Miami holds off Dallas in Game 3

Nowitzki nearly saved the Mavericks, who trailed most of the night. He scored Dallas’s final 12 points and the Mavericks had a chance to tie or win when LeBron James’s 3-point attempt missed with 4.4 seconds left. Nowitzki gathered a looping inbounds pass from Jason Kidd and dribbled to his right, only to see Haslem in his face.

The contested jump shot has gone down countless times for Nowitzki, but this one was especially difficult and didn’t fall. American Airlines Center was silenced, and an emotional Haslem, who wasn’t assigned to guard Nowitzki as he slid past Chris Bosh for the winning layup late in Game 2, pumped his fist in victory.

Nowitzki finished with 34 points on 11-for-21 shooting but the rest of the Mavericks were just 17 of 49 and Kidd, Jason Terry, and Shawn Marion went scoreless in the fourth quarter. Dwyane Wade led Miami with 29 points but it was Dallas native Bosh who made up for a terrible night with a 17-footer from the baseline with 39.6 seconds left for the go-ahead basket.

Nowitzki threw an errant pass on the next Dallas possession and James followed with the missed 3-pointer, setting up the final play.

“Well, I thought we had opportunities,’’ Nowitzki said. “But we can’t always fall behind [early]. We’re always reacting. Down the stretch there were opportunities. The look with four seconds to go is as good as you can get it. I think [Haslem] stayed down and made me shoot a contested shot and a shot I can make, but unfortunately it didn’t go.’’

“That was a very similar situation to what we saw the other night. Had a different matchup,’’ Spoelstra said. “That’s a makeable shot, even for him. But UD did a great job of keeping his chest in front of him and forcing him into a fadeaway. Nowitzki is a tough player. That shot hung up in the air about as long as it was in between Game 2 and Game 3. It was a good offensive play, and a good defensive play. And he happened to miss.’’