MIAMI – At this point a year ago, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were using words like urgency and desperation.
And that’s exactly what the Miami Heat expect the Oklahoma City Thunder to bring into Game 3 of this year’s NBA Finals.
So far, this championship series has followed the same script as a year ago, with the home team winning the opening matchup, then falling in Game 2 to lose the home-court edge. Miami took the sting of that into Dallas last year and used it as fuel to win Game 3 – and the Heat will look to ensure that trend doesn’t repeat itself when the title matchup resumes on its home floor tonight.
“You’ve got the two best teams in the league right now going against each other,” Wade said Saturday. “So it’s going to be a very tough game, but we have to find a way to win it.”
There are certain truths that will come from the outcome tonight. The winner will have home-court advantage. The winner will be two games away from a championship. And the losing club will see what appears to be an already razor-thin margin for error in this series become even more precarious.
“We have no other choice,” said Thunder star Kevin Durant, the league’s scoring champion. “We lost at home. Tough loss. We’ve got to get over it, get ready for a tough Game 3.”
The Heat knows the importance of not letting one loss turn into another – because when that happened against the Mavericks a year ago, there was a parade in Dallas not long afterward.
“I don’t know if we were any more motivated in Game 2,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “What we were was angry about our performance in Game 1. ... You want to throw your best punches out there, and may the best team win.”
Add up the numbers from the first two games of the series, and it turns into something close to a statistical dead heat.
Both teams are shooting 47 percent. Both have made 14 tries from three-point range (though Miami is shooting a better percentage). The Thunder has grabbed four more rebounds, the Heat whistled for two more fouls. The Thunder outscored Miami by 16 points in the paint during their Game 1 win; the Heat outscored the Thunder by 16 points in the paint during their victory in Game 2.
Of course, the only stat that really matters is the one that’s identical: one win each.
And if the young Thunder was supposed to be rattled by losing the home-court edge, no one told the players.
“We have all the right pieces, from the best scorer in the league, most athletic point guard in the league to the best shot blocker to the best post defender, best wing defender and our bench is one of the best,” James Harden said. “This is a perfect team. We are young guns. We get it done. It has to start in Game 3.”
Even their coach doesn’t sound worried.
“I’ve seen all year long a group that’s always committed, that always sticks by one another, that believes in the work that we put in,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “And that’s who they are. It’s not going to change. They’ve always had great ability to bounce back after a tough loss and we expect the guys to come back with better effort, better play and for 48 minutes.”
