Game 3 of the NBA Finals was pretty much an attempt by the basketball gods to screw with us onlookers. We had finally decided that the Miami Heat were LeBron James‘ team, Chris Bosh was weak sauce and Dirk Nowitzki had more clutch in him than Jeff Gordon‘s NASCAR car. But that all was a cruel trick.
As it turned out, Bosh hits the game winner, and though LeBron made the pretty set-up pass, King James took a lot of flak from the media afterward. Dallas had a good shot to tie it and send the game into overtime, but Nowitzki shot it long and that was that.
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As in Game 2, much of Game 3 involved the Heat taking double-digit leads but failing to put the Mavs away. Such a run came with J.J. Barea having a rough first half.
@DanWetzel: If DWade and LeBron don’t start “celebrating” soon Dallas is in trouble
@BuckeyeWriter23: I’m not saying Barea is solely responsible for this Heat run, but… OK that’s exactly what I’m saying. He’s playing terrible ball right now
@KBerg_CBS: How long would it take Andrew Bynum to get here and lay Barea out? He deserves it.
And it didn’t help the Dallas bench’s cause that back-up center Brendan Haywood was out with a hip injury. So after Tyson Chandler hit the pine, in came Ian Mahinmi. Miami countered with, who else?
@johnhollinger: Juwan Howard and Ian Mahinmi are guarding each other in an NBA Finals game.
@TheBillWalton: Word is Morgan Freeman is gearing up this summer to play Juwan Howard in a TV movie about his final season.
@CardboardGerald: Juwan Howard’s goatee is older than J.J. Barea.
@EricStangel: That’s not a mouthpiece Juwan Howard is knocking around his mouth, it’s his dentures… #Old
On one play that seemingly defined Bosh and his soft label, the Heat forward took a Jason Kidd finger to the eye, immediately collapsing into a heap.
@KJ_NBA: no wheelchair, Bosh?
This resulted in many missed lay-ups and a new Twitter handle.
@ChrisBoshsEye: “Iris I were a little bit taller, iris I was a baller…” #ChrisBoshsEye #LetsGoHeat
Meanwhile, James got burned on a spin move by Nowitzki before looking overly-passive when crunch-time hit.
@johnhollinger: Auf Wiedersehn, LeBron…
@darrenrovell: I’m pretty sure I think LeBron needs to Take A Sheet
But while Dwyane Wade went crazy throughout, it was James dropping a sweet dime to Bosh that gave the Heat its final lead. And it was Dirk who missed what would have been the tying bucket at the buzzer.
@ChrisBoshsEye: “Eye can see clearly now, the rain is gone!” #ChrisBoshsEye #winning
@treykerby: I hope they make a sequel to Bad Teacher when LeBron does have six rings and Shawn calls Jason Segel and is like, “Sup.”
The drama continued postgame as well. CBS’s Gregg Doyel asked James why he had shrunk in the final minutes of the game. James came back hard — he told Doyel to check out his fourth quarter defense and to stop looking at the box score.
@greggdoyelcbs: I tell you what. LeBron handled my question PERFECTLY. His best performance of the night, really.
Will Game 4 go the same way?
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