Ricky Dimon
Show Bio
LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Dirk Nowitzki, and Jason Kidd ain’t walkin’ through that door for the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks, respectively. Nonetheless, those two franchises are suddenly turning back the clock to their glory days.
Led mostly by Nowitzki and with Kidd getting him the ball, the Heat stunned LeBron, Wade, and the Heat in the 2010-11 NBA Finals. Could a 2019-20 rematch be in the cards? It may not be likely (you could get some long odds betting on that to be the finals matchup!), but the fact that it has become even somewhat of a realistic possibility is noteworthy.
Welcome to Miami
Heading into Tuesday’s date with the Hawks (take a look at our free NBA expert predictions), Miami is 17-6 and third in the Eastern Conference—just percentage points behind Boston and three games back of Milwaukee.
This is the first season in the post-Wade era, but the Heat did extremely well in terms of reloading their backcourt. Rookie sensations Tyler Herro (No. 13 overall pick in 2019) and Kendrick Nunn (undrafted in 2018) have made instant impacts. Herro is averaging 14.5 points per game and shooting 39.2 percent from three-point range. Nunn has shocked just about everyone in the basketball world to the tune of 15.3 ppg, 3.4 apg, 2.5 rpg, and 1.0 spg. And, oh yeah, Miami also signed some guy named Jimmy Butler this summer. Butler leads his new team in scoring with 20.6 ppg and he is doing some of everything, also averaging 6.8 apg, 6.3 rpg, and 2.2 spg. Throw big man Bam Adebayo (14.6 ppg, 10.5 rpg) into the equation along with Butler and the guards and the Heat may be the most well-rounded club in the East.
How the West could be won by Dallas
Don’t look now, but Luka Doncic is in the running for NBA MVP this season. In just his second year, Doncic is close to averaging a triple-double: 30.0 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 9.2 assists per game. He is setting records left and right, the most recent of which was the most consecutive games (19) with at least 20 points, five rebounds, and five assists since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976. The 20-year-old surpassed none other than Michael Jordan on that chart.
More importantly, Doncic’s heroics are translating into wins—something that was not the case in 2018-19. Dallas finally lost a game on Sunday, 110-106 to Sacramento, but it had previously won 10 of 11 and still registers with an impressive 16-7 record. That is good for third place in the Western Conference, only a half-game shy of the Clippers and 4.5 south of the red-hot Lakers.
Although the Mavericks are teetering on the edge of being a one-man show, there is at least some semblance of a dynamic duo—which seems to be the current trend in the NBA. Kristaps Porzingis is healthy again and is contributing 16.4 ppg, 8.7 rpg, and 2.0 bpg during his first season in Dallas. Tim Hardaway Jr. is averaging 13.2 ppg while shooting 38.1 percent from the land of plenty. Head coach Rick Carlisle’s crew is also a solid fourth in the West in scoring defense at 108.3 ppg allowed.
The Lakers, Clippers, Bucks, 76ers, Rockets, and maybe others will make it difficult, but a Heat-Mavericks finals is surprisingly in play.
