An NBA player can dribble down the court to get a three pointer in 2 seconds. Tyus Edny went coast to coast while dribbling in 1995 in 4.8 seconds. Finished with a layup.
2 seconds is an eternity for the NBA players. Instead, they hucked up a Flacco, which has little chance of succeeding because everyone can easily adjust while the ball is slowly moving through the air.
FWIW, after the Heat-Bucks game I went back and looked at the last play from the Duke-Butler national championship game in 2010 - there were 3.6 seconds on the clock when Butler got the ball. That was after a missed free throw, though, so probably pretty comparable to inbounding the ball with 2.2 seconds. I think getting to halfcourt is about the limit of what the Heat could have achieved here.
On the other hand, in the Kentucky-Duke Elite Eight game in 1992, Duke inbounded the ball with 2.1 seconds left, and the heave to Laettner worked. Difference there being that Duke was inbounding from under their basket after a timeout, so both the offense and defense were set; not sure if that comes out in the wash or (probably) somewhat favors the defending team, but there the heave worked.
(I know these were college and not pro games, but I don't think that really matters for the purposes of the comparison and analysis.)
