Heat too hot for Mavericks in fourth, take 1-0 lead

The Miami Heat started the 2011 NBA finals on a positive note, defeating the Dallas Mavericks 92-84 in Game 1. With the win, the Heat remain undefeated at the American Airlines Arena, while the Mavericks' five game road winning streak comes to an end.

As expected, Game 1 of the NBA finals was highly contested, with neither team able to build any significant lead in the first half. In the second half, the Heat turned it up a notch, and the Mavericks' nightmare began.

The Mavericks had no answers for the dynamic duo of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, who helped the Heat pull away in the final quarter. LeBron led Miami offensively, shooting 56 percent from the field. James finished the game with 24 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists for the Heat. Wade also shot the ball well for the Heat, converting on 9 of his 16 field goal attempts. Wade finished the game with 22 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists. After the game, Wade talked about Miami's solid second half performance: "You've got stay with it. You can't get frustrated because the ball's not going in. There's other ways you can dominate the game and we was able to do that tonight. I thought we did a great job in the second half of rebounding the ball, limiting them to one shot as much as possible."

Leading up to Game 1 of the 2011 NBA finals, critics of the Heat were confident they wouldn't have any answers for the Mavericks' bench (the same thing was said about the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls). In Game 1, the Heat's bench outplayed their counterparts on the Mavericks team, outscoring them by 10 points.

Dirk Nowitzki who has been one of the best performers in the 2011 NBA post-season, quickly found out he won't be having any 40+ performances against the Heat's relentless defense. The Heat held Nowitzki to 39 percent shooting from the field in Game 1, 13 points below his post-season average of 52 percent.

Game 2 will be on June 2, and the Heat shouldn't have any problems duplicating their success.

David is a Miami Heat fan that has followed the team for 15 years.

Sources:

Associated Press,"LeBron James, Dwyane Wade step up in 4th, take Heat to 1-0 Finals lead"

Player and game information from espn.com