Atlanta Hawks edge past the Miami Heat 93-89 in O.T – (Part 3)
Fourth Quarter
Jamal Crawford opened the fourth quarter with a jumper to make it a five point game. However, the Miami Heat rallied back strongly with a 15-4 run. Dwyane Wade capped the stretch with a fade away jumper, as the Heat romped to a 70-64 lead with more than
four minutes left.
However, the Heat picked the wrong time to go cold.
Josh Smith initiated Atlanta's late-game surge with a thunderous dunk, drawing a foul on Joel Anthony along the way. He slipped in a free-throw to complete the three-point play, and Mike Bibby followed it with a three-pointer to pull within two at 72-70.
A cluster of five free-throws in the next minute gave Atlanta a 75-72 lead.
That's when LeBron James started to turn the on the heat.
He slipped in a pair of free-throws to bring Miami within one, and then ran right through the Atlanta defence to pull off a tough lay-up. His efforts also earned him a foul and he obliged to give the Heat a 77-75 edge.
Miami though, failed to finish the Hawks off for good as Joe Johnson managed to chip in running jumper, and James missed a three at the buzzer to send to the game to overtime.
Atlanta played their cards extremely well in the fourth quarter, restricting Miami’s scoring to Wade and James only. The move eventually paid off as Atlanta managed to drag the game into the extra period.
"We know Dwyane and LeBron were going to be aggressive enough to where they were pretty much going to get theirs," Johnson said. "We wanted to limit the other guys around them and I thought we did a great job of that."
Overtime
Defence has been one of Miami’s strong points this season, but the weary Heat back-line lost their groove as the pressure mounted down the stretch. Rather than covering a man and sticking with him, players were running to spots. This left plenty of open
spaces on the perimeter for the Hawks offence, which hit the ground running in the extra five minutes.
Maurice Evans started the scoring with a completely uncontested shot from downtown as Atlanta surged ahead. James though was starting to feel his game at that point, and he responded with a driving lay-up to keep Miami in the hunt. He however, gave away
the ball on the next possession, which eventually resulted in a jumper from Evans.
The sprightly forward however, quickly made up for his error, as he banged another one from the three-point line to tie the game at 82 with over two minutes to go. However, every time James brought Miami level, the Hawks just seemed to have enough firepower
to nudge ahead again. LeBron pulled off the last of his three game tying three-pointers with 51.9 seconds to go to make it 89 each. The Heat didn’t score after that as the Hawks ran away with the match.
The visitors put up a good defensive performance in overtime and didn’t allow any room for Wade to complement James. Wade was unable to attempt a shot in the final five minutes. However, he showered praise on his rivals post-match. Wade said, "Give Atlanta
credit. Just as well as we fought back into it, they fought as well. Good Eastern Conference game."
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