Wade, Heat turn to past playoff salvation on brink of elimination

2:29 AM ET

MIAMI – Nearly 30 minutes after the cursing, pointing, shouting and anger subsided from the controversial finish to the Miami Heat’s latest playoff collapse against the Charlotte Hornets, veteran star Dwyane Wade already had his point of reference for the rescue mission.

The Heat are scheduled to practice at 1 p.m. on Thursday and then fly to Charlotte two hours later. Somewhere along the way, once he blows off the steam from Wednesday’s 90-88 loss to the Hornets that dropped Miami into a 3-2 series hole, Wade will mention Game 6 to his teammates.

Not the Game 6 the Heat will play Friday in Charlotte with their season on the line, but rather Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference finals. That’s when Miami trailed 3-2 after losing Game 5 at home to the Celtics and had to go to Boston in need of a victory to salvage its season.

“LeBron James had an amazing game to propel us to that win, but we were just very focused as a team,” Wade said Wednesday as he recounted the night James had 45 points and 15 rebounds to force a decisive Game 7 back in Miami, which the Heat also won. “It’s going to be tougher for this team because we’ve never been here. But you don’t run away from the competition.”

This version of the Heat also doesn’t often run back to nostalgic LeBron moments.

But Wade’s comment epitomized yet another bizarre night in this first-round series for Miami, which has been pushed to the brink of elimination after three consecutive losses to the Hornets. This time a week ago, the Heat held a 2-0 lead in the series after a franchise record-setting start to the postseason. The Heat scored 238 points through those first two games, shot 58 percent from the field and seemed destined to win their first playoff series of their post-LeBron era.

Now, unless they abruptly halt a recent trend, they might not even make it out of the first round. The Heat need a victory in Charlotte on Friday to force a Game 7 back at AmericanAirlines Arena, but the only consistency this team has shown of late is an inability to win on the road.

Counting this postseason, the Heat have lost seven of their past nine games outside of Miami and have won just two games on the road against current playoff teams since the All-Star break. Wade cautioned all season long that this type of test would come at some point for this team.

It’s here now.

“It’s very challenging when you have to go on the road with a team that hasn’t won too much on the …

continue reading in source espn.go.com