Miami’s Jimmy Butler had an escape room outing planned for Saturday.
It was a metaphor.
The Heat unlocked the door to victory, beating the Denver Nuggets 111-108 in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday, tying the best-of-seven series 1-1 and adding intrigue.
Denver’s Jamal Murray missed a 3-point attempt at the buzzer that could’ve forced overtime.
Miami used an impressive fourth quarter, overcoming an 83-75 deficit and outscoring the Nuggets 36-25 in the final 12 minutes. Gabe Vincent led Miami with 23 points, Bam Adebayo added 21 points and nine rebounds and Butler finished with 21 points and nine assists.
Full Game 2 NBA Finals Highlights
The series moves to Miami for the next two games with Game 3 on Wednesday (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC).
The Heat were better in the second game after a sluggish performance in Game 1 coming off a seven-game Eastern Conference finals series against Boston.
They did what they said they would do. The Heat were more aggressive, made more 3-pointers, shot 20 free throws, 18 more than they did in Game 1, and limited the scoring of Denver players not named Nikola Jokic. He scored 18 of his game-high 41 points in the third quarter.