantage in the best-of-seven series.
“It obviously wasn’t the prettiest game,” Mavericks coach Avery Johnson told reporters.
“There are things that we wanted to do coming into this game offensively and defensively and it just didn’t happen.”
The much-anticipated scoring duel between the Mavericks’ Dirk Nowitzki and the Heat’s Shaquille O’Neal never materialized as both teams seemed to suffer from stage fright in their first finals appearance.
Nowitzki finished with 16 points on four-of-14 shooting, while O’Neal had just 17 points, missing eight-of-nine shots from the foul line.
“They are at home and they got a great, great game out of Jason,” said Heat coach Pat Riley, a three-time coach of the year shooting for his fifth title. “They hit timely shots.
“You know, this is a fight. This is what it’s about. It’s competitive and it’s going to be ugly and sloppy at times. You have both teams going at each other hard, and somebody exhales for two minutes you might be down eight or nine points.” With Dallas holding a 74-72 lead early in the fourth quarter, Terry scored eight straight points on a 10-foot jump shot and two more from beyond the arc.
The Mavericks found themselves with an 82-72 lead with less than eight minutes to go and the Heat could get no closer than three points the rest of the way.
“I just wanted to come out and be aggressive,” Terry said.
“There was no point where I ever looked up at the scoreboard. I’m just continuing to take shots.
“Fortunately for me, they were falling tonight.” The Mavericks hit just 44.4 percent of their shots while the Heat managed only 43.6. Dallas controlled the game with a 24-2 edge from players coming off the bench.
“I thought we were kind of frozen up,” Nowitzki added.
“We were not making shots, we weren’t making good plays on offense. We weren’t swinging the ball. We forced some shots.
“Obviously that plays right in Miami’s hands.” Guard Dwyane Wade shook off a virus to lead the Heat in scoring with 28 points on just 11-of-25 shooting.
The 34-year-old O’Neal hit eight-of-11 shots but was not a factor offensively and had a mere seven rebounds. Miami was saddled with 15 turnovers.
“We just had too many turnovers, to many mental mistakes,” Heat forward Antoine Walker said. “We have to step it up a little bit and make sure we get the ball to Shaq a little bit more.
“Eleven attempts isn’t enough for him.” Game Two is set for Sunday night at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, where the raucous home crowd is anticipating the first title in the franchise’s 26-year history.
Although it was not a picturesque victory, Johnson was pleased with his team’s defensive effort in the second half.
The Mavericks outscored the Heat 44-36 after intermission, including 20-12 in the pivotal final frame.
“We did what it took to win this basketball game,” he said.
“For them to score 36 points in the second half, when this team has been shooting 55 and 58 percent from the field and getting in the 100s consistently, we’ll take it.” Dallas forward Josh Howard hit only three-of-14 shots, leaving Johnson somewhat pleased that the Mavericks could still win while his top scorers could play so poorly offensively.
“Jason Terry makes us a pretty special basketball team because on a night like tonight, when Josh and Dirk go seven for 28, you need to get some offensive from somewhere.
“Josh and Dirk don’t normally have nights like this. But I don’t think either team necessarily played their best game.
“I think there’s better basketball left in both of us.”
