Wilting Heat

Fresher Mavericks Cruise to 2-0 Lead: Mavericks 99, Heat 85

Jerry Stackhouse put up 19 points coming off the Dallas Mavericks' bench in Game 2. (Lucy Nicholson - Reuters)

DALLAS, June 11 -- Shaquille O'Neal sat on the bench in the fourth quarter, towel draped over his brawny shoulders, eyes wide as he looked on in bewilderment. To his left sat Dwyane Wade, munching on gum and staring up at the scoreboard in silence. Even farther down the bench, forward Udonis Haslem was holding back tears, his red Miami Heat warmup shirt covering the huge ice pack wrapped around his left shoulder.

The Heat vowed that Game 2 would be different than Game 1. Miami had no idea it would be more of an eyesore than before, that O'Neal would have his worst game ever in the NBA Finals, that Wade would struggle with apparent lethargy -- and not a nagging sinus infection -- and that the Dallas Mavericks would hand them a 99-85 defeat that was much uglier than the final score would suggest.

The Heat didn't have a morning practice on Sunday and it never showed up for the game. With Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki resembling the supernova he was hailed to be, Jerry Stackhouse playing out of his head from beyond the three-point arc, the two-headed monster of DeSagana Diop and Erick Dampier creating all sorts of problems for O'Neal and Wade wilting in the Dallas heat, the Mavericks took a 2-0 lead in this best-of-seven series.

Game 3 is Tuesday in Miami.

"We're not playing perfect basketball," Mavericks Coach Avery Johnson said. "But, again, if you don't play perfect basketball and still can win another game like this, we'll take it. But we're not satisfied."

O'Neal scored a playoff career-low five points on just five shot attempts and he sat the entire fourth period. O'Neal refused to speak to the media afterward, but on his way to the team bus he said: "I got five shots the whole night. Five shots." Asked what the cause of that was, O'Neal replied: "Write what you see, man. Write what you see."

After he scored 17 points in Game 1 on just 11 shots, Heat Coach Pat Riley said his team would work the ball inside to O'Neal more. The Heat's emphasis on O'Neal lasted about 30 seconds. O'Neal caught a pass from Antoine Walker (20 points) and blew past Diop for a reverse layup. He went scoreless the next 20 minutes.

The Mavericks were intent on keeping the ball out of O'Neal's hands. O'Neal's previous low was seven points. "I don't know if we took him out of the game. He had a hard time getting going," Johnson said. "We were trying to double-team him quite a bit, even before he got the ball."

O'Neal had one point in the second half, a free throw that improved his performance to just 1 for 7 from the line. O'Neal has missed 14 of 16 free throws this series. He also had to deal with the humiliation of being outplayed by his favorite punchline Dampier, who had six points and 13 rebounds. Dampier gave the Mavericks a 78-51 lead with 2 minutes 23 seconds left in the third period when Dampier raced down the court for a dunk. O'Neal didn't budge.

Nowitzki led the Mavericks with a game-high 26 points and 16 rebounds, Stackhouse had 19 and nailed his first four three-pointers and Game 1 hero Jason Terry had 16 points and nine assists in what could possibly be the final game played at American Airlines Center this season. The Mavericks have closed out playoff series against Memphis, San Antonio and Phoenix on the road and they will have a chance to do it again in Miami, which will host the next three games.

So far, this series has been a one-sided affair, but Riley is expecting his team to play better at home. "There's no guarantee that that's going to make a difference, unless you really come and play. They did what they had to do," Riley said. "Everybody's written our team off, even in Chicago. We lost two games to Chicago and then we got buried by New Jersey in the first game. We were history against Detroit. Even when we were ahead 3-1, we were history. I'm sure we're history right now."

Wade led the Heat with 23 points and eight rebounds, but he missed 13 of his 19 shot attempts and lacked his usual explosiveness.

Johnson used three different defenders on Wade, mixing in the strength of Adrian Griffin, the length of Josh Howard and the speed of Devin Harris. Wade had a forgettable first half, scoring just seven points, with three fouls, three turnovers and technical foul. He gave the Heat a 25-23 lead with 9:18 left in the second period, when he stole the ball from Howard, dipped under Nowitzki and hammered a one-handed jam.

The Heat led by five when James Posey nailed a three-pointer, but the Mavericks closed out the first half on a 27-6 run that left the Heat flustered and flattened. Stackhouse gave the Mavericks a 50-34 lead at the break, as he scored 10 straight points in the final 1:15 to close out the half, knocking down three fallaway three-pointers on consecutive possessions. He also had a four-point point play, crashing to the hardwood after Wade charged into him. "He's a very streaky shooter and he just caught fire and it was fun to watch," Nowitzki said.

Howard would follow with a four-point play of his own in the third quarter -- the first time in Finals history that a team accomplished that feat twice. The Mavericks were never threatened after that, even after the Heat closed within 12 in the fourth. Miami has to wonder if it will be able to reach 90 points this series. The Heat scored 80 in Game 1 and had to figure it was in trouble after Nowitzki and Howard combined to shoot just 7 of 28 from the floor, and it still lost by 10 points.

Miami looks nothing like the team that ran through the New Jersey Nets and Detroit Pistons to win the Eastern Conference. O'Neal appears to be in the midst of a rapid decline and after two games, the Heat doesn't look much different than the team Dallas demolished by an average of 24.5 points in the regular season. For the Heat to rebound this time, it will likely have to do it without Haslem, who injured himself in the first half when he crashed after committing a hard foul on Terry. "He took quite a fall. We know it's real sore," said Riley, who wasn't sure if Haslem would be available for Game 3. "We won't know until he gets X-rayed."

Note: Because O'Neal didn't speak to the media after the game, he was fined $10,000. The Heat was fined $25,000 for not making him available.