Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
No guarantees in Miami
Heat control home court but Spurs will fight to take it back
MIAMI — Through eight games at home this postseason, theHeat are perfect.
It hasn’t mattered whether the opponent was the Charlotte Bobcats, the Brooklyn Nets or the Indiana Pacers. Eight times, Miami has taken the floor at AmericanAirlines Arena in the playoffs and all eight times, they’ve walked off it victorious.
But as the NBA Finals shift to Miami tied at one game apiece ahead of Tuesday night’s Game 3, theHeat knowthings are about to get tougher, especially with the San Antonio Spurs returning to the court where they saw their championship hopes end a season ago.
Though the Spurs have gone 3-5 on the road this postseason, they’ve shown they can pick up the occasional, much-needed win away from the AT&T Center in San Antonio. The Spurs have earned at least one road victory in each of their playoffs series to date, including a 112-107 overtime win over the Thunder in Oklahoma City in the closeout game that sent San Antonio back to the Finals.
Also on the Heat’s mind? The fact the Spurs opened last year’s Finals with a 92-88 win at AmericanAirlines Arena, something Miami’s players haven’t forgotten even though the Heat bounced back to take the series and win their second straight championship after closing the series out with wins here in Games 6 and 7.
“Of course they are,” LeBron James saidMonday when asked if the Spurs are capable of winning in Miami. “This is the Finals and both teams believe they can win on each other’s floor. Onethingwe need to worry about is how we prepare forGame3, that’s our only mind-set, howwecomeout froma mental and physical standpoint and go from there.”
Added Heat coach Erik Spoelstra: “We’re thrilled to be at home, but it doesn’t guarantee anything. We love playing in front of our home fans, but we understand when you’re playing at an elite level like this, in the Finals against elite competition, it’s really more of a mentality of ‘the first one to four,’ and wherever you have to win.”
TheSpurs, for their part, understand the challenge they face now that they’ve lost home-court advantage to an opponent that has playedwell on its home floor.
A pair of losses Tuesday and Thursday would put San Antonio in a dismal 3-1 hole, something no Finals team has ever overcome.
“We played an OK game, not perfect but we were right there and it slipped away. Nowwe are in a tough situation because we’ve gotta go to Miami and we’ve gotta get one,” Spurs forwardManu Ginobili said after Miami’s98-96win in Game 2 on Sunday. “We don’t want to come back here 3-1 down. It’s very hard to overcome that. Definitely, it’s going to be a great challenge for theteamto play inan arena like that and having to win.”
Because of that, the Heat are expecting a sense of urgency from the Spurs onTuesday. That means the Heat need to play better than they did in San Antonio, where they lost Game 1 and struggled early in Game 2 before James found his rhythm in the third quarter and Miami’s defensive pressure forced the Spurs into 11 uncharacteristic turnovers and kept San Antonio frommoving the ball late the way the Spurs did early.
The Heat didn’t practice on Monday, but Spoelstra gathered his team for a film session in an effort to help them be better prepared for what’s coming Tuesday. Now, Spoelstra said, isn’t the time for a breather.
“They’re a very good team. We have to bring incredible effort, but there also has to be thought and focus on both ends of the court,” Spoelstra said. “It’s a very small margin for error for both teams. You’re seeing great basketball and then you’re seeing some basketball where the other team is making it hard for the other team. We’re inwork mode now. If itwas regular season, we’d be off. But there’s nine days left in the season.”