King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Dwyane Wade's spectacular fourth quarter saves the Heat. Can he do that three more times? Plus: World Cup. And: Bud Selig's "everyone."

Read more: Sports, Baseball, TV, Soccer, NBA, Basketball, World Cup, Bud Selig, King Kaufman, NBA playoffs, Sports Daily, 2006 World Cup

June 14, 2006 | The Miami Heat couldn't have picked a better time to wake up. Down 89-76 to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 3 Tuesday, six and a half minutes away from falling behind 3-0 in the NBA Finals, the Heat went on a tear and saved the season.

Dwyane Wade led a furious comeback, Shaquille O'Neal hit a huge pair of free throws and we have ourselves a series after Miami's 98-96 win.

The Heat still have a big hill to climb. Can O'Neal really be counted on to keep hitting big free throws in big situations? He says that's what he does, a dubious claim, but he did it Tuesday. Can Wade really be counted on to score 12 points in the last half of the last quarter, 42 for the game, night in and night out, to save the Heat's bacon?

Can the Mavs be counted on to fall apart down the stretch, the way they did Tuesday? How often will Dirk Nowitzki, a great foul shooter, miss a key free throw, as he did Tuesday when he missed one that would have tied the game with 3.4 seconds left?

We'll find out. None of the above is exactly unprecedented. But having them all come together on one night is asking a lot. Having them all come together on four out of five nights, wow.

Wade started the comeback by hitting a little bank shot. The Mavs turned it over on the next possession, a Jerry Stackhouse charge negating some slick ball movement. Then came a baseline drive for a layup by Wade, and one. Then Devin Harris hit a jumper for Dallas, which was at the end of a hot shooting run.

When James Posey hit a three-pointer to bring the Heat to within seven at 4:55, you kind of knew something was up. James Posey.

It kept going. There was Wade hitting another jumper, then making a spectacular play, driving to the left side of the bucket and hanging in the air, "Matrix" style, while Dallas center Erick Dampier jumped up, swatted, came back to earth, went out for coffee, came back, retied his shoes, called his broker, adjusted his headband, and jumped and came down again. Wade banked it in for 91-88.

Others contributed too. O'Neal hit those two free throws. Udonis Haslem made a big steal. Gary Payton, with one field goal in the series to date, calmly nailed a 20-footer to give Miami a two-point lead with 9.3 seconds left.

Nowitzki went to the rim on the subsequent possession and was fouled. Having hit 26 of 28 free throws in the series after making the first, he missed the second. After Wade was fouled on the rebound and made one of two, the Mavs had exactly one second left to tie the game, but Wade knocked away the inbounds alley-oop pass to Josh Howard, putting the exclamation mark on his performance.

Now all he has to do is repeat it three times. And hope for some more help.

Next page: World Cup ratings. Plus: Bud Selig defines "everyone"