3.
It's Dwyane Wade's jersey number.
It's the number of NBA championships he's won and where the future Hall-of-Famer ranks in the pecking order of the league's greatest shooting guards of all time behind only Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
It's also how many big plays he made in the final 46 seconds of a 97-90 win on the road against the Hornets Friday night, saving his team's season and knotting the series at three games apiece to force a decisive Game 7 in down in Dade, better known as Wade, County Sunday at 1 p.m. EST.
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The 3
Wade isn't a 3-point shooter.
He never has been.
He's a 28.4 percent shooter from deep for his career, averaging less about 1 1/2 attempts from long range per game.
That's probably why Hornets point guard Kemba Walker, who scored a game-high 37 points, felt comfortable retreating back to cover his man as teammate Courtney Lee recovered and challenged the shot.
Wade drained it to give his team a 93-90 lead, slimming the Hornets chances of clinching their first postseason series since 2001-2002.
Wade was 7-44 on the season on triples, coming into the game and hadn't connected on one since December, but he fired it with as much confidence as Steph Curry. That's the will of a man who knows he's going to have a bust in Springfield, Mass. one day.
The Shot
.@hornets coach Steve Clifford praises Dwyane Wade's late-game efforts in Game 6. #NBAPlayoffs https://t.co/KLrG0mlVBl
— NBA TV (@NBATV) April 30, 2016
Lee was in Wade's pocket.
He stayed with him with him off the bounce, then made him pick up his dribble near the elbow, and even got more into him as Wade pivoted as to not allow him any space, but his contest was no contest as wade rose up and sank a tought turnaround jumper for the last two of his team-best 23 points.
The Block
Wade's block on Walker said it all.
Sure, Walker had dominated most of the game, as he had in Game 3, but Wade owned him when it mattered most.
Not the graceful athlete that His Airness, who was on hand courtside at Time Warner Cable Arena as owner of the Hornets, or Bean, who bowed out with a signature 60-point performance at Staple Center earlier this month, Wade's made his name as ferocious competitor despite being somewhat undersized at 6-4.
His 160 postseason blocks makes him the league's all-time leader among guards in that category.
Nicknamed "Flash when he teamed up with Shaquille O'Neal for his first NBA title more than a decade ago, Wade's always maintained throughout the ladder portion of his illustrious career that's spanned a dozen years that he can still pull out the heroics of his youth even when his knees fail him.
Back in 2013, after he and former teammate LeBron James captured their second-straight title with a Game 7 victory against the Spurs, Wade famously said, "My belief is stronger than your doubt."
It's time we start believing too, and elevate him to his proper place in history, even while he's still playing.