DALLAS – LeBron James is gone, but the Dallas Mavericks still can’t beat the Miami Heat.

Dallas’ celebrated its last win over the Heat by popping champagne. The Mavs have now lost seven straight games to Miami, a streak that started on the Christmas Day 2011 season opener, when the championship banner was raised to the American Airlines Center roof.

That streak stings to those who have deep-seated disgust for the Heat dating to the 2006 Finals.

“It’s still the same,” Mavs owner Mark Cuban said about his feelings for the Heat before Sunday’s loss to Miami. “I hated them before LeBron got there. He didn’t affect my feelings for them at all.”

Dirk Nowitzki once said that if he didn’t really hate anybody, but his feelings for the Heat came pretty close. His emotions for Miami aren’t quite as intense these days.

“I mean, there’s not a lovefest there, but it’s obviously a little different team now,” said Nowitzki, the only player remaining on the Mavs roster who faced the Heat in both Finals. “They’ve still got [Dwyane] Wade and [Udonis] Haslem and some of the other guys, but I think time has passed.”

Dallas’ deep-seated disdain for the Heat wasn’t just due to the Mavs’ falling apart after building a 2-0 lead in the 2006 Finals or feeling like they were robbed by referees in that series, which featured a Wade parade to the free throw line.

The Mavs mainstays will never forget Wade calling out Nowitzki months later for failing as a leader in that series. Wade and James added a log to that fire by mocking the ill Nowitzki, pretending to cough for a television camera, during the 2011 Finals.

That made it all that much sweeter when Nowitzki held the Larry O’Brien and Finals MVP trophies at the end of that series.

All isn’t necessarily forgiven, but even Cuban says the harsh feelings for Wade have faded.

“Not anymore,” Cuban said when asked if he had personal disdain for Wade. “At the beginning, I did because I think he thought he was entitled to everything that happened in that series. But it’s been eight years. I mean, I take a little bit of joy in games where he doesn’t go to the free throw line. But I like D-Wade now. He’s a guy who does a lot of good things off the court and I have to respect that.

“But if you’d have asked me eight years ago, it would have been a different answer. There was a time I did a commercial and he was there. He walked out of the room so I wouldn’t see him. I walked out a different door so I wouldn’t have to talk to him.”

Now, Cuban praises Wade’s character, saying he has matured into a “good representative for the NBA.” Of course, that doesn’t mean Cuban looks forward to seeing Wade or the Heat, especially under the circumstances of their last seven meetings.

“Just brings back bad memories from 2006,” Cuban said. “We got a little retribution in 2011. But when you get clubbed by what happened by the non-players, that’s hard to forget and let go. But I’ve already been fined enough on that.”