DALLAS — — They have experienced turbulence so often this season that it only seems fitting that any championship flight include at least one final jolt on the way to the desired destination.
There was the blown 19-point second-half lead against the Utah Jazz in November, when power forward Paul Millsap, for the first time in his career, turned into a 3-point specialist.
There was the fadeaway jumper by Rudy Gay two weeks later for a walk-off win by the Memphis Grizzlies.
There was the blown 15-point lead in a loss to the New York Knicks in late February and the 24-point blown lead against the Orlando Magic in early March.
So while the sting of Thursday night's blown 15-point fourth-quarter lead to the Dallas Mavericks in a 95-93 loss that tied these best-of-seven NBA Finals at 1 opened a new wound for the Miami Heat, this also is a team that has shown a continued ability to heal.
Right now, it is the only option, with the series shifting to the Mavericks' home court for the next three games, starting with Sunday's 8 p.m. Game 3 at AmericanAirlines Center.
"We haven't had it easy at times," said coach Erik Spoelstra, who gave his team Friday off as they all traveled to Dallas, "so we know how to respond when our back is against the wall."
The Heat have proven to be both flawed and resilient this season.
They were the former late Thursday. Next they need to be the latter.
"It's not about what happens at the moment — you just have to stay with it. Don't get too high, don't get too low," forward Chris Bosh said. "Stay with the plan.
"We're faced with a challenge now. We're going to have to go and win on the road. And we've had to do that before, so we shouldn't be surprised that that's our situation now."
For now, the Heat are playing the confidence card.
"Every time we have had a pitfall, we've figured out how to bounce back," forward LeBron James said. "Right now, we have another one. As a veteran ballclub and a team that's been through a lot, we understand how important this next one is with Game 3 being in Dallas, and we look forward to the challenge."
They're also playing the grit card.
"We had breakdowns before throughout this year," guard Dwyane Wade said. "We learned from it. That's why we're the team we are. That's why we're in the finals.
"Obviously, this one hurts, and we got two days to think about our mistakes and blowing a 15-point lead. So we made it a lot harder on ourselves. We're going to see what we're made of as a team. Now we have three straight games on the road, but I wouldn't want to be in this position with any other team."
To bring the series back to AmericanAirlines Arena, where Games 6 and 7 are scheduled in the 2-3-2 format, the Heat will have to win at least once on Dallas' home court.
In a season of adjustments, Spoelstra finds himself with ample time to reset the offense, something seemingly required, with the Heat settling for 3-pointers and lacking quality attempts late in Thursday's collapse.
"We just we didn't execute down the stretch," Bosh said. "I don't really know what happened. We had everything going. We had the momentum going. I think they kind of took us out of our rhythm a little bit."
