MIAMI — LeBron James came to Miami last summer for the chance to be a champion. He returned to Florida on Friday just hoping to be a survivor.
The Dallas Mavericks have a 3-2 lead in the NBA Finals and can win their first championship Sunday night. Less than a year after the Heat’s free-agent victory celebration, the real party might belong to Dirk Nowitzki.
But the Heat players, despite consecutive losses that have renewed criticism of their execution and James’ ability in the clutch, insist they can still win the first of multiple titles James boasted of upon his arrival in Florida.
“I guess they have momentum in the sense they came home and won two games,” Dwyane Wade said Thursday night. “But each game is its own. . . . We’ll be coming to the game understanding it’s a possession game in Game 6, doing whatever it takes to win the ballgame. So we’re confident.”
So are the Mavericks, who hung in for four games until their offense finally started clicking the way they believed it would. They get two chances to close out the Heat, but stress the importance of doing it on the first try.
“Game 6 is Game 7 for us,” guard Jason Terry said. “We want to play like there’s no tomorrow. If we do that, I have no doubt in my mind we can be successful.”
Wade, nursing a sore left hip, said he will be fine in time for Sunday, and the Heat gets a break with the extra day between Games 5 and 6 after the Finals started earlier than normal following two short conference finals. Under the usual format, there is only one day off when the Finals switch cities.
James’ reputation has absorbed its own wound. He rebounded from his eight-point Game 4 flop by delivering a triple-double in Game 5. But it came with only two points in the fourth quarter. He has totaled 11 points in that period, a major reason Dallas has pulled out three games in one of the tightest Finals ever.
“We’ve just got to push through it. At this point we have no choice, honestly,” James said.
To make matters worse, James has had to deal with Houston radio-based rumors about an affair involving his fiancee Savannah Brinson and Washington Wizards forward Rashard Lewis.
Lewis denied those rumors Friday on the same Houston radio station — 97.9 The Box — adding he’s never even met Brinson. His best guess was the rumor began with anti-James forces who want to see him fail.
“He’s trying to win a championship, and they’re putting all this negative stuff out about him, messing with his head,” Lewis said. “They need to leave the man alone.”
