The Mavs beat the Heat 105-95 Sunday, fulfilling the SportsRatings curse for this playoff season: every team our system picked lost and we were forced to re-pick a winner in the next round. In the end we went against the system and took Dallas in 6, proving the curse was in the system, not in our final choices.
Congratulations to Jason Kidd, Dirk Nowitski, and yes even Mark Cuban in taking a program that's had its ups and downs over the years in the playoffs and finally reaching their goal. Not surprisingly, Nowitski was named MVP of the finals series.
As for the Heat, they've got every opportunity to be back in the Finals next year, so no one should cry for LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh.
The game was "marred" by two of the lamest non-issues ever. First was the video of Dwayne Wade and LeBron James mocking Nowitski's illness from a previous game. The announcers felt it was worth 5 minutes of pointless gabbing over a stupid but harmless joke.
Then there was the "altercation" where not a single punch was thrown. Bench players from the Heat were already on the court because it was a timeout, so there rightly were no ejections. The officials made the exact correct call, giving a technical to the two players who were in each other's face, and also to Mario Chalmers, who stupidly sprinted toward the confrontation.