MIAMI — The best way to explain what the Miami Heat accomplished with their comeback this offseason is simply to compare their numbers against the rest of the league.
With a 12-point deficit in the playoffs:
– The heats are 7-6. Rest of the NBA? 6-59, United.
The latest comeback occurred in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, which the Heat won 111–108 to tie the series.
“The biggest thing for us, we had the will and we believed,” said center Bam Adebayo. “And we keep finding a way to win.”
The opponent doesn’t matter. Milwaukee, New York, Boston and now Denver have all been dusted off with the return of the Heat in the NBA Finals.
Miami rallied from a 15-point deficit to shut out the top-seeded Bucks in Game 4 and then came from down by 16 to take the decisive Game 5; first win against the Knicks from 12 down and 14 down in the sixth to eliminate New York; He erased deficits of 13 in the first game against the Celtics and 12 in the second; And now they came back from 15 down in the second of the final.
Sunday’s acrobatics equaled the fifth widest of a final in the past 25 years. The Heat trailed 50–35 with five minutes left in the second quarter, but overcame Denver 76–58 and now headed to Miami to tie the series. Both the teams will practice on Tuesday ahead of the third match on Wednesday.
The unlikely story – the trailing team somehow made it to the finals in the final minutes of the playoffs – is crazy now. The team, which came in as the eighth seed, has home court advantage in the title series over Denver, the top seed in the Western Conference.
“We’ve won on the road before,” warned Jeff Green of the Nuggets after Game 2 in Denver. “We understand what’s at stake. They did what they had to do.”
Equal parts historic and commonplace for the Miami Heat. Four other teams have posted seven wins in the post-season after trailing by double figures in play over the last 25 years. Golden State did last year on the way to the title.
other teams? Summer of 2011, Summer of 2012 and now Summer of 2023, all led by Erik Spoelstra.
