LeBron James carried the Heat to the finish line, and Chris Bosh pulled them over it.
Bosh's corner 3-pointer with 57.3 seconds left put a dagger in the Nets' season, sending the Heat to a dramatic 102-96 victory in Game 4 of this Eastern Conference semifinal in front of a Barclays Center sellout crowd of 17,732. The series shifts back to Miami for Game 5 Wednesday with the Heat having a 3-1 lead and a chance to close it out on their home floor.
James validated his status as the world's best player with a transcendent performance, finishing with 49 points while playing 43 minutes — including the entire second half. And while he didn't get much help, his teammates managed to give him just enough to stave off a well-rounded performance from the Nets, who were led by Joe Johnson's 18 points.
As all four regular-season games between these teams did, this one went down to the final minutes, with the Nets knowing a win would truly make this a series, while the Heat knew a win would give them a virtually insurmountable 3-1 lead.
After the teams went back-and-forth throughout the fourth quarter, James made a terrific spinning drive into the lane to convert a layup and give Miami a 94-92 lead with 2:52 remaining, only to commit his fifth foul on an offensive rebound by Kevin Garnett, who hit both free throws to tie it up at 94.
The teams exchanged misses on their next two trips, with Chris Bosh missing a pair of 3-pointers for Miami while Garnett and Johnson each missed contested mid-range jumpers.
But the third time proved to be the charm for Bosh, who caught the ball in the corner after it swung around the perimeter and drained a 3 to give Miami a 97-94 lead with 57.3 seconds left. Johnson came down and took another contested shot over James that missed with 40 seconds left.
After the Heat ran the shot clock down and James threw up a contested jumper that missed, Dwyane Wade grabbed the offensive rebound and, after the Nets used their foul to give, Miami successfully inbounded the ball and Ray Allen made a pair of free throws to seal the win.
The first quarter of Game 4 was eerily similar to Game 3's, with James exploding out of the gate while the rest of his teammates struggled to keep up. James again looked like someone hoping to do everything he could to prevent the Nets from climbing back into the series, scoring 12 points while hitting some difficult contested jumpers.
Other than Wade, who had six first-quarter points, the Heat once again failed to match their leader's aggressive start. That helped the Nets hang around despite two quick fouls for both Deron Williams and Pierce, sending them both to the sidelines early.
By the time the first quarter ended, though — with the Heat leading 27-22 — the animosity you would expect between teams in the middle of a playoff series had already showed itself, with double technicals being handed out to Pierce and Shane Battier for one scuffle and Alan Anderson and James for another.
Nets coach Jason Kidd then faced his biggest decision of the playoffs, when Williams picked up his third foul at the 9:39 mark of the second. But instead of immediately pulling Williams — who got off to a nice start — Kidd opted to stick with his star guard, and it paid off. Williams scored or assisted on the first 11 points of the quarter, as the Nets began the quarter with an 11-4 run to take their first lead of the game before Kidd eventually got Williams out of the game a few minutes later.
But after sitting for the first 4:32 of the second quarter, James came back in and immediately asserted his authority. He scored 13 of Miami's final 23 points of the half, getting several easy touches inside and taking one pass from Wade on a fast break and finishing with a breathtaking tomahawk dunk — before landing and glaring right at Pierce, his longest and oldest rival, before turning and heading upcourt.
Still, even after James finished the half with 25 points on 9-for-13 shooting, the Nets managed to only trail 56-49 at halftime because the Heat, outside of James, Wade (10 points) and Bosh (six) combined for just 15 points.
With Williams able to remain on the court in the third quarter after spending the whole first half in foul trouble, however, the Nets mounted a serious challenge in the third, spending the final few minutes of the quarter trailing the Heat by one, and went into the fourth trailing 79-76 as James — who had 40 through three quarters — continued to get little or no help. He scored 15 of his team's 23 points in the quarter as Miami went a full seven minutes without a single point from anyone else.
But in the end, Bosh hit the game's biggest shot, and moved Miami to within a win of advancing to the conference finals and the Nets to within a loss of their season coming to an end.
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