MIAMI - LeBron James and Dwyane Wade joked often, smiled easily, answered thoughtfully.

A few minutes later, Dirk Nowitzki bounded up to a podium and offered a big "How we doin!" to the assembled media.

You'd never know only one of them is a "good guy."

Less than a year after solidifying their place as the NBA's villains with their high-profile partnership last summer, James, Wade and the Miami Heat are in the NBA finals against the Dallas Mavericks and Nowitzki, being portrayed as a sort of anti-James for sticking with his home team instead of taking the easy way out and going elsewhere for a better shot at a title.

And if you hated the theatrics of last summer, the light shows, pep rally, and everything else Miami did to celebrate winning the championship of July, better look away. The Heat are just four wins from the first of several titles that many predicted when James bolted Cleveland for South Florida.

The way it happened bothered plenty, but James only cares about the result.

"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."

Five years after Wade largely overwhelmed the Mavericks by himself to win the Heat's first championship, the teams arrive at Game 1 of the rematch tonight (6 p.m., KXLY, ESPN 700) through decidedly different constructions. The Heat essentially sacrificed seasons for salary-cap space, making the playoffs through Wade's greatness but with no realistic chance of winning. But the gamble paid off in July, when James and Chris Bosh agreed to come and Wade committed to stay, giving Miami the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 players on perhaps the greatest free-agency list in NBA history.

Nowitzki's name was on it, too, and he even said he would have listened if had James and Wade tried to recruit him. His preference was to remain in Dallas, as long as owner Mark Cuban would do what it takes to give the big German another shot at a ring.

"Ultimately, that's where my heart was at. I almost felt like we had unfinished business after '06," Nowitzki said. "Had a great meeting with Mark there, free agency. All I needed was reassurance that he was going to keep going and keep building around this team, and keep putting all his resources for us to hopefully be up there one day. We're here again at the big stage. Hopefully we can turn it around this year and finish strong."