Let me start by taking a line from LeBron James: “It’s about damn time.”

This is what everyone was thinking after Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night, whether you love, hate or are neutral toward the Miami Heat.

It took them a while to get it going, a long while actually, but the Big Three from South Beach finally stepped up and led their team the way they were meant to when they were assembled in the summer of 2010. When it mattered most, they came together and delivered on the big stage to tie the series at two games apiece with a 109-93 win.

It all started in the first quarter, with the Heat playing aggressively on defense and on offense with their modified starting lineup (Chris Andersen didn’t play a single minute in the game!), aiming to play the way they play best: small.

With just 47 seconds of the game in the books, Gregg Popovich pulled Tiago Splitter, quickly understanding that the Heat intended to pick on him. The San Antonio Spurs started out red-hot, taking a 15-5 lead before Erik Spoelstra called his first timeout of the game. Not a good start for Miami, not good at all.

From there, everything started to turn around.

James was criticized for his lack of aggression in two of the first three games, even all three for some critics.

James vowed to be better in his comments to the media and was he ever.

After having settled for jumper after jumper throughout most of the series, James put his foot down and went to the post from the get-go, getting in great, deep position from the start.

In Game 3, 14 of his 24 shots came from eight feet and beyond. In the first quarter alone in Game 4, James was 3-for-4 in the paint and did not attempt a single mid-range jumper until late in the quarter.

In the first three games of the series, LeBron had trouble making shots. They were not well-defended shots either, but were jump shots that he has been making on a good, consistent basis.

Going to the paint early by posting up Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green from the start paid off, as he was able to knock down a few shots and was able to find his rhythm on offense. Doing so got him in the flow of the game and is what gave him confidence to take and make two mid-range jumpers late in the quarter after having gone 2-for-14 from outside of the paint in Game 3.  He finished the quarter with 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting to go along with three rebounds and two assists.

James finished the game with 33 points on 15-for-25 shooting to go along with 11 rebounds and 4 assists, his best outing against the Spurs by far in the NBA Finals, both in 2007 and 2013.

He was 7-for-13 inside the paint and was, wait for it, 7-for-9 from mid-range! After having finally gotten his offensive rhythm going early, something he failed to do in the first three games, the shots started to fall. Lesson learned? For his sake and for the sake of his team, let’s hope so.

LeBron also won the rebounding battle against Leonard. Coming into the game, Leonard was averaging a monstrous 4.3 offensive rebounds in the first three games, quite amazing for a 6’6” small forward. James’ hustle and scrappiness in Game 4 limited Leonard to just one offensive rebound, ultimately denting the second-chance points that were killing the Heat in the series.

Moving on to the struggling Dwyane Wade, he was Flash in Game 4, checking out of the game with 32 points on 14-for-25 from the field, six rebounds, four assists, six steals and ZERO turnovers. This was his first 30-point outing in over three months, when he scored 32 points against the Minnesota Timberwolves on March 4th.

After having gone 1-for-8 in the paint in Game 3, he started the game 3-for-3 in the paint in the first quarter, also getting in rhythm early, and he reaped the rewards, finishing 10-for-12 in the paint for the game. Even though his mid-range jumper was not falling, he did enough on the inside to help his team come out on top.

Wade has been playing well in the first half in the first three games of the Finals, but has been missing in the second half, averaging 2.7 points. Last night, he came up big as he scored 18 of his 32 points in the second half.

As for Chris Bosh, he put up his third double-double in a row, going for 20 points and 13 rebounds. The big man came up with many defensive plays for Miami, including two big blocks on back-to-back San Antonio possessions. He was also very efficient in the paint, going 5-for-7.

Miami’s Big Three combined for 85 whopping points, shooting excellently at 58 percent, also combining for 30 rebounds, nine assists, four steals, four blocks and two turnovers.

Expect Popovich to adjust his lineup in Game 5 to counter the Heat’s offense. Even after beating the Heat at their own game in Game 3 playing small-ball, he has realized that his team will not win the series by trying to match Miami’s style of play. Look for him to go big in Game 5, with Tim Duncan shouldering a lot of the load. It'll come down to how Miami plays him. The key is Bosh needing to play him well, and if Miami opts to double-team, which the Spurs will be expecting, whether Miami can recover in time, or probe without committing faithfully. 

The Heat played with great intensity, aggression and energy defensively, something that was lacking immensely in Game 3.

For starters, they limited the Spurs to .990 points per possession. They also forced 19 turnovers and capitalized by scoring 23 points off them. The Spurs only converted on six fastbreak points and Miami limited San Antonio’s rebounding to 36 compared to the Heat’s 41, including five offensive rebounds in the Spurs’ favor compared to seven for the Heat. To put it in perspective, San Antonio was averaging a mind-blowing 13.3 offensive rebounds in the series compared to Miami’s nine.

The three-ball has been a problem for Miami this whole series. Prior to Game 4, the Spurs were making 11 threes per game while attempting 25, hitting at a 44 percent clip. While the Spurs made 50 percent of their attempts last night, the Heat made them work very hard, contesting the long-distance shot very well. San Antonio converted on tough looks and ended up making eight of their 16 attempts.

The good news for the Spurs in the game was Tony Parker's play in the first half. He played extremely well considering he was not 100 percent with his hamstring sprain. In the first quarter, he had 11 points on 5-for-9 shooting, as well as two assists. In the second quarter, the Heat began to clamp down on him and limited him to four points, four assists and two rebounds while forcing him to turn the ball over three times after failing to do so in the first twelve minutes. In the second half, they took him out of the game completely. Parker was irrelevant in the final 24 minutes, failing to score a single point, missing all four of his attempts from the field, and dishing three assists to go along with an offensive rebound. Norris Cole and Mario Chalmers did an excellent job on him, as well as Chris Bosh who would hedge high and aggressively as to not allow him the lane or would wipe out his shot attempts when he made it in the paint.

Without elaborating much on Manu Ginobili, it is evident that he is probably not going to step up too much in the series. He has been very sloppy handling the ball and dishing, and has not shot well, scoring 7.5 points per game on 34.5 percent shooting, as well as 18.8 percent from the three-point line.

The pressure is on Tony Parker to get San Antonio’s offense going, as Gary Neal is a shooter and only a shooter, as well as Green. None have the ability to create. 

As for adjusting on James who has finally figured out that he can and must get to the post early, I don't expect too many adjustments on him. I simply expect for the Spurs to be more aggressive in defending him and in clogging the lane more. I don't expect too many double-teams, but some, as Pop will want to mix it up a little with him. In Game 2, double-teams led to a three-point party for Miami. In Game 4, not doubling led to Miami finding their rhythm on offense and winning the paint battle 50-32. We will probably see a mix of both, giving LeBron different looks and match-ups.

It is now a best-of-three series, and in these cases, the winner in Game 5 has ended up winning the title seven out of 10 times. If San Antonio wins on Sunday night, Miami is fortunate to go home and try to win Games 6 and 7.

But if the Big Three for Miami come out like they did last night and win Game 5, the Spurs will face an improbable task of winning two straight in Miami.