Heat get back at Thunder ties series

James silences the thunderous thunder crowd

Lebron James scored on a bank shot and sank the insurance free throws in the last 90 seconds for the Miami Heat to steal one game in Oklahoma as the Heat beat the Thunder 100 – 96 to even the series 1 – all in the best of seven NBA finals.    Lebron James led the Heat with 32 points and this time he got ample support from his team mates as Dwayne Wade had 24 points, Shane Battier another 17 point performance and Chris Bosh 16 points and 15 rebounds as the Heat rebounded form their game 1 meltwdown. 

James and Perkins jockey for position

The Heat started the game like a house on fire as they raced to a 18 - 2 lead as James scored his fourth point on a hook shot with 4:51 to go to give the Heat their biggest lead.  Wade and Bosh also scored four points each while Shane Battier sank two three pointers for six points to give the Heat that lead. At the end of the half, the Heat silenced the crowd with a 55 -43 lead.   

OKC's big three

This time the Big Three of  Oklahoma came to play as sixth man of the year James Harden bounced back from his subpar game one performance as he scored ten of the 15 first quarter points of the Thunder. At the end of the second period Harden scored 17 points, two more than Durant and Westbrook combined as the hard starting Thunder found it hard to shoot in their hometown.  At the end of the third canto nothing much has changed as the Heat was still in command with a 78 - 67 lead and is waiting for another 4th quarter rally by the Thunder.

Bosh complemented James and Wade well

In the second half, Durant and Westbrook took matters in their own hands as the two combined for 35 points as the Thunder played catch up with the Heat.    Unfortunately for them, the Heat has learned their game one lesson as they stemmed the tide when Durant and company scored on a spurious exchange with Durant cutting the lead to two points on a steal by Westbrook and a three pointer by KD.  Durant, Westbrook and Harden combined for 80 points while James, Wade, Bosh and Battier got 89 of the Heat's 100. The final stance that OKC had was when Durant drove to the basket but missed his shot, Lebron scored the insurance basket in the return play.  

James scores

Now that the series is tied and both superstars have shown their stuff, the series proves to be the makings of another blockbuster NBA finish as the Thunder need to win one in Miami while the Heat is aching to finish the series at home. Let's see whose stars are brighter this time around.