Heat steam ahead

Dwyane Wade struggled all night on offense, so he sent the Miami Heat into the Eastern Conference finals with a huge defensive play.

Wade stole Jason Kidd’s inbounds pass with 1.4 seconds left Tuesday night, depriving the New Jersey Nets of one last shot to extend their season, and sealing the Heat’s 106-105 victory to win the series 4-1.

Wade threw the ball into the stands as time expired, and the Heat raucously celebrated their second straight trip to the conference finals. They’ll face either Detroit or Cleveland in that series, which won’t begin until at least Sunday afternoon.

“Dwyane just made a play,” Heat coach Pat Riley said. “He just went for the ball. The ball was in the area, he just went for the ball, got a long arm on it, and that was it. Just had to knock it away.”

The Heat rallied from 12 points down, the biggest postseason comeback in franchise history. Antoine Walker had 23 points for Miami, Wade added 21 on 7-for-19 shooting, and four other Heat players were in double figures to offset a brilliant effort by Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson.

Carter and Jefferson each scored 33 points for the Nets, who won the first game of the series.

Down by three with about two minutes left, the Nets frantically double-teamed Wade near midcourt, so he did the smartest possible thing. He found the man the New Jersey was ignoring, Walker, whose wide-open 3-pointer from the right corner gave Miami a 105-99 lead.

It wasn’t over, though.

Carter, who’d scored three points in the previous 17 minutes, had three baskets from in close over the next 90 seconds, including a dunk that drew the Nets within 106-105 with 29.1 seconds left.

And after Gary Payton missed a 16-footer, the Nets corralled the rebound and called timeout with 1.4 seconds left. But thanks to Wade, they never got a shot off – and Miami survived.

“We’ve got to be able to get a shot in that situation. I let my guys down,” Nets coach Lawrence Frank said. “That’s a poor job on my part.”

The Heat became the sixth team in 20 seasons to lose the first game of a playoff series, then win the next four to advance.

“It’s just great that we could finish it,” Riley said. “I knew it would be the hardest close-out.”

Shaquille O’Neal had 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting for the Heat – who have never advanced past the East finals.

“We’re a team,” forward Udonis Haslem said. “Like I’ve said all year, we’ve been through ups, we’ve been through downs, criticism, injuries, fines, ejections, all that kind of stuff. And through all that, we stuck together on the inside.”

Kidd had 20 points, eight assists and six rebounds for the Nets, who got 14 points from Lamond Murray.

Fighting for their season, the Nets came out looking much like a team with nothing to lose.

New Jersey began taking control on Miami’s first play, when Kidd intercepted Williams’ pass near midcourt and set up Carter for a 3-pointer. Carter added a conventional three-point play 25 seconds later, Jefferson followed with a 3-pointer, and the Nets had a quick 9-2 lead.

The Nets’ big three – Carter, Jefferson and Kidd – scored 21 of the team’s first 22 points, helping build a 33-24 edge after one quarter.

Carter had 13 points in the period for New Jersey, which had the Heat in a 12-point hole early in the second quarter.

“We didn’t come out with the energy that we normally do,” O’Neal said. “But we just stayed focused.”

Miami rallied, somehow doing so with O’Neal and Wade largely silenced.

O’Neal picked up two fouls in a 57-second span – including an offensive foul called by his refereeing nemesis, Bob Delaney – and departed with 7:19 left in the half after shooting 6 for 7. Wade was nothing like his usual self in the opening two quarters, going 1 for 9 and scoring only four points before intermission.

Off the court

LeBron James and his Cleveland teammates took a solemn break from their playoff series with Detroit to attend the funeral of the 20-year-old brother of guard Larry Hughes. Hundreds of people attended the service for Justin Hughes, who was born with a heart defect and had a transplant in 1997. … At Richmond, Va., Ralph Sampson pleaded not guilty to charges of lying to federal authorities about his finances in a child support case. His trial was scheduled for July 17.