All night it seemed that neither team could buy a basket, let alone make one.

So it was that Game 3 of this Knicks-Heat Eastern Conference semifinal came down to the final shot. Or should we say a final fling.

It was the Knicks ahead 76-75 when the Heat inbounded the ball with 13.7 seconds left in OT. The usual suspects couldn't be found.

Jamal Mashburn was doubled. Alonzo Mourning was blanketed. And rookie point guard Anthony Carter -- only in the game because Tim Hardaway's ailing foot had made him embarrassingly ineffective -- had the ball in the corner with Charlie Ward in his face and the hostile Madison Square Garden crowd screeching.

This was the backdrop Carter drove right by Ward and along the baseline where he was met by a 7-foot future Hall of Famer named Patrick Ewing. Mind you, it was Ewing who staked his claim to the hero role by forcing OT with a 17-foot jumper with 2.6 seconds left in regulation.

No one could have blamed the 6-foot-2, 185-pound Carter if he had found Ewing's large frame and long arms a little daunting. But the rookie didn't have time to be scared.

Pinned almost behind the backboard, he threw up what he would later call "a runner" but in reality looked far more like a prayer.

It was one of those shots you take in a game of H-O-R-S-E, not in the NBA playoffs.

The ball leaned off the front of the rim and then took a wild bounce upward. A bounce, by the way, that wasn't unlike the one Allan Houston of the Knicks got last spring at Miami Arena to send the Heat home for the summer.

As the ball hung in the air, the Garden was eerily quiet for an instant.

And then the ball dropped right through the basket. Prayer answered with 2.2 seconds left.

For a second, it seemed as if the basket was going to be taken away when Danny Crawford made a laughable offensive interference call on Mourning even though 'Zo never came close to touching the ball. Fortunately for the integrity of the game, the officials conferred and the basket was ruled good.

Just like that, it was Miami taking the game 77-76 and more importantly, moving ahead 2-1 in the series to literally put the heat on their archenemies.

It was a grind-it-out game that only Pat Riley could love. If only because it is the only kind his aging and beat-up team can still win.

"I thought it was a beautiful game," said Riley of a contest that would have broken the playoff record for fewest total points if there hadn't been an overtime. "It was hard fought. It was contested. If you want high flying, high scoring games, I don't think this is the series to watch. We know each other, that's why there is not a lot of points. We are not going to give easy buckets in transition, not going to give second shots. They are not going to do the same thing, so it comes down to if you can get a shot up."

Carter got the shot up all right. In fact, it went up so high, you weren't really sure it was ever coming down.

"I don't know anything about the shot," Riley said, "other than I know it went to the top of the Garden ceiling there and came down."

New York coach Jeff Van Gundy thinks he knows something about the shot -- it should not have been allowed not because of goaltending, but because of where the shot was taken.

"The ball was shot from behind the backboard, which should result in an out-of-bounds on the side," Van Gundy said. "Clear as day on the replay."

And the shooter himself thought he had it all the way. Not surprising, because Carter would need to have such supreme confidence to even try a shot like that.

Anthony Carter runs off the court after giving the Heat the overtime victory Friday night. (AP)

"It felt good coming off the hand," said Carter, known more for his defense and toughness, not miracle shots. "I thought it was going to be all net. It took a great bounce."

The Heat spent all last summer thinking about the bounce. The one that didn't go their way. This is why their celebration Friday night was rather boisterous. Did you see Mashburn firing the basketball down court in ecstasy when the final possession of the night ended with the Knicks turning it over?

"We don't get too many bounces around here," said P.J. Brown, who pulled down 12 rebounds for the Heat. "It was finally good to get one. We got a rookie to get it."

Then there was Ewing, the warrior, who left with a sour taste. For after his equalizer in regulation -- the first outside shot he made all night -- things didn't go as well for him in OT.

He bounced a ball off his foot on one possession, and missed a key free throw in the final seconds, meaning a hoop would win it for the Heat instead of tie it.

"I mean, naturally I would have loved to have won the game," Ewing said, "but things have never been easy around here. We have always had to push it to the limit. We just have to pick ourselves up and get ready for Sunday."

Knowing this series, expect it to be a bloody Sunday.

Aside from stealing the home-court advantage back, the biggest thing the Heat have accomplished is somehow dragging the more talented and athletic Knicks down to their level.

"I blame it all on Riles," laughed Mourning, who scored 23 points despite foul trouble. "He is the one that taught us how to play this way."

It is a "way" Riley takes immense pride in. As long as his team is on the right side of the score.

"We came up here to win and a lot of people have been writing us off, saying we're not this, we're not that," Riley said. "Our guys take it a little personal. It is a great group."

A group long on guts and short on talent. A group that may need another prayer or two to get to the next round.