Miami Heat Win First NBA Championship

The Miami Heat are NBA champions for the first time.

Miami beat the Dallas Mavericks 95-92 Tuesday night in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, completing a four-game comeback and giving South Florida a title that looked unlikely when the series began. After losing the first two games in Dallas, the Heat won four straight and closed the championship on the Mavericks’ home floor.

Dwyane Wade finished the Finals as the center of the story. Basketball-Reference lists Wade as the series MVP with averages of 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists over six games. Those numbers match what the series felt like: when Miami needed a basket, a whistle, a rebound or a late-game answer, Wade was the player everyone watched.

The championship is the first in Heat franchise history, and it arrives after one of the sharpest turns a Finals can take. Dallas opened with two home wins and appeared to have control. Miami answered with a narrow Game 3 win, a decisive Game 4, a one-point Game 5 and then Tuesday’s three-point clincher. By the end, the 0-2 start had become part of the legend rather than the explanation for a loss.

In Broward, the win will spill well beyond basketball fans. Heat shirts, highlights and Wade arguments are already easy to imagine in summer camps, living rooms and school hallways when students return in August. South Florida does not get many championship nights, and this one belongs to the whole region.

For Piper students, the title lands between junior and senior year, just as the class of 2007 begins looking toward its final school year. The numbers will remain in the record: Miami over Dallas, four games to two; Game 6, 95-92; Wade, Finals MVP. The feeling is simpler and louder. The Heat finally climbed all the way to the top, and South Florida has a new championship team.