Why Game 2 of NBA Finals should be different for Heat

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Maybe David Stern was right.

The NBA commissioner declared Thursday that this year's NBA Finals, between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat, were the most anticipated of his 30-year tenure. Tony Parker immediately made Stern look prophetic in the Spurs' 92-88 Game 1 road upset, which he sealed with a tricky buzzer-beating bank shot that left American Airlines Arena deflated.

Based on the Heat's track record, Game 2 on Sunday (8 p.m. ET, ABC) should be different. Miami hasn't lost consecutive games in five months and is 10-0 after a loss in that span. In its Eastern Conference showdown with the Indiana Pacers, Miami responded to its three losses by outscoring the Pacers by a combined 52 points in three wins.

"They are just good," Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said. "They can really come back and beat us in San Antonio. So we've got to play our best game (Sunday) like if we are 0-0.

"I expect them, of course, to play an even better game, to be more aggressive, try to make us play uncomfortable, force turnovers and push it. They're going to try to use their athletic abilities to get to the paint, to score, to get the fans involved. And we have to be calm, we have to move the ball well, and don't let them get us on our heels, basically."

The Spurs, who have the best winning percentage in NBA Finals history, are convinced they can play even better entering Game 2.

"It's always a nice feeling to win a game, regardless of the situation," Spurs guard Danny Green said. "We know they're going to come out a totally different team. So we're taking it game by game. But it's always good to get a win knowing that we didn't play as best as we could. But we know they didn't play as best as they could either. We're expecting each game to be different."

In Game 1, the Spurs kept their cool and made the savvy, veteran plays everyone has come to expect from them in the fourth quarter. But Miami has faced deficits before, having set an NBA record coming back in three different series last year to win the title: Miami rebounded from a 2-1 hole against the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference semifinals, a 3-2 gap against the Boston Celtics in the conference finals and a 1-0 deficit against Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2012 Finals.

"Well, far too often you worry about that ultimate objective, which is to win," Heat guard Ray Allen said. " Obviously that's the bottom-line goal. I think ultimately we have to focus on the small things we didn't do-- that we haven't done. You think about all playoffs long getting better, and analyzing Game 1 and thinking about closing that fourth quarter out, which we didn't do a great job of."