Game 4 of the 2011 NBA Finals featured an amazing performance from Dwyane Wade and a gutsy day of play from Dirk Nowitzki, with it all culminating to an 86-83 finish.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is what the NBA Finals is supposed to look like.
Two teams playing great defense with players stepping up on every other play to do something more stunning than the last.
Dwyane Wade was a defensive machine, Jason Terry was big in the clutch, Tyson Chandler rebounded like a machine and Chris Bosh played three-and-a-half miraculous quarters until he developed a case of stone hands in the second half of the fourth quarter.
And then there was Dirk Nowitzki.
Reports coming in are saying that Nowitzki woke up this morning with a fever, and even had a temperature of 102 during halftime of tonight's game.
One can't help but recall the 1997 NBA Finals Game 5 performance from Michael Jordan, now fondly remembered as just "The Flu Game", after watching Nowitzki tonight.
Now, what Jordan did when he had the flu on that particular night was on a completely different level compared to Dirk tonight, as he seemed to be a better shooter with a virus wriggling around in his system, scoring 38 to go along with seven rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block.
Jordan's flu game happened 14 years ago on Saturday in front of a sold-out crowd in Utah.
Nowitzki's happened last night in front of a sold-out crowd in Dallas.
Both Jordan and Nowitzki looked to be in the brink of fainting multiple times throughout their games, and near the end of the fourth, with Dirk slowly walking to the free throw line from the other end of the court to take his shots, it seemed as if the man had no clue where he was.
However, Nowitzki overcame a terrible shooting night, as he opened up making his first three shots and looking like nothing was wrong, and then missing 10 of his next 11.
He relied on Terry, Chandler, Shawn Marion and JJ Berea, just as Jordan relied on Luc Longley and Scottie Pippen to keep his team afloat when he hit a cold streak.
Then, in the fourth quarter he kicked it into gear, playing on pure gut and determination more than skill.
His layup with 14 seconds left in the game to put the Mavs up by five was a terrific offensive maneuver, and it put the game just out of reach for the Heat, forcing them to shoot a three on their final possession, which went badly awry.
Surely this Finals is as exciting as last year's so far, and I may go as far as to say that it is the best first four games of the Finals in the past decade.
This game was interesting for more than a flu bug, however, as it also saw LeBron James disappear on the offensive end of the floor, showing one of his poorest performances in recent memory, although he still did a very nice job on defense.
And, as gutsy a game as Dirk had, you can't overlook the impact Wade had on the game, as he seemed to be involved in every play offensively and defensively in the fourth quarter. Those two are truly having special series', and I wouldn't be upset to see either win the Finals MVP Award, even if they were to end up on the losing team.
One thing is for sure, you can tell that both these teams want to win a title more than anything in the world right now, and that is what usually makes for exciting series'. Hopefully we see everyone at full strength on Thursday so we can see the best basketball game possible.
LeBron James Ben Gordon Josh Howard Jason Terry Jason Kidd Dirk Nowitzki
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