|
 James went both inside and outside to hit 14 of 22 shots,
including all three from beyond the arc, grab 10 rebounds and
deliver a key assist down the stretch to secure the win.
"He carried us," said Heat guard Ray Allen. "He made some big shots.
I don't think they had an answer for him and he got it going. And we
needed every bit of it."
With San Antonio leading 93-92 and giving their full attention to
James, the four-time NBA MVP delivered a nifty pass to Chris Bosh,
who nailed a three-pointer with 1:18 left.
"It was rewarding in that it was a huge play to help us win," said
James.
"I just seen it develop the whole time, and I wanted to try to put
some pressure towards the rim, and I caught Tim Duncan peeking at me
a little bit.
"I was able to find C.B. in the corner in one of his favorite spots
on the floor and he knocked it down."
 A foul shot by James and a Dwyane Wade lay-up with nine seconds left
gave the Heat a 98-93 lead before a three-pointer at the buzzer by
the Spurs' Manu Ginobili made the score closer than it actually was.
"LeBron with the ball did a great job at his end and we had to be
really pretty perfect at the other end and we (weren't)," said Spurs
coach Gregg Popovich. "We didn't take advantage of things, we made
bad decisions.
"We didn't do it as a group. We tried to do it individually and
we're not good enough to do that."
Tony Parker led San Antonio with 21 points, followed by Ginobili
with 19 and Duncan with 18.
The Spurs won the first game of the finals, 110-95, in San Antonio
and the series now shifts to Miami for the next two games, with Game
Three set for Tuesday.
All eyes were on James on Sunday to see if had recovered from the
leg cramps that sent him to the sidelines for most of the fourth
quarter on Thursday.
He was misfiring early on Sunday, making just one of his first four
shots and committing three turnovers.
But in the second quarter, he had 11 points, 14 more in the third,
and eight in the fourth. He scored mostly inside in the first half
before finding his jump shot in the second.
"In the first half, I got into the paint, made some shots, got some
rebounds, put pressure on their defense," said James. "In the second
half they backed up off me and I shot it."
[to top of second column] |
CONTESTED JUMPERS
San Antonio guard Danny Green said James was making 'contested
jumpers' but the Spurs failed to alter their defense.
"We didn't expect him to shoot that well but he got hot," he said.
That's what stars do in this league. You've got to make
adjustments."
San Antonio was hurt by poor foul shooting, hitting only 12 of 20,
including just two of six in the pivotal fourth quarter.
"We lost a game, we not going to hang out heads," said Duncan, who
scored 11 points in the opening quarter but only seven the rest of
the way.
"We're going to regroup. We know we can play better."
An electrical outage that caused the air conditioning to quit at the
AT&T Center on Thursday was repaired and there were no heat issues
on Sunday.
James, who probably suffered the cramps on Thursday because the
courtside temperatures reached close to 90 degrees (32C), played
only 37 minutes on Sunday.
The 29-year-old, 10-time All-Star said he did not want to dwell on
the issue.
"Mentally I didn't want to even think about it too much," he said.
"What happened on Thursday was Thursday."
(Reporting by Steve Ginsburg; editing by Gene Cherry and Greg
Stutchbury)
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