Now time is running out on Dallas, too.

Miami moved within one victory of an NBA championship, completing a sweep of its three homecourt games with a 101-100 overtime thriller in Game 5.

The Heat, in control of the series 3-2, have two shots at reversing their 0-for-2 luck in Dallas. Game 6 is Tuesday night; Game 7, if necessary, is Thursday.

"Hey, law of averages, right?" Heat coach Pat Riley said jokingly. "It's going to take a lot more than that, but I'd much rather go down there this way, one game away from the championship. Now it's our job to go into a very hostile environment and do something this franchise has never done."

You |have| to |like |Wade's chances, because this week, there doesn't seem to be much he cannot do. Sunday, he scored 43 points, his third straight amazing performance before his rowdy home fans, and 30 of them came after halftime. His final two, the game-winning points, came with 1.9 seconds remaining in overtime - his 20th and 21st free throws, after a foul as he drove to the basket.

"Nothing but net," marveled Riley. "That's just what he's about."

The play turned into a disaster for Dallas, however. After Wade made his first free throw to tie the game, Mavs coach Avery Johnson signaled his team to call its final timeout after the second free throw. But forward Josh Howard misunderstood his instructions and called timeout immediately, over the Mavs' frantic objections.

"One of our players was saying 'timeout,' " Johnson said. "I said yeah, after the second [free throw]."

Too late. Time was granted, and with no timeouts remaining, the Mavs could not advance the ball to halfcourt after the second free throw, and with no chance to set up a play, guard Devin Harris could only heave the ball wildly from across halfcourt.

The timeout didn't cost the Mavs the game, but it was certainly symptomatic of Dallas' erratic play at the end. For one thing, the Mavs made their first 18 free throws of the game - then missed four of seven in the final 1:26 of regulation and overtime.

The Mavs got 33 points from Jason Terry, 25 from Howard and 18 from Dirk Nowitzki, all of whom made critical plays in the fourth quarter. But when the Mavs needed someone to step forward in overtime, none collected more than two points. Nowitzki missed two of his three shots, Terry forced a three-pointer that missed, and Howard bricked a pair of free throws with 54 seconds to play that would have delivered Dallas a three-point lead.

Instead, Gary Payton took advantage of Dallas' understandable preoccupation with Wade, and drove to the basket for a go-ahead hoop with 29.8 seconds left in overtime.

"We finally denied [Wade] the ball, and then Gary Payton scored on a flip left-handed layup," Johnson said.

Nowitzki responded with a tough 12-footer over a leaping Shaquille O'Neal to put the Mavs ahead again, 100-99, with 9.1 seconds left.

But Miami only had to put the ball in the hands of Wade, who has scored 42, 36 and 43 points in Miami's three homecourt victories. "We did not have a second option, believe me," said Riley.

Wade drove past Howard, but was bumped by Nowitzki as he turned into the lane. "I got hit twice on my way to the basket," said the Heat's unstoppable weapon. "Just tried to attack. Didn't want to settle for a pull-up jumper."

That set up the game-winning free throws - Wade had a franchise-record 25 attempts, as many as Dallas had as a team - and the Mavs' big mistake.

With so much at stake, the Heat allowed their offense to evolve into a one-on-five contest in the fourth quarter and overtime, with Wade taking every shot and doing virtually all the ball-handling. Not that it made a difference. Wade found shooting room with ease, banking home midrange jumpers or driving to the basket.

Through three quarters, Wade looked like a party-killer bust, collecting 22 points but making only five of his 17 shots. Apparently he was just waiting for the pressure to rachet up enough, though, because in the fourth quarter, Wade was magnificent.

The second-year guard scored 17 points in the period, and made the game's outcome his personal responsibility by pumping in Miami's final 11 points.

Nowitzki tried to do the same for Dallas, and the final minute looked like a two-man shootout. Wade spins and launches an 18-footer. Nowitzki drives and is fouled. Wade pulls up and nails a rainbow from 20 feet, straightaway. Nowitzki spins and shoots with Udonis Haslem's hand in his face.

When Wade tried to draw a foul 20 feet from the basket but couldn't make contact with Harris as he released, it looked like Miami had flinched first. Dallas responded by going to Nowitzki, of course, but this time he drew Shaquille O'Neal toward him on a double-team, then dropped the ball underneath to Erick Dampier for a dunk with 10.1 seconds left in regulation.

That simply set up Wade's biggest shot of regulation. The guard calmly took the ball out front, then drove to the baseline and banked home a 6-footer with Adrian Griffin scrambling to stay in front of him.

That Mavs had a last shot before overtime, but Jason Terry's jumper missed.

O'Neal, faced with a five-man corps of defenders, most of whom got into foul trouble, scored 18 points and collected 12 rebounds.

And for the first time in the series, Miami's bench was more effective than Dallas'. Of course, the absence of Jerry Stackhouse, serving a one-game suspension for a flagrant foul on O'Neal, had something to do with that. With Stackhouse not in the arena, Miami's bench outscored the Mavs', 23-12.

pmiller@sltrib.com

Heat 101,

Mavericks 100

MIAMI LEADS SERIES 3-2

Game 6

Miami at Dallas

Tuesday, 7 p.m., Ch. 4

Storylines

Big Difference - The Mavericks were far more willing to settle for jump shots than Miami, and the contact the Heat drew inside earned them 49 free throws, compared to just 25 for Dallas.

Numbers Don't Lie - The Mavs made 21 of 25 free throws, but that's deceiving. Dallas made its first 18 free throws, then missed four of their final seven, three of them in overtime.

X's and O's - The Mavs double-teamed Shaquille O'Neal much less frequently than in past games, but the five different players assigned to guard the Heat center fared poorly. Six Mavs collected four or more fouls, largely while trying to guard O'Neal.

Missing Person - Devin Harris had been inserted into Dallas' starting lineup in hopes he could use his quickness to effectively guard Dwyane Wade and get open to make his own shots. He did neither.