3. And now, the award for Best Performance in the Series. Your nominations are: Luol Deng’s entire series, Dwyane Wade’s last three minutes of Game 6, Goran Dragic bringing it home in Game 7, and Gerald Green’s garbage time in Game 7.
Sanning: My column prior to Game 6 speaks for itself on this. The Heat needed a Hall of Fame moment from Dwyane Wade to save their season, and boy did he deliver. His three minute stretch to essentially save Miami’s season was stuff legends are built on. If it wasn’t for that, we might be having a very different conversation right now.
Tachauer: I’m going with Dragic, but only because I have a soft spot for The Dragon. Between his grit and ball-handing, I see him as such a European goon and I love it. Even though he may not have been the Heat’s shining star for the entirety of this series, he brought it in Game 7. I mean 25 points when it mattered most? How can you not applaud him for that?
Keaton: It kinda HAS to be Wade, right? There is no Game 7 without Wade’s heroics.
Haynes: Luol Deng is the series MVP. He was clearly the best player for the Heat over the course of the series. I feel Wade’s game 6 4th quarter was epic, but more like Ray Allen’s 3 – a great moment, but not best overall performance. In Wade’s words: “The emergence of Luol Deng was the most important thing to salvage this season” (and this series).
Kassim: Like I tweeted Friday night, Dwyane Wade hitting two threes was/is more impressive than the no-hitter that was going on for the Miami Marlins at the same time. Wade shooting threes always starts with a bunch of “NO” screams and usually end with fans upset about the possession. Not during Game 6.
Goldberg: Goran Dragic’s heroics in Game 7 was similar to Mike Miller hitting a bazillion three’s to close out the Thunder in the 2012 Finals. He stepped up even when no one expected him to. I wanted to hive the Dragon a shout out before I say that Wade’s final three minutes of Game 6 to save the Heat’s season is very clearly the best performance of the series.
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