After losing the first game of the NBA Finals, the Heat had to endure another round of questions about Wade’s health, Bosh’s jumpers and James’s timidity in the fourth quarter. Miami answered with a dominating 103-84 win over the San Antonio Spurs at AmericanAirlines Arena, but the game didn’t necessarily play out the way anyone would expect.
Instead another James virtuoso act with his teammates falling in line, the four-time most valuable player followed the lead of point guard Mario Chalmers and the boundless energy of Chris Andersen, then set up three-point shooters Mike Miller and Ray Allen until he was ready to provide the finishing touches in the fourth quarter.
Chalmers led the Heat with 19 points, James had 17 and Allen added 13 in a game the Heat had to have if was going to defeat the Spurs for the title. Wade declared the game a “must-win” since no team had ever lost the first two Finals games at home and recovered to win the series. But Miami needed its role players to rise to the occasion with James missing 10 of his first 12 shots and Wade going scoreless in the second half, slowed by an apparent injury from a scramble for a loose ball.
The three previous times that Miami lost the first game, it went on to win the series in five games, including the Heat’s victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in last year’s Finals. The chances of repeating that against a Spurs team that is much more experienced is low, but Heat will head to San Antonio for Tuesday’s Game 3 with its confidence intact — even though it lost home-court advantage when Tony Parker made a ridiculous bank shot in the closing seconds of Game 1.
Parker didn’t have the chance to deliver any heroics, with the Heat stifling him and cutting off his driving lanes. He found a small seam to make a floater to bring the Spurs within 69-65, but the Heat answered with a 15-0 run that put the game out of reach.
Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich sat his starters for much of the fourth quarter of a confusing night when a Chalmers floater was more accurate than one from Parker and Spurs guard Danny Green outperformed Wade. Green matched the Spurs’ Finals record with five three-pointers and led the team with 17 points, but San Antonio only had three players reach double figures. Parker had 13 and reserve Gary Neal had 10. Manu Ginobili was held to just five points.
Tim Duncan and James are both headed to the Hall of Fame no matter how this series ends, but in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, the most accomplished players on the court were inexplicably effective and uncharacteristically unreliable through the first three quarters. Layups and short jumpers hit the front of the rim. Duncan finished with just nine points and 11 rebounds but missed 10 of 13 shots, with James blocking one of his attempts at the basket.
With the long arms of Kawhi Leonard giving him little room to operate, James was held to just four points on 2-of-7 shooting in the first half — his worst first-half performance in the postseason. James got a kiss from his mother, Gloria, as he headed to the locker room, but still needed some time before he could put his imprint on the game.
James was alone on the fast break and missed a layup, then got the ball in the low post and missed a point-blank layup with Green defending. He finally got going in late in the third quarter when Chalmers found him cutting to the basket and James made a difficult left-handed layup over Duncan as he fell on his back.
James scored six points during the decisive run, but was able to hurt the Spurs with his passing as well, twice finding Miller (nine points) for three-pointers and giving the Heat an 84-65 with a driving layup. Miller would later return the favor when he picked off a bad pass from Parker and tossed the ball over his head to James, who elevated for a two-handed dunk, swung on the rim and boisterously kicked out his leg before stomping down on the floor.
The Heat broke triple-digits but won the game on the defensive end as it forced the Spurs into 17 turnovers, which led to 19 points. San Antonio had just four turnovers in Game 1, with Parker not committing any. But Parker had five against a swarming Heat defense that got deflections, read passes and disrupted the Spurs’ offense. The Spurs shot just 41 percent from the field.
Post a Comment