The air conditioning was out to start the third quarter, but the San Antonio Spurs showed no ill effects from the temperature off the bat. A quick bucket and two Danny Green free throws quickly extended the Spurs lead to 58-49 with 11:17 - their largest lead of the contest.
The Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade and Rashard Lewis weren't ready to let the game get out of hand, however, with Wade putting in a nice quick two followed by Lewis draining a three to cut the deficit to four.
The air conditioning continued to falter, but Dwyane Wade continued to function just fine in the boiling AT&T Center - extending the Heat's run to 8-0 with a perfectly set-up bomb from long range and cutting the Spurs' lead down to one with 9:44 left, 58-57 and prompting a Popovich timeout.
The teams looked sloppy out of the break, trading turnovers. Tony Parker ended that quick spurt of less-than-awesome play with a quick jumper, followed by a LeBron James baseline answer on the other end.
The ball began to look very slick with the arena heating up, as passes and shots began to look a little less crisp for a quick time. After the teams traded a couple of misses, LeBron picked up an effort offensive board before calmly running to his spot and drilling a corner three.
Not to be outdone, Tim Duncan quickly found an easy two at the rim shortly after - sending the teams into a timeout with 7:03 left tied at 62.
Coming back from the adverts, LeBron James was sitting and visibly uncomfortable from the rising temperatures on the court.
On the court, Heat veteran Rashard Lewis looked completely unaffected as he dropped in a 23-foot dagger from deep and driving layup to key the Heat.
Manu Ginobli reentered the scene, picking up an aggressive and-1 on Wade to tie the score back at 67 with 5:30 left.
For the next 90 seconds, each time traded listless, tired-looking offensive possessions before Manu put home a wicked driving bucket to give the Spurs a 69-67 lead going into an under-4 TV timeout.
LeBron James returned to the floor after the break - but each team looked completely out of sorts shooting-wise, trading bricks until back-to-back Ray Allen lay-ins handed the lead back to the Heat, 71-69.
The Spurs' sloppiness began to rear its ugly head with two minutes to go, with turnover number 16 leading to an absolutely wicked flush by Ray Allen in transition.
The Spurs tiredly turned the ball over again on each of their next two possessions, with the Heat grabbing two James free throws out of it. Heat lead to six with 1:24 to go.
The temperature began approaching 90 degrees at the end of the third, with the majority of the players looking red-faced and spent.
A ninth Spurs turnover eventually leads to a James three, but a Splitter put-in cuts the Heat lead to four at the end of three. Heat 78, Spurs 74.
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