MIAMI — A decade and a half has passed since the N.B.A. finals have featured the same matchup for two straight years.
What seemed to happen frequently in the 1980s and the halcyon days of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird has not taken place since the Chicago Bulls vanquished the Utah Jazz in consecutive championship series in 1997 and 1998.
Judging from the Miami Heat’s 103-97 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, that rematch drought in the finals has an excellent chance of ending.
In a regular-season shootout that pulsated with playoff intensity, right down to the five technical fouls, Kevin Durant’s 33 points were not quite enough to stop his good friend LeBron James (29 points) and the Heat.
Durant and Russell Westbrook each missed 3-point attempts that could have tied the score in the final 10 seconds as the Heat held on before an American Airlines Arena record crowd of 20,300.
“It was on line,” Durant said of his shot from the left wing. “Whoever was guarding me put a hand up, and I could barely see the rim. I practice off-balance shots all the time, especially from deep. It looked good.”
Kendrick Perkins tapped the rebound to Westbrook, who missed as Dwyane Wade pressured him. Westbrook, who thought he was fouled, slammed his fist onto the scorer’s table and picked up the final technical foul.
Tuesday’s loss was just the second for the Thunder in the past month, the other coming last week at Minnesota to end a 12-game winning streak.
The Heat won for the seventh time in eight games since a second 20-point loss to the Knicks on Dec. 6. No team has scored more than 97 points against the Heat during that run, an upturn that has coincided with increased playing time for the rugged defenders Udonis Haslem and Joel Anthony.
The last time these teams met, the Heat put the finishing touches on a five-game triumph in the finals. That was a little more than six months ago, on a steamy June night that offered the memorable image of James bouncing ecstatically in place on the Heat sideline, embracing his teammates and coaches as the series’s final seconds ran out and his long-awaited championship was secured.
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