Written by Jesse Lamovsky

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I’m sure there are Cleveland fans out there that washed their hands of the NBA after the two-headed fiasco that was last year’s Boston series and the Decision. And if that is the case I really don’t blame them. But at the same time I have to tell the holdouts who have sworn off the Association: you’re missing out on the most compelling NBA Finals in a long, long time. Even for the most embittered Cleveland fan there are a bunch of reasons to watch this series, which resumes in Miami on Sunday night with the upstart Mavericks just one win away from a Championship.

The Dallas Mavericks: Just when we thought the NBA had completely degenerated into a spectacle of ego and individuality, along comes a group that restores our faith in the team game- discipline, unselfishness and collective effort. Yes, the Mavericks have their superstar in Dirk Nowitski, who has been off the charts in this postseason. But they also have a deep supporting cast of solid, smart, veteran role players who play relentlessly to their strengths; never do more than their skills allow and complement their gifted leader perfectly.

This Mavericks team reminds me quite a bit of one of my all-time favorite non-Cleveland teams: the 1995 Houston Rockets, who began the playoffs as a 47-win sixth seed and ended it as back-to-back NBA Champions. Like those Rockets, these Mavs consist of a cast of quality role players built around a foreign-born big man taking his game to a beautiful new level on the backside of his career. Like those Rockets, these Mavs seemingly can’t be beat in the clutch. They’ve overcome double-digit second-half deficits against Portland, against the Lakers, against Oklahoma City and now against the Heat. They’re simply, unconquerable. They’re one of the toughest, most resilient teams I’ve ever seen and that, as much as the artistry of Dirk, makes them fun to watch.

And this NBA Final is reminiscent of a series that took place a little before my time- 1977, when the team-oriented Trail Blazers took down the gang of stars that was the 76ers. Now it’s the cohesive Mavericks, with Dirk playing the Bill Walton role, taking on the Heat, with Dwayne Wade playing the Dr. J. role and the shrinking talent of LeBron playing the George McGinnis role. Like 1977, this series is a referendum on the team versus the individual. Thus far the team is winning- as it should be. For once, for now, there is justice in the world of sports.

(Okay, maybe I am romanticizing the Mavericks a little bit. They do have DeShawn Stevenson, after all.)

The Miami Heat: Heroes are fun and all, but everyone knows that a story is only as good as its villain. Sure, it was easy to get behind John McClane, but Die Hard wouldn’t have been a classic without Hans Gruber.  And the 2011 NBA Finals wouldn’t be a classic without the best sports villain we’ve seen in many a moon- the Miami Heat. From the Decision to the hilariously overblown pre-season championship celebration, from the ill-advised comments and tweets to D-Wade’s and LeBron’s on-camera mockery of Dirk’s sinus infection, the Heaters are just plain fun to hate.

Even without all of the above the makeup of Miami, the way they were put together, makes them the natural heavy in this series. One of the most popular phrases in sports is “doing it the right way.” If you play hard, play hurt and step up in the clutch, you’re doing it the right way as a player. If you build painstakingly, take your lumps and mature over time, you’re doing it the right way as a team- you’re “paying your dues,” another popular sports phrase. It took Michael Jordan’s Bulls several years and several painful playoff defeats to become a Champion. They “did it the right way;” they “paid their dues.” So, for that matter, has Dirk Nowitski.

Miami has done neither. They’re a collection of rent-a-stars in one of America’s sorriest sports towns, a team built on the fly with only one purpose in mind: a Championship, right now. They haven’t “paid their dues,” at least not as a unit. They were born on third base and they sure as hell didn’t leg out a triple to get there. It’s hard to blame LeBron and Chris Bosh for taking their talents to South Beach. Professionally, they did the right thing. But that doesn’t mean anyone, outside Heat fans and a few assorted jock-sniffers, should want to see their decisions crowned with championship gold.

(One dishonest argument people have made against the construction of the Heat is that such a thing will destroy parity in the NBA. To which I ask- what parity? Was there parity in the ‘60s when the Celtics were winning about a dozen Championships in a row? Or in the ‘80s when either the Celtics or the Lakers played in every Finals that decade? Or in the ‘90s when the Bulls won six titles? Or in the last decade-plus when the Lakers and Spurs combined for nine Championships in twelve years? Other than a brief period in the late ‘70s when the Warriors, Blazers, Bullets and Sonics won their only rings, the NBA has never been about parity. It’s always been about a small handful of real contenders amid a sea of also-rans that simply fill out the schedule. In that respect the amalgamation of the Miami Super Friends is just business as usual.)    

LeBron’s Struggles: For those that disdain LeBron James- seemingly about 95 percent of fans inside and outside Cleveland- there’s a seasoning of schadenfreude on top of the spicy stew that is this series. After performing brilliantly in his team’s playoff wipeouts of Boston and Chicago, LeBron has seen his star plummet to earth against Dallas- particularly in the fourth quarter, where reputations are made and unmade. Ever since his chilly-dipped layup attempt during the Heat’s late meltdown in Game Two, the Chosen One has vanished in crunch time. In the last two games; games that were very much up in the air, LeBron has scored a total of two fourth-quarter points.

Part of it is that Dallas matches up pretty well with him defensively. Shawn Marion has always been an excellent defender and he has the length and lateral quickness to bother LeBron, who has had trouble with Dallas all season (30.6 percent from the field in the two regular-season meetings between the teams.) For all the criticism that has been heaped on the so-called King’s broad shoulders, the Mavericks deserve a great deal of credit for reducing him to mere mortality.

But there’s more to LeBron’s struggles than Dallas’s defense. Something- aggressiveness, assertiveness, the eye of the tiger, call it what you will- is missing. Clearly he isn’t playing with the same confidence and bravado with which he played against the Celtics and the Bulls. The same passivity and lack of emotion that marked his quit-fest against Boston in 2010 has risen to the surface in this series, triggering the same wild theories and speculation we all remember from last year. Delonte West and Gloria have become Rashard Lewis and Savannah Brinson, as observers grasp at straws to come up with a reason why this magnificent physical specimen looks so flat, so listless in what should be the biggest games of his life.

I don’t think LeBron is a choker- a label that has always danced around in his wake. I watched damned near every game he played for seven years and I’ve seen him step up with huge performances in too many big games to believe he’s afraid of the moment. I don’t know what’s going on with him. Maybe he’s tired, as Brian Windhorst thinks. Maybe he’s frustrated by the skill of Marion and intimidated by the size and ferocity of Tyson Chandler around the rim. Maybe he’s lost the edge of confidence he needs to be at his best. All I know is he’s coming up very small in some very big games- and I’m enjoying it. I don’t hate LeBron James. I don’t hate anyone, and I don’t even know the man. I wish no ill upon him personally, or his family. But I do like watching him fail on a basketball court- and right now, he's failing.        

One Hell of a Series: Since the Finals went to the 2-3-2 format in 1985 you can count the number of truly great championship series on a single hand. Last year’s Lakers-Celtics Final was a good one; Spurs-Pistons was a barnburner even if few outside San Antonio and Detroit cared enough to watch; the two Bulls-Jazz Finals definitely had their moments, and the first Lakers-Pistons Final, in 1988, was a terrific battle of contrasting styles. But that’s pretty much been it. For the most part the real drama has taken place in the conference-playoff rounds, with the Finals serving as an anti-climax.

Not this year. A compelling conference playoff has been a mere appetizer for the best Final I’ve seen in more than two decades of watching the NBA. Games Two through Four went down to the very last shot of the game; Thursday’s Game Five was a spine-tingling masterpiece that was still in doubt in the last two minutes. We’ve had great games, great shots and great individual performances from the two best players on the floor in Dwayne Wade and Dirk Nowitski. Through five games the point differential in this series is four. That’s competitive basketball.

There’s a lot to dislike about the NBA: the lousy officiating, the long lackluster regular season, the endless hyping of individuals over teams. But the 2011 Finals has been the Association at its best: spectacular play from the best players on the planet. If you like good basketball you should love what we’ve witnessed the last five games- and what may be still coming. If you aren’t watching… you should be.