Apr 26, 2009 2:33 pm US/Eastern
Heat Take 2-1 Series Lead On Hawks
MIAMI (CBS4.com) ―
Dwyane Wade led the Heat with 29 points and eight assists, Jermaine O'Neal added 22 points and 10 rebounds, as Miami beat the Atlanta Hawks 107-78 Saturday night in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference first-round matchup.
Josh Smith, Al Horford and Mike Bibby scored 13 apiece for the Hawks. Miami now leads the series 2-1, Atlanta has not won a playoff road game since 1997.
It was over early: Atlanta missed 17 of its first 19 shots, and a 25-6 Heat run to end the first half pushed the lead to 50-29.
"We knew there would be a lot of energy in the building, so we played off that early," Wade said. "And defensively we came out very tough."
Before the game, the Hawks learned starting small forward Marvin Williams would sit out with a wrist injury. Their first shot of the night was from Horford, a 15-foot jumper that fell 2 feet shy of the rim.
It only got worse from there, especially with Wade at his highlight-reel best. Defensively, he set the tone with a two-hand erasure of a shot by Mo Evans in the opening minutes, then a high-rising effort to swat an offering from Zaza Pachulia into the most expensive seats late in the third. Plus, he had dunks over two of the Hawks' biggest challengers -- Smith got out of Wade's way on one, and Horford offered little resistance on another.
"D-Wade is kind of at another level right now," O'Neal said.
But just like in Game 2, when Miami took home-court advantage, Wade hardly had to go it alone. Mario Chalmers scored 15 points, Udonis Haslem came through with 12 points and 13 rebounds, and James Jones finished with 11 points for the Heat.
Miami hit 12 shots from 3-point range -- giving the Heat 27 in the last two games -- and outrebounded Atlanta 48-35. For good measure, the Heat were a perfect 19-for-19 from the foul line.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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