Sabrina B.

It is one key to winning in the NBA — exploit your mismatches.

Against Kevin Durant, pretty much the other 449 guys in the league are a mismatch. IncludingDwyane Wade. At one point in the second half Wade got switched on Durant defensively. That’s a size mismatch. Durant recognized it and scored over him.

Then the cameras caught Durant talking some smack as they went down court.

“He told me I was too small,” Wade said after the game in an interview broadcast on NBA TV. “I had to run down the court and say ‘what’d you say again’ and he said ‘you’re too small.’

“He’s got seven inches on me, so, I played good defense but he’s a scorer and he made a good shot.”

Wade is too small in that matchup. But the fact is the Heat have been undersized throughout the playoffs and even regular season. They can make up for it because they have the athletes who can still block shots and make it hard to score in the paint — Wade and LeBron James are good shot blockers — and they have done that in this series.

Oklahoma City is feeling that pressure — it was 13-of-27 at the rim (48.2 percent) in Game 2, according toHoopdata.com.

“We’re not the biggest team at all, we’re used to it,” Wade said. “We’ve been playing, at times, small basketball all season. Chris (Bosh) is the biggest guy in our rotation. It’s fine.”

So go ahead and call Wade small. He doesn’t care. He and the Heat have defended the paint well… except against Durant. But Durant can talk all he wants, two moer wins and Wade will laugh all the way to the ring ceremony next fall.

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