Game Threcap

Did Miami make it a series again last night?

Short answer...I don't know. I mean, on one hand, the Heat defended their home court and can tie the series up two weeks from tomorrow when they play Game Four. On the other, Miami barely scraped together a win after being beaten pretty soundly in the first two games.

But I'm encouraged, for two reasons:

1. Dirk missed that free throw. Dirk has been reborn in these playoffs, or so the common storyline goes. It's true, he's played very well. But people talk about it like he's suddenly become one of the best players in the league.

That's not really true. Dirk has actually been one of the league's stars for years. It's just that he plays like garbage in the playoffs. In this postseason, he has elevated his game, but I don't think he's really someone you'll tell your kids about yet. (Come to think of it, which athletes would you tell your kids about? I'm sure mine'll hear about MJ and Elway, but they're just as likely to hear the old HoopsTV.com joke about how many names Shawn Kemp recognized from his stack of Father's Day cards. Okay, maybe I won't tell them that exact one, but you get what I'm saying. Won't you and your kids have better stuff to talk about? Perhaps it's because my own dad's not a huge sports fan, but I don't plan on boring mine to death in that specific way. Anyway.)

Why mention Dirk's past struggles? Because with Dallas down two with seconds left last night, Dirk got two free throws to tie the game. He made the first and missed the second. Now I don't know what will happen, but I can see it affecting him mentally. He's heard his whole career that he's soft and he chokes, so the constant questioning the next few days could be distraction. Then again, I always thought he summed up his outlook on basketball pretty well in that awesome American Express commercial a few years back, the one when he told Don Nelson, “Ich dach ich soll schießen.” So he might not second-guess himself at all. Anyone care to make any predictions?

2. Dwyane Wade is Superman. After Nowitzki's miss, Wade was fouled with Miami now up one. He made his first and missed his second, too, which was kind of big considering a long three can be a team's only hope at a clean look near the end of a game. But the difference was that Wade immediately atoned for it, breaking up the lob on Dallas' inbounds play to clinch the win.

That wasn't his only big play of the night-Wade finished with 42 points and 13 rebounds, the kind of numbers playoff teams used to get out of Shaq. Wade's been pretty clutch ever since he came in the league-yes, he has Shaq on the floor and Pat Riley on the bench, but a) it's not 1998, and b) he did carry a pretty flawed Heat team to the conference semis his rookie year.

Can he and his team do it again? It'd be pretty tough, but this is the championship round, so everything's tough. I know I'm getting stoked for Thursday night.