Heat Vs. Mavericks, Game 3: Miami Avoids Blowing Another Late Lead, Takes 2-1 Series Advantage

Sure, Juwan could have made it. What about Jason Terry? Could he have made that shot? Based on his fourth quarter performance in the Finals, perhaps not.

At media availability on Monday, Bosh still had bloodshot eyes, but said his vision remains OK and that there seem to be no serious problems suffered from the blow.

What’s not in question is that the 2011 Finals are blowing away the 2006 Dallas-Miami series in the Nielsens. ESPN reported that Sunday’s game was up 23 percent from 2006’s Game 3, which featured an improbable Heat comeback led by Wade. Miami went on to win four straight games and the championship.

Here are the full game highlights

So with all eyes on the superstars after Sunday night, we may as well take a closer look. Just for fun, let’s hand out some grades after Game 3. Starting with last night’s hero...

CHRIS BOSH. Midway through the first quarter, Bosh got jabbed in the eye by one of Jason Kidd’s fingers, and spent the next few minutes writhing on the floor like some sort of gunshot victim. It looked pretty bad, and once he got back into the game, so did he. This had all the makings of another game where Bosh gets exposed while Wade and LeBron carry Miami despite him. Speaking of which, this is still the best picture of the playoffs.

When asked about it after the game, Bosh wasn’t in the mood to play around. Via ESPN’s Tom Haberstroh:

An eye injury can’t explain Bosh shooting 31 percent in the series as a whole, but it can explain a lot of what happened in Game 3. The Heat never lost confidence in Bosh, and he rewarded their faith in the game’s biggest moment.

So much for all of that. Barea scored all of six points in Game 3, shooting 2-8 from the floor. And that was his best game of the Finals to date. (He also had one assist and four turnovers.) In Dallas’ Game 2 win, Barea contributed five points on 2-7 shooting; in Game 1, he shot 1-8 for two points. Barea’s inability to hit buckets has contributed to Dallas having only a small series lead in bench points (65-57).

For more on the Mavericks and Barea, visit Mavs Moneyball and SB Nation Dallas.

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↵via mocksession.com

Bosh returned to the floor after the time out.

Tip-off is scheduled for shortly after 8 p.m. ET. Tune into ABC to see how the Mavericks respond.

For live coverage of Game 3, stay up-to-date with this StoryStream. To see the up-to-the-minute score, along with information from around SB Nation on the game, keep your browser on this Heat-Mavs score page. Throughout the NBA Finals, check out our 2011 NBA Finals hub for more coverage. For more on the two teams, Mavericks fans should head over to Mavs Moneyball and SB Nation Dallas, while Heat fans should check out Peninsula Is Mightier.

Mavs Moneyball did some number-crunching after Game 2 to see which team had the toughest road to the finals:

SB Nation Dallas ponders several questions, including Brendan Haywood’s possible absence, but ultimately questions which team will control the game down the stretch:

The alternative is playing with a smaller lineup, but SB Nation Dallas points out what happened to the Mavericks when they did that in Game 2:

A smaller lineup or the untested Mahinmi, the Mavericks will need someone to step up on defense when Chandler is on the bench.

But it all fell apart down the stretch. The Miami offense went into clock-milking mode, which totally killed the flow and resulted in bad shot after bad shot. On the other end, Dallas used long rebounds to get out early and catch the Heat resistance unsettled and disorganized. That resulted in a 22-5 that sealed a win for the Mavericks, giving the West’s champion a 1-1 split in Miami. It was the Heat’s first home loss of the postseason.

As expected, two lovely teams are fighting their tails off in highly competitive games. What more could you want? Game 3 will tip at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. For full series coverage, check out our Heat vs. Mavericks hub. For more on the Heat, visit Peninsula Is Mightier. For more on the Mavericks, visit Mavs Moneyball and SB Nation Dallas.