Wade Leads Heat To Last-Second Win Over Nets
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MIAMI – Dwyane Wade made a free throw with 5.2 seconds left and blocked a potential game-winning layup at the buzzer to give the Miami Heat a 90-89 win over the Nets last night.
Wade, who had 23 points, drove on Nets guard Jason Kidd and was fouled. He made the second of two free throws before blocking Vince Carter’s shot.
The Nets pleaded for a foul, to no avail. Nets coach Lawrence Frank ran halfway across the court to complain about the non-call, as the Heat trotted off and celebrated their 10th straight win over New Jersey.
“All ball,” said Wade on his way to the locker room.
Carter had a game-high 32 points.
Antoine Walker had 18 points and Gary Payton added 13 for the Heat. Alonzo Mourning and Jason Williams added 11 points apiece for Miami, which again played without the injured Shaquille O’Neal and used a sevenman rotation in the game. Mourning also had 11 rebounds.
The Nets rallied from two doubledigit deficits in the second half, yet never took the lead.
Miami went up 80-70 on a 3-pointer by Williams with 9:13 left, but the Nets chipped away. Carter’s 3-pointer with 1:25 left drew New Jersey to 89-87, and his jumper 34.9 seconds later got the Nets into their first tie since Richard Jefferson scored to make it 8-8 4:04 into the game.
Payton missed a 3-pointer with 26 seconds left, but Mourning collected the rebound and gave Miami an extra possession. Wade hit his free throw 21 seconds later.
Jefferson had 20 points and 15 rebounds for the Nets, and Jason Kidd added 11 points.
A highlight-reel move by Wade – he leaped, spun nearly 360 degrees around the Nets’ Jason Collins, and blindly made a layup – put Miami up 59-48 early in the third. Yet the Heat went scoreless for the next 5:03, their lead trimmed to 59-58 when new Net Jeff McInnis scored. But a 3-pointer by Williams and two baskets by Wade pushed the lead back to 66-60.
Carter and Jefferson scored 26 of the Nets’ first 28 points, combining to shoot 10-for-11 in the opening quarter – and it still wasn’t enough to give New Jersey an early lead. Even after shooting 70.6% in the first quarter, the Nets led for exactly 29 seconds of the opening half.
For as good as New Jersey was early offensively, the Heat were better. Miami made 73.7% of its first-quarter shots to take a 32-28 lead, before cooling to a 45% pace in the second. But New Jersey slipped even farther in that period; it shot 8-for-23, or 34.8%.