Miami, FL – The Miami Heat proved they weren't a one-man show in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
Mario Chalmers erupted for 19 points and five Heat players scored in double figures as they pulled away in the second half of a 103-84 drubbing of the San Antonio Spurs to even the series.
LeBron James was quiet before turning it on during Miami's game-changing 33-5 run spanning the third and fourth quarters.
James finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, essentially erasing a forgettable start and giving the Heat life as the series heads to San Antonio for the next three games, starting with Game 3 on Tuesday.
Chris Bosh stepped up with 12 points and 10 rebounds, Ray Allen scored 13 points off the bench and Dwyane Wade had 10 -- all in the first -- in helping end the Spurs' seven-game winning streak.
The defending champions connected on 49 percent of their shots, forced 17 turnovers and committed just six of their own to turn the tables following the series opening loss.
Danny Green paced San Antonio with 17 points behind 5-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc, while the triumvirate of Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili combined to shoot just 10-for-33 (30 percent) from the field.
Parker, the Game 1 hero with 10 fourth-quarter points and a memorable bank shot that sealed the win in the final seconds, scored just three of his 13 points after halftime Sunday.
Duncan had nine points on 3-of-13 shooting with 11 rebounds, and Ginobili added five points in under 18 minutes of play.
"Missing shots and turning it over are a bad combination," Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich stated simply. "It's very tough to win."
Trailing 62-61 late in the third quarter and staring a 2-0 series deficit in the face, the Heat received a much-needed spark from Chalmers, who began the pivotal flurry with a go-ahead three-point play, then assisted on an Allen 3- pointer and fed James inside with a nifty bounce pass for a 69-62 Heat lead.
"I just tried to make the most of my opportunities," Chalmers said. "I just did what I could for the team. I wanted to leave it all out on the court."
Chalmers added another three-point play the old fashioned way in the closing seconds to give the Miami a 75-65 cushion, and a 19-2 run to begin the final stanza put the game away.
James had a week's worth of highlights during the surge after making just 3- for-13 from the field in the first 36 minutes.
After hitting a mid-range jumper, James fed Mike Miller for an open 3-pointer with a skip pass, then put in a layup off a Chalmers steal to push Miami's lead to a healthy 84-65 with just over nine minutes remaining.
The league MVP met a hard-charging Tiago Splitter at the rim with a riveting block and threw down the exclamation point with a rim-rattling dunk for an insurmountable 91-67 lead.
The first half played out much differently, as neither team led by more than five points.
The Spurs committed as many giveaways (four) in the first 5:34 as they did in Game 1 when they tied a Finals record for fewest turnovers.
They still led early thanks to Green going 3-for-3 from behind the arc, the third yielding a 9-4 lead less than four minutes in, but the rest of the team shot just 5-for-18 (28 percent) in the opening quarter.
Seven straight Miami points, capped by a Bosh tip-in, gave Miami a short-lived 18-15 lead, and it was knotted 22-22 after 12 hard-fought minutes.
Late in the second, the Heat countered a 10-0 Spurs run by scoring on eight straight possessions to turn a 34-29 deficit into a 45-42 lead on Wade's short jumper with under three minutes to go before halftime.
With the score even again at 45-45 late in the half, the Heat went on a 9-1 run that leaked into the third quarter, only to have the Spurs answer almost immediately with 12 of the next 14 points to retake the lead.
Kawhi Leonard, who pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds, netted seven points during a three-minute span that was highlight by Splitter's block of a driving Wade, which resulted in another Green triple in transition.
Game Notes
The Heat have rallied to win a postseason series after losing the opener four times over the last three years, including the 2012 Finals when they won the next four games against the Oklahoma City Thunder ... The last time the Heat lost consecutive games was back in early January, going a perfect 11-0 over that span ... This was the Heat's 100th franchise postseason win ... Veteran referee Joey Crawford was working his first Finals since he infamously ejected Duncan from a regular season game in 2007 for laughing on the bench. The incident resulted in the NBA to suspending Crawford for the rest of the regular season and all of the postseason that year for "failing to meet the standards of professionalism" of NBA referees.
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