Miami Heat 91 vs. Oklahoma City Thunder 85 - Fourth Quarter Breakdown Game 3: NBA Finals 2012
The fourth quarter of Game 3 saw the Miami Heat keep their nerve in the final stages while forcing Oklahoma City Thunder committed silly turnovers. Miami also crumbled under pressure, giving away the ball nine time, but still managed
a 91-85 win to take a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals.
LeBron James scored 8 points in the period to take his tally to 29 points on an 11-23 shooting performance on the night. He was able register a double-double to his name by grabbing 14 boards in the game.
Dwyane Wade followed him up with 25 points to go along with 7 assists while Chris Bosh also notched up an impressive double-double performance of 10 points and 11 rebounds. Shane Battier had 9 points in the game, all of them coming
in the first three quarters of the matchup.
For the Thunder, Kevin Durant led the way with 25 points but his performance was overshadowed by the 5 personal fouls he committed in the game and also being responsible for turning the ball over on 5 occasions.
Russell Westbrook also had his share of struggles in the game and could only manage 4 points in the final period but his most pivotal miss came at the 29.9 seconds mark of the frame when he missed an open three for a chance to
tie the scores up.
Kendrick Perkins double-double performance of 10 points, 12 rebounds was of not much value to the Thunder as they were not able to upset the Heat in the final stages of the contest. James Harden was another OKC player who had an
off night by only managing 9 points on a 2-of-10 shooting performance.
The most important factor which turned out to be the key to success for Miami was their free throw shooting even in the final stages of the game. Miami had 6 free throw attempts in the final one and half minute of the game and
were able to convert 5 of them with a rare miss on the night coming from James.
Whereas the Thunder struggled to make the most of their free throw opportunities on the night, they went 15-of-24 from the stripe in the game which proved to be their downfall.
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