Series tied: Heat roar back in the 4th quarter, beat Nuggets 111-108 in Game 2 of NBA Finals

By James On Jun 5, 2023

DENVER (AP) — Trailing 2-0 in the NBA Finals, with the visitors in a hostile arena where no road team had triumphed in more than two months, the Miami Heat decided to do what they’ve been doing in the postseason.

They found a way. Against all expectations. Again.

The Heat tied the NBA Finals, needing to overcome a monster 41-point attempt by Nikola Jokic to do it. Gabe Vincent scored 23 points, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo each had 21, and Heat defeated the Denver Nuggets 111-108 in Game 2 on Sunday night.

“Our guys are competitors,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. “They love moments like this.”

Evidently.

They trailed by a whopping 15 points, down eight points going into the fourth, and those numbers indicated they were going to lose. Denver was 11-0 in these playoffs on a double-digit lead at any point in a game, and 37-1 overall this season on a lead of at least eight going into the fourth.

The heat didn’t care. They beat Denver 17-5 in the first 3:17 of the fourth to take the lead for good, eventually going up 12, wasting most of it, and had to survive a 3-point attempt by Jamal Murray after time expired .

“This is the final,” said Adebayo. “We took one out.”

Game 3 is Wednesday in Miami.

Max Strus scored 14 and Duncan Robinson had 10 – all in the fourth – for the Heat, who had a big early lead, then fell back by as many as 15. They had no answers for Jokic, who was 16 of 28 from the floor, the last of which shot a 4-footer with 36 seconds left to get the Nuggets within three.

Denver chose not to foul on Miami’s ensuing possession and it paid off. Butler missed a 3, and with a tie chance, Murray missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

“I just disputed it,” Butler said. “Pretty glad he missed it.”

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

“Let’s talk about effort,” Malone said. “I mean, this is the NBA Finals and we’re talking effort. That is a big concern of mine. You probably thought I was making up a storyline after Game 1 when I said we weren’t playing well. We didn’t play well. … This is not the pre-season. 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.

“They just played hard, and like I said, it was more disciplined,” said Murray. “It’s defeat when you give up mistake after mistake, and it’s not that they beat you, you give them open dunks or open shots. That’s hard to come back from.”

Strus, who was 0 for 10 in Game 1, had four 3-pointers in the first quarter of Game 2. Butler jumped with 4:56 left in the first quarter to put Miami up 21-10, taking the lead second-biggest equalizer. lead that every opponent in Denver had built up to this point in these playoffs.

In a flash it was gone – and then some.

The Nuggets defeated Miami 32-11 in the next 9 minutes, turning the double-digit deficit into a double-digit lead thanks to an absolute three-point barrage.

In the span of 70 seconds at the start of the second quarter, Denver got four 3s—more points than Miami in that entire 9-minute span—and they came from four different players: Brown, then Jeff Green, then Murray, then Gordon.

Boom, boom, boom and boom. Murray had five consecutive points to end the flurry, and Denver led 44-32 when it was over. It seemed that everything went to Denver.

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

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

TIP INS

Heat: Miami changed the starting lineup, with Kevin Love back in the top five and Caleb Martin – who missed Saturday’s practice due to an illness – coming off the bench. … The Heat got their 13th win of these playoffs, breaking a tie with the 1999 New York Knicks for most ever by a No. 8 seed.

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

HERRO UPDATE

Injured heat guard Tyler Herro went 2-on-2 on Saturday as he continued his efforts to try and bounce back from a broken hand at one point in this final – but failed to materialize. Herro was injured in the first half of Game 1 of Round 1 in Milwaukee. His status for Game 3 is unclear.

EXTENSION CONVERSATION

Commissioner Adam Silver told NBA TV before the game that negotiations on the next media rights deal are now a priority since the new collective bargaining agreement was ratified — and how expansion talks will take place after that.

Silver said he thinks media deal negotiations will “probably start in earnest this spring”. And after that, plans to add franchises will be the next item on the to-do list.

“We don’t have anything specific in mind at this point,” Silver said. “But I think over time if you are a successful organization it makes sense to keep growing. There’s no doubt there are a lot of great cities we want to include in the NBA.”