Not even Hollywood could have written this finish

SCOTT JACOBS

Miami celebrated like they won the championship when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh decided to link their chains together for the next six years.  Starting next week, they’ll be four wins away from getting to celebrate the real thing.

James, Wade, and Bosh joined forces so that they could accumulate rings.  Opportunity number one begins Tuesday.  Miami pulled off the incredible coup in the offseason.  Today, they pulled off an equally epic comeback, outscoring the Bulls 18-3 with 3 minutes to go, to overcome a 12 point Chicago lead sending a rowdy Windy City crowd into pure unadulterated demoralization.

O the highs and lows of being a sports fan.

Ronnie Brewer nailed a 3 pointer off a Kurt Thomas rebound (Thomas played a tremendous game) with 3:54 left, and Twitter became abuzz with “game 6.”  Including me.  I was convinced the Heat weren’t interested in winning this game as much as the previous games, because they had so much wiggle room and a home game to fall back on.  Clearly we all underestimated them.

Brewer’s three point dagger turned out to be the second to last field goal the Bulls would hit.  Rather than running out of the arena en route to one more date in South Beach, the Bulls were tossed out of the playoffs in a blink of an eye.

It was just another amazing Miami run to flip the outcome and the series in their favor.  They did it against Boston you might remember with a 16-0 run to send American Airlines Arena into a mass hysteria.  That was slaying the old guard and the Heat were adamant about how important it was to knock out the champs.  This was taking out the number one seed.

Oklahoma City and Chicago have a lot in common.  Both are young hard-nosed teams, who are well coached and led by dynamic scorers. Both are still learning how to win in the post-season.  Both were in over their heads when the going got tough.

Both had epic collapses, or as some on the other side might say, both were witness to incredible comebacks.  Miami and Dallas parallel each other.  They were both built to win now.  It’s only fitting that they’re the last two standing.  It’s no longer close.

Since the end of round one, Dallas is 8-1 with Miami 8-2.  This is not 2006.  That Heat team over-achieved behind the brilliance of Dwyane Wade.  That Mavs team was the heavy favorite.  If anything, the two have flip-flopped.  Miami is the giant in the room now, with the target on their back all season.  Dallas is the team that made it way beyond most people’s expectations. 

Game on.

As for the Bulls, well they suffered a Dallas Mavericks-esque moment late in game 6.  Trailing by 2 with their MVP on the line, Derrick Rose hit the first foul shot, before spinning out the second.  It was eerily reminiscent of Dirk Nowitzki in game 3 of the 2006 NBA Finals when down 2, he made the first foul shot, before clanking the second.  The Mavs went on to lose, their 13 point cushion evaporating, and their stranglehold on the series disappearing in an instant.  Tonight, with the chance to send the series back to South Beach, Rose’s miss served to preserve another incredible Heat comeback.  Who says five years ago and today have nothing in common?

What can you say about LeBron that hasn’t been repeatedly said this post-season.  Like him or hate him, James has been stellar in closing game situations, developing the killer instinct to send the mighty C’s and pesky Bulls off to the golf course.  If the question during the year was who would take the final shot, well I’ve got news for you: it’s LeBron. If the question during the year was whether the Heat could get rid of this late game bugaboo that plagued them so often during the season, I’ve got news for you: the monkey is off of their back.

“They’re Hollwood as hell,” said Joaquim Noah after the game.  Call them Hollywood South.  In fact not too far from Miami is South Florida’s version of Hollywood.  It’s nowhere near as spectacular as Southern California’s most renowned city, but it goes by the same name nevertheless.  And once again Hollywood will be the focus of the NBA Finals.  Only this time, it’s not the Lakers.

But this much is true about great teams.  They can talk all they want, but if they don’t back it up they’re going to get shellacked.  Miami threw their new team of stars a celebration worthy of an NBA championship in the offseason, and drew the ire and attention of the sports universe.  From there they were automatically the hunted, America’s most hated sports team.  And most talked about.

After a season of ups and downs (and 58 wins) Miami went into the post-season knowing this was where they’d be judged.  They emerged from the Eastern Conference playoffs tonight with a gold star and one final series to bring home the hardware.

Not only did they come together, they showed just how scary they could be.  We often forget that this is year one of The Experiment.  This trifecta along with Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller is locked up for the next 5 seasons. Gulp.

But it’s evident that when Miami is hot they pack Heat that no one can match.  Exhibit A was tonight, when Miami couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a boat.  But then like a bat out of hell, they got their groove, and despite sporting a 12 point deficit late, it was just another obstacle on the road to The Finals.  You know, for Hollywood.

The comeback’s complete, The Finals are set.  Two teams are left. 

Dallas. Miami.  Four more wins gets you that big trophy that looks like a ball going into a net.

For LeBron and Dirk a title secures them hoops immortality.

For years they’ve accomplished everything individually as players, but their teams always came up short.  They’ve both been to The Finals and both lost.  They’ve been the hero and the goat.  They’ve been told they were too soft, too fragile, that they lacked that killer instinct.  They’ve been told that greatness only follows those who win championships, not regular season games.

One of them is getting a ring.  The only question now is who.

Photo: Reuters

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