Times wires
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Finals
Mavericks 3, Heat 2
Game 1: Heat 92, Mavericks 84
Game 2: Mavericks 95, Heat 93
Game 3: Heat 88, Mavericks 86
Game 4: Mavericks 86, Heat 83
Game 5: Mavericks 112, Heat 103
Tonight: at Miami, 8, Ch. 28
Tuesday: at Miami, 9, Ch. 28 *
* If necessary
MIAMI — Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki found nothing funny about the Heat's Dwyane Wade and LeBron James apparently cracking a joke about him.
James and Wade were caught on camera coughing and making jokes about being sick while leaving AmericanAirlines Center in Dallas after Thursday's shootaround before Game 5. It appeared they were poking fun and questioning the validity of Nowitzki playing in Game 4 with a sinus infection.
The video taken shows Wade walking alongside James. Wade coughs, then says, "Did you hear me cough? Think I'm sick." The video clip runs 26 seconds. After Wade coughs, he and James laugh and tug their collars over their nose and mouth, as Nowitzki did during his interview after Game 4.
"I just thought it was a little childish, a little ignorant," Nowitzki said. "I've been in this league for 13 years. I've never faked an injury or an illness before. … This is the NBA Finals. If you need an extra motivation, you have a problem."
James and Wade downplayed the incident when asked about it Saturday. Wade said they weren't making fun of Nowitzki.
"I actually did cough," Wade said. "And with the cameras being right there, we made a joke out of it because we knew you guys were going to blow it up. You did exactly what we knew. We never said Dirk's name. I think he's not the only one in the world who can get sick or have a cough."
James refused to address the issue: "I'm not feeding into that. … There's bigger issues in this series than that."
As for on the court, Wade said his injured left hip will be "totally fine" for tonight's Game 6. He can only hope that his team will be, too, after a series featuring three late-game Miami meltdowns, a stunning scoring slump from James and can-you-top-this clutch shooting from Nowitzki.
Win tonight, and Miami forces a Game 7 at home Tuesday. Lose, and the Heat's season ends with angst, anger and aggravation over squandered leads and missed chances.
The Heat has been outscored a total of 50 to 26 during the final six minutes of the past four games, three of them losses.
Wade spent part of Saturday defending James, who has just 11 fourth-quarter points in the Finals. What's more, James has attempted 16 free throws — only two more than Heat backup guard Mario Chalmers and 28 fewer than Nowitzki.
"Obviously, we want him to stay aggressive," Wade said of James.
In the past two games, James scored 8 and 17, making 11 of 30 shots.
James noted that he did have a triple double in Game 5, but even with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, he said, "I had a bad game in a lot of people's eyes. I understand that."