The 2011 NBA Finals saw one of the biggest upsets in NBA history. Dirk Nowitzki led the Dallas Mavericks against the Miami Heat super team led by LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. Dirk and the Mavericks pulled off a shocking 4-2 win over Miami to win the NBA championship. And now, Dwyane Wade has explained how the Mavericks got the better of them.
During his interview with Shannon Sharpe, Dwyane Wade was asked about the 2011 NBA Finals. Wade kept his answer simple – the Miami Heat got outcoached and outplayed. He also credited J.J. Barea as the player that proved to be the X-factor for the Mavericks winning, as the Heat didn’t expect him to do what he did.
“We got outplayed and outcoached. If you go back and ask the players, and ask Spo & the coaching staff, they got outcoached, and the players got outplayed when it came down to winning. We didn’t close out games… We got outcoached by Rick Carlisle, and we got outplayed by Dirk and Jason Terry, and JKidd, and that little J.J. Barea”.
“Nobody gave him credit, J.J. Barea changed it, and we didn’t have no answer for him…No one played for little J.J. to come off the bench and do what he did. I look at the MVP from a player who really helped push that series over, I give it to J.J. because we didn’t have no answer for him”
(From 1:20:41 mark)
Wade and the Heat were utterly disappointing during the 2011 NBA Finals. Their inability to cope with an inferior Dallas Mavericks team was a massive talking point, with many fans criticizing LeBron James in particular for how poor his performance was. The 2011 NBA Finals are still looked at as LeBron James’ biggest failure.
The Miami Heat Had To Recalibrate After The 2011 NBA Finals
J.J. Barea can definitely be considered an X-Factor in the 2011 NBA Finals. While he only averaged 8.8 points across the series, his performances in Games 5 and 6, where he dropped 17 and 15 points respectively, and helping the Mavericks to close the series and win the first and only NBA championship in their franchise’s history.
Wade actually played really well in the NBA Finals, averaging 26.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 5.2 assists. Whereas LeBron James was quite underwhelming, averaging 17.8 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 6.8 assists. That NBA Finals performance forced the Miami Heat to reimagine their strategy and come back the next year even better.
Wade also addressed the rumors around he and other Heat players wanted to have coach Erik Spoelstra fired, noting that he told LeBron that Spoelstra would be a better fit for them. It’s a good thing they stuck with Spoelstra as the head coach would lead the Heat back to the NBA Finals for the next three years, and coach them two NBA Finals.
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.
