ESPN

ESPNDallas.com will estimate the market value for each of the Mavericks' eight free agents and examine their worth to the Mavs in a once-per-day series.

Anthony Morrow

Anthony Morrow’s remarkable shooting range never made a difference for the Mavericks.

Morrow, who was billed by Donnie Nelson as one of the best “stretch shooters” in NBA history after Dallas acquired him in a deadline deal, made a grand total of one 3-pointer during his brief tenure with the Mavs, attempting only five shots from long range.

Morrow played only 82 minutes for the Mavs, getting much of his time in mop-up situations. In fairness, it’d be tough for any role player to crack Rick Carlisle’s rotation after joining the Mavs in the middle of a desperate fight to make the playoffs.

While you’ll often hear around the American Airlines Center that you can never have enough shooters, re-signing Morrow certainly won’t be a summer priority. He’s a one-trick player (42.4 percent from 3-point range for his career) the Mavs might consider for one of their final roster spots after addressing other areas.

2012-13 stats: Averaged 4.0 points, 0.7 rebounds and 0.3 assists in 9.3 minutes per game for the Atlanta Hawks and Mavs. Shot 44.1 percent from the floor and 37.2 percent from 3-point range.

Age: 27

Comps:

Roger Mason Jr. – Averaged 5.3 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 17.7 minutes per game. Shot 43.3 percent from the floor and 41.5 percent from 3-point range. Played for veteran’s minimum this season.

Jodie Meeks – Averaged 7.9 points, 2.2 rebounds and 0.9 assists in 21.3 minutes per game. Shot 38.7 percent from the floor and 35.7 percent from 3-point range. Signed a two-year, $3.05 million deal in 2012, with the second season a team option.

Dorell Wright – Averaged 9.2 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 22.6 minutes per game. Shot 39.6 percent from the floor and 37.4 percent from 3-point range. Completed rookie contract this season.

Mike Miller – Averaged 4.8 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 15.3 minutes per game. Shot 43.3 percent from the floor and 41.7 percent from 3-point range. Amnesty clause candidate signed five-year, $29 million deal in 2010.

Estimated contract: Morrow is likely to end up getting the veteran’s minimum.

How it happened: The injury-ravaged, ill Dallas Mavericks might have played the best defensive quarter in franchise playoff history.

The Mavs held the Heat to 14 points in the fourth quarter to pull off their second stunning comeback of these Finals, evening the series at two games apiece. Five Miami turnovers fueled a 17-4 run that gave the Mavericks the lead for good.

Miami’s Dwyane Wade, the man who has haunted Dallas fans for five years, missed a potential tying free throw with 29.3 seconds remaining.

Dirk Nowitzki, who struggled most of the night while battling a triple-digit temperature, responded by driving right past Udonis Haslem for a layup to give the Mavs a little breathing room.

The Heat still had a chance to send the game into overtime on the final possession. However, Wade mishandled the inbounds pass with 6.7 seconds remaining and Mike Miller heaved an airball at the buzzer.

What it means: The series will head back to South Beach. It’s just a matter of which team will have a chance to slam the door in Game 6.

Play of the game: Tyson Chandler comes up with a loose ball and gets the rock to DeShawn Stevenson, who delivered a sweet three-quarters-court skip pass to Jason Terry for the go-ahead layup with 5:11 remaining.

Stat of the night: LeBron James' teams are 0-7 when he scores 15 or fewer points in a playoff game in his career. He finished with only eight in this loss.

MIAMI -- The Dallas Mavericks had a couple of miscalculations in Game 1 regarding LeBron James. Most glaring, of course, was being ill-prepared for the King to drape Jason Terry in the fourth quarter.

To start the game, the Mavs expected James to be the primary ball-handler, basically the point guard, as he was for the vast majority of the East finals against the Chicago Bulls. Because of that coach Rick Carlisle started the game with DeShawn Stevenson on James and Shawn Marion on Dwyane Wade.

Carlisle likes for Stevenson to pressure the ball upcourt to force the offense to set up with about 17 or 16 seconds on the shot clock instead of 20, and that's especially true against the halfcourt oriented Heat, who thrive on isolation with their two superstar wings.

However, Stevenson quickly switched over to Wade because James didn't assume the point.

"Coach wanted me to pick him up fullcourt. The other series [against Chicago] basically he was a point guard, brought the ball down," Stevenson said. "[In Game 1] he didn't do that, so coach felt like it was a waste doing that so then we switched back."

Stevenson has the unique situation of having to guard both superstars. He played just 14:26 in Game 1 after being replaced quickly in the third quarter with J.J. Barea.

Dallas did a decent job on James, yet he still finished with 24 points, nine rebounds and five assists, a stat line that would seem to be able to demoralize defenders.

"I think he had a decent game. I don't think he had a game where he just dominated, but I that shows a lot about the type of player he is and the All-Star that he is that he can have an OK game and he's 24, nine and five," Stevenson said. "We've got to let either two of the big three score and stop the other one, but we can't let them get off and then Mario Chalmers make big 3s and Mike Miller coming in making big 3s. We've got to stop that."

And then there's D-Wade, who finished with 22 points, six assists and 10 rebounds, and at times felt like an afterthought.

"I just think right now he's deferring, which he has to because he has two other All-Stars on the team. Young All-Stars, too," Stevenson said.

It was suggested that Wade is playing the role of facilitator through the first half of the game and conserving his energy for the fourth quarter when the Heat have been so dominant this postseason. There's been speculation that Wade is playing hurt, although he emphatically said he is not. Stevenson backed up his claim.

"Dwyane's Dwyane," Stevenson said. "I don't think he's hurt. He's a tough guy, he's from Chicago."

MIAMI -- The Dallas Mavericks know the 3-pointer must be a money ball for them if they have any shot of dinging a quick and rugged Miami Heat defense.

Dallas has been dominant from beyond the arc all postseason, shooting it at 38.8 percent -- two percentage points better than the regular season -- and making 66 more than their opponents, a 198-point differential.

"Three of the best in the business in the history of the game," said guard Jason Terry, referencing himself, Jason Kidd and Peja Stojakovic, all of whom rank in the top of eight on the NBA's all-time 3-point list. "The numbers are with us. Percentages say and history says that those guys are going to make shots."

The Miami Heat are not a good 3-point shooting team. They're hitting the long ball at 32.2 percent and have taken 98 fewer 3s than Dallas. It might not get easier for Miami to score out there. The Mavs have limited teams to 26.2 percent from downtown, while Miami has surprisingly allowed 38.5 percent shooting, a fact that should make Terry's eyes light up.

Both teams, however, suggested that the key to the 3-point battle isn't about offense, but rather reducing the good looks the other team gets during the course of a game.

"It's huge. We've got to win that battle, it's one of strengths," Terry said. "We can't let them get hot from 3. LeBron's been doing an outstanding job lately in late-game situations of taking and making big 3-point shots. They've got Mike Bibby, James Jones and Mike Miller, who obviously can get hot and have in this postseason. With the way their defense is we have to make shots.

The Heat are 79-of-245 from beyond the arc, with LeBron James, who has hit several dagger 3s to ice games, leading Miami with 21 3s on 57 attempts. Terry, Kidd and Stojakovic have combined for 91 3s. Dirk Nowitzki has 16 on 31 attempts.

Miami's best 3-point shooters have been lightweight factors in its run to the Finals. Miller is 4-of-19 in the playoffs. Jones is shooting the 3 a team-best 45.9 percent (17-of-37), but despite averaging 22.2 minutes in 12 games, he's fallen out of the rotation. Bibby is 12-of-49 (24.5 percent) and Dwyane Wade is 7-of-29 (24.1 percent)

"I need to make shots. Mike needs to make shots. All of our shooters need to make shots," Jones said. "Moreso, defensively, our aggression or our ability to run them off of shots and not give them the easy looks and the good looks and the looks off of offensive rebounds. If you can contain them from the 3-point line the burden of our team needing to make 3s is less."

DALLAS -- LeBron James stuffed the stat sheet as usual during the Eastern Conference finals, but his most impressive work in the series came on the defensive end.

King James completely took the MVP out of games during crunch time. Chicago’s Derrick Rose shot 6.3 percent when defended by James during the series, according to ESPN Stats and Information. That’s not a typo -- six-point-three.

As the Mavs do with Jason Kidd, the Heat tend to sic James on the opposing superstar during crunch time. Listed at 6-foot-8, 250 pounds, and gifted with amazing athletic ability, there might not be a more versatile defensive player in the NBA than James.

LeBron proved he could shut down an elite point guard. How about one of the most productive power forwards to ever play the game?

Dirk Nowitzki will be prepared if Miami decides to assign James to the Mavs’ MVP with the game on the line.

“We’ve got to be ready for whatever,” Dirk said. “If LeBron’s at the 4 (power forward), we’ve got to adjust. But I don’t think that’s anything we haven’t seen all year. We’ve seen small lineups, we’ve seen bigger lineups.”

They saw the Lakers try to defend Dirk with Ron Artest, but only briefly. In fact, that experiment lasted only four possessions, with Dirk going to work on post-ups and producing six points and dishing for an assist when L.A. came with a double-team.

Maybe LeBron, who is taller and quicker than Artest, could have more success defending Dirk. It’s probably more likely that Udonis Haslem, who gave Nowitzki some trouble in the 2006 Finals, will defend Dirk down the stretch. The Heat could then use James to guard Jason Kidd and double Dirk on occasion.

“I think they’re a great five-on-five man team that rotates,” Nowitzki said. “They’re quick on their feet, they’re athletic and long and they go with a lineup where they have no point guards out there with [Mike] Miller and [Dwyane] Wade and LeBron. They cover a lot of ground.

“They have Haslem back, who is one of the best defenders at the 4 position. They’re a very good team defensively, so we have to make sure we’re not playing one-on-one. We have to move the ball and do all the things that got us here.”

One of the things that got the Mavs here was Dirk delivering down the stretch. That has to continue to happen, no matter who defends him.

MIAMI -- Rookie Miami Heat center Dexter Pittman has returned from a three-week stint with the D-League Sioux Falls Skyforce. The former Texas Longhorn won't be active for tonight's game against the Dallas Mavericks. That slot is reserved for Mike Miller's season debut.

Pittman played in eight games with the Skyforce and started all of them, averaging 16.6 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.63 blocks. In his last two D-League games, Pittman combined for 49 points, 19 rebounds and seven blocks. Twice in the eight games he logged more than 40 minutes.

"It was invaluable," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Pittman's time away. "He was able to play minutes he had never played before. Even in high school he had never reached anywhere near 40 minutes in a game; understanding how to play through mistakes that a lot of times he wouldn't have had that opportunity here with us."

Keep humming the LeBron James song -- man, it is catchy -- or wish upon a Dwyane Wade or even a Joe Johnson.

But, the odds of landing one of those three, especially the first two, are longer than Roy Williams leading the Cowboys in catches next season.

So, if the Mavs don't land LeBron or D-Wade, who will be available on the free-agent market? Well, first let's narrow the focus to the Mavs' top priorities. Youth and athleticism in a small-forward package, a dynamic player who can get to the rim and create his own shot is at the top of the list (As Dirk said, like LeBron or D-Wade). So is a post player with decent agility and the ability to catch Jason Kidd's passes and finish. Brendan Haywood showed he has potential in that role, but he hits the market on July 1 and he'll have options.

The bad news for the Mavs is that after LeBron and D-Wade, and Johnson to a lesser extent, the pool of small forward-swingman-type talent isn't deep. There's plenty of two guards (and a bunch of undersized ones) coming available, but the Mavs are banking on the development of Roddy Beaubois and unless Caron Butler is swapped for a big name, he and Jason Terry will be back.

And remember this: Because the Mavs are over the salary cap, the maximum they can offer a free agent is the mid-level exception (about $5.5 million). To acquire a higher-priced player the Mavs would have to negotiate a sign-and-trade with another team.

So who's out there? Try to restrain your excitement:

Tracy McGrady (New York), Dorell Wright (Miami), Quentin Richardson (Miami), Matt Barnes (Orlando), Bobby Simmons (New Jersey) Travis Outlaw (L.A. Clippers) and Rasual Butler (L.A. Clippers).

Restricted free agent Rudy Gay (Memphis) is possible in a sign-and-trade. Richard Jefferson could bail out of San Antonio -- could he regain form being reunited with Kidd? How about oldie, but goody, Ray Allen (Boston)? Or the younger Tony Allen (Boston)?

Al Harrington (New York) will hit the market as will 7-foot small forward Jonathan Bender (New York), and Kyle Korver (Utah) and Mike Miller (Washington).

Of course, not all of those guys actually fit the bill.

And no post players in there, you say? Recall that big fish and Dallas native Chris Bosh has said he doesn't want to play in his hometown -- too many unnecessary distractions. So, if you find a big man more suitable than Haywood, add him to the list.