Final: Heat 88, Mavs 86. Dirk Nowitzki had a chance to hit one of the biggest shots of his career, a fadeaway jumper, isolated at the top of the key against Udonis Haslem. He rears back, fires, and rims it out. The Mavs have lost Game 3.
Dirk finishes with 34 points, a game high, but it's not enough. He needed two more.
Jason Kidd adds a near-triple-double — nine points, 10 assists, six rebounds — for Dallas.
The Heat get 29 points from Dwyane Wade, 18 from Chris Bosh, 17 from LeBron James and a surprising 12 from Mario Chalmers off the bench.
They'll be back here Tuesday night with a chance to push their Finals lead to 3-1.
Fourth quarter, 39.6 seconds, Heat 88-86: The Mavs collapse and double Wade. They collapse and double LeBron. Then LeBron kicks it to Chris Bosh, and Bosh is wide open. Swish.
Now it's the Mavs' turn to call a panicked timeout. They each have one left now.
Fourth quarter, 57.4 seconds, 86-86: Tyson Chandler almost gets a really difficult offensive rebound, but he ends up tipping it out of bounds. Miami ball.
Erik Spoelstra calls a 20-second timeout. The Heat have the upper hand here and a chance to bust this one open.
Fourth quarter, 1:40, 86-86: Dirk now has the last 12 points for the Mavs, including another impossible fadeaway jumper. Dwyane Wade has the last seven for Miami.
Which superstar will score last?
Fourth quarter, 3:03, Heat 84-82: The last time Dirk Nowitzki missed a free throw, the New Kids on the Block were popular.
Dirk makes two more here. He's got the last eight for the Mavs. He's got a chance now to lead them all the way back.
Fourth quarter, 4:56, Heat 81-78: LeBron James thought Shawn Marion had deflected his up-fake, giving him a chance to dribble again; ref thought otherwise. A rare double-dribble violation in the fourth quarter of Game 3 of the Finals.
Dirk Nowitzki gets the ball back and, to no one's surprise, ends up getting to the line and making two free throws.
Dirk's got 26. The Mavs are only down 3.
Here we go again.
Fourth quarter, 7:18, Heat 79-72: When did Mario Chalmers turn into Ray Allen? There's a new Finals 3-point assassin, and he's a young kid with a dream out of Kansas.
Chalmers' fourth 3 of the game makes it a seven-point lead again. The Mavs need to start stringing some stops together, and fast.
Fourth quarter, 9:19, Heat 74-72: We're trading baskets ever since Dirk Nowitzki's game-tying 3. Chris Bosh puts the Heat back in front momentarily, knocking down a 13-foot jumper.
Dirk now has 22 points, and Bosh has 16. As usual, neither one is doing much of anything to defend the other, but hey, it's a team effort.
Fourth quarter, 11:15, Heat 69-67: After a seemingly endless timeout to clean up a spilled soft drink, a freshly rested J.J. Barea steps up and knocks down a 3 for the Mavs.
The lead's back to two. The Heat are back to work.
End of third quarter, Heat 67-64: It's been a roller-coaster night, but it looks like we're in position for Game 3 to go down to the wire.
Dwyane Wade has 22 points, nine rebounds and three assists for the Heat; Dirk Nowitzki has 19, eight, and three blocks for Dallas.
Whichever star reigns supreme in these final 12 minutes has a good shot at a 2-1 series lead.
Third quarter, 2:18, Heat 64-59: As quickly as the Heat blew their third-quarter lead, they're now getting it back just as fast. Mario Chalmers is rattling off 3s, one after another. It's a five-point edge now for Miami.
Now it's time for either Jason Terry or Jason Kidd to respond. The Mavs aren't going to take this surge sitting down.
Third quarter, 5:02, Heat 57-55: Wow. Oh, wow. Dirk Nowitzki just hit an impossible fadeaway shot from the free-throw line. Such a smooth delivery. Dirk is fired up, and so are 20,000 of his biggest fans.
This is a pretty incredible turnaround. The Mavs looked dead to rights a few minutes ago. Now they're on a 13-2 run.
Third quarter, 7:29, Heat 55-48: Jason Kidd follows up the Mavs' 3-0 scoring burst with a big 3-point jumper of his own. Now the Mavs are back within seven again.
You can't count this Dallas team out. Right when you think they're about to roll over and die, they step up and hit a couple huge shots.
Third quarter, 8:23, Heat 55-45: It's big, tough plays like that that might keep the Mavs in this game. Tyson Chandler stuffs Dwyane Wade, recovers the loose ball and then draws a loose-ball foul from him.
Chandler lets out a loud scream with a fist pump. The Mavs' crowd is starting to come to life.
This could be the start of something.
Third quarter, 10:29, Heat 53-42: Boom, boom, boom. Bosh, Anthony, Bosh. The Heat open their lead from five to 11 to start the second half.
Rick Carlisle needs an early timeout. He's got to get his team refocused.
Halftime, Heat 47-42: Dwyane Wade might be having a dominant first half, but that was a pretty dumb move chasing a Jason Kidd pump fake and fouling him. Kidd gets a chance to chip away at Miami's lead.
No matter. Wade's allowed to have a tiny smudge on his otherwise spotless first half. He's got 19 points, six rebounds, an assist and a block to pace the Heat, who lead by five at the half.
Dirk Nowitzki has 10 points, five rebounds and three blocks for Dallas. As usual, though, he could use a little help.
Credit the Heat defense for a tremendous first half. They've held the Mavs to 38.9 percent shooting so far. If that keeps up, they've got a good chance of closing this time.
Second quarter, 3:25, Heat 43-31: Dwayne Wade is out of his mind.
That's nine straight Heat points for D-Wade, capped off by first a 26-footer and then a monster dunk. The Mavs have no answer.
That's 17 points and six rebounds now for Wade.
Second quarter, 4:09, Heat 38-31: If the Heat continue to be this porous defensively, they're going to give the Mavs a chance to come back and steal this thing.
Wade falls asleep on Jason Terry, and Kidd makes a nice entry pass to find Terry for a floater in the lane. Solid execution there, and the Mavs are within seven.
Second quarter, 6:02, Heat 38-29: Ouch, Chris Bosh.
You know you're struggling when you go up for a dunk and Dirk Nowitzki stuffs you.
Rick Carlisle has called a timeout. His Mavs are starting to lock down defensively, but they still need to execute better on the offensive end.
Only five shots so far for Dirk. He could handle a few more, perhaps.
Second quarter, 6:42, Heat 38-29: The Mavs have time and time again forgotten the golden rules of beating the Heat: Never turn the ball over, never give them transition, never let Dwyane Wade do what he just did.
Monster dunk for Wade. He's now got 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting. As a team, the Heat have 14 points off of six Dallas turnovers.
Second quarter, 8:47, Heat 34-26: Dirk Nowitzki is a thing of beauty. Somehow he just managed to take LeBron James one-on-one, cross him up, and score on him easily.
That'll cut the Miami lead from 10 to a slightly more reasonable eight. Still plenty of work to do for the Mavs.
Meanwhile, Udonis Haslem appears to have some very unkind words for DeShawn Stevenson. The Mavs' swingman is just getting on everyone's nerves tonight.
Second quarter, 10:03, Heat 34-24: Say what you will about DeShawn Stevenson, but the guy is a good agitator.
Little skirmish away from the ball between Stevenson and LeBron James; Stevenson takes a little poke at LeBron, and LeBron hits him back, hard. Stevenson gets the whistle. Good work.
Meanwhile, the Mavs are repeatedly letting
End of first quarter, Heat 29-22: The Heat are rolling — they've got eight points each from LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, and five from Chris Bosh. Their offense is clicking. The Mavs are… well, experimenting.
We've already seen Peja Stojakovic, Ian Mahinmi and Brian Cardinal check into this one. Rick Carlisle must not be happy with the lineups he's got, because he's tinkering like crazy tonight.
The Heat already had a four-point lead, and Mario Chalmers goes and makes it seven with a buzzer-beating 3. Dallas has some work to do.
First quarter, 2:25, Heat 22-19: This is an interesting lineup for the Heat, with Bosh off the floor and Udonis Haslem in his place. Haslem gives them speed, athleticism, energy, and a nice little floor-spreading jump shot.
A Haslem jumper here makes it a 7-1 Miami run and a three-point lead. How will Dallas respond?
First quarter, 4:03, 18-18: Bosh is just fine. CB1 attacks the basket like a madman here, cruising past three guys to the basket and drawing a foul from Jason Kidd. Boom. Three-point play.
It looks like maybe his eye is watering a little bit, but he doesn't seem to care.
First quarter, 6:33, Mavs 14-11: Apparently Bosh got poked in the eye, but otherwise he's fine. The big man remains in the game, and he also just made a beautiful pass to Dwyane Wade in the paint.
Bosh has his first assist; Wade has eight points already. Nice start.
First quarter, 7:26, Mavs 14-9: Looks like Chris Bosh is going to be OK, although he's hobbling to the bench and might not be back for a little while.
Scary moment. Looks like he bumped knees with Tyson Chandler and fell to the ground. Initially, he appeared to be in a great deal of pain, but now he's up and walking.
First quarter, 9:26, Mavs 7-5: Now Kidd knocks down a 3 of his own. They're going shot for shot early.
The real question is who can establish their halfcourt offense first, get something going in the post. With the exception of one breakaway bucket for Dwyane Wade off a Mavs turnover, this game has gone jumper, jumper, jumper, jumper. That's gotta change.
First quarter, 11:28, Heat 3-0: That's a scary start for the Mavs. Jason Kidd leaves Mike Bibby open on the wing, and Bibby knocks down a 3 without a moment's hesitation.
Maybe tonight's the night we see the Heat get some scoring from someone outside the vaunted Big Three.
7 p.m.: The Heat have learned their lesson this time: No celebrating before the final buzzer.
The Heat thought they had Game 2 in the bag, and they'd be heading to Dallas with a 2-0 lead and a chance to end this thing. Instead, they choked.
LeBron James dismissed questions about his little fourth-quarter victory dance with Dwyane Wade on Thursday night — "I don't think it's an issue," he maintained. But make no mistake — this time out, LeBron and the Heat know to bring it for 48 full minutes, not 41.
Tipoff is coming up. Stay tuned.
9 a.m.: The Miami Heat had a commanding lead in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night, 88-73 over the Dallas Mavericks with 7:13 left to play in the fourth quarter. Dwyane Wade had just hit a monstrous 3, the Heat were starting to celebrate, and there was absolutely nothing standing in the way of a 2-0 series lead.
Well, nothing except one of the greatest comebacks in NBA history.
The Mavs battled back to steal Game 2, going on a 22-5 run in crunch time with the last nine points all coming from Dirk Nowitzki. They became the first team to beat the Heat at home all postseason, and they stole home-court advantage for these Finals by winning at American Airlines Arena.
Now, the series heads back to Dallas. This upcoming week is whatever the Mavs make of it — they can win all three games and win the championship in a tidy five, or they can slip up on their home floor and cede the edge back to the Heat.
The Finals resume with Game 3 at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday night.