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| Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade appears to pray after winning Game 6 of their NBA Finals basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas, Texas, June 20, 2006. (Xinhua photo) | The Heat roared back from a two-game deficit and defeated the Dallas Mavericks 95-92 to win their first National Basketball Association championship.
Pat Riley first promised a Miami Heat victory parade down Biscayne Boulevard 11 years ago. Shaquille O’Neal guaranteed it two summers ago that he would add a fourth ring to his big hand in his new city. And with one tenacious game after another in these NBA finals, Dwyane Wade delivered both.
Wade, the obvious finals MVP, cemented his superstardom with a dominant four-game performance capped by four pressure-packed, final-minute free throws in the same building where Miami went down two games to none.
"It's one of the best feelings, next to my wife and my son, I've ever had in my life," Wade said in an interview as he accepted the MVP trophy.
Dwyane Wade scored 36 points, Udonis Haslem had 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Antoine Walker added 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Heat at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
Dirk Nowitzki scored 29 points to lead Dallas, which lost four straight games for the first time since December 2003.
"We'd never thought we'd get beat four games in a row," Dallas coach Avery Johnson said, "We congratulate Miami, coach Pat Riley and his players. They did a great job."
Miami trailed by 14 points in the first quarter before rebounding to take a 49-48 lead at halftime. The Heat increased its lead to nine in the third quarter, then saw the Mavericks rallied to within 91-90 in the fourth quarter.
Wade hit four free throws to push the lead back to five with 17 seconds left. After Josh Howard made a pair of foul shots for Dallas, Wade missed two of his own. Jason Terry then missed a 3- pointer with two seconds left that could have tied the game and time expired.
Editor: Donald
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