Miami Heat seek to take advantage at home for Game 3 of NBA Finals

MIAMI – The Miami Heat are three wins from an unlikely National Basketball Association (NBA) title, a run that includes taking down the Milwaukee Bucks, the top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference.

The eighth-seeded Heat can now take a 2-1 series lead over the best team in the West when they host the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night (Thursday morning, Singapore time) in Game 3 of the best-of-seven NBA Finals.

Miami took home-court advantage away from the Nuggets with a solid 111-108 Game 2 win in Denver last Sunday.

They overcame a 15-point deficit to hand Denver a home loss for the first time in 10 games this post-season.

The Heat now sit in a highly favourable position with Game 4 also in South Florida. If the underdogs hold serve, they can return to Denver for Game 5 in position to clinch the series.

Surprise Finals star Gabe Vincent just wants to focus on Game 3 and not look too far ahead.

“It’s going to be a different game entirely,” the Miami guard said.

“I think every game will be different this series, 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 nine of 16 total three-point attempts. The undrafted player from UC Santa Barbara has scored in double digits in each of his last six play-off appearances.

“He’s just an incredible winning player,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Vincent.

“This year, he’s been a starter for us. He’s been great. He’s off the bench, and been great.

“He’s like a lot of our guys, the 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.”

Miami star Jimmy Butler, who scored a franchise play-off-record 56 points in Game 4 of the Milwaukee first-round series, is not concerned about his 17.0 scoring average against the Nuggets.

“We’re not worried about what anybody thinks,” he said.

“We’re so focused on what we do well and who we are as a group that at the end of the day, that’s what we fall back on.”

Denver coach Michael Malone, meanwhile, doubled down on his demand that the Nuggets play with more discipline as they seek to regain the upper hand over the Heat.

A furious Malone had questioned his players’ effort and discipline after their Game 2 defeat, and he said the players were in full agreement.

“Our players owned it,” he said after the team trained in Miami.

“I asked them after the game, why did we lose tonight? And they told me we didn’t play hard enough. They told me we weren’t disciplined enough.”

Malone had already warned after the Nuggets won Game 1 that a lacklustre defensive effort had allowed Miami too many scoring chances that the Heat just did not capitalise on.

On Tuesday, he noted that Denver had dominated both games through three quarters – but said the Heat were dominating in the fourth.

“They’re averaging 33 points a game in the fourth quarter, shooting over 60 per cent from the field in the fourth quarter and over 50 per cent (from three-point range),” he said.

“We have to learn from Game 2 to use it to our advantage. What I know about our group is for years now we’ve handled adversity very well.

“I have no doubt that tomorrow night will be a much more disciplined, urgent team for 48 minutes.” REUTERS, AFP