DALLAS, 15 June 2006 — The Miami Heat staged a frenetic fourth-quarter rally to defeat the Dallas Mavericks 98-96 Tuesday and propel themselves back into the hunt for an NBA championship.
Reserve guard Gary Payton hit a 17-foot jump shot with 9.3 seconds left to give Miami a 97-95 lead and cap an improbable turnaround in the final five minutes.
Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki, who led the Mavericks with 30 points, had a chance to tie the game with 3.4 seconds left but could hit only one of two free throws.
A foul shot by Dwyane Wade with one second left provided the final 98-96 margin. Following a time-out, Josh Howard’s errant shot from an alley-oop pass ended the game and Dallas’ hopes for an easy path to their first NBA title.
Dallas leads the best-of-seven series 2-1 but the next two games are in Miami.
“I’m absolutely without a doubt a true believer,” a jubilant Heat coach Pat Riley said. “It comes down to one shot. Gary Payton makes the shot, we trust, and we’re on to another day.”
The Heat squandered a nine-point halftime lead by getting outscored 34-16 in the third quarter and trailed 77-68 entering the final frame. Dallas led by as many as a dozen in the final quarter and held a 91-81 lead with less than five minutes to go.
But the acrobatic Wade, who scored 42 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, scored seven points during a 17-5 charge the rest of the way to breathe new life into the Heat’s title hopes. Wade said he looked at the scoreboard midway through the fourth quarter and thought, “I ain’t going out like this.
“We didn’t want to go down 3-0, man,” said Wade. “You just try to do what you can to get your team over the hump. If you make some plays, it might energize some other guys.”
Nowitzki conceded the loss would be “a tough one to swallow for us.”
“We couldn’t really get anything done down the stretch on both ends of the floor,” he said. “Maybe we started to relax too early or celebrate. I don’t know what it was.
“But we didn’t defend them the way we did before and we couldn’t get anything to drop. So it’s obviously frustrating. The only good thing is we’re still up 2-1.”
Wade hit 14 of 26 shots and 13 of 18 from the line to lead four Heat players in double figures.
Three-time NBA finals MVP Shaquille O’Neal added 16 points and 11 rebounds for Miami but only took nine shots and once again had trouble with the Mavericks’ swarming defense.
But he did hit two key free throws with 1:48 left to pull Miami to within 93-90. That is a big accomplishment for someone who hit just two of 16 in the first two games of the series.
“We never gave up,” the 34-year-old O’Neal said.
“We just kept playing, showed a lot of heart, a lot of intensity.”
Josh Howard scored 11 of his 21 points in the third quarter to stake the Mavericks to their nine-point lead entering the final quarter.
Dallas, seeking the first title in its 26-year history, appeared well on its way to a 3-0 series lead, an advantage no team has ever been able to overcome in the NBA finals.
But Wade refused to give up and Payton’s only basket of the game helped slice Dallas’ series lead in half.
“I took one dribble, kept dribbling and shot the ball,” said Payton. “You don’t think about it, just go up and shoot the ball. Whatever happens, happens. Fortunately, it went in.” Miami held a 49-34 rebounding edge but was hampered by 20 turnovers and 20-of-34 shooting (58.8 percent) from the free-throw line.
