NBA Finals Game Two – Heat Quiet Thunder

The Heat withstood a furious surge from the Thunder to snatch game two and take the series back to Miami tied at 1-1.

Heat 100 - Thunder 96

Did LeBron James foul Kevin Durant at the end of the game? Pretty much. Did Durant get away with a charge minutes before that should have put him on the bench with six fouls? Yep. Get over it. Missed calls happen all the time, and if you're seriously thinking that because one happens at the end that it's a game changer, it's not. Besides, there's no guarantee Durant makes both free throws if the foul is called. Let's not discuss that last play anymore.

The Heat jumped out and right down the throats of the Thunder, going up 18-2 before OKC knew what was going on. It looked like the Thunder weren't going to break double digits in the quarter, but they did manage to get to 15. Getting yourself into a 12 point hole at home in the first 12 minutes usually isn't a great idea. But the Thunder came back in game one after getting down early, so they didn't panic.

Miami, led by Dwyane Wade's aggressiveness and Chris Bosh's all around play, thoroughly dominated the first quarter. OKC righted things and played the second quarter even, but were still in that 12 point hole at halftime.

In fact, after the first quarter, OKC outscored Miami by 8 through the final three quarters. But like Miami didn't play all 48 minutes in game one, OKC didn't in game two.

LeBron was the man again, scoring 32, grabbing 8 boards, dishing 5 assists and hitting all 12 of his free throw attempts. Wade was much more aggressive like he needed to be, and Bosh came up huge. He had a double double by halftime and ended with 16 points and 15 boards.

Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden played their asses off in the second half, but just couldn't get over that last hump. Durant was nearly perfect along the way, with some posterizations to boot. Oh, and the final margin of 4 means I was way off with my prediction of the Heat by 5.