There will come a time when this Miami Heat team will rule the NBA. LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh all came together for a reason. They wanted not just to win a ring but to win multiple championships and they could very well do just that. This team is basically made of castaways after the Big Three, but in time, Pat Riley will find the right pieces that will make this Miami Heat team even more impressive.

The older stars must give way to the new. That’s the way it goes. The LA Lakers, San Antonio Spurs, and Boston Celtics, the usual title-contenders, are getting old. A few more seasons and the likes of Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett will all retire. When that time comes, it will be up to the youngsters to carry the cudgels for NBA basketball.

The Miami Heat are the heirs to throne of the NBA Kingdom but they are an aggressive bunch; waiting is not their thing. They want to stick the dagger to the old King’s heart to take what they feel is rightfully theirs. They took Game 1 easily, unleashing a furious rally late in the game that made everyone shake their heads in disbelief. “How do you beat these guys?” people asked. It was a very good question. When Wade, James, and Bosh buckled down to business, they were a beauty to watch. With all the dunks, fancy lay-ups, and alley-opps they were making, the fourth quarter seemed to belong in an All-Star Game and not on an NBA Finals series.

Game 2 looked similar. The Mavericks built an early lead but the Heat erased it before the buzzer sounded for the first half. And when the Heat made their run, it looked like there was no stopping them.

People started preaching about the start of the Miami Heat era and no one could blame the people who said that. The Miami Heat did look unstoppable.

But the guardians of the old ways looked into their bag of tricks and pulled out one last magic trick. It was composed of playing together, and playing your heart out, and composure, and experience, and believing they can. And just like that, they erased the lead. Dirk Nowitzki, the leader of the old, drained a three ball for their first lead of the half. Mario Chalmers replied with his own three to tie the game and the ball went back to Dallas for one last possession. Nowitzki drove to his left, spun, and took a stretched lay-up using his left hand (broken finger and all) to take the go-ahead basket.

After the victory, the Mavericks talked about respect, about fighting their hearts out. They will head on to their homecourt (where they have lost once in the entire playoffs) with a chance to end it there with three straight wins. It surely is a daunting task but these wily veterans are confident of pulling off an upset.

There will come a time when the brash youngsters will rule the NBA. There will come a time when their screaming, chest bumping, fake boxing, and holding their stroke while walking across their opponent’s bench can be done without repercussions.

But not now. Not just yet. Not while the Dallas Mavericks still have some fight left in them.