LeBron James had a triple double - with 20 points, 14 assists, and 11 rebounds - and Dwyane Wade had 39 points and 6 rebounds, but it was not enough to lead the Heat past the Jazz as they lost a bizarre game 116-114 in overtime. The Heat led by as much as 22 points at one point, and were winning by 8 points with only 30 seconds left in the game.
Then Utah’s hero for the night, Paul Millsap, scored 11 of his career-high 46 points, to send the game to overtime. Millsap swished three straight three pointers and then got the rebound off the C.J. Miles miss and scored to force the game to overtime. Prior to this game, Millsap was 2-20 from three point range in his entire career. The Heat did what appeared to be the right thing - stop Deron Williams’ drives and force him to dish the ball out to a poor shooter. Yet in this case, three times in a row Millsap stepped up and drained three pointers.
“The basketball gods were with him and he made the shots,” Wade said of Millsap. “The man was on fire.”
The Heat had a chance to close the game out at the end of regulation, but both Wade and Carlos Arroyo missed free throws in the closing seconds. They swallowed what happened at the end of regulation and built a five point lead in overtime, but then relinquished that lead as well. Losing 112-111, the Heat missed shots three straight times down the floor – a layup missed by James, a jumper missed by Udonis Haslem, and a jumper missed by Wade.
Two free throws made by Andrei Kirilenko gave the Jazz a three point lead, but Wade came down the court and drained a three pointer to tie the game with 17 seconds left in overtime. Francisco Elson was fouled by Wade and made both free throws to give the Jazz the lead 116-114.
Wade scored all 10 of the Heat’s points in overtime, but it was not enough as they were losing by two points with 0.4 seconds left to play. For the second time in as many chances, the ball was given to Eddie House for the last-second shot, which he missed again. Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said the play was drawn up to give James a lob pass at the rim for a tip-in, but the Jazz took it away and House had to heave up an off-balance three as time expired.
Aside from Wade and James’ strong offensive performances, the Heat got small contributions from others. Chris Bosh finished with 17 points and 9 rebounds, James Jones added 11 points, and Arroyo added 10 points. The big three of Wade, James, and Bosh finished with 76 of the Heat’s 114 points.
The Heat’s troubles guarding good point guards continued last night, as Williams finished with 21 points and 14 assists for the Jazz. Also, prior to this game, the Heat have come out of the locker room at halftime and blown the majority of their opponents out of the water in the third quarter, yet this was not the case last night.
"We came out flat in the third quarter," Bosh said. "We didn't have the sense of urgency that we needed. We had a chance to put them away and we didn't."
After allowing only 32 points in the first half, the Heat gave up 84 points in the second half and overtime. In the fourth quarter alone, the Heat allowed the Jazz to score 42 points while shooting 70.8%, on 17 for 24 shooting. The Heat had every opportunity to win this game, yet they did not finish the game strong on offense or defense, and they missed free throws on top of everything else.
“It's a very disappointing loss and hopefully a lesson we'll learn from this game - when you have an opportunity to keep on grinding and close a team out, particularly on the defensive end, you have to take advantage,'' Spoelstra stated.
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