The Miami Heat’s ’06 files: The ride for the title

Every NBA player eventually learns that they cannot underestimate their opponent. It was the Chicago Bulls who taught the Miami Heat that lesson in round one. 

 

The Chicago outfit was an overachieving team with a nice mix of youngsters and veterans who got hot at the end of the regular season, closing with a 12-2 record. 

 

The Heat were an older team, who won the first two playoff games thanks to Dwyane Wade plus Shaquille O’Neal taking over with big-time contributions from the role players in Miami.  Yet both outings were decided by a combined 12 points, and they got too comfortable on their way to Chicago. 

 

They got smoked in Game 3 because of a turnover problem (19), O’Neal downshifted to a role player and the rest of the team left Wade and Jason Williams hanging. That game is also remembered for James Posey blindsiding Kirk Heinrich late in the fourth quarter when Chicago’s lead was out of reach. 

 

Journalist and author Sam Smith of the Jordan Rules: The Inside Story of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, and Hard Labor: The Battle That Birthed the Billion-Dollar NBA, who now works with the Bulls spoke to Five Reasons Sports Network in August 2025, saying, “Wade saved them basically in Game 5 in the playoffs, but [Heinrich] gave Wade a lot of trouble. He was really tough and physical. Guys didn’t like playing against Kirk…”

 

Posey was subsequently suspended for his dirty play in Game 4. Aside, the problem that night for the Heat was an inability to get to the line and defend without fouling. Yet it became memorable for the angry sideline confrontation between Wade and Gary Payton, exposing the fragile state of the team.

 

Twenty years later, Payton said he took offense with the harshness of Wade‘s instruction, and Wade said he snapped in defense of a teammate. Still, there is agreement between the two that it was a turning point for the team. 

 

Pat Riley had them practicing hard the next day, and they followed up by seizing the next two games by an average of 15.5 points as Wade and O’Neal got back to business. O’Neal particularly, dropped 30 points and 20 rebounds in the closeout Game 6 in Chicago.

 

The Associated Press’ Tim Reynolds told Five Reasons Sports Network that despite the Heat losing Game 1 of the next series against the New Jersey Nets, there was no doom and gloom. The team rolled the Nets in the next four as Wade couldn’t be stopped from getting to the line.

 

Then it was the Pistons, who had broken their hearts the previous season. The Heat found themselves ahead 3-2 after a tough series, which was the same position they had in 2005, but Game 6 this time was in Miami.

 

Detroit’s pressure mostly caused Wade to shoot 6-for-15, but O’Neal was unstoppable, scoring 28 points on 85.7 percent shooting with 16 rebounds. Jason Williams helped redeem the team with the game of his life, too, logging 21 points on 10–of-12 attempts.

 

The Finals were then set with the Dallas Mavericks, and notably, former coach Stan Van Gundy declined owner Micky Arison’s invitation to attend. The Mavericks had swept the Memphis Grizzlies, won Game 7 in San Antonio which featured an epic duel between Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan, and beat the Phoenix Suns in six games, to get there.

 

Tension also brewed before the Finals started because O’Neal had said Dallas’ Erick Dampier could dominate the WNBA, and referred to him as “Ericka.”

 

The Mavericks doubled teamed O’Neal in Game 1, which they continued to do as the series went on. This gave Wade lots of opportunities, and he started the series shooting 6-of-7 in the first quarter as the Heat took an eight-point lead. They went cold in the second quarter, while flashing some zone on the other side. Then the problems in the second half were missing nine free throws, no one outside of Wade, O’Neal and Antoine Walker could score, and they couldn’t stop Jason Terry’s late heroics.

 

Missed free throws (12) plus turnovers were still biting the Heat in Game 2, and O’Neal, who had the worst Finals performance of his career with five points on just five attempts in 27 minutes, said he was embarrassed with himself. He refused to speak with the press and was fined $10,000.

 

The Heat were going back to Miami down 2-0 and at that point in time, only the 1969 Boston Celtics and 1977 Portland Trail Blazers had recovered from that deficit in the championship round.

 

Riley at practice, boldly circled June 20 as the day the Heat would win the title. Wade and O’Neal were at American Airlines Arena until about 10:30 PM the previous night, working on their stuff, and at one point before Game 3, both of them plus Alonzo Mourning went on a ride at night, talking about what needed to be done.

 

Miami’s first Finals game started with Wade scoring 13 first-quarter points as the Heat took an eight-point lead. Even while leaning on Wade, Riley couldn’t hide his frustration, at one point even wiping his face harshly with a towel as O’Neal committed a foolish foul, sending Dampier to the line.

 

Still, they maintained their edge until halftime, but didn’t start unraveling until the third quarter. They came out soft, undisciplined on defense and turning the ball over, which led to them being outscored by 18 points. 

 

It only got worse as the Heat were down double digits with six minutes left. Going down 3-0 would have been a death sentence, and in what became one of Riley’s finest coaching moments during the huddle, he wrote “season” on his writing pad and showed it to the players. And Wade told his teammates, “I ain’t going out like that.”

 

He then carried the Heat offensively in arguably the finest moment of his career as he backed up his big words, but they also got huge help from Payton, nailing a late jumper with 11 seconds left to give the Heat a two-point lead. Still, it came down to Wade stopping a lob attempt for Josh Howard at the rim to tie.

 

Game 4 was two nights later. Wade picked up where he left off, ripping up schemes, and scoring 14 of the Heat’s 30 first-quarter points. The broadcast caught Dallas’ coach Avery Johnson telling his players during a timeout that Wade was faking being hurt and not to relax.

 

Dallas couldn’t do a thing to stop him, and he didn’t have to slow down until the fourth quarter, only playing a bit more than half of it because the defense strangled actions, and caused four turnovers against the Mavs’ two field goals.

 

In those days, the Finals were a 2-3-2 format, which was put in place during the 1984-85 season. The next game in Miami was three nights later and Wade had another encore, with 43 points. His shooting numbers weren’t as pretty, but he made up for it by binging at the line for 21 freebies. O’Neal had a decent game, pouring in a double-double (18 points and 12 rebounds) on 66.7 percent shooting, too. His passing out of double teams kept helping the them, and keep in mind that Riley had already said he was the best passing big man he ever had, and he had coached the Showtime Lakers that featured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

 

Still, controversy has followed this game 20 years later because Wade got to the line with 1.9 seconds left of overtime as the Heat were down a point on marginal contact as he sliced through the lane. He made both and they took a 3-2 lead.

 

Riley, staying true to his proclamation, told the players they were only allowed to bring one suit for one night of their trip despite two games in Dallas. Reynolds inferred in his interview with FRSN that not all members of the Heat’s traveling party followed those instructions.

 

In Game 6, Wade’s jumper started falling towards the end of the first quarter, and the team only led by a point at halftime as Udonis Haslem was the next leading scorer with eight points. Howard had punished their sloppiness with three steals, and Nowitzki was feasting with 17 digits on 66.7 percent shooting.

 

Haslem kept dropping relief points after intermission, and Antoine Walker added 10, taking pressure off Wade, who played all of the second half. He almost had a double-double in that span (17 points and nine rebounds), and recovered one of Dallas’ late turnovers and went two-for-two at the line to seal the deal.

 

As much as he resembled a demigod, the Heat would not have won that game without Mourning. Heat play-by-play broadcaster Eric Reid told FRSN in August 2025 that it “was the most passionate 14 minutes of Finals work that I’ve ever seen. He only played 14 minutes in Game 6 at Dallas. He had eight points, six rebounds and five blocked shots. And I remember in my sort of fake call of that game for the Heat archives, saying something like,  ‘Does anybody want it more than Zo? It sure doesn’t look like anybody wants it more than him.’”

 

The Heat subsequently celebrated as champions for the first time in franchise history. Riley had won his fifth title as head coach and his first in 18 years, and Payton joined Mourning as longtime vets who earned their first. O’Neal capped it off symbolically handing Wade the Finals MVP trophy.

 

Wade was asked if he was surprised with how Dallas was guarding him, since they gave so much attention to O’Neal, and he said with a hand over his trophy, “Not at all. I done seen all the defenses. My coaches do a great job of getting me prepared, my teammates do a great job of spacing the court and making shots, so I can do what I do. This is a team award, just like this is a team championship.”

 

The bonds remain strong for the 2006 champions. They celebrated their commemoration on Feb. 3 and that many of them hadn’t been together since the times they played together. They went through a special journey and despite years passing without seeing each other, they will always be connected to one another. 

 

The 2006 championship is special because it showed that a team could start off shaky and get it together among sinners and saints, while validating Riley and the executive crew’s philosophy. It elevated the Heat’s standard and gave the fans what they had dreamed of since 1988.