LeBron James led the Miami Heat with 32 points 8 rebounds and 5 assists in game two of the NBA Finals knotting the best of seven series up 1-1, with a 100-96 win.
The Heat used an 18-2 run to open the game not allowing the Thunder to hold a lead all night.
“We had played too well in the first 36 minutes to try to let this one slip away from us,” James said. “We just wanted to make one more, two more plays than they made and come out with a victory and we were able to do that.”
Shane Battier scored 17 points and hit 5 of 7 threes.
Dwayne Wade rebounded from a poor game one performance scoring 24 points and hitting many late shots to close out the game two win.
Chris Bosh started his first game of these NBA Finals and didn’t disappoint. Bosh finished with 16 points and 15 rebounds but it was his spacing of the floor and offensive rebounds that was huge for the Heat win.
“It’s been so long since we’ve had them all together,” Heat forward Shane Battier said. “They played like the All-Stars that they are and that’s the effort that we need.”
It seemed as if Miami was going to blow another lead and go down 0-2 but instead they will travel back home for game 3 with the series even.
“This is a good team and we didn’t want to be down 2-0,” Bosh said. “We know in order to accomplish our goal, we have to win on the road. We’re a good road team.”
This was the Thunder’s first home loss of the 2012 NBA playoffs (9-1).
Down two with 11 seconds left Fisher inbounded the ball to Durant and seemed to catch James off guard. Durant drove baseline, pulled up and missed the game tying shot. There was a lot of contact from James but not call.
Kevin Durant finished with 32 points followed by Russell Westbrook’s 27 points but shot only 10 for 26 from the field.
“That was the game. We can’t start off down 18-2,” Durant said. “We can’t go down that much, especially at home. We’ve got to correct it.”
James Harden carried the Thunder in the first half with 17 points and finished with 21.
For the Thunder to bounce back and take this series Westbrook is going to have to slow down, make better decisions and get his superstar more involved.
Game three is Sunday in Miami, tip off set for 8pm.
