ATLANTA - There was no particular identification on the Miami Heat bus that arrived at Philips Arena more than 3 1/2 hours before the opening tip of Wednesday's 108-93 victory over the Atlanta Hawks.

A "Shooter's Express" sign might have worked.

What was clear was it was fueled by Dwyane Wade's desire to avoid repeat ignominy of his team's 26-point series-opening loss.

So Wade along with teammate Daequan Cook hit the court early. And never stopped hitting.

By the end of the second quarter, it was the Hawks who did not know what hit them, with Wade scoring the Heat's final 13 points of the first half.

By the time it was over, Wade not only had 33 points, but had drained an uncharacteristic six 3-pointers, with the Heat breaking the franchise playoff record of 13 3-pointers with its 15-of-26 performance from beyond the arc. Prior to Wednesday, Wade had never converted more than three 3-pointers in a playoff game.

The record-breaking 3-pointer was a banked-in 29-footer by Wade at the expiration of the shot clock with 2:38 to play that put the Heat up 101-91.

"I was just trying to get it to the rim," Wade said. "I had to pull something out of my butt and I was able to hit it. When you hit a shot like that, that's game."

There will be no sweep in this best-of-seven opening-round NBA playoff series, just a return here to Philips Arena next Wednesday for a Game 5, with the matchup now tied 1-1 and headed to AmericanAirlines Arena for the next two.

Knocked off his game in the series opener, when he shot 8 of 21 and committed eight turnovers, Wade entered determined to offer his own knockout blow, bellowing at the end to the crowd, "Let's go home!"

By 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Wade was on the court, shooting jumpers alongside Cook, with the aide of assistant coach David Fizdale.

"It was very beneficial," Wade said during a televised halftime interview, "with nobody in here, work on my stroke and see the things that were going wrong. Sometimes you have to do that, and repetition always works."

The repetition also aided Cook, who converted three first-half 3-pointers to open the court for Wade. Cook finished with 20 points, shooting 6-of-9 on 3-pointers.

"He came out on fire," Cook said of Wade, "and so did I."

Three nights after scoring seven fourth-quarter points, the Heat had 54 by Wednesday's intermission, its offense fueled by the post play of center Jermaine O'Neal, who finished with 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting.

"Now," O'Neal said, "we've got to find a way to bottle what we had tonight."

Wade appreciated O'Neal's support.

"Jermaine was a guy who told us in practice the last couple days 'Get me the ball. I want to make things happen for this team,' " Wade said. "If we can get that production from him every night, it's going to be a long series."

This time there was plenty of fight, fueled by coach Erik Spoelstra, whose pregame strategy board included such nuggets as "Our Turn = Hit First!" and "Don't Get Punked."

"The 'don't get punked,' we all understood what that meant," Wade said. "We didn't let them manhandle us."

The Heat's passion also was fueled by the Heat's all-time inspirational leader, retired center Alonzo Mourning, who implored Wade to seek an even greater defensive intensity in Game 2.

"He flew up to see me and he told me we better lock down on that end of the floor," Wade revealed. "And you don't want Alonzo to be mad at you."

Mourning offered insight about his visit during a halftime interview on Sun Sports.

"I came into town because I didn't like the energy in Game 1," Mourning said. "It's the playoffs, and I told D-Wade, 'You're the leader. The team has followed you all year long.' "

With its rebounding up and its turnovers down, the Heat overcame many of the obstacles that made it look so feeble in Sunday's 90-64 loss.

Then again, perhaps the revival should not have come as much of a surprise.

The Heat entered 28-11 this season when coming off a loss.

"We've been a resilient group all year," coach Erik Spoelstra said.

So resilient that it stole homecourt advantage Wednesday night.

"We wanted to really punish these guys," O'Neal said. "They're very athletic, they're very young, but we're still bigger. We feel like we're bigger. We wanted to control the pace.

"We knew it'd be a tough task coming in here against a rowdy crowd. We were able to keep their bottoms in their seats and now we get to come home with a tie series, to the best fans in the NBA."

Ira Winderman can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .