Dwyane Wade near triple double vs Atlanta Hawks game 3 2009 NBA Playoffs

MIAMI(AP) Dwyane Wade swished a 3-pointer, then turned and shook his hand like it was burning.

Yep, Wade and the Miami Heat are that hot right now.

Wade finished with 29 points and eight assists, Jermaine O'Neal added 22 points and 10 rebounds, and the Heat extended Atlanta's decade-plus road playoff drought, beating the Hawks 107-78 Saturday night in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference first-round matchup.

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.''

Josh Smith, Al Horford and Mike Bibby scored 13 apiece for Atlanta, which is 0-12 in road playoff games since May 8, 1997, losing all but one by at least 10 points.

The Heat lead the series 2-1 and host Game 4 Monday night.

"No more excuses,'' Horford said. "We're going to have to bring it fuego on Monday.''

When teams split the first two games of an NBA series, the Game 3 winner advances 76 percent of the time. And in recent years, the edge has been even more pronounced - of the last 27 series that were tied at 1-1, the Game 3 winner ultimately prevailed on 22 occasions.

That's a bad sign for the Hawks.

"By any means, we're not out of it,'' Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. "But we can't come out and give effort like we did tonight. I just thought the Heat did everything that they were supposed to do and we just didn't answer the bell tonight.''

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.


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Eastern Conference
Cleveland Cavaliers (cavs) vs. Detroit Pistons
Boston Celtics vs. Chicago Bulls
Orlando Magic vs. Philadelphia 76ers (sixers)
Atlanta Hawks vs. Miami Heat

Western Conference:
Los Angeles Lakers (L.A.) vs Utah Jazz
Denver Nuggets vs. New Orleans Hornets
San Antonio Spurs vs. Dallas Mavs (mavericks)
Portland Trailblazers (blazers) vs. Houston Rockets
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[HotSizzleSauce3]

Why Should D-Wade Be MVP:

Because everyone Always says Oh Well his teams record is not as good as LeBron's Cavs or Kobe's Lakers, And i Totaly Agree That His Team Record is not Brilliant. But if you look at the Lakers and Cavs they teams consist on quite a Few vertian Players And Then you Look at Miami and They Have all Young Guys.

Also last year they had the worst record in the NBA & Wade SINGLE HANDEDLY Got Miami Over 40+ Wins!

*Point Being D-Wade Should Be 2008/2009 MVP!

[darknesswithin13]

he is just a true nba player

[farhanking7861]

best nba player.

[rnlcantos100]

the best player in NBA!

[mrsnickjon1990]

what song is that in the begining

[GhostFromDa361]

/watch?v=KQAIgc2HDbQ

D-Wade gets triple double in my video..

[Halo3Linkinpark1]

@bigdaddymatty17 agreed. the team now is obviously better with lebron and bosh joining d-wade but so many of the heat fans now just like them because of the big 3, fans like me, have been heat fans for a long time but its great to see that dwyane wade finallly got the help he deserved

[Halo3Linkinpark1]

@peterequation so? kobe bryant has never had a legendary finals performance like dwyane wade as. he also never carried a team from the worst record to relevance.

[labatcong]

@hailyd sound like you're new to the game

[bigdaddymatty17]

The fans in Miami were so much better in 2009 than they are NOW....

[MrThatguywhopoops]

@peterequation how does D wade only have near one triple double.