It seemed that the NBA Finals had a clear owner with the resounding victory of the Denver Nuggets in the first game, but these amazing and miraculous Miami Heat added a new feat this Sunday to tie the series and leave the fight for the ring wide open . Those of Erik Spoelstra, experts in making fatal all the analysts who have left them for dead in these qualifiers on different occasions, are now leaving for Miami with the track factor in their pocket and the conviction that the ring is possible.
Why wouldn't it be? After all, these Heat who entered the playoffs via play-in eighth and who have become accustomed to achieving the unexpected knocked down the Milwaukee Bucks, who were the best team in the league in the regular season; and also the Celtics, thanks to an epic victory in Boston in a seventh game in which they had everything against them.
That very long and exhausting series took its toll on them in a first game of the Finals in which the Nuggets were clearly superior (104-93). But the Heat reacted this Sunday (108-111) making a reality what no one had achieved: subduing the Nuggets in Denver who were still undefeated at the Ball Arena in these playoffs.
"You probably thought I was making up some narrative after Game 1 when I said we didn't play well. We didn't play well," Nuggets coach Mike Malone said, angry at how Game 2 went. "This is the Finals and we're talking about effort. That's a huge concern for me," he said.
These tough, rocky and inexhaustible Heat demand the maximum concentration and intensity from their rivals, so much so that the Nuggets were not enough with Nikola Jokic's 41 points. "They are punishing us as soon as we make mistakes," admitted the Serbian center.
The Heat bit at the start of this game (2-10 start), they did not collapse despite trailing by 15 in the second quarter and, although they reached the last period 8 points down, they turned the score around with a magnificent 25-36 with 69% shooting from the field in the last twelve minutes. "We're not worried about what people think. We think about who we are as a group. It's always going to be us, we don't care about anybody else. It's been like that all year," Butler said after the win.
Gabe Vincent (23 points with a great 8 of 12 shooting) was the top scorer for some Heat who excelled in three pointers (17 of 35) and in which Bam Adebayo had 21 points (8 of 14) and 9 rebounds and Butler added 21 points (7 of 19) and 9 assists.
Waiting for the imminent return of the injured Tyler Herro, Miami had fundamental contributions this Sunday such as Duncan Robinson, who did not see the hoop in the first three quarters and who came back to life in the last one with 10 crucial points for his team's comeback .
Miami has not found an antidote (if that exists) for a Jokic in a state of grace. But this Sunday he did know how to stop his companions: Jamal Murray, who missed the triple to have forced overtime, stayed at 'only' 18 points and 10 assists and Michael Porter Jr and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope shook hands in a bad night (11 points between the two).
An example of how the normally oiled Nuggets attack did not work well, with the exception of Jokic and the powerful performance of his bench, was that the center registered only 4 assists (his lowest record in these playoffs).
The Heat are the second team in NBA history to reach the Finals as eighth in their conference after the 1999 New York Knicks. Without detracting from that New York team, these Heat have already surpassed them since that season was unique for the lockout and also have already added more wins in the playoffs (13) than those Knicks (12).
Now Butler and company return to Miami, land of prodigies in these playoffs and where they hope to continue taking steps in an already historic and unforgettable postseason.
