Home is where the Heat is

MIAMI — The seating capacity of the American Airlines Arena is supposed to be 19,600 but in Game 3 of the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals here Tuesday night (yesterday morning, Manila), the attendance was announced as a sellout of 20,145.

How the Miami Heat squeezed about 500 more fans into the packed stadium had to be a stroke of genius or some kind of magical engineering feat.

The Heat faithful came in full force, dressed in white like the color of Don Johnson’s favorite sportscoat in TV’s "Miami Vice." Wherever you looked in the stands, all you saw was a sea of white–almost like a gathering of angels.

The local celebrities showed up to support the Heat. Singer Enrique Iglesias, whose father Julio is listed as a limited partner in the franchise, was in white, too, with girlfriend Anna Kournikova. Gloria Estefan wore white from her bandana down to her shoes. Jack Nicklaus was another celebrity in the cast.

Our broadcast position was high up in the rafters, near where Michael Jordan’s giant replica No. 23 Chicago Bulls jersey is hung. Unlike in Dallas where we had our own booth, we were lined up in a row of coverers beside the Star Sports panel.

Solar vice president for production Erick Tam, broadcaster Vitto Lazatin and I were a bit cramped in our seats but we didn’t mind. Just being there to cover what turned out to be one of the most exciting Finals games ever was more than enough to compensate for any discomfort.

Miami hasn’t lost too many games at home this season. Clearly, the homecourt advantage is a big boost to the Heat as a "sixth man." In the regular season, Miami was 31-10 at the arena. In the playoffs before last Tuesday’s Game 3, it was 8-1 with the only setback in the series opener of the New Jersey duel in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Nets paid dearly for embarrassing the Heat as they lost four in a row after drawing first blood.

But Dallas is known as a road warrior and has closed out its three previous playoffs series away from home, finishing off Memphis, San Antonio and Phoenix on their courts. Six of the Mavs’ 14 wins so far in the playoffs were fashioned on the road.

If Dallas beats Miami in Games 4 and 5, the Mavs will close out the Finals on the road, too.

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There is a difference of about $600,000 between winning and losing in the Finals.

The winner of the best-of-7 title playoffs earns $1,770,947 while the loser takes home $1,173,474.

In all, the NBA’s playoff pool amounts to $10 Million this year. It was $9.5 Million last season. In 1982, the pool was only $1.5 Million and in 1951, the players and coaches shared just $50,000.

The team with the best regular season record, Detroit, got a bonus of $288,421 from the league. There were other cash incentives for the top six finishers in each conference and teams that played in the first, second and third round of the playoffs.

If Dallas wins the title, the Mavs will bankroll a total of $2,510,216, including bonuses. If Miami prevails, its share will be $2,594,058. The disparity is traceable to the incentive the Heat took for posting the second best record in the East compared to Dallas’ fourth best record in the West.

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Miami’s 98-96 win over Dallas in Game 3 snapped the Heat’s seven-game losing streak to the Mavs dating back to March 26, 2004.

Now, the monkey is off the Heat’s back.

It was the second time that Miami has rebounded fiercely from being humiliated by the Mavs. Last Feb. 9, Dallas pulverized the Heat, 112-76, despite Shaquille O’Neal’s 23 points. That lit a fire under Miami and triggered a 10-game win skein.

"It made each one of us look at each other in the face and come together and find the right answers to make this team a better team," said reserve center Alonzo Mourning.

Coach Pat Riley said something positive came out of the defeat.

"It embarrassed us enough on national television to start really coming together, doing the things that we were talking about doing, not worrying about who was shooting, who was playing, what the rotation was," said Riley. "A lot of things changed that day."

The same thing happened last Tuesday.

Miami came off a woeful 99-85 loss in Game 2 where the Mavs enjoyed a 27-point cushion in the third period. The blowout was so severe that Riley opted to sit out O’Neal in the last 15 minutes to preserve his energy for the next outing.

Sure enough, the Heat wouldn’t be denied a win, no matter how close, in Game 3.