Mavericks Snap Heat Streak at 12

From the opening tip off, it did not seem like it was going to be the Miami Heat's night. The Mavericks came out hot by building a 14-2 lead and eventually won the game 98-96. For the score to be this close on an off night is not that bad, but at the end of the day, the Celtics are riding a 13 game winning streak and do not seem to be slowing down. Symbolically this has ramifications, but with the new year still a week away, it is not detrimental.

For whatever reason, the Miami Heat were out of sync from the gecko. LeBron James developed a bad habit of leaving his feet while trying to find an open teammate. Throughout the night LeBron tried to drive the lane, leave his feet and try to find an open man. At times it worked, but at times would roll out of bounds. The Heat closed out the first quarter strong and actually gained a one point lead going into the second quarter led by James. This habit could have been a facet of unselfish play as late in the game with 30 seconds left, Dwayne Wade had an opportunity to take an open 15 footer but opted to pass it out to Mario Chalmers whose only option with 5 seconds left on the shot clock was to pass to an open Chris Bosh who missed a three pointer; this is not overly surprising as Bosh hit a big three Saturday night against the Wizards. In any event, the Heat did not resemble the team that was riding a 12 game win streak into the game.

The effort seemed lack luster which led to numerous loose balls not going the Heats way. Was there something that was happening behind the scenes that led to two of the three superstars not producing 20 points (Bosh and James both had 19) with Wade finishing with 22. Could there have been an effort to spread the ball out more to other teammates which resulted in James Jones and Mario Chalmers finishing with more than 10 points each?  There could have been, but the Mavericks just seemed to be the more motivated team on the court tonight; perhaps even the more talented team. They have an all-star line up in Dirk Nowitzski, Jason Terry, Tyson Chandler, Shawn Marion, Caron Butler with Jason Kidd leading them. They all played well and it turned out to be to big of a test for the Heat to meet tonight.

The Heat travel west tonight as they will take on the Phoenix Suns Thursday night and travel to Los Angeles in on of the most anticipated match ups of the NBA season. Not only will LeBron (or Wade) be taking on Kobe, but it will be on Christmas day with the nation watching. The Heat fall to 21-9 on the season and 12-4 at the American Airlines Arena.