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LeBron James joined Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat in hopes that he would have the necessary help to win championships. He is four wins away from winning his first title, and the championship series with the Dallas Mavericks gets underway Tuesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena.

James’s arrival to South Beach didn’t come without some controversy, however. Many critics didn’t like the way he announced his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers on a televised special on ESPN. Others didn’t like that he was essentially admitting that he couldn’t win a championship on his own.

“You know, we’ve got a lot of flack this year, mostly because of myself. And we’ve tried to use that as motivation every day we get on the basketball court,” James said Monday. “But just play the game of basketball. That’s all we can do is play the game of basketball at a high level. Play Miami Heat basketball.”

Get NBA Finals Odds at JustBet all through the championship series.

Dallas is back in the finals for the second time in franchise history. The Mavs last appeared in the finals in 2006, when they lost four games in a row after holding a 2-0 series lead. Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry are the only current Mavericks who were with that team, and Wade and Udonis Haslem are the only holdouts from the Heat team that won the championship.

The Mavs beat the Heat in both meetings this season. But the Heat have already proved that regular season series don’t matter. They beat Chicago in five games in the Eastern Conference finals after losing all three matches against the Bulls in the regular season.