This is a surprise. The Heat and the Mavs are tied in the NBA Finals, and the Heat are looking at one more game in their own building. The big stats last night: Antoine Walker and Jason Williams both had series lows for shots taken. It’s not a coincidence that this was the Heat’s best game of the season.

The Mavs got away from the quick double-teams of Shaq a little bit. They still did it, but there were a lot of times where the double-team came from someone other than Dirk, or it didn’t come at all. Shaq still only had 8 shots (to go along with 13 boards), but he was a lot more efficient with them, getting better looks and going 6-for-8 from the floor. And Dwyane Wade was again fantastic… despite that obviously crippling knee-injury.

On the other end of the floor, I really hate to oversimplify, but… the Mavs just missed a ton of shots. I know a lot of credit for that goes to the Miami defense, and I’ve given them credit all along, but I don’t think it was a whole lot better last night than it had been in the series. They just missed. Dirk was bricking reasonably open looks all night. They do a good job on him, but he’s still Dirk, and no matter what the defense does, he shouldn’t be going 2-of-14. Josh Howard was 1-of-8, and Jerry Stackhouse was 6-of-18. They shot 31.6% from the floor, and 13.6% (3-of-22) from behind the arc.

Some credit goes to Jerry Stackhouse, too… there aren’t many guys who would’ve taken a run at Shaq like that, and even fewer that would’ve done that, and then not run immediately for their lives. And then Antoine Walker got in Jerry Stackhouse’s face, giving everyone a hilarious glimpse of what a Stackhouse/Walker fight might be like. Shaq started to get up in a hurried fashion, though you couldn’t really tell if he was pissed off, really. After the game, he said some things about how it was “just a hard foul,” but then threw in a petulant lob about how his daughters tackle him harder.

And am I alone in thinking that the Miami pre-game intros are the worst of all-time? I hate their announcer. The guy with the flags and the weird-ass goggles is fucking weird. And the all-white crowd doesn’t help, either. I think Mason at the Palace of Auburn Hills ruined everything… ABC put his intros on because they were awesome, and now ABC feels like they have to show everyone, in the interest of fairness, and everyone else else usually sucks.

Game 5 is Sunday night.

Just in time for the NBA draft, the Charlotte Bobcats have a new part-owner named Michael Jordan. His official title will be “managing member of basketball operations,” which is great news for any young 6’11″ power forward draft prospects out there who have incredible workout skills, no basketball sense, and moist vaginas. Bob Johnson, who will remain the majority owner of the Bobcats, had this to say:

“Ever since I acquired the Bobcats franchise, one of my goals has been to get Michael Jordan to become my partner in operating the team,” Johnson said. “I don’t think I have to make the case for Michael’s basketball expertise, his knowledge or his competitiveness as a player. He will be the point guy for every decision to be made about player personnel.”

Well, no, you don’t. But I’d like to hear you make the case that there is evidence in existence that Michael Jordan is good at making NBA personnel decisions. The Wizards have just now recovered from the Jordan era. At the very least, he certainly didn’t do anything to help the Wizards.

So I guess MJ won’t be a part of any effort to buy the Trailblazers. I was kinda holding out a little bit of hope that he, Magic, and Charles Barkley would come together with that three-way ownership deal they were talking about. Guess not… it’s too bad, that would have been fun.