The Heat knew the New Orleans Hornets would try to win Saturday's Game 3 in bar-fight fashion, wrote the Miami Herald's Israel Gutierrez, but not even they were expecting this.  The Hornet's defense halted the Heat in their tracks in the first half as New Orleans opened up a double digit lead before holding on.  The Heat shot a franchise playoff low 32.9 percent from the field, led by  a 3-for-21 effort of their starting backcourt of Eddie Jones and Dwayne Wade, while injured Hornets star Baron Davis controlled proceedings.

''It was that and then some,'' said Caron Butler. ``They shocked us.''

''I thought our mind-set to start the game was a major problem,'' Heat coach Stan Van Gundy said. ``We tried to prepare them for three days on how hard somebody would come at you at home down 2-0, but we seemed very surprised by the fact that they were up and into us and very physical.''