SportsMiami Heat roar into the fourth quarter to beat the Denver Nuggets in Game 2 of the NBA Finals

Miami Heat roar into the fourth quarter to beat the Denver Nuggets in Game 2 of the NBA Finals

DENVER (AP) — Facing a 2-0 deficit in the NBA Finals on the road in a hostile arena where no road team has won in more than two months, the Miami Heat decided to do what they have done all postseason. .

They found a way. Against all odds. Again.

The Heat tied the NBA Finals and had to overcome Nikola Jokic’s 41-point effort to do so. Gabe Vincent scored 23 points, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo each had 21 points as the Heat beat the Denver Nuggets 111-108 in Game 2 on Sunday night.

“Our guys are competitors,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They love these kinds of moments.”

Obviously.

They’re down 15 points, eight to fourth, and those numbers mean they’re going to lose. Denver is 11-0 in these playoffs every time they lead in double digits in a game and is 37-1 overall this season with at least eight leads heading into the fourth.

He didn’t mind the heat. They outscored Denver 17-5 in the first 3:17 of the quarter, eventually scoring 12, then missed badly and had to hang on to Jamaal Murray’s 3-point attempt as time expired.

“It’s the final,” Adebayo said. “We took one.”

Game 3 is Wednesday in Miami.

Max Strus scored 14 and Duncan Robinson scored 10, all in the fourth, for the Heat, who had a huge early lead and then trailed by as many as 15 points. He had no answer for Jokic, who went 16 of 28. Floor, the last of those shots was a 4-footer with 36 seconds remaining to bring the Nuggets within three.

Denver went foul-free on back-to-back Miami possessions, and it paid off. Butler missed a 3-pointer, and with a chance to tie, Murray missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

“I balked,” Butler said, “I’m glad you missed it.”

Denver lost at home for the first time since March 30 and for the first time in 10 home playoff games this year. Just as he did after the Game 1 win, Nuggets coach Michael Malone sounded the alarm after the Game 2 loss.

“Let’s talk about effort,” Malone said. «I mean, it’s the NBA Finals and we’re talking about effort. That is my biggest concern. You might have thought he was making a story after Game 1. We didn’t play well. We don’t play well. .. This is not the preseason. This is not the regular season. This is the NBA Finals.

Murray had 18 points and 10 assists for Denver, while Aaron Gordon had 12 points and Bruce Brown had 11 points.

“They played hard, like I said, it was very disciplined,” Murray said. “It’s a loss when you deliver foul after foul, it’s not them hitting you, it’s you giving them open dunks or open shots. It’s hard to recover from that.”

Strus, who was 0-for-10 in Game 1, made four 3-pointers in the first quarter of Game 2. Butler’s jumper with 4:56 remaining in the first quarter gave Miami a 21-10 lead. lead any opponent Denver has built so far in these playoffs.

In an instant, it’s gone, and then some.

The Nuggets outscored Miami 32-11 in the next 9 minutes, turning a double-digit deficit into a double-digit lead with a full barrage of 3-pointers.

In a 70-second stretch early in the second quarter, Denver hit four 3-pointers, more points than Miami had in that entire 9-minute stretch, and they came from four different players: Brown, then Jeff Green, then Murray, then Gordon. .

Boom, boom, boom and boom. Murray had five straight points to end the streak, which ended with Denver leading 44-32. Everything seemed to be going in favor of Denver.

Miami insisted otherwise. And for the 44th time this season, the Heat have won a game by five points or fewer. None of them is bigger than this.

“When it comes to cable, we’re strangely comfortable,” Vincent said.

Tips

Heat: Miami changed its starting lineup, with Kevin Love returning to the starting five and Caleb Martin, who missed practice Saturday with illness, coming off the bench. … The Heat won their 13th of these playoffs, breaking a tie with the New York Knicks for eighth place in 1999.

Nuggets: Jokic became the 14th different player in NBA history to score at least 41 points in a Finals loss. … Denver hasn’t lost a game since May 7, four weeks ago. … Nuggets legends Alex English, LaPonzo Ellis (who actually ended his NBA career with Miami) and David Thompson were among the attendees.

hero upgrade

Injured Heat guard Tyler Herro went 2-on-2 on Saturday, continuing his attempt to recover from a broken hand at some point in these Finals, but not out. Herro suffered the injury in the first half of the first round game at Milwaukee. His status for Game 3 is unclear.

extension speech

Commissioner Adam Silver told NBA TV before the game that now that the new collective bargaining agreement has been approved, negotiations for the next media rights deal are a priority, and how expansion talks will play out after that. .

Silver said he expects media contract negotiations to begin “in earnest next spring.” After that, the next item on the to-do list will be plans to add owners.

“There’s nothing specific in mind right now,” Silver said. “But I think it makes sense over time if you’re a successful organization that continues to grow. There is no doubt that there are many great cities in the NBA that we are interested in.”

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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