THE Miami Heat are three victories away from an unlikely NBA title, a run that includes taking down the Milwaukee Bucks, the top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference.
The eighth-seeded Heat now have an opportunity to take a 2-1 series lead over the best team in the West when they host the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night (Thursday in Manila) in Game 3 of the best-of-seven NBA finals.
Miami took homecourt advantage away from the Nuggets with a solid 111-108 win in Denver in Game 2 on Sunday (Monday in Manila). The Heat overcame a 15-point deficit to hand the Nuggets a home loss for the first time in 10 games this postseason.
Miami now sits in a highly favorable position with Game 4 also in South Florida. If the underdog Heat hold serve, they can return to Denver for Game 5 in position to clinch the series.
Surprise finals star Gabe Vincent of the Heat just wants to focus on Game 3 and not look too far ahead.
“It’s going to be a different game entirely,” Vincent said. “I think every game will be different this series, especially, and it will be great to be back home to start with, be back in front of our fans, it will be an awesome environment, great experience. It’s going to be a battle. They are going to bring everything they got, and we’d better do the same.”
Vincent is averaging 21 points in the series and has knocked down 9 of 16 total 3-point attempts. The undrafted player from UC Santa Barbara has scored in double digits in each of his last six playoff appearances.
“He’s just an incredible winning player,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Vincent, who joined Miami during the 2019-20 season. “This year, he’s been a starter for us. He’s been great. He’s off the bench, he’s been great. He’s like a lot of our guys, with a competitive spirit. You get challenged like we’re getting challenged in this series, you hope it brings out the best in you. And that’s what it’s doing with him.”
Denver coach Michael Malone didn’t see the best version of his players in Game 2 and was disappointed with the effort. He wasn’t shy about verbalizing it, either.
“This is not the preseason, this is not the regular season,” Malone said. “This is the NBA finals. That to me is really, really perplexing, disappointing. I asked the team, I asked them, you guys tell me why they lost, and they knew the answer. Miami came in here and outworked us.”
Said veteran Nuggets forward Jeff Green: “It’s the (bleeping) finals, man. Our energy has to be better. We can’t come out like we did, and we have to be better.”
