As the Chuckster would say, the sphincter factor is much different in the West Semis and the Finals. The Mavs were knocking down everything against the Spurs and I don't think a zone would have mattered much.
They have to shoot poorly for your typical 3-2 or 2-3 zone to be real effective. The point is to clog the inside and force outside shots, but with the way Dallas shot against the Spurs, it would have been pretty useless. Zone defense also makes it hard for the defense to find their man to box out for a rebound, so even a missed shot will often end up as an offensive rebound.
Dallas shot like poo in game 4 with Miami, a zone was perfect.
Shot in the dark but I think Dallas loses on Sunday. With Stackhouse returning for game six, they force a game seven. In that game seven, they will suffer the same fate as San Antonio.
Poetic justice.
The zone Miami displayed was also very physical. It seemed to feature a double on Dirk even when he didn't have the ball and every ball to the hoop was contested with a physical nature. The officials have been calling soft fouls throughout the playoffs and it looks like Miami decided it would get its money's worth. This type of pyhcial play continued to draw fouls but threw Dallas off and caused them to not want to drive. The old nature of agressive playoff defense is you can't call a foul on every play and it looked like the Miami reserves embraced this idea.
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