The Miami Heat are showing why they are serious contenders for a three-peat. Even though Wednesday night’s game was a bit challenging for the defending champions, Lebron James and company held on to walk away with a 2-0 series lead after beating Charlotte 101-97. Miami is the only home team in the playoffs to start off with a 2-0 series lead this postseason.
Although Miami was up 10 with under six minutes left, the pesky Bobcats would not go away, as Kemba Walker hit a three-pointer to pull within one with 11 seconds left. Charlotte would not take a game-tying shot as Dwyane Wade stole the ball up three to seal the victory.
“It’s a scrappy team. They put themselves in a very good position the last two months of the season because of how they play.” Lebron James says. “They don’t give up, and we’ve had some good leads, throughout this game and in the first game, but they have been able to scrap back.”
Miami will now travel to Charlotte and have a couple days off again before Game 3 on Saturday night. Heat and Bobcats fans will be keeping an eye on Charlotte big man Al Jefferson, who was questionable for Game 2 and then briefly left the game Wednesday night due to a left plantar fascia strain. He played through it and shot 9 for 23.
Something to look for in Game 3 may be some retaliation from Miami towards Josh McRoberts after a blatant elbow into Lebron’s throat prevented James from finishing a layup late in the fourth quarter although no flagrant foul was called.
In his best game in weeks, Miami’s Chris Bosh scored 20 points in Game 2, shooting 4 of-5 from three-point range, opening avenues for Lebron James once Charlotte decided to cover Bosh.
“We don’t want people to notice him, we hope people can continue to just allow him to get his shots, take his shots, and he will make his shots. He’s one of the best, I don’t want to say big shooters, big guy shooters in our league, he’s just one of the best shooters that we have in our league no matter from the point guard to the center spot,” James said.
For audio from Lebron James, click below.