Suns Vs. Heat: Dwyane Wade, Heat Defense Comes Alive In Fourth Quarter To Beat Phoenix

Dwyane Wade scored 11 of his 19 points in a fourth quarter that saw the Heat erase a 10-point Phoenix lead with a 17-0 run, as Miami went on to protect its long home winning streak to close out the Suns, 99-95, on Tuesday night.

Wade led an aggressive Heat attack on both ends in the game's final quarter, shutting down the Suns for almost six minutes and getting to the free throw line to shoot 13-16, which gave the Heat a much-needed boost to ultimately take the game from the Suns.

Phoenix led for most of the second half, after closing out the first half on a 13-2 run to get its first lead in Miami. The lead held and eventually grew to 10 points with seven and a half minutes left, thanks in large part to their usually effective bench work, and the Suns were threatening Miami's 13-game home winning streak, but Miami's run deleted Phoenix's second-half work.

Grant Hill led the Suns with 19 points, while Chris Bosh led Miami with 29, including 13 in the first and eight in the fourth quarter.

After the Suns finally broke the Heat spell late in the game and trailed by six with 22 seconds to go, the Suns ran a play for Channing Frye to take the three-point shot to stay alive. Frye, who was 1-7 overall for the night, missed two chances at threes in the final seconds as the Suns' effort to get back into the game fell short.

The Suns had been shooting a robust 53 percent coming into the fourth quarter, but that 17-0 run by the Heat deflated that effort. As Miami's defense clamped down on Phoenix, the Suns shot 7-25 (28 percent) in the quarter, lowering their overall shooting percentage for the game to 45 percent.

Despite the loss, Seth Pollack at Bright Side of the Sun hands the Phoenix bench a game ball:

Shannon Brown continues to play under control and Michael Redd and Robin Lopez mostly played well. Markieff Morris (12 points, four rebounds) had some horrible plays but also dazzled with a block on a one-on-three breakaway and followed that up with a three-point play. He played hard and tough and seemed to rise to the occasion with was a positive sign.

At Peninsula is Mightier, they celebrated Pat Riley's 67th birthday by noting LeBron James' quiet, but box score-friendly numbers and that he might have ultimately needed a hardhat for the game:

Lebron James finished with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists but survived two scary collisions. James appeared to land on his right elbow in the early going off a Markief Morris foul in the lane. He later collided with Grant Hill on a dangerous scrambled play, causing him to hit his head on Hill's shoulder. James continued to play and no reports have surfaced of a possible injury yet.

See the full NBA scoreboard.