MIAMI (AP) The Miami Heat did almost everything right except what they needed most to keep their season alive for at least one more game.
They held Jermaine O'Neal, who had scored 88 points in the previous three games, to seven. They held Indiana to 32.4 percent shooting from the field. They forced 18 turnovers.
Ultimately, though, the Heat's season ended in a haze of offensive futility. They shot 30.5 percent the lowest in the franchise's playoff history and were a woeful 1-for-12 from 3-point range, allowing Indiana to eke out a 73-70 win in Game 6 of the teams' Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Indiana won the series 4-2, and will meet either New Jersey or Detroit in the conference finals. It was Miami's only loss in its final 19 home games of the season, including a 12-game winning run that closed out the regular season and helped vault the Heat to the East's No. 4 seed.
Miami averaged 97.7 points during the 18-game home winning streak, nearly 10 full points ahead of the mediocre scoring pace they were on for most of regular season. But nothing came easily in Game 6.
Take away the 10-for-16, 24-point performance from rookie Dwyane Wade, and the rest of the Heat managed to connect on 15 of 66 shots 22.7 percent.
Eddie Jones, the team's leading scorer in the regular season, finished with 16 points but did so on just 6-of-21 shooting, the last of which a potentially tying shot from three feet with less than 20 seconds to play went over the top of the backboard.
Lamar Odom had 22 points, yet misfired on 12 of his 17 shot attempts from the floor. Caron Butler, Miami's third-leading scorer in the postseason, was 1-for-9 and finished with only two points.
And somehow, the Heat still had a chance in the waning seconds. But Rafer Alston's long 3-point try that would have tied the game sailed well off to the right and into the hands of Indiana's Reggie Miller, who tossed the ball high into the air as time expired.
It landed with a thud as did the Heat's season.
They held Jermaine O'Neal, who had scored 88 points in the previous three games, to seven. They held Indiana to 32.4 percent shooting from the field. They forced 18 turnovers.
Ultimately, though, the Heat's season ended in a haze of offensive futility. They shot 30.5 percent the lowest in the franchise's playoff history and were a woeful 1-for-12 from 3-point range, allowing Indiana to eke out a 73-70 win in Game 6 of the teams' Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Indiana won the series 4-2, and will meet either New Jersey or Detroit in the conference finals. It was Miami's only loss in its final 19 home games of the season, including a 12-game winning run that closed out the regular season and helped vault the Heat to the East's No. 4 seed.
Miami averaged 97.7 points during the 18-game home winning streak, nearly 10 full points ahead of the mediocre scoring pace they were on for most of regular season. But nothing came easily in Game 6.
Take away the 10-for-16, 24-point performance from rookie Dwyane Wade, and the rest of the Heat managed to connect on 15 of 66 shots 22.7 percent.
Eddie Jones, the team's leading scorer in the regular season, finished with 16 points but did so on just 6-of-21 shooting, the last of which a potentially tying shot from three feet with less than 20 seconds to play went over the top of the backboard.
Lamar Odom had 22 points, yet misfired on 12 of his 17 shot attempts from the floor. Caron Butler, Miami's third-leading scorer in the postseason, was 1-for-9 and finished with only two points.
And somehow, the Heat still had a chance in the waning seconds. But Rafer Alston's long 3-point try that would have tied the game sailed well off to the right and into the hands of Indiana's Reggie Miller, who tossed the ball high into the air as time expired.
It landed with a thud as did the Heat's season.
