AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post
Believe in them, don’t believe in them, the Miami Heat don’t care about anybody else’s opinions.
It’s that same attitude that has led them from the play-in tournament to the NBA Finals. And now, just three wins away from a championship.
The Heat rode that mentality Sunday night in one of their best wins of the postseason, a 111-108 victory over the Denver Nuggets in Game 2 of the Finals at Ball Arena.
Miami ran out to an early 12-point lead but gave up a 40-14 run to the Nuggets and eventually trailed by 15 points in the second quarter and looked well on its way to a 2-0 series deficit.
But the league’s leader in clutch games this season just wouldn’t go way, chipping away at the deficit until they exploded in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Nuggets 36-25 and holding on for a huge win to even the series up.
Jimmy Butler, who was a big piece of the Heat’s fourth quarter run, credited his team’s resiliency to their maniacal self-belief.
“That’s what I think it is—the I don’t give a damn factor,” Butler said postgame.
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Jimmy with the bucket and the foul 😤 pic.twitter.com/XPNZS7cDt6
Butler finished with 21 points on 7-of-19 shooting to go along with four rebounds and nine assists. But Miami got contributions from all over its roster with four other players scoring in double-digits, including a pair of 20-point games from Bam Adebayo (21) and Gabe Vincent (23).
And even though he didn’t have big offensive numbers, Kevin Love also had his fingerprints all over the game with a team-high 10 rebounds to go along with six points and two steals.
Miami rebounded from beyond the arc, as well, knocking down 48.6 percent of its three-point shots Sunday night.
Handing Denver its first home loss of the postseason, the Heat now head back to South Beach with home-court advantage and will look to take a commanding hold on this series.
Game 3 is set for Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
