Heat Mavs

MIAMI -- No fourth-quarter collapse this time against Dallas. These days, everything seems to be going right at home for the Miami Heat. LeBron James...

Dirk Nowitzki validated his spot in the pantheon of basketball greats. His subpar 9-27 shooting performance was but a minor blip on the radar of an MVP series and MVP-type of season, and by scoring 10 points in the fourth quarter, he became the anti-LeBron.

Perhaps it's time we accept LeBron for what he is; a terrific player with a beta-male mentality. Maybe then we won't be so disappointed when he fails to take over in crunch time.

In Game 4, LeBron managed to attempt just one shot in the fourth quarter. Forget the 3-11 shooting output and 37-97 total for the series -- that's bad enough in itself -- but it was the manner in which he played that truly excludes him from the list of all-time legends.

In the wake of Miami's impressive Game 3 victory, I joined The Odd Couple of 610 Sports Radio in Houston to break down how and why Dallas faltered at home.

With the exception of the final eight minutes of its colossal Game 2 collapse, the Heat have been absolutely superior on the defensive end, with its lighting quick rotations, willingness to help defend and brutally tough hedging of the highball screen.

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HuffPost's Jordan Schultz broke down the NBA Finals on Tuesday with Noah Coslov of CineSport.