Miami Heat hang tough down the stretch to see out the Oklahoma City Thunder and take a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals
Miami Heat held their nerves in the closing stages of Game 4 to seal a 104-98 win against Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Heat are now just one win away from lifting the NBA Championship.
In a closely contested fourth quarter, Heat required the heroics of LeBron James and he did not disappoint.
The first six minutes of the period saw both teams remain close building up to another close finish. Miami led by as many as 6 at one point but due to the one man assault of Russell Westbrook the scores were equal at 90.
James tried to drive through the lane moments later but was unable to deliver and also fell down awkwardly, getting injured on the play. This allowed OKC with a chance to take the lead but Mario Chalmers got the defensive rebound
and fed James on the break for an easy bank shot. The fall however seemed to have done its damage as LeBron required assistance while getting off the court.
He returned to action to have his final say in the game by hitting a tie breaking three pointer at the 2:51 mark which turned the tide in Miami`s favour. James finished the game with 26 points, 12 assists and 9 rebounds and was
not able to play in the last minutes due to cramps.
"I was just trying to make a play," James said. "If I was out on the floor, I wanted to try to make a play with the limited mobility I had at that time, and I was happy I was able to come through."
Mario Chalmers also rose to the occasion by coming out clutch in the fourth quarter. He managed to get 12 points in the period and also had a spectacular layup at the 44.6 seconds mark which gave Miami a 5 point lead. Dwyane Wade
also finished the game with 25 points.
In the last 16 minutes of the game, only two players for OKC managed to score. Russell Westbrook put up an impressive 17 points in the final quarter but his efforts came up short in the end. Kevin Durant managed to get 6 points
in the fourth quarter.
One thing that has been not working in favour of OKC is the amount of impact James Harden has had in the series so far. He had another bad night on Tuesday, finishing with 8 points on 2-of-10 shooting.
Another aspect for OKC that has been very damaging in the closing stages is their inability to limit their turnovers.
They had several sloppy plays in the closing stages of Game-4 which allowed Miami to slip away with another win, moving one step closer to wrapping up the series. Westbrook was once again at the centre of these blunders. He first
fouled Chalmers deep into the game when Miami had only 5 seconds left to shoot and then lost the ball on the last OKC possession with a tad more than 10 seconds remaining.
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