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Heat hands Pacers first playoff loss

Wire services
Published May 11, 2004

MIAMI - Rookie guard Dwyane Wade sliced down the lane, took a pass from Lamar Odom and dunked over Jermaine O'Neal - one of the league's best defenders.

Nothing the Heat does at home should be surprising anymore.

Wade scored 25, including 14 in the fourth quarter, and the Heat beat Indiana 94-87 Monday night, handing the Pacers their first loss of the postseason.

Odom added 16 points and nine rebounds as the Heat extended its home winning streak to 17. Miami trails the best-of-seven East semifinal series 2-1.

Game 4 is Wednesday in Miami.

"Our guys really feed off the electricity and energy in this building," coach Stan Van Gundy said. "They not only feed off the fans, but they want to perform for them. If I could bottle it up and take it on the road with us, I would."

Homecourt helped Miami beat the Pacers for the first time in 12 tries.

"They finally came to play," said Pacers forward Ron Artest, held to 14 points after scoring 45 in the first two games. "Now we've got to come to play."

The Pacers kept the game close thanks to nine 3-pointers, including four in the fourth quarter.

The Heat used a 7-0 run to take a 79-72 lead with 2:55 left. Wade hit a pullup jumper, then dunked over O'Neal on the next possession.

Caron Butler hit two free throws, and Odom added another to cap the run. Miami got plenty of help from the Pacers, who made one of their first 11 shots in the fourth quarter.

Indiana went without a field goal until the 6:20 mark of the quarter. The Pacers made just one more field goal until the final minute of the game.

"We're going to have to play much better to beat this team here," said Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, whose point guard, Jamaal Tinsley, had to have X-rays on his left ankle after the game. Results were expected today.

Despite the victory, the Heat still faces a tough task. Of the 173 previous best-of-seven series to begin 2-0, the trailing team has come back to win the series seven times.

SPURS-LAKERS: For Los Angeles, it was the game of the year - a performance it would love to repeat.

As for San Antonio, maybe it was due for a clunker.

Whatever the case, Sunday's 105-81 romp was simply one win for the Lakers and one loss for the Spurs in their West semifinal, leaving San Antonio with a 2-1 lead in the series.

Game 4 is tonight (10:30, TNT).

"They're still in the driver's seat - we just want to tie it up," Lakers forward Karl Malone said.

"Their key guys didn't have a good game," teammate Shaquille O'Neal said. "I expect them to have a better game (tonight)."

The Spurs couldn't play much more poorly if they tried, shooting 34.1 percent and committing 21 turnovers. That's only a part of it.

"Our defense was very soft," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "We played as if we thought somebody was going to give us something."

But Popovich and his players made one thing clear - it wasn't just them. "They helped us lay that egg. I thought the whole (San Antonio) team was discombobulated," Popovich said.

O'Neal was at his dominating best with 28 points, 15 rebounds and eight blocks. "When we're playing like that, nobody's going to beat us," O'Neal said.

The Lakers practiced Monday without Kobe Bryant, who began three days of pretrial hearings in Eagle, Colo., on his sexual-assault case. That means for the fourth time this season and second in the playoffs, Bryant will rush home to play in a game after a day in court.

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