DALLAS -- Foul or not, Dallas Mavericks guard DeShawn Stevenson said Miami Heat starsLeBron James and Dwyane Wade do a better job of selling calls than most.
“They’re great actors and they sell it,” Stevenson said Monday afternoon. “That’s what they’re supposed to do.”
We’ve got to take hard fouls,” Stevenson said, “but if you touch them they’re so dramatic you might get a flagrant 2.”
Stevenson added that a hard foul could lead to not just a flagrant foul, but a suspension. Wade is averaging 29 points in the series, with James scoring 20.3.
“It just makes it tough,” Stevenson continued. “They put a lot of pressure on us. If you do one little thing it’s going to be magnified to a big ordeal. I think when they go up and do the dunks, if you take a hard foul, the outcome is going to be pretty bad.”
Although James has been known to sell contact at times during these playoffs and Wade’s on-court exchanges with officials are almost constant, it’s hard to blame Dallas’ 2-1 deficit on unfavorable whistles. The Mavericks have shot significantly more free throws than the Heat through the first three games of the finals, and loose-ball fouls on Dirk Nowitzki late in the game almost allowed Dallas to complete another comeback and steal Game 3.
Stevenson has bad blood with James dating back to 2008, when Stevenson called the two-time MVP “overrated.” For his part, Wade had no comment on Stevenson’s opinion of his on-court acting skills.
