How exactly do you know when you are seeing sports history?
It happened Tuesday night when the Miami Heat recovered from a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Dallas Mavericks 98-96 in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
No, I’m not referring to the comeback, although it was the second biggest in the Finals behind the Bulls’ fourth quarter wave that engulfed the Portland Trail Blazers in 1992.
It was Dwyane Wade, the Chicago kid from Richards High School and Marquette, whose 42 points, including 12 in the last 6:34, will go down as one of the most extraordinary achievements in Finals lore.
Especially if the Heat somehow turns this series around Thursday night in Game 4 after its thrilling 98-96 victory in Game 3.
“He’s just fabulous,” said Shaquille O’Neal, who had a workmanlike 16 points and 11 rebounds to lift his scoring average to 12.7 points in the series. “He took over the game.”
That was something once left to O’Neal.
“Everyone knows he’s 34 years old and he’s not the young Shaq-be-nimble, Shaq-be-quick no more,” Wade said with deference.
Heck, Wade even served as O’Neal’s mentor after O’Neal’s miserable Game 2. The two went to the gym to get O’Neal’s mind off his failures and the Heat’s two-game deficit.
“[We talked] about when he was young when I [saw] film of him hitting a jumper, that kind of stuff,” Wade said.
The Miami talk in this series has been of O’Neal’s disappearance when it should be of Wade’s appearance.
Wade is the leading scorer in the Finals at 31 points per game and he’s leading the Heat in scoring, rebounding, steals, blocks, and shot and free-throw attempts. He’s second in assists.
All that does, however, is give the Mavs some confidence.
“They’ve played their best ball,” Jerry Stackhouse said. “We feel like we took a huge punch and only lost by two.”
The Mavs have been the dominant team all three games, only outplayed in the first quarters of Games 1 and 3, which they had time to overcome, and the last six minutes of Game 3, when they blew an 89-76 lead as they seemed to be sizing their ring fingers.
It was a remarkable comeback–or collapse, depending on your view–and gave the Mavs plenty to see what went wrong.
Usually a good rebounding team, they were outrebounded 49-34. They spent a lot of time running out to start fast breaks that turned into Miami offensive rebounds. The Heat had 16, with Udonis Haslem gathering eight despite a shoulder injury.
The Heat, a desperate team, was more active and faster, if not smarter with 20 turnovers. And it was fortunate to get a Gary Payton jumper to win on his only shot of the game.
What they got from Wade was not a surprise.
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“I think he’s probably going to surpass this in his career,” Heat coach Pat Riley said. “People will be talking about a lot more games that he will play that will be memorable.”
Although not likely in the NBA Finals.
Games like his don’t come along very often.
Oh, they happen in the playoffs–Michael Jordan’s 63 points against Boston and a bunch of 50-pointers against the Heat, Wizards, Knicks and Cavs. But Jordan had only one 50-pointer in the Finals (55) against Phoenix in 1993.
“No one should be compared to M.J.,” Wade said Wednesday when the expected question arose. “There will only ever be one M.J. That’s it. I’m not him.”
But Wade is becoming someone special.
The Mavs still lead this series, but Wade makes the prospect of a Heat championship possible.
The NBA has compiled a list of its 60 greatest playoff moments for its 60th Finals. The top one was Jordan’s goodbye jumper to beat Utah in 1998. The greatest overall Finals game was determined to be Magic Johnson’s 42 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Los Angeles Lakers with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar out in 1980.
But there weren’t many great Finals games, and few were won in the Heat’s dire circumstance in Game 3. Jordan’s best may have been his 38 with the flu against Utah in Game 5 in 1997.
These are among the highlights:
– Bob Pettit’s 50 points in Game 6 in 1958 as the St. Louis Hawks beat Boston.
– Isiah Thomas’ remarkable 43 points with 25 in the fourth quarter on a sprained ankle in a 1988 loss to the Lakers.
– The Lakers’ Elgin Baylor’s record 61 to go up 3-2 on Boston in 1962.
– Bill Walton’s 20 points, 23 rebounds, eight blocks and seven assists in Portland’s 1977 clincher against the 76ers, the last time a team came back from 0-2.
– O’Neal’s 28 points, 20 rebounds, nine assists and eight blocks in 2001 against the Sixers after the Lakers lost Game 1.
– Larry Bird’s triple-double in the 1986 finale against Houston.
– James Worthy’s 36-16-10 to knock out Detroit in 1988.
– Wilt Chamberlain’s 24 and 29 in 1972 as the Lakers defeated the Knicks.
Rarely, when the pressure is the greatest and the stakes the highest, do we see the extraordinary sustained effort.
It’s historic when we do.
NBA Finals
DALLAS LEADS MIAMI, 2-1
All games at 8 p.m. on WLS-Ch. 7
Game 4: Thursday at Miami
Game 5: Sunday at Miami
Game 6: June 20 at Dallas-*
Game 7: June 22 at Dallas-*
Game 1: June 8, DALLAS 90-80
Game 2: Sunday, DALLAS 99-85
Game 3: Tuesday, MIAMI 98-96
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Home team in CAPS*–if necessary
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