Miami takes advatage of OKC mistakes, grabs commanding 3-1 series lead
With the Miami Heat up two games to one on the Oklahoma City Thunder, Tuesday night's Game 4 at the American Airlines Arena had the feeling of being a critical turning point. Miami, hoping to avoid a Game 4 loss like last year's implosion in the Finals to Dallas, and OKC, trying to claw their way back into the series with a win.
The National Anthem was again sung by an eleven year old named Julia Dale, it was sung extremely powerfully, kind of amazing to see that big a voice come out of someobdy so small.
It was also kind of amazing the way the game started. Miami drew first blood, as they have every game this series, but then the Thunder tore out with a 13-1 run, inspired by Derek Fisher's pregame pep talk. They kept up that fire all through the first twelve minutes, the lead dipped briefly to 15-10 and 17-12 before going back out on a mini-run of their their own to lead 25-12 with 2:59 left in the first. Leading at one point by seventeen, the first quarter ended with a Norris Cole three pointer, and the Thunder led 33-19. Miami started the second quarter on a 16-2 run, flying in from every possible angle to snatch away rebounds like Spider-Man snaring criminals, Oklahoma City had a hard time keeping up. After a 35-35 tie wiht 7:50 to go until halftime, OKC was able to regroup enough to have a slim lead, from one to five points, the rest of the way, leading at halftime by a 49-46 score.
Both teams came out in the second half wanting to impose their will, it was, as has been all game long, a reporter noted, "a war out there". The lead switched hands at least nine times in the quarter, the Heat clawed to a 71-68 edge with 3:22 left in the third quarter, and they led with one to play 79-75. Mario Chalmers was playing lights-out basketball, the only true player on the Heat roster scored from everywhere. Thunder players were getting drilled, hammered, nailed on 'legal' screens and rebounds, with no fouls called, while if an OKC player even brushed LeBron or D-Wade after getting elbowed for ten seconds straight, there was a whistle. Makes you wonder....Russell Westbrook single-handedly kept Oklahoma City in the game, at one point scoring thirteen straight, they crawled to within one posession, 92-90, with 5:15 to play. James went out with cramps, only to re-enter amid far too much pandering, Miami won 104-98, the Thunder had some chances, but bad breaks went against them.
Westbrook had a playoff-career-high of 43 points to lead all scorers, Kevin Durant had 28, James Harden was again a non-factor, coming up with seven points, Nick Collison had six, Thabo Sefalosha five, Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka four each. For Miami, James led with 26, followed by Chalmers and Wade, each with 25, Chris Bosh chipped in 13, COle had eight, Shane Battier four, and James Jones three. Game 5 will be in the American Airlines Arena in Miami tonight, tipoff at 8 p.m., pregame show at 7:30 p.m.
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