Mike Celizic

The Dallas Mavericks were looking for excuses when they should have looking for answers.

That’s pretty simplistic, but these things usually are.

It wasn’t desire, no matter what some will say about the Heat winning because they wanted to hug David Stern’s big golden basketball more than the Mavericks did. That’s just dumb. The Mavs wanted to win as badly as the Heat. They just didn’t know how to do it.

They thought they had this thing in the bag, and that’s where they went wrong, not in Game 3 or in the Game 4 blowout loss, but in Games 1 and 2 when everything was so easy and the city of Dallas started announcing parade dates when the home team still needed two wins.

Chalk it up to rookie mistakes. These were two first-time finalists, but the Heat had the big edge in experience. Their coach, Pat Riley, had been here before, winning four titles back in the glory days of the Showtime Lakers, and he’d been back with the Knicks. His center, Shaquille O’Neal had three rings and knew something about winning titles.

When the Heat were in an early hole that looked too deep for anyone to climb out of, Riles never panicked, never wavered, never doubted. He told his men what they were up against and how they could beat it. It didn’t hurt that he had a young guard named Dwyane Wade who could take over games all by himself the way Jordan, Magic, Bird and the greats of the game used to.

For all of Avery Johnson’s tactical and motivational brilliance during the preliminary rounds of the playoffs — he did beat the defending champion Spurs in the conference semifinals — he could produce no magic potion to make things better against the Heat. His efforts to right the ship smacked too much of panic, from moving the team’s hotel to get away from the bright lights and soft pleasures of South Beach to spending his free days whining bitterly about the officiating.

NBA FINALS: HEAT VS. MAVERICKS Miami wins series 4-2 Heat burns Mavs, wins first title Ventre: Riley earns his title Celizic: Mavs fold in the Heat WP: No excuses, Mavs -- Heat better WP: Too bad whining detracts At 24, Wade atop basketball world Mavs left to wonder the what-ifs Heat fans happy | Mavs fans upset Ventre: Pick Suns to win in 2007 Series breakdown |   Top images

Riles inspired Wade to brilliance. Johnson did not perform similar feats with his big gun, Dirk Nowitzki. The big forward from Germany had a decent series and didn’t embarrass himself in the deciding Game 6, but he had a couple of terrible games, and when the Mavericks absolutely had to win, he couldn’t carry the team on his back as Wade did.

Nobody on the Mavs could. When it came down to it, when the stakes were highest, they couldn’t shoot even 40 percent, clanging open shot after open shot off the iron.

It’s the result not of not trying hard enough, but of trying too hard. Riley got his players to jack up their intensity without getting tight. Johnson couldn’t do that. Instead of playing freely, the Mavs played tight.

MESSAGE BOARDS

They’ll be back. They’re too good not to be. And they’ll be better for this experience, although I doubt they’re taking any consolation from that thought at the moment. But they next time around, they’ll know better how to handle the pressure of the Finals.

Their owner, Mark Cuban, will give Johnson whatever he thinks he needs to win the franchise’s first title. That’s a big advantage. Other owners look at the bottom line of the business of the game. Cuban doesn’t. He just wants to win, and, unlike George Steinbrenner, he never gets down on his players, never adds to the enormous pressure already on them.

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