Miami Takes 2-1 NBA Finals Lead

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Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat watched as his second free throw shot went through the net with 13 seconds left in the game, giving the Heat a 6 point lead that the Oklahoma City Thunder could not come back from. The odds of winning the NBA championship were now in their favor.

The Heat defeated the Thunder 91-85 in Miami on Sunday. Miami now leads the series 2-1 and are looking for a similar performance on Tuesday in front of their home crowd.

The Miami Heat used a strategy that seemed to work in Game 2. Get Kevin Durant in foul trouble. Durant had recorded his fourth foul in the third quarter with 5:41 seconds left and Scott Brooks knew that if he wanted his star to have a chance to play in the final minutes of the fourth quarter than he needed to sit him the rest of the rest of third quarter. During that time, the Heat were able to overcome a 10 point deficit to get a 67-66 lead at the end of the third quarter.

“”Well Kevin got four fouls. We fouled too many times. They got to the free throw line 35 times, we got to the free throw line 24 times. We’ve got to do a better job defending them without fouling,” said Thunder coach Scott Brooks.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are 2-7 this year when they score below 90 points and look to be more productive in scoring next game. The Thunders biggest struggle of this series has been free throw scoring. The Thunder have missed 7 or more free throws in the past three games which is uncharacteristic of the Thunder since they were the No. 1 free throw shooting team during the regular season. Kevin Durant finished with 25 points despite being in foul trouble and missing a portion of the third quarter. Russell Westbrook had 19 points and 4 assists in the game.

The free throw line was a main factor for the Heat offense win the game as the team shot 37 percent from the field but were able to sink 31 of their 35 free throws. Lebron James led the Miami Heat with 29 points and 14 rebounds, snapping his five game streak of 30 or more points in a game. Guard Dwyane Wade finished with 25 points. The defense of the Heat was the saving point as the Heat only allowed 39 points in the second half.

“I think we only shot 30 percent, but we built up some toughness now that we can find different ways to win … We didn’t have a lot of offensive possession in the second half, but we had enough stops, enough timely scores,” said Heat coach Eric Spoelstra.

The Heat look to break away in the series as they stay in Miami for Game 4 on Tuesday. Tip-off is at 8 p.m.

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