November 11, 2005 in Sports

Wade speaks up, inspires Heat win

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Associated Press photo

Miami’s Dwyane Wade, top, tries to take the ball away from Houston’s Derek Anderson.
(Full-size photo)

They were tired from six games in nine nights, frustrated with their play and on the cusp of falling two games less than .500.

So Dwyane Wade decided to spark the Miami Heat.

Wade had 25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists – and he gave a fourth-quarter pep talk as Miami rallied from a late eight-point deficit to beat the visiting Houston Rockets 88-84 on Thursday night.

“Didn’t want to lose. Tired of losing. Ain’t used to losing,” Wade said. “We’ve got a good team. And when we were down eight, I told Udonis (Haslem) and those guys that we’re not losing this game, so do whatever we’ve got to do to win this game. And we came out with great focus.”

Jason Williams had eight of his 13 points in a late run for Miami, which also got 13 points and nine rebounds from Alonzo Mourning and 12 from Gary Payton.

“I don’t know if I’m 100-percent comfortable yet playing with these guys,” Williams said.

Yao Ming had 24 points and 14 rebounds for Houston but scored only two points in the game’s final 20:04.

The win gave Heat coach Stan Van Gundy a 3-2 lead in the sibling series against his brother, the Rockets’ Jeff Van Gundy. Neither brother had his full complement of superstars: The Heat are still without Shaquille O’Neal (sprained right ankle) and the Rockets didn’t have Tracy McGrady (strained back muscle).

Miami trailed 71-63 with 10:17 remaining, but erased the deficit with a 20-6 run over the next 9:05. Williams scored eight of those points, and his 3-pointer with 2:16 left gave the Heat an 81-77 lead. Mourning hit a jumper with 1:12 left to push the margin to six, and Miami held on.

“I thought we sucked it up and played very, very hard. … That has to be the model for us in terms of how to finish the game,” Stan Van Gundy said.

The Heat survived many stretches of offensive ineptitude.

Houston scored only six points in the final 5:13 of the third, but somehow added a point to its lead over that stretch and took a 64-60 edge into the fourth. When David Wesley hit his first two attempts of the fourth, the Rockets held their eight-point lead. But Miami made nine of its final 16 shots from the floor, and escaped.

Off the court, O’Neal had the hard cast removed from his sprained right ankle, but there’s still no firm timetable for his return to the lineup.

O’Neal sprained the ankle on Nov. 3 against Indiana when he stepped on Ron Artest’s foot while jostling for rebound position. The team said at the time he’d miss two to four weeks with the injury.

He will wear a protective boot while going through the rehabilitation process.

Clippers 102, Hawks 95: At Atlanta, Elton Brand scored 23 points and Sam Cassell added 21 as Los Angeles beat winless Atlanta for its first 5-1 start in 20 years. The Hawks, meanwhile, have lost their first five games for the first time since the 2000-01 season, when they started 0-7.

Pistons 111, Suns 104: At Phoenix, Richard Hamilton scored 11 points in the final 7 1/2 minutes and Chauncey Billups sank a game-clinching 3-pointer with 16 seconds to go to keep Detroit unbeaten with a win over Phoenix.

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