A night when only perfection would do

They had no room for error. Given the disparity of talent between the two rosters, the 76ers had to play a complete game to have a chance to beat the Miami Heat on Thursday night. They could ill afford a single mental lapse, a dry spell, or a missed defensive assignment. Miami surely would capitalize on any mistake.

For about 44 minutes, the Sixers played as well as they could, pushing the tempo, getting the Heat on their heels, moving the ball to get open shots. They got a professional night from Elton Brand, who had command of his mid-range jumper and posted his first double-double of the series, and withstood another cold shooting night by Andre Iguodala, who finished with 10 points and 10 assists.

But ultimately, a few defensive lapses and an inability to keep the Heat off the offensive glass cost the Sixers a shot at their first win of the postseason. After trailing for almost the entire game, Miami took command in the fourth quarter and would not succumb to a spirited late attempt by the Sixers to retake control of a game they had dominated for three quarters.

The result was a 100-94 Heat victory that put Miami one game away from a series sweep. Game 4 is Sunday at 1 p.m.

Doug Collins pointed to a couple of statistics to sum up the game: The Heat had 20 offensive rebounds that created 24 second-chance points, and they scored 48 points in the paint. That, the Sixers coach said, was the ball game.

"As far as the effort, I told our guys the effort was great," Collins said afterward. "[But] you can't have those kinds of breakdowns."

Coming off a game in which they could not find the bottom of the net, the Sixers made their first four shots of the game and were up, 9-0, before Miami got a shot to fall on its ninth attempt. The baskets came so simply. Spencer Hawes, of all people, made the first and had six points - four more than his total in Game 2 - before the Heat called their first timeout.

It was the ease with which the shots were falling that was in stark contrast to the last game in Miami. Andre Iguodala had been 0 for 4 from three-point range in the series, yet he nailed one from the right corner on his first touch of the game. Unable to get in the paint in Game 2, Jrue Holiday drove to the basket to give the Sixers a 15-6 advantage. It was two of 12 points in the paint for the Sixers in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Sixers prevented a debilitating Heat run like those Miami had put together in the second quarters of Games 1 and 2. Instead, they absorbed the Heat's hit. Down by 40-31, Miami went on a 10-3 run to pull within 43-41. But it never got closer, and the Sixers went into the break with something they had not had previously in this series - a halftime advantage.

That is what Collins said before the game that he wanted to see. He did not doubt that his team could start fast and feed off the energy of playing in front of a home crowd. But could the Sixers sustain it? Could they carry it through? That, Collins did not know.

"I think the one thing we know is to play this team you've got to play for 48 minutes," Collins said beforehand. "That's the way they play. If you look at it every game we've played them this year, there's been one quarter where they've had a decisive advantage, and we can't have that tonight."

The Heat came out of the locker room at halftime and took an immediate four-point lead. That is when the Sixers did something they hadn't yet done in this series: They countered Miami's run with one of their own, scoring 12 consecutive points, a run bookended by three-pointers from Jodie Meeks and Jrue Holiday.

It was an impressive stretch of basketball. The Sixers did what Miami coach Erik Spoelstra had tried to warn his team about - they pushed the tempo by creating turnovers on defense, scored in transition, and got easy baskets on the break. After Game 2, Spoelstra was effusive in his praise for the Sixers, despite his team's having just beaten them by 22 points.

The Sixers' speed caught Spoelstra's attention, and it was their speed that gave them a 64-56 advantage. By the end of the third, they were up, 75-73.

While the Sixers found ways to score, despite another cold night by Iguodala and absolutely no help from Thaddeus Young, who was 1 for 8 from the floor with two turnovers and four points, it still was not enough. As Collins had warned, against the Heat the Sixers had to play 48 minutes. In about a four-minute stretch to begin the fourth quarter, Miami went on a 15-4 run, making the Sixers pay every time another shot bounced off the rim.

When the Heat get out in transition, it is almost an automatic two points.

So the Sixers will have one more shot on Sunday. They feel as if they have let two games slip away.

"It's discouraging," Brand said about the loss. "It's encouraging because we have a lot of young players, but it's discouraging that we could've won two of these games. . . . We could've had these games. We could've had tonight."

The Sixers just were a few block-outs and quality minutes short.