There’s a sort of unofficial rivalry between the Miami Heat and their Monday-night opponent, the Dallas Mavericks. It all started with Dwyane Wade’s otherworldly performance against Dallas in the 2006 NBA Finals; He crotch-clobbered the favored Mavs with a Jordane-esque showing in games three through six. When the Mavs took a 2-0 series lead, a Dallas newspaper famously published championship parade routes prematurely. Then D-Wade took over, and the rest is champagne-soaked Miami sports history. Dallas owner Mark Cuban hasn’t quite gotten over getting his junk handed to him in such a dominating way (he whines about the officiating to this day), and he couldn’t help take a shot at the Heat when they stumbled out of the gate this season. Cuban openly mocked the team’s struggles on sports talk radio and told reporters he warned LeBron James about joining the Heat this summer (mainly because he wanted the King in Dallas, of course). Two weeks ago, Cuban’s Mavericks beat the Heat by 11 in Dallas, site of the now infamous ZOMG-LeBron-bumped-coach-Spo incident. The Heat have since righted the ship, while Dallas is the hottest team in the league. Another chapter in this rivalry will be written when Miami hosts the Mavericks at the American Airlines Arena.
Mon., Dec. 20, 7:30 p.m., 2010