Finals back at Miami, with Heat feeling good
MIAMI — This is getting to be a trend for the Miami Heat. A nerve- wracking one for them, sure, but a trend nonetheless.
Go on the road, fall behind in a series, put the championshipor- bust season on the brink of collapse — and find a way to overcome it all.
The Heat landed at home early Friday, possibly disembarking from their plane for the last time this season. Miami resumes play in the NBA Finals at home against Oklahoma City on Sunday night, the start of a three- game homestand where the Heat — if they do what’s incredibly difficult in a title series and sweep the middle portion of the 2- 3- 2 format — can wrap up the franchise’s second crown.
“Very excited,” Heat guard Mario Chalmers said. “We get to play in front of our home crowd for the first time in the finals and we will be ready.”
A Game 2 win at Oklahoma City swung the home- court edge Miami’s way. And when the Heat have taken that edge away from their opponent on both previous occasions in these playoffs, they’ve been ultimately successful in the series.
“Any time you drop a game, especially now, it’s not a good feeling, and it stays with you all the way up until you get another chance to redeem yourself,” Heat forward Chris Bosh said. “We’re pretty familiar with that feeling.”
By now, they’re also familiar with overcoming that feeling.
* Miami lost Game 3 at Indiana in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, falling behind 2- 1 in a series where Bosh was sidelined with a strained lower abdominal muscle and 2006 finals hero Dwyane Wade was laboring with worse- than- usual knee pain. So in Game 4, LeBron James finished with 40 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists in a virtuoso performance. Miami swept the rest of that series.
* Miami fell in Game 5 at home against Boston in the East finals, going down 3- 2 and facing an elimination game on the Celtics’ home floor, a place where the Heat had won only once in their most recent 16 visits. James came up huge again, filling the stat sheet with 45 points, 15 rebounds and five assists, the Heat won easily to send the series back to Miami and a Game 7 victory.
* Then in Game 1 of the finals, Miami saw a 13- point lead vanish in an 11- point loss. But