LeBron aims for impact in Heat offense

DALLAS -- For nearly a year, LeBron James has shaken off the criticism, laughed off the trash talk.

None of it mattered to James, not as long as the Miami Heat remained on the route to a championship.

But when that pursuit became threatened in part by his own poor play, James couldn't ignore the only critic that matters: himself. James said Wednesday he "didn't play well" in Game 4, when the Dallas Mavericks edged the Heat, 86-83, to even the series at two games apiece after he failed to find ways to make an impact offensively.

"I didn't do that last night," James said. "Those are the things that I pride myself on that hurt me the most. I'll just be hard on myself and figure out a way to do it better the next game."

The Heat arrived about 30 minutes late for their interview session Wednesday after watching extra film of the game, though they could have saved time by just fast-forwarding through James' no-show.

He scored only eight points, held in single digits for the first time in 90 career playoff games, and attempted only 11 shots. James said he criticized himself all night, taking solace that he had at least two more chances to turn things around.

"If it was the Super Bowl, I would be kicking myself in the foot. We have one game. That's it," James said. "The great thing about this, it's a series. No matter if you can have a bad game, you can always make an imprint on the next game. Game 5 is a huge game."

And the way this series is shaping up, probably a close one.

And while James has come under scrutiny for his passive play, Dirk Nowitzki is cementing his reputation by overcoming injury and illness to rally the Mavs to victories in two of the last three games.

"Really, are there two guys that get more compared to Superman than Dwyane Wade and LeBron James? Think about it," Mavs president Donnie Nelson said. "Then our guy was the superstar that never really was a superstar because he was from Europe, or he was soft, or he couldn't win the big game."

Not anymore. Not after Nowitzki made the go-ahead layup with a left hand that had a torn tendon in his middle finger with 3.6 seconds left in Game 2, and certainly not after fighting through a fever of 101 degrees to score 10 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter of Game 4.