Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh, center, drives past Atlanta Hawks' Jeff Teague, left, and Josh Smith during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game in Atlanta on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
ATLANTA—The unheralded member of the Big Three was left to man the fort for a depleted Miami squad Thursday.
Turns out, he was all the Heat needed to avenge their only loss of the season.
Miami overcame the absence of Dwyane Wade and LeBron James to frustrate the Atlanta Hawks, 116-109, in triple overtime behind the heroics of Chris Bosh, the only member of the Big Three still unravaged by injuries.
Wade missed his second consecutive game with a bruised left foot and was joined on the sidelines by James, who has a left ankle injury.
The Hawks had beaten the Heat 100-92 on Monday.
“This game was not defined at all by the box score or the numbers, or any of the tangible things,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters. “It was defined by all the intangible, ‘X factor’ areas. It looked like a heavyweight fight at the end.”
The Heat led 54-49 at half time, and started quickly in the third quarter building a 13-point lead but were caught and passed by the Hawks, who closed the quarter on a 16-1 run to hold a 70-68 advantage.
Bosh picked up the offensive slack in the absence of Wade and James for the Heat with 33 points, draining a three-pointer with less than a second left in regulation to level the score at 93-93 and send the game into overtime.
“It was a lucky shot,” said Bosh. “I saw Rio (Mario Chalmers) and he had a big guy on him. I just wanted to slip the screen, maybe confuse them a little bit, and get myself to pop back behind the three [point line]. I knew it was good as soon as I let it go.”
Chalmers scored 13 of his 29 points in overtime, including five in the third extra period where the Heat outscored Atlanta 7-0.
“It’s a tough loss because it was a fool’s gold-type of game. They don’t have Wade, they don’t have LeBron,” said Hawks reserve guard Willie Green, who scored 14 points. “We can’t take the guys that they have lightly. We beat ourselves. Give credit to those guys, take nothing away from them, but I thought we just didn’t play with the sense of urgency that they did.”
Joe Johnson led the Hawks with 20 points, and Ivan Johnson was sensational off the bench for Atlanta, scoring 13 points all in the second half.
In Sacramento, California, Tyreke Evans made four free throws in the final minute to finish with 26 points as the Kings overcame a 21-point halftime deficit to stun the Milwaukee Bucks, 103-100, hours after the Kings fired coach Paul Westphal.
Marcus Thornton scored 27 points and DeMarcus Cousins finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds for the Kings, completing a stretch of three games in three nights at 1-2.
Brandon Jennings scored 31 points, and Drew Gooden had 18 and nine rebounds for the Bucks.
In Portland, Oregon, Gerald Wallace had 31 points and sparked a key third-quarter run to lead the Trail Blazers to a 107-96 victory over the LA Lakers, the team’s 11th victory in the last 13 meetings against Kobe Bryant and Co. at the Rose Garden.
LaMarcus Aldridge added 28 points and 10 rebounds for Portland, which led by as many as 14 points. The Blazers had just four turnovers despite pushing the tempo for the entire game.
Bryant scored 30 points despite a torn ligament in his right wrist, and Andrew Bynum had 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Lakers, who have had trouble at the Rose Garden with losses in 11 of their last 13 games in Portland.
In San Antonio, Matt Bonner scored 17 points and the Spurs limited Dirk Nowitzki to just six in a 93-71 rout of the Dallas Mavericks.
Richard Jefferson scored 16 points and Gary Neal added 12 for the Spurs, who held Nowitzki to his lowest scoring output since he had five points in a Dec. 18, 2009, game that he left early because of injury.
Jason Terry scored 12 points and Delonte West had 10 to lead Dallas.