Mavericks even NBA Finals with 86-83 victory over Heat in Game 4
Reporting from Dallas — The theme of Game 4 of the NBA Finals was desperation.
The Dallas Mavericks knew they couldn’t afford to go down 3-1 in the series, a deficit no team has overcome in the Finals.
Trailing the Miami Heat by nine points early in the fourth quarter called for desperate measures.
Jason Terry provided the spark in a 14-4 run that regained the lead and the momentum.
For the second time in the series, Dirk Nowitzki scored the decisive basket on a driving layup and Terry hit two free throws to seal an 86-83 victory as the Mavericks evened the best-of-seven series Tuesday at American Airlines Center.
As in the previous two games, it came down to the desperate final seconds.
Dallas pushed the run to 17-4 before Miami’s Chris Bosh hit two free throws.
Dwyane Wade missed a free throw that left Dallas with a one-point lead with 30 seconds remaining.
Nowitzki scored on a drive with a nifty spin to the right against Udonis Haslem to put the Mavericks up by three with 14.4 seconds remaining. Wade responded with a dunk with nine seconds left.
After Terry made his free throws with 6.7 seconds left, the Heat had a chance to tie, but a pass got away from Wade, leaving Mike Miller to shoot and miss a long three-pointer as time expired.
Wade led the Heat with 32 points and Bosh had 24, while LeBron James managed only eight and never got into the flow of the offense.
“He’s physically fine,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said of James. “I’ve got to do a better job of making sure he can be in positions where he’s aggressive and efficient. We’ll do that in Game 5.”
The Mavericks finally provided some offensive support for Nowitzki, who scored 34 points in Game 3 while the other starters combined for 27. It was needed on a night the 7-footer was playing with a fever of 101 and lacking his usual energy. He summoned all that remained on his last basket.
“It’s the Finals, you’ve got to go out there and try your best for your team. That’s what I did,” said Nowitzki, who had 21 points on six-for-19 shooting.
Terry scored 17 and Shawn Marion added 16. DeShawn Stevenson hit three three-pointers.
The last three games have been decided by three points or fewer.
“It’s been, besides Game 1, all the games are right there, a couple bounces, a couple of defensive stops here or there, it could have gone either way,” Nowitzki said. “So sitting at 2-2 right now, we’d obviously love to get Game 5 at home before we go back to Miami.”
Said Spoelstra: “It was ours to take and we did not close out on either end of the court. That’s uncharacteristic for us. We’ll be able to respond. … We’ll move on to the swing game. We have a golden opportunity.”
Bosh, building on his winning shot at the end of Game 3, scored 16 in the first half as the Heat led, 47-45. He made all five of his shots in the second quarter.
Davis reported from Miami.
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