NBA Finals: Miami Heat come alive in fourth quarter to edge past Denver Nuggets and tie series

By Thomas Schlachter, CNN

(CNN) — The Miami Heat leveled the NBA Finals with a crucial road win against the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.

The Nuggets were in control of the matchup for most of Game 2, but coming down the stretch the Heat caught fire and soared to an impressive win at Ball Arena, Denver.

Erik Spoelstra’s team outscored the Nuggets 36-25 in the final 12 minutes to seal the win on the road and to take the home advantage back to Miami.

Prior to Game 2, Denver was 11-0 in the postseason when leading by double-digit points, and 37-1 this season when sporting at least an eight-point lead entering the fourth quarter, but Heat never-say-die attitude got them back in the game.

“During the fourth quarter, our guys love to compete,” said head coach Spoelstra. “They love to put themselves out there in those moments of truth.”

The Heat coach added that the difficulties Miami has faced throughout the year have helped power them to gritty victories, as they become the most successful No. 8 seed in NBA postseason history.

“We want to be able to have that privilege of having adversity and being able to overcome it. You gain strength from that,” Spoelstra added.

As so often has been the case during the postseason, Miami’s role players stepped up once more to give the team a much-needed spark.

Gabe Vincent led the Heat in scoring with 23 points, going 4-6 from beyond the arc, to continue his brilliant form in the playoffs – postgame Spoelstra called the guard a “special guy.”

“He’s just an incredible winning player. This year, he’s been a starter for us. He’s been great. He’s off the bench, he’s been great,” Spoelstra said of Vincent. “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.”

Despite the Heat’s comeback victory in Game 2, Nuggets star Nikola Jokić delivered another vintage performance – something to be expected nowadays.

The two-time MVP dropped 41 points to go with 11 rebounds as he continued a record-breaking postseason.

Following Sunday’s game, Jokić became the first ever center to record 500+ points and 100+ assists in a single postseason, adding to his already incredible résumé.

The Serbian center only recorded four assists in Game 2, but Nuggets head coach Michael Malone was not bothered by this uncharacteristic low.

“Whether it’s 41 points, only four assists, or it’s 25 points and 15 assists, Nikola, one thing I trust about him is he’s going to make the right read time and time again,” Malone explained.

However, Malone was disappointed with the rest of his team’s efforts in the Finals matchup.

“Let’s talk about effort. This is NBA Finals, we are talking about effort; that’s a huge concern of mine,” he said.

Malone added: “We had guys out there that were just whether feeling sorry for themselves for not making shots or thinking they can just turn it on or off, this is not the preseason, this is not the regular season. This is the NBA Finals. That to me is really, really perplexing, disappointing.”

The series now heads to Miami for Game 3 on Wednesday with everything all to play for.

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CNN’s Homero De la Fuente contributed to this story.