The 2011 NBA playoffs will forever live on in the minds of basketball fans everywhere. It was supposed to be the coronation of the Miami Heat Big 3 as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh looked to win it all in their first season after teaming up, but that wasn’t to be.
Instead of a coronation, all the Heat Big 3 got was ridicule, as the Dallas Mavericks led by Dirk Nowitzki stunned them in 6 games in the NBA Finals. It was the lowest point in LeBron’s career and Jason Kidd, who was a part of that team, recently spoke about how they managed to stop James in the Finals. While that series gets brought up every now and then to discredit LeBron, what often seems to be forgotten is that the Mavericks on their way to the Finals had swept the Los Angeles Lakers who were the 2-time defending champions.
Jason Terry Hilariously Explained How The Mavericks Were Beating The Lakers
The Lakers led by Kobe Bryant were the second seed in the Western Conference after winning 57 games, the same as the Mavs who finished 3rd due to a tiebreaker. It was supposed to be a hotly contested series, but the Mavericks won 3 relatively close games to seize total control. Game 4 was a bloodbath as they were up 63-39 at halftime and when Jason Terry was asked just why they were having so much success against the Lakers from the 3-point line, he had a hilarious response.
“Well all series long we’ve been able to penetrate their bigs, get deep, suck the d in, and then we got spot-up shooters. You got three of the most prolific three-point shooters in the history of the game out there.”
We can’t be sure if Terry meant to make it sound that way, but it was hilarious. He was probably feeling pretty good about himself after scoring 20 points in the first half and Terry would finish with a game-high 32 points. He was also a ridiculous 9-10 from beyond the arc as the Mavericks shot the Lakers out of the arena.
It was a stunning collapse that gets overshadowed by the Heat’s epic choke job in the Finals, but you have to give a lot of credit to the Mavs for getting the better of both these teams. This series was also the beginning of the end for the Bryant-led Lakers, as they would only win one more playoff series during his time there.
