Mavericks feel right at home on the road
If things go according to plan for the Mavericks, the next time they are in Dallas they’ll be carrying a shiny gold trophy and getting ready for a parade.
The Mavericks left for Miami on Monday afternoon leading the NBA finals 2-0 over the Miami Heat and feeling pretty good about their chances of ending the series in Florida.
After all, they’ve been great on the road all season and postseason, and finals history shows they’re now overwhelming favorites to bring home the championship trophy.
“The big thing for us is we knew we’re a good road team,” veteran Darrell Armstrong said. “It’s not cocky or anything. We just feel we can win on anybody’s court.”
Ratings up so far
Ratings for the first two games of the NBA finals between Miami and Dallas were up 13 percent for ABC in comparison to last year’s series with San Antonio and Detroit.
The second game of the series on Sunday night, which Dallas won 99-85, drew an average rating of 8.0 – a 17 percent increase from 2005.
The rating is the percentage of all homes with TVs, whether or not they are in use. Each rating point represents about 1.08 million households.
Shaq’s struggles
For a guy with a Superman tattoo who speaks about being from another planet, Shaquille O’Neal sure has looked like a mere mortal this series.
Coming off a career-playoff-low five points in Game 2, he’s shooting 12.5 percent from the foul line, missing 14 of 16 attempts – and that doesn’t include three misses nullified by lane violations. He has more missed free throws than rebounds (13).
He’s being outscored by four members of the Dallas Mavericks and three of his own teammates so far in the series. Even Erick Dampier, a player he’s dominated and taunted, finished with more points (six) than the three-time finals MVP managed in Sunday’s 99-85 Mavericks victory.
O’Neal has been so bad his two-game total of 22 points is less than he’d scored in 22 of his 24 previous finals games.
Go back to his Los Angeles Lakers losing the final three games of the 2004 NBA championship series and O’Neal is on a five-game finals losing streak.