NBA

Wade, Heat answer
the call, tie series

After sub-par Game 1 vs. Pistons, late-night message from Shaq helps star rebound with 40 points in win

Issac Baldizon / Getty Images

Heat star Dwyane Wade dunks against the Pistons. Wade scored 40 points in Miami's Game 2 win on Wednesday. The Heat won 92-86 to even the Eastern Conference finals at 1-1. Game 3 is Sunday in Detroit.

Wade’s fourth-quarter outburst started with a bank shot and a driving dunk before O’Neal hit a jump hook. Wade scored Miami’s next 10 points on a tip-in, two 14-footers, a drive into the lane and an alley-oop dunk, the last of which put the Heat ahead 78-76 with 5:12 left.

Detroit tied it once more before O’Neal converted a three-point play with 3:59 remaining to make it 81-78 and put the Heat ahead for good.

After Mourning blocked a shot by Ben Wallace, Wade converted a fast-break layup for a five-point lead and Mourning added two free throws with 3:18 left to make it 85-78. A basket by Billups and a miss by Wade gave Detroit a chance to pull within two, but Wade came up behind Billups and swatted away his 3-point attempt — a play that led to a fast-break layup by Jones that made it 87-80.

The Pistons scored the next four points and had a chance to tie, but Rasheed Wallace missed a 3-pointer with 28 seconds left — one of 14 misses from behind the arc for the Pistons on a night when they fell too much in love with the long shot.

Wade, who relied too much on his jump shot in Game 1, made 14 of his 15 field goals from 14 feet or nearer. He also went 10-for-10 from the foul line and closed the game with a breakaway dunk to reach 40 points with 1 second left.

“Dwyane, for two years, has been a guy that when you find an answer to him, he’ll go back and take a look and made adjustments,” Heat coach Stan Van Gundy said. “It’s one of the reasons that he’s as good as he is, and one of the reasons this organization has the respect for him that we do.”

Detroit made its comeback from a 14-point deficit by hitting five 3-pointers in the third quarter, and the Pistons eventually made seven straight 3s while enduring a stretch of nearly 12 minutes without a 2-pointer.

Wade was more aggressive going to the basket right from the start, and he ended the first quarter with eight points, four assists and two rebounds to help Miami to a 24-23 lead. Damon Jones went 3-for-3 from the field in the second quarter, including 2-for-2 on 3-pointers, and Eddie Jones also hit a 3 as Miami outscored the Pistons 23-13 in the period for a 46-37 halftime lead.

Prince hit a 3-pointer midway though the third quarter to help Detroit get within five, and the Pistons’ final five field goals of the period came from 3-point range, including a shot by Lindsey Hunter that rattled in with 5.3 seconds left in the period and ended an 11-1 run to put Detroit ahead 63-62.

Notes: Larry Brown, responding to a published report suggesting he might want to leave the Pistons after this season and become Cleveland’s president of basketball operations, said he has never spoken to Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. Brown said he would like to remain Detroit’s coach — but only if he’s able to overcome a health problem he plans to address as soon as the season ends. ... The teams combined for 46 free throws — 23 each — after attempting only 22 in Game 1. ... Billups’ eight turnovers was three shy of the NBA playoff record set by John Williamson of the New Jersey Nets against Philadelphia on April 11, 1979.

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