Heat, Dallas trying to improve

Neither team played all that well in Thursday's series opener.
DALLAS (AP) -- When Josh Howard imagined playing in the NBA finals, he really thought the whole experience would be a bit more magical than this.
Sure, all of Dallas pulsed with excitement during the weeklong buildup, and the pregame ceremonies were spine-tingling. But once the Mavericks and the Miami Heat finally got down to playing Game 1, Howard felt Dallas' 90-80 win in the error-plagued opener looked much more like a lazy midsummer pickup game -- and nobody wins a trophy after one of those.
"It was kind of a bad game for both teams, which you don't expect when you think about being here," said Howard, who went 3-for-14. "That's not how it goes down when you're playing as a kid in the driveway, or you're on a video game. This is the finals, man."
Howard's critique was echoed Friday by both clubs as they began two days off before Game 2 on Sunday night. Everybody promised to do better next time -- and Miami coach Pat Riley and Dallas' Avery Johnson seemed confident they've got time to manage the mountain of mistakes and mangled game plans left from the opener.
Room for improvement
For starters, both coaches are determined to get starring efforts from their star players -- because Dirk Nowitzki, Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade all left ample room for improvement after Game 1.
"The key is not to have two games like that in a row," said O'Neal, who had 17 points and seven rebounds but didn't touch the ball nearly enough for Miami. "So I'll be hard on myself these next two days, and then hopefully on Sunday, I could play a little bit better."
While cooling down after a light practice at their arena, the Mavericks acknowledged they felt the pressure of the sellout crowd and a generation of long-suffering Dallas fans anticipating this first shot at a title. Of course, they're always aware of high expectations when their boss, owner Mark Cuban, is sitting near them, peering into the huddle -- and now blogging about their play during the game.
"I think they've gotten it out of their system now," Johnson said. "We had some jitters ... and they know we didn't play a perfect game. We obviously have a lot of room for improvement. We didn't meet our goals offensively and defensively.
"I'm glad they didn't have much of a bounce in their step [Friday]. We had a pretty lengthy film session and had a chance to look at some stuff."
Terry carries Mavs
Jason Terry's 32 points carried the Mavs, but many of their flaws were centered on Nowitzki, who scored just 16 points -- none in the fourth quarter -- of his finals debut. Dallas encountered this problem earlier in the playoffs: Though Nowitzki raised his stardom to an elite level in the postseason, he also disappeared on occasion.
The Mavericks didn't have trouble getting the ball to Nowitzki, but he lacked the ineffable offensive aggression of his best games -- and his beautiful jumper wasn't falling. With too few easy baskets, Dallas couldn't force a quicker tempo on the Heat, instead adapting its game to match its opponent for the fourth time in this postseason.
So the Heat shut down Nowitzki, played at their own tempo, got 28 points from an ailing Wade and became the first team to outrebound Dallas in the playoffs -- and still lost. Like Wade's legs, they faltered in the fourth quarter, never raising their games to a level befitting the finals.
"We've got more to give than that," said guard Gary Payton, among Miami's three reserves who combined for just two points. "We don't panic. We made mistakes that we won't make again."
Poor free throw shooting
Miami's struggles were exacerbated by the lowest free-throw percentage in finals history -- although that statistic really just highlights Miami's passive offense, not the Heat's season-long struggles at the line.
O'Neal was even worse than his usual erratic self, going 1-for-9 -- actually 1-for-11, if you count the two misses called back by lane violations -- and missing all of his eight tries before the final minute. Wade went 6-for-10, but the Flash was the only other Heat player who even shot a free throw.
"That don't mean nothing," Antoine Walker said in a sentiment echoed by teammates. "We haven't been a good free throw-shooting team all year, and we're in the finals. Well, we must be doing something else right. We're not worried about that."
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