The NBA season is mercilessly coming to an end, and I, for one am looking forward to a prolonged lockout next season. The rest of the country isn't, as evidenced by the ratings from the Western and Eastern Conference Finals. Plus, the NBA and David Stern couldn't be more pleased with this year's match up between the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks. These teams met in the finals just five years ago where Dallas took an early 2-0 lead in the series but then proceeded to choke it away to give Dwyane Wade his first title. Now that Wade has hooked up with his two best friends in Chris Bosh and LeBron James, to go along with a cast of pretty talented role players like Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Mike Bibby, Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller. The Heat have one very talented team and the fact that Bosh, Wade and James score nearly 75 percent of their team's points in the postseason is no mistake, they have designed it that way. Erik Spoelstra has done an excellent job this season keeping everyone's mission focused to win a title, and they very well may do it.
However, they are also running into another great team, and I mean team with the Dallas Mavericks. most folks associate Dallas with just Dirk Nowitzki, and for good reason, he has been the face of the franchise for 12 seasons, and has been a dominant player in the playoffs, averaging over 28 points a game, including over 32 in the Western Conference Finals victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Dallas has a good reason to believe in themselves as well, since they want revenge on the Heat from 2006, and they want to prove themselves to everyone that they can win a title. Dallas is a team of veterans, as they average just under 8 years of experience. Rick Carlisle has expertly led this group of savvy veterans into this title clash and they could do it. Plus, it doesn't hurt that noted talker Mark Cuban, the Mavs owner has stayed surprisingly silent throughout the playoffs, which hasn't been detracting from his team's success.
Both teams have a lot of veterans, and both teams are deserving of this title, but I think Miami will do what they set out to do at the beginning of the season, win a title to show to everyone that Wade, Bosh and James all made the right decision to join together and win this title.
Pick: Heat in 6.
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