It's finals time in the USA right now with both the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup finals beginning this week. Game one of the NBA Finals was today in Miami, while the first game of the Stanley Cup finals is in Vancouver tomorrow. Lets get to it.
NBA (Basketball)
NBA Finals
Miami Heat (1) vs Dallas Mavericks (0)
The Heat and Mavericks both won their conference finals series 4-1 (against the Bulls and the Thunder respectively), and now face off against each other in the NBA Finals. It's a case of the "Big Three" versus "The Bench" here, as while the Heat rely heavily on their three stars (Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh), the Mavericks biggest strength, apart from the seven footer shooting dynamo Dirk Nowitzki, is the scoring power off their bench including Jason Terry, JJ Barea and Peja Stojakovich.
Game One
Today's game one in Miami was a highly defensive affair with the Heat running out winners 92-84. Forget what I said above, because not only did Miami's big three come to play, but the Heat's bench also outperformed their Dallas counterparts. In fact, of the Mavericks bench only Jason Terry made a meaningful contribution of 12 points, yet they were all in the first half.
Mario Chalmers, Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem all played their part in the Heat's victory, but the stars of the show were James and Wade who scored 24 and 22 points respectively. Wade started slowly shooting just 3/10 from the field in the first half, but really hit form in the second half to help put away the Mavs. Check out the highlights below for some big time plays from the two of them, in particular a Lebron buzzer-beating three at the end of the third quarter, James' dunk in traffic, Wade's block on Marion and the Wade to James alley-oop all in the fourth. The Heat's defense was superb, holding Dallas to their second lowest score in the playoffs this year and also their worst shooting percentage at just 37.3%.
For the Mavericks, Nowitzki scored 27 points but wasn't his usual self against some strong double-team defense from the Heat. He didn't seem to be able to find room for his favourite one-foot jumper and was forced to drive to the basket on many occasions. Also for Dallas, Shawn Marion was good in patches adding 16 points and 10 rebounds of his own.
NBA Finals Tweet of the Day
@RELLYWAVEY - "Dat zone not gonna work wait till dey put in eddie house #NBAfinals dey gonna shoot dem niggas out dat shit"
*Particularly humorous as Eddie House has played just a total of 23 minutes in their 16 playoffs games so far.
Also worth a look, since we don't get to watch his brilliance in the NBA Finals series anymore, is this package put together to showcase this year's MVP Derrick Rose.
NHL (Ice Hockey)
Stanley Cup Finals
Vancouver Canucks (1) vs Boston Bruins (0)
The Stanley Cup Finals begin tomorrow in Vancouver with the Canucks taking on the Boston Bruins. For both teams it's their first chance at a Stanley Cup in a long time - Vancouver hasn't been this far since 1994 when the lost to the NY Rangers, while the last time Boston had a shot at the enormous trophy was 1990 losing to the Edmonton Oilers.
Game One
Today's game one has been played and after what was a bruising, scoreless affair for more than 59 minutes of hockey, the Vancouver Canucks were able to steal it 1-0 at home with just 18.5 seconds to play.
It was a late line-change that opened up the Bruins formidable defense as Jannik Hansen's coming off the bench was timed perfectly with a Boston turnover and he was able to get the puck to Raffi Torres for an easy tap in to goalie Tim Thomas' right side.
Here are the highlights...
That's it for another week of the wrap, for more sports coverage on The Vine check out the Aussie Sports Wrap by Friday Experts and the World Sport Report by Chris Cork.