Out-Shooting Stars

Excuse me guys, I'm doing a fly-by

I suppose it was bound to happen.

Jason Terry said so himself.

In response to his shooting woes and how LeBron James was locking him down through the first three games of the NBA Finals, Terry said:
"He has to guard me for 7 games."

Did that mean he was saying LeBron couldn't keep him in check for the whole Finals?
Uh, didn't he see how LeBron locked down Rose during the conference finals?
Crazy right?

Well, not really for someone that got a tattoo of the NBA championship trophy on his right bicep before the season even began. You have figure someone like that is gonna go all out before this series is through.

And viola!
After averaging 15 points on 39% shooting through games 1-4, Jason, the "jet," Terry literally took off in game 5 with 21 points on 66%(!) shooting.

How about this shot to seal the deal:

Talk about having no conscious.
Clutch situation with the Heat on the ropes late in the 4th.
You need to get the ball to Dirk right?
Right???
Wrong.

Peep the way Terry looked Dirk off and just pulled in LeBron's grill.
Actually, it was a pretty good shot, with only three seconds left on the clock.
You figure even if Dirk did get the ball he was going to have to throw up a turn-around fall away three pointer. Terry was already square to the basket - and something tells me his confidence is always high.

It was actually kind of crafty the way Terry took a dribble towards Dirk, threw a little hesitation to freeze LeBron, and then just pulled...... from deep.

Terry is the type of player that you always have to worry about as a defender.
You know, the type of guy that will just shoot from anywhere on the court, regardless of how many shots they previously made or missed.

And the problem is, you can't really press up on him - Terry was actually the Mavs best play maker on the floor last game - no offense to Kidd. Both Terry and Kidd had 6 assists for the game. But really, to honor Terry's shooting ability, Heat defenders kept pushing up on him and Terry, to his credit, blew by the initial defender to get into the lane and find teammates for open shots.

Actually, before his three to seal the game, Terry made a play to get Kidd an open three to put the Mavs up 5. And that was just as big.

To make matters worse for Miami, Terry isn't the only guy that is starting to Heat up.
Yes, the new microwave, Jose Barea seems to have found his groove as well.
Through games 1-4, Barea was averaging 7 points on 25% shooting.
In game 5, Barea scored 17 points on 55% shooting.
He also finished with 5 assists.

This is bad news for Miami.
I felt their advantage in this series was going to be their perimeter defense and therefore their ability to lockdown the Dallas shooters. Well, they essentially did that through the first 4 games - but managed to give away two of those games by squandering late 4th quarter leads. Therefore the series was tied 2-2.

Shooters keep shooting.
The more opportunities you give them, the more likely they will put the ball in the hole.
And with the series tied 2-2, that's exactly what happened in game 5.

Now, many people will say the series is going back to Miami therefore the Heat will be focused and there is no way that Dallas will shoot 57% from the field again, let alone 68% from three (yes that was their shooting percentages for game 5).
I wouldn't be too sure. Once you give a shooter confidence, the basket looks huge to them.
And let's not forget that Dallas is 3/3 in closeout games this post season.
Let's also not forget about their close-out game against the Lakers:
Terry - 32 points on 11-14 from the field and 9-10 from three.
Barea - 22 points on 9-14 from the field and 8 assists.

I'm just saying, if these guys start knocking down shots, things could get ugly for Miami.
One way or the other, these guys are going to let it fly.