Jerry Stackhouse scored 19 points and Josh Howard 15 to send the Dallas Mavericks halfway to their first championship with a 99-85 victory over the Miami Heat in Game 2 of the NBA finals Sunday.
Stackhouse and Howard also converted rare four-point plays in the finals during Dallas' decisive run, while Miami's Shaquille O'Neal managed just five points in the worst playoff game of his career.
Dirk Nowitzki's supporting cast made the biggest plays for Dallas in this one-sided romp, but the German star shook off his Game 1 jitters to get 26 points and 16 rebounds.
Game 3 is on Tuesday in Miami and a two-game deficit has been overcome only twice in NBA finals history.
Led by Stackhouse, Howard and Jason Terry, who had 16 points, Dallas' offense was effortless and exciting. The Mavsericks buried the disorganized Heat with waves of points which included a 27-6 run in the second quarter.
"We had to push tempo a little more," Stackhouse said. "We got some 3s to go down in the second half, and our defense got going along with our offense."
Both Stackhouse and Howard even converted four-point plays -- the elusive act of hitting 3-pointers while getting fouled. There were just six four-point plays in NBA finals history before the game, and Dallas was the first team ever to get two in the same game.
But the Mavericks did something much more historic and important on the other end: They limited O'Neal, the three-time NBA finals MVP with five previous trips to the series, to the fewest points in his playoff career. In 190 career playoff games, Shaq finished with a single-digit point total just three times.
"It was a team effort," Nowitzki said. "No one can stop Shaq one-on-one. It was a team effort, and our big men did a decent job."
O'Neal scored on the Heat's very first possession while being fouled, but he missed the ensuing free throw -- and then went 20 1/2 minutes without another basket. Shaq's frustration grew with every possession, contributing to his 1-of-7 free throw shooting after going 1-for-9 in the opener.
O'Neal, who was 2-for-5 from the field -- both career playoff lows -- and spent the final 15 minutes on the bench after Dallas went ahead by 25 points.
Dwyane Wade scored 16 of his 23 points after halftime on 6-of-19 shooting, and was almost as invisible as his bigger teammate for long stretches against Howard's defense. Antoine Walker scored 20 points, hitting four 3-pointers.
Miami trimmed the lead to 12 points in the final minutes with Alonzo Mourning in the middle, but Nowitzki carried Dallas to another festive finish after a 90-80 victory in Game 1.
Only Boston (1969) and Portland (1977) have rallied from an 0-2 deficit to win the finals. Unless the Heat figure out a solution to the group malaise that's left Wade on the perimeter and kept the ball away from O'Neal, their season will be over in a few days.
Stackhouse scored 10 points in the final 1:19 of the first half, capping the first dominant run of the series. The veteran gunner, who now embraces a supporting role in Dallas after starring for worse teams in other cities, hit three 3-pointers and converted his four-point play to elate the crowd.
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