Pacers burn Heat in early season battle

MIAMI -- Jermaine O'Neal scored 27 points, six of them in the final three minutes to help the Indiana Pacers recover from wasting a 14-point second-half lead and beat the Miami Heat 105-102 Thursday night.\nRon Artest, in his first post-suspension game in Miami, added 22 for the Pacers -- who've won 13 of their last 14 regular-season meetings with Miami.\nDwyane Wade had 31 points and 10 assists for the Heat, but his potentially game-tying 3-pointer rattled out as the final buzzer sounded. Shaquille O'Neal had 18 points and six rebounds before leaving midway through the fourth quarter with a sprained right ankle.\nStephen Jackson's two free throws with 1:37 left gave Indiana a 103-97 lead, but the Heat answered with five points in the next 29 seconds. Wade hit a 3-pointer, and Udonis Haslem put back Gary Payton's miss with 1:08 left to draw Miami within 103-102.\nJermaine O'Neal made two free throws with 50.1 seconds left, and Miami wouldn't score again. Antoine Walker dribbled out of bounds with 29 seconds left, costing the Heat a key opportunity.\nJamaal Tinsley had 13 points, and Austin Croshere and Jackson each had 11 for Indiana. Haslem had 14 points, while Walker and Alonzo Mourning each scored 12 for Miami.\nArtest scored with 6:34 left in the third, giving Indiana a 73-59 lead. And when Shaquille O'Neal picked up his fourth foul 21 seconds later, things looked grim for the Heat.\nWith Alonzo Mourning in at center and utilizing a three-guard lineup over much of the stretch, the Heat held Indiana without a field goal for the next nine minutes. The Pacers missed 10 straight shots, allowing Miami to draw within 85-79 when Wade hit a pair of free throws with 9:57 \nremaining.\nWade blocked a 3-point attempt by Tinsley early in the fourth, and the Heat could have made what was a six-point game even closer. But the ball caromed off Wade's hand to Indiana's David Harrison, who spun and scored for an 87-79 lead -- ending an 0-for-10 skein by the Pacers.\nBut the Heat kept clawing, using a 14-6 run to tie the game at 93 with 5:00 left. Gary Payton scored and was fouled by Tinsley to draw Miami within 93-92. Tinsley was whistled for a technical, and Wade made that free throw to knot the score -- but Payton missed the one that would have put Miami ahead.\nMiami led only once: Haslem made the game's first basket.\nThe Heat were 27-for-42 from the foul line, and couldn't even blame the woes on their center who has notorious free-throw problems: Shaq was 6-for-8.\nArtest was booed when introduced before the game, and the catcalls worsened when he was whistled for the game's first foul 17 seconds after \ntip-off.\nBut he had 10 points in the opening quarter, silencing the sellout crowd with a 3-pointer -- shooting it 8 feet behind the arc and over Haslem's outstretched arm -- at the period's buzzer to push Indiana's lead to 29-23.\nThat shot was part of an 11-0 early run by the Pacers, who used five quick second-quarter points from Sarunas Jasikevicius to build a 34-23 \nadvantage.\nMiami used seven unanswered points to claw within 43-40 with 5:21 left in the half, but another end-of-period heave -- this time, a long jumper by Jermaine O'Neal with 0.8 seconds remaining until halftime -- allowed Indiana to take a 59-50 lead into intermission.