Riley works a miracle

MIAMI — It didn’t seem like Miami could pull off a win as Dallas surged to a 13-point lead, its biggest, at 89-76, with 6:34 to go in Game 3 of the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals at the American Airlines Arena here Tuesday night (yesterday morning, Manila).

But coach Pat Riley refused to give up and gambled his career on several critical decisions in the fourth period.

First, he sat down Dwyane Wade for two crucial minutes before the Flash returned, time down to 6:47. Wade made good use of the respite to score 13 of his 15 points the rest of the way.

Second, he played reserve James Posey the entire 12-minute stretch, leaving Antoine Walker on the bench. Posey shut out Josh Howard and scored four points, including a triple that highlighted a 12-2 run that reduced the Mavs’ lead to three, 91-88, with 3:36 left.

Third, he sat down Shaquille O’Neal in the last 1:03, sacrificing his interior presence, because the Big Diesel would’ve been a target of fouls down the stretch. O’Neal was a combined 2-of-16 from the line in Games 1 and 2.

Fourth, he put his trust on Gary Payton to knock down a 21-foot jumper, with 9.3 seconds remaining and the score tied at 95-all. The Glove didn’t disappoint Riley. Before the shot, Payton was 1-of-8 from the floor in the series.

And fifth, he stayed with Udonis Haslem, nursing a strained left shoulder from Game 2, to crash the boards and shadow Dirk Nowitzki from 8:53 to go up to the end. Haslem stole the ball and sank two free throws with 1:03 left as the Heat took the lead, 94-93, for the first time since the 5:12 mark of the third quarter.

There appeared to be another gamble in the last 1.4 seconds as Wade looked like he deliberately missed his second free throw with Miami ahead, 98-96. The ploy ate up .4 of a second and forced Dallas into a catch-and-shoot situation off a 20-second ceasefire. If Wade converted, the Mavs would’ve called a timeout and set up a last play, with 1.4 ticks on the clock. A fraction of a second could make a difference in executing a play.

As it turned out, Wade stole the inbounds pass which was supposed to be an alley-oop play and preserved the Heat’s two-point margin.

Riley knew his first unit was near exhaustion and with no confidence on his bench beyond three relievers, rolled the dice in a bold bid to avoid a black hole in the Finals. A loss would’ve pushed Miami on the brink of elimination as no team ever has come back from a 0-3 deficit to win the championship.

Riley would’ve been chastised for his decisions if Miami lost. He survived the test of brinkmanship and has now guaranteed a Game 5 in the best-of-7 series.

Miami is set to host Games 4 and 5. One more win for the Heat and the teams go back to Dallas for sure.

Last season, San Antonio raced to a 2-0 series lead over Detroit but needed a Game 7 to repulse the Pistons. Only two teams in history recovered from 0-2 to win the title–Boston over Los Angeles in 1969 and Portland over Philadelphia in 1977–but both feats came when the NBA still used the 2-2-1-1-1 format, not the 2-3-2 which was instituted in 1985.

The Heat fed off the energy from the sellout homecrowd of 20,145 to stage the emotional comeback in what should rank among the most exciting games in Finals history.

Riley said the Heat won because the players believed they could do it.

"It was an absolute case of a team who wanted it so much," he said. "I’m absolutely without a doubt, a true believer. You’ve just got to keep trying to get them to dig, to dig, to dig, you’ve got to get stops, we got three or four, we got some breaks, we lucky a little bit. But the important thing is that we got there. I know we can play a lot better than we played. And it takes us on to another day and a good practice and to get ready for them and try to square this thing up in Game 4."

Miami missed 14 free throws but had the edge in rebounds, 49-34, turnover points, 28-13, and second chance points, 16-11.

Wade carried the Heat on his back and fired 42 points in 43 minutes to lead the charge. O’Neal compiled 16 points, 11 rebounds and five assists to redeem himself from a disappearing act in Games 1 and 2.

If Riley hopes to work another miracle, he’ll need a lot more rabbits than just Wade to pull out of his hat.