In the first game of the 2006 NBA finals the Dallas Mavericks came out with victory behind 32 points from point guard Jason Terry. Even though the Miami Heat lost by ten points things could have been closer if they had hit their free throws and the game could have been a blowout if the two best players on the Mavericks team would have played better. For a team to have their best two players play bad and still win says a lot about how good their team is. That is why so many experts and basketball fans have chosen the Mavericks to win the championship.

Overall, the Miami Heat are not fast enough or deep enough to compete, although I think they need to give veteran guards like Shandon and Derek Anderson a chance to play to see if they can help shut down Jason Terry on the defensive end. Playing an eight man rotation will not get it done. The free throw situation does not really need to be discussed because Shaq will always miss free throws but his teammates have to hit theirs. Another thing the Heat must do is try to play Alonzo Mourning more minutes because he can protect the basket better than Shaq. The bad thing about that is the two of them can