He could finally feel some relief — the epic Miami Heat losing streak has finally ended.

Wade scored 35 points, Mark Blount added 10 of his 19 in the pivotal fourth quarter, and the Heat beat the Indiana Pacers 98-96 today to snap a 15-game skid — the longest in the NBA this season and the second-longest in franchise history.

So what if Miami only improved to 9-33?

For the first time since Dec. 22, the Heat could leave a game happy.

Wright had 14 points and 10 rebounds, Udonis Haslem scored 12 points and Earl Barron added 10 for Miami, which got eight assists from Jason Williams.

Mike Dunleavy scored 25 points for Indiana, which has lost 13 of its last 17 games. Andre Owens and Danny Granger each scored 13 and Kareem Rush scored 12 for the Pacers, who led by nine with 4:05 left in the third but couldn't finish Miami off.

Oh, but the Pacers made it more than interesting down the stretch.

Miami was up 94-85 on Wade's 3-pointer with 4:36 left, before Indiana went on a 9-2 run over the next 3 1/2 minutes, a burst capped by Rush's 3-pointer with 1:07 remaining that drew the Pacers within 96-94.

The Heat lead was still two with 15.8 seconds left, after Haslem missed a jumper that could have made it a two-possession game. Rush missed an open 3 from the top of the key, but Troy Murphy threw the ball off Haslem on the way out of bounds with 5.8 seconds left — giving Indiana another chance.

But Wade knocked the inbounds pass away, and moments later, the streak came to an emphatic end.

"We wanted it," Wade said.

The Pacers were woeful from the floor in the opening minutes — missing 14 of their first 18 shots — but Dunleavy did more than enough to make sure Miami didn't open an early lead. He scored 16 of Indiana's first 19 points, including 14 straight over a 5›-minute stretch, and the Pacers had a three-point edge early.

Dunleavy didn't score again in the first half, but his burst set the tone.

So, after leading for most of Thursday's game against San Antonio, the Heat spent most of today trying to play catch-up.

Miami trailed by as many as 11 in the second quarter after Shawne Williams' 3-pointer with 9:16 left, got within five on a basket by Haslem midway through the period, but went into the locker room trailing 57-48.

A bad omen, for certain: Miami entered 2-19 when trailing at halftime, with the biggest deficit successfully overcome by the Heat at a game's midpoint this year being a six-point hole against lowly Minnesota on Dec. 17.

Not anymore.

Blount's dunk with 6:20 left in the third got Miami within 63-60, but back-to-back 3-pointers by Dunleavy — his first points since that first-quarter blitz — and Travis Diener restored Indiana's nine-point cushion.

Wade scored the final nine points in an 11-0 Miami run that put the Heat up 73-71 later in the third, and the teams entered the fourth knotted at 77.

Blount scored the first two baskets of the final quarter, Wright added a jumper with 9:53 left to put Miami up by six, and the Heat kept the lead the rest of the way.