Three Minutes for Eternity

Time for a little out-of-body---out-of-mind comeback? Sure, why not now!

Eric Windhorst of ESPN has the description of the Heat's victory celebration in their locker room suddenly interrupted when the channel replayed the frenetic fantastic phenomenal final minutes of last night's game.

It wasn't that they wanted to see their own highlights from the mystical final three minutes of their stupefying 83-80 comeback victory over the Chicago Bulls. They needed to see them. They had no idea what happened.

As the plays cycled through, from the gritty defensive stops to the astonishing barrage of 3-pointers from Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, players exchanged looks and laughter as if it wasn't even them on the screen from just a couple minutes before.

It was the completion of a collective out-of-body experience that carried the Heat to The Finals after their fourth consecutive win over the Bulls.

"We don't even know what happened," Wade said. "I'm not going to lie to you and say we do. I can't remember all the plays."

There will be time enough for that. The Heat's furious finish will eventually carve itself into memories. For Wade and James especially, this is one they'll talk about for the rest of their lives. They scored 22 consecutive points for the Heat in the fourth quarter -- a number they couldn't even believe when they were informed -- as they led a 12-point comeback in the final three-plus minutes.

"Man, that was maybe the three best minutes of my life," James said to Wade as they rehashed the finish. "At least so far."

At twelve points behind, I'd switched off the sound and then during a break, went to the Daily Show where Jon Stewart was off on a repeat talking about Osama bin Laden's porn horde under the title: "Dead Man Wanking." Then a Daily Show commercial & back for a tiny look-see on ESPN---Wade had just hit a four point play while I was gone & I saw LeBron hit a three-banger & the Heat were behind TWO---then a quick steal by LeBron & a 20-foot two-pointer & it was TIED with 1:01 left. Even though Stewart had promised to explore DSK's sexual mores & Arnold's shameful adultery, I decided, like Whittaker Chambers and the Cleveland Cavs motto to be a WITNESS!

Remembering that I'd seen and gaped at Dallas's two awesome comebacks in the last three days, once from 15 in the last FOUR minutes and from 7 back in the last TWO minutes against Durant's Thunder, this was even richer, because this was in the MadHouse on Madison in Chicago where I used to be a Bulls fan when I could score a ticket. My newly adopted Heat [from around 1999] were now in a mano-a-mano struggle to wrap up the series in five and keep pace with the miraculous Mavs---whose amazing loss to the Heat in '06 had me dancing and peeing on Mark Cuban's metaphorical grave. Heeeere's more about the runup before the explosive pyrotechnics began in the last 3:27 in regulation:

Just a couple of minutes before, the Heat looked done for and those boxes of hats and shirts were about to be clandestinely slipped out of the United Center and shipped to Miami for Game 6. Down 12 points with less than four minutes to go, the Heat shuffled into a timeout.

They'd scored 64 points in the game's 44 minutes, well on their way to their worst offensive game of the 105 they've played this season. Yes, including the preseason.

Wade had nine turnovers, dubiously tying the franchise playoff record, and was giving off body language that screamed fatigue and frustration. He'd missed a breakaway layup a few moments before that was as bizarre as his missed dunks in Games 3 and 4. He was 3-of-10 shooting for the game and playing oddly unassertive, passing up open looks.

At one point late in the third quarter, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra called timeout so he could take Wade out of the game.

Meanwhile, James didn't make a field goal for more than 30 minutes of game time, barely keeping the Heat within miracle distance by hitting free throws as the Bulls punished his attempts to get to the basket with physical fouls.

Then things get a little fuzzy.

"I just remember the timeout," Wade said. "And coach just looked at us and said "We've done this before. We've been in games where we've gone on a 12-0 run or a 14-0 run. Just believe."

Spoelstra was doing what coaches do, trying to keep his team in it. But there was no way it could work. Everything pointed to Game 6. Maybe Wade and James could do it on their best day if they both caught fire. But this was far from their best day, it was shaping up like their worst.

"We just reminded them there's a lifetime left in the game," Spoelstra said. "We've done it before."

As the huddle broke James walked to the scorers table, rubbing his feet over the stick pad to clean the bottom of his shoes. He looked up and made eye contact with several Nike officials who were sitting there and gave them a little smile.

He and Wade were about to make a commercial that was beyond even the most creative script.

Then Dywane & LeBron went into their shared collective out-of-body experience.

In three minutes and 27 seconds they each made three baskets, converted free throws and got steals. They did it with haymakers like a heavyweight punching out of the corner to a knockout. Wade got things serious by stepping in front of Rose pass that ignited a fast break. There were no dead legs on this play.

James hit a 3-pointer, his first basket in 34 minutes, when the Bulls inexplicably forgot to cover him in transition.

Then another 3, this time by Wade on a step-back over Rose. James had the ball with a chance to fire up another jumper -- the time was right for a trademark heat check -- but went to Wade in a play that unexpectedly changed Wade's outlook.

Wade caught the ball and shot it with remarkable confidence for a guy who was having a bad night and hadn't made a 3-pointer in six games.

"When LeBron threw me back the ball, after me struggling so much, I was like, 'Well, I have to make something happen,'" Wade said. "D-Rose hit me on the elbow and that's where the momentum started to shift a little bit."

A little bit is reverse hyperbole. The 4-point play after Wade made the shot as Rose hit his elbow turned it from a three-possession game to a one-possession game with 1:30 left. All of a sudden the Heat looked as if they were favorites to win, even as they were down ten 90 seconds earlier. [ed's note: Here's where I returned from the Daily Show advert to catch the sound of all the air going out of the Bulls' tires and decided to listen to the play-by-play]

When James buried another long 3-pointer coming off a screen, his left heel within inches of the Bulls' sideline and coach Tom Thibodeau's dress shoes, the historians were running to their computers.

Now, it seemed like destiny. And so it was when James stole the ball from Rose as he smothered the Bulls' point guard on a pass attempt. James confidently strode to the other end and faked left, stepped back and hit a 20-footer over Ronnie Brewer, who was helpless to stop it.

"I've been working on that (move) for years," James said. "I've been working on this and waiting for this for eight years."

It wasn't over yet. Rose had a couple more letdowns in the face of the James and Wade onslaught. Rose missed a free throw that would've tied the game with 26.7 seconds left and had a 3-pointer at the buzzer blocked by James.

I called my daughter's boyfriend up in New Jersey [my spouse & daughter were moving out of the Miami condo & were already asleep in Coral Gables] and we rejoiced for a minute or two---he had been in the crowd at the American Airlines Arena on Sunday night after the game receiving double birds over Charles Barkley's shoulders, an event he'd caught on his cell-phone video! I watched the replays and listened to Chuck The Stupid explain how Dallas has the Heat outmatched in the finals.

Now the NBA Finals shuttles between the two American Airlines Arenas in Dallas and Miami---presumably the faltering airline will make special commercials to commemorate this incredible series ending in its two named NBA facilities. Last year, I wasn't able to catch the Laker/Celtic finals because I was in Ireland and Scotland, two celtic countries, as it happens.

This year, I'm hoping that I'll be in Miami for one of the great moments in NBA history.

Now we can hopefully begin to spell out once again the word D-Y-N-A-S-T-Y---this time on the blue Atlantic.

UPDATE: Sporting News's Greg Couch has a different attempt to describe the indescribable:

CHICAGO—They don’t even remember what happened. They don’t remember what they just did. It was so fast and furious, and LeBron James and Dwyane Wade had elevated so high that it was almost an out-of-body, out-of-mind experience.

“For the first time, my mind was free,” Wade said.

“We want to watch the last four minutes of that game (again),” James said.

What happened? They happened. The Decision happened. The Miami Heat happened. They beat the Chicago Bulls to advance to the NBA Finals with an incredible finish, giving the ultimate example, and reminder, of what superstardom is in the NBA.

It was a process, a long and painful road of teaching defense and teamwork, of learning from the highs and lows of a season. That’s what Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said.

Funny, because to me it looked like James and Wade looking at each other with 3:14 left, trailing Chicago by 12, and deciding: OK. Now.

LeBron James and the Miami Heat are going to The NBA Finals after a late rally to close out the series and take Game 5 from the CHicago Bulls, 83-80. (AP Photo)
And then, well, wow. The Heat went on an 18-3 run, with eight points each from James and Wade. The Bulls’ star, Derrick Rose, kept missing, throwing the ball away, fouling. In one 60 1/2-second stretch, Wade had a four-point play and a rebound while James scored five points and had a steal, an assist, a rebound.

Before that, Wade had been awful the whole night. James struggled in crunch time throughout the regular season.

“(Wade) has got something different, a different makeup inside of him that he’s able to rise to the occasion regardless of what’s happening during the course of the game,” Spoelstra said. “And he’s proven that so many times, where he may have struggled for a game or even parts of a game, but when it’s winning time, there’s really not many players that are better.”

If you are still hoping for The Decision to fail, time is running out.

The Heat open The Finals against Dallas at home on Tuesday.

But James, Wade and Chris Bosh didn’t assemble a team just to reach the NBA Finals. Still, on Thursday, they combined to score all but 14 of the Heat’s points.

Spoelstra is right to some extent. At the start of the year, these guys couldn’t figure out how to play together.

But it all worked out eventually. It was a process. We have seen groups of NBA stars fail together in the Olympics.

That said, we just got another lesson that in the NBA, the team with the most and best stars wins. Miami has more stars than Dallas, too.

“Sometimes, you have to will it,’’ Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. “It’s a hustle play here, a hustle play there. That’s the difference.”

No. The Bulls hustled all they could. These final three minutes took me back to April in Houston, where Connecticut, with the stars, beat Butler, with teamwork, defense and hustle, in the NCAA national title game.

The Bulls missed about as many shots at Butler did.

I overstated that. This game was played 50 levels higher than the college one. But in the end, the message was the same: In basketball, the little engine really can’t.

I’ll never make the mistake again of thinking the little guy can win. This will be hard for Chicago, the city, to understand. It is used to Michael Jordan making the final shot, Patrick Kane scoring the winning goal. James said that people remember your failures more than your successes, but I disagree. It’s hard to remember Jordan failing at all.

But in Game 4 of this series, Rose had a chance to win at the end of regulation, isolating on James, and couldn’t score. And now on Thursday, Rose fell apart with the rest of the Bulls in that final 3:14. He even missed a free throw with 26.7 seconds left that would have tied the game. The result of carrying a team all year?

“I wasn’t tired,” Rose said. “Just making dumb decisions. I’m going to get better; I’m not worried about that. If anything, this is going to make me hungry.”

I believe it. Rose already was the league’s MVP this year for the regular season. But in the playoffs, he still has (had?) a bit of a learning curve to go. He still is not a superstar at the level of James and Wade.

In fact, James and Wade provided him a class. Superstar 101.

“We honestly don’t know what happened,” James said. “We know some big plays happened and we know we won the game. It went so fast.”

They can’t remember. Chicago will never forget.