INDIANAPOLIS – Bounce, bounce, bounce. In a quiet and nearly empty arena, the dribbling of one player echoed. Game time was nearly 2½ hours away, but the man kept shooting in solitude. The right corner, then up top, then the left corner.
By AJ Mast, AP
LeBron James dunks in front of the Pacers' George Hill on Sunday.
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Bounce, bounce, bounce. Dwyane Wade.
He had come Sunday for atonement. So had all theMiami Heat.
"You start to realize,'' their coach, Erik Spoelstra said before Game 4. "It's all about survival.''
Five hours later, Bankers Life Fieldhouse was quiet again, this time filled with disappointed Indiana Pacers' fans who yearned so deeply to see Miami's disaster continue to unfold, but instead had to sit through a Heat revival.
They had to watch LeBron James go for 40 points and 18 rebounds, and Wade — the early working paying off — put in 30 more, 22 in the second half. That was a 70-point display of how two stars, when shining bright, can melt a lot of worries. In one stretch, the two combined to score 38 consecutive Miami points.
They had to watch a 10-point Indiana lead in the third quarter vaporized by a 25-5 Heat run, as the Miami defense take over. They had to endure a reminder that, the noise of the past two days notwithstanding, the Heat can still be the Heat.
So Miami won the game 101-93 and tied the series 2-2 and returned to Florida with home-court advantage back in the bag.
"The reality,'' Spoelstra said beforehand, "is we still have a great opportunity today to shift the balance of this series.''
Now the reality is, the balanced has shifted.
The Heat have been reenergized by a case of the never-minds.
They were in trouble. This was a crisis. The hissing sound was the air coming out of their tires. Something important had broken down. Wade could not hit the Atlantic Ocean fromSouth Beach, and James was not doing enough.
Never mind.
The Pacers could smell blood.
Never mind.
The James & Wade Show is back in session. Crisis averted. Wade missed seven of his first eight shots, then made 12 of his last 15.
Presumably.
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