Heat Flash: Miami finds form in Finals equalizer

Spurs point guard Tony Parker showed up at shootaround before a crucial Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Thursday, strained right hamstring and all.

He wasted little time, and little creativity, declaring his intentions.

“I’ll be ready to go,” Parker answered, over and over, to any question related to his health.

There had been similar questions in the Miami camp about Dwyane Wade and his ailing right knee for the duration of the playoffs.

Turns out, Wade was ready to go Thursday as well.

Powered by a 32-point, six-steal detonation from their long-lost superstar, the Heat exploded in the second half to even the series with a 109-93 victory at the AT&T Center.

“That’s how you’re judged as a man,” Wade said. “You’re judged on how you respond.”

With Wade, LeBron James (33 points) and Chris Bosh (20) each producing their highest-scoring performances of the Finals, the Heat ensured the series would return to Miami for a Game 6.

Whether the Spurs will be ahead in the series or behind will depend on a now-pivotal Game 5 on Sunday.

“When Bosh, Wade and James score the way they did tonight, teams are going to have a difficult time,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “You better be playing a more perfect game.”

The Spurs were far from that Thursday.

Nineteen turnovers led to 23 points for Miami, who turned a halftime tie into the third consecutive laugher in the series.

It came a game after the Spurs had hammered the Heat by 36 points behind a Finals-record 16 3-pointers.

That, in turn, had come on the heels of a 19-point Heat victory in Game 2 in Miami.

“This game was the survival game,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said.

The Heat played like it, from start to finish, paced by their marquee trio.

Before Game 4, no Miami player had surpassed 20 points in the series. Thursday, all three Heat stars reached that threshold.

James added 11 rebounds and Bosh, with 13 rebounds and two blocks, helped anchor Miami’s suffocating defense at the rim.

It marked the sixth time this postseason that the Heat responded to a loss with a double-digit victory.

“It was on our shoulders,” James said. “When all three of us are clicking at the same time, we’re tough to beat.”

Spurs center Tiago Splitter was the whipping boy again.

Having already been reverse-posterized by a James block in Game 2, Splitter was rejected again by Wade and Shane Battier on Thursday.

Eventually, Popovich replaced Splitter with Boris Diaw to start the second half.

“We didn’t have that many guys in attack mode,” said Spurs guard Danny Green, who followed a 27-point Game 3 with 10 on Thursday. “They had us on our heels for 80 to 90 percent of the game.”

Parker seemed remarkably healthy to open the game, scoring 15 points in the first half, using a variety of drives and spins. He went scoreless after halftime, although he did finish with nine assists.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Parker said of playing on a hamstring strained late in the Spurs’ Game 3 romp. “The first three, four minutes I was testing it. In the first half, it felt OK. The second half, I got fatigued a bit.”

Tim Duncan led the Spurs with 20 points, matching his high for the series.

But Manu Ginobili’s struggles continued, with a five-point performance that didn’t include a field goal until the fourth quarter.

“I would prefer to make more shots and play better,” said Ginobili, who is 10 of 29 in the series and has missed his last nine 3-pointers. “But I didn’t, and that’s the bottom line. Nothing else to explain.”

Wade has uttered something similar on multiple occasions this series.

Playing on a bad knee that often betrays him, Wade has looked like a shell of himself at times.

“He’s a competitor,” James said. “Every time he’s doubted, he responds.”

Wade was his All-Star self at both ends of the floor Thursday. And if this Wade gets off the bus in Game 5, ready to go, the Heat have to like their chances of returning to South Florida for a closeout game.

Like the Heat in general and Wade in particular in Game 4, the Spurs will be judged by how they respond next.