PORTLAND, Ore. -- This was going to be a column about how an NBA team can't win with three players alone. About how The Big Three are great but still need the guys that orbit them to contribute.
About how LeBron-Wade-Bosh can't do it all on their own.
But it turns out that's exactly what they can do.
With the Heat's road-game winning streak seemingly over and the Trail Blazers in command with a seven-point lead with 1:46 left in the fourth quarter Sunday, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and, to a lesser extent, Chris Bosh lifted up their teammates, placed them on their backs and carried them into overtime.
"The great escapes, the last two games," head coach Erik Spoelstra said after his team's 107-100 OT victory. "That's simply a resilient win."
Resilient, telling and, for other teams, frightening.
This absolutely was another game a great team should have lost but found a way not to.
Only this time it was with the celebrated ones -- and only them -- playing in ways that justify a lot of the hype.
LeBron (44) and Wade (34) combined for the Heat's first tandem 40-30 scoring game in team history. Bosh added 18 points and eight rebounds.
Everyone else disappeared.
LeBron-Wade-Bosh outscored their other teammates 96-11. They pulled down 29 of the Heat's 41 rebounds. They accounted for more than half the team's 19 assists.
And while the Big Three is not supposed to mean The Little Everyone Else, it did. And it didn't matter.
Not a bit.
Not on a trip, not against a Blazers team that had won eight home games in a row and eight of their past 11 games, not on a night on which the NBA is supposed to catch up with you by exposing the occasional sluggishness and churlishness that's natural during an 82-game season.
"No other way to say it," Spoelstra said. "LeBron was sensational down the stretch making big plays."
Yes, he was. He hit big three after big three -- at one point, in overtime, going so far as to slap his rear end in celebration -- as a one-man Blazers wrecking crew.
In overtime alone, he hit a three-pointer with 2:12 left to push the Heat's lead to five, hit two free throws to push the lead to six on the next possession and drove a stake into Portland's heart with 16 seconds left with a jaw-dropping three-pointer that made it a seven-point game.
The fan behind me, who'd been booing LeBron all night, responded with awe rather than anger: "Oh my God."
That's about it.
In other circumstances, there might be reason for a slight pause in the jubilation being felt in Miami. The rest of the Heat scored 11 points on 4-of-14 shooting. That means they had almost twice as many turnovers (seven) as baskets.
Except even in the dearth of help for the Big Three, the signs were overwhelmingly good.
The night and the circumstances gave LeBron and Wade (and, again, to a lesser extent Bosh) the chance to take over a game and win it on their own.
"Those guys have an incredible will to win," Spoelstra said.
When playoff time comes, if the bench actually decides to show up, Wade and LeBron will know they are able to take it to the level they did Sunday night.
After the game, Wade talked about how important the win in Washington was last month when the Heat fought back to win a game that seemed out of reach late.
If that was big, this night will turn out to be huge. Whereas the Heat learned something about themselves in D.C., LeBron and Wade learned individual lessons Sunday night -- that they can do almost anything as a twosome.
As for the lack of help, Spoelstra isn't worried about it.
"No, we'll get more balance when we need to," he said. "Each game is different. These guys stepped up tonight to make big plays when we needed them, but we have absolute confidence in our bench as well. You'll see a change game to game."
What we saw Sunday night was evidence enough: During a weekend in which football has America's eyes, in a non-nationally televised game, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh quietly announced they're everything they were advertised to be.
And with a little help they might be even more.
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