Miami Heat Tickets - Heat Edge Nets 81-80

Udonis Haslem scored 28 points, Dwyane Wade had 22 points and the Miami Heat defeated the winless New Jersey Nets 81-80

. Get Miami Heat tickets and see Wade shoot from behind the arc. Wade hit a three-pointer with 0.1 seconds left to lift his team past the Nets. Miami coach Erik Spoelstra told the press he designed the play for Wade "to have the open drive to the rim, possibly to get to the free throw line."

But Wade went with a different play. The guard managed to cut back for a split second and got the ball to his "comfort hand" before he made the game winning basket. It was his 22nd-straight game reaching the 20-point mark. Wade recorded his shot after New Jersey's Brook Lopez tipped in teammate Rafer Alston's missed runner with 4.1 seconds left of the game.

New Jersey coach Lawrence Frank said he felt terrible for his players. The coach continued to say, "We lay it all out there and to get beat like that, I'm just sick to my heart for them. It hurts." New Jersey's Sean Williams registered 12 points in the fourth quarter, while Lopez and Trenton Hassell both finished the game with 17 points. The Nets played with an eight-man rotation due to their wounded starters. All-star Devin Harris missed his eighth straight game with a strained right groin for New Jersey, and Bobby Simmons left the team to attend personal issues back home in Chicago.

Miami also came into the game banged up. Jermaine O'Neal did not play because of a bruised left hip and Mario Chalmers left early in the first quarter because of a strained right shoulder. That left a lot of the load on Wade, who didn't get his usual fourth quarter rest because Miami was only up by one point going into the fourth. Haslem contributed to the team by finishing with 12 of 20 shooting, the most attempts he's had as a reserve in his career.

Since O'Neal and Chalmers were out of the game, Haslem filled his role nicely in the lineup. Despite the injuries that left New Jersey with only eight players, the Nets performed well early in the contest. They took a six-point lead in the second quarter, which included Terrence Williams' jaw-dropping 56-footer.

But the Nets fell apart late in the second quarter when Wade re-entered the game with 6:05 remaining. Miami went on a 16-4 scoring burst and went up 40-38 at halftime. Haslem scored six points in the first half, and Wade added a running jumper and three-point play off a behind-the-back layup on the Nets' Josh Boone.

Miami's Quentin Richardson entered the game as the only player in the league to log more than 250 minutes this season without attempting a single shot from the foul line. The last time he made a basket from the charity stripe was April 12. New Jersey and Miami play three more times in 2009-10, but won't see each other until Feb. 17, 2010. The Nets will be fired up the next time they meet up with Wade and the Heat.

by: Brent Warnken

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