Ranking each NBA Finals of the decade from worst to best

3. 2011 NBA Finals: Dallas Mavericks beat Miami Heat (4-2)

Competitiveness: 9/10
Conclusion: 10/10
Overall excitement: 9/10
Average score: 9.3/10

David vs. Goliath. The Miami Heat became the super-villains of the NBA when LeBron James and Chris Bosh elected to join Dwyane Wade down south. This was one of the first super-teams the game of basketball had ever seen created through free agency and it would shake the league forever.

While the Heat battled through the East as the most hated team in the world, the Dallas Mavericks were steadily gearing up for a deep playoff run. Former MVP Dirk Nowitzki was growing older and knew that the window for a championship was closing. With a squad full of scrappy role players, Dallas was ready to make the push.

Miami ran through the Eastern Conference. LeBron was like a bull in a china shop, destroying his former rivals with .the kind of anger we had never seen from him. The duo of Wade and LBJ seemed to be unstoppable and they entered the Finals as heavy favorites.

After going up 2-1 in the series, Miami could taste the champagne. James and Wade openly mocked Nowitzki in the locker room and their overconfidence would quickly come back to bite them.

What came next was one of the most heroic three-game stretches in league history. Nowitzki posted 23.7 points and 9.3 rebounds a game over the last three contests, including multiple clutch shots. Other veteran players such as Jason Terry and Shawn Marion came up big with timely plays over and over again.

While Wade had a magnificent series, putting up 26.5 points per game, it was James who failed to show up. To this day, there is no explanation for his meltdown, but numbers of 17.8 points per game on 47.8 percent shooting just aren’t enough for a player of the King’s caliber.

Nowitzki captured the Finals MVP award and accomplished what was one of the biggest upsets in NBA Finals history.