There are countless ways to dominate a game,  myriad  methods and attack points and angles, and LeBron James has mastered them all. The scheme and the scoring totals may vary, but it is the results that matter, a fact that James emphatically reminded anyone who had doubts Sunday night.
James did not score much or shoot much. His box-score totals did not leap off the page. His most memorable play was a block that merely provided a final exclamation point on theMiami Heat’s 103-84 rout of the San Antonio Spurs.
But in so many ways, both strong and subtle, James was the driving force as the Heat tied the N.B.A. finals at one game apiece. He finished with 17 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks, yet left the bulk of the scoring to his lively supporting cast, from Mario Chalmers (19 points) to Chris Bosh (12 points) and Dwyane Wade (10 points). Ray Allen and Mike Miller combined for another 22 points off the bench, going 6 for 8 from 3-point range.
In a postseason run that has so often been defined by James’s biorhythms, this was a triumph of team over individual, even if that individual was orchestrating to great effect.
“What I do know is sharing the ball is contagious, and it allows everyone to feel involved in the offense,” James said, adding, “This team has been set up the right way, where when I do attract attention, we have guys that can make plays.”
The Spurs, who were so steady and precise in taking Game 1, had a tough time holding their offense together on this night, committing 17 turnovers — four times their Game 1 total — leading to 19 points for the Heat.
Tim Duncan made just 3 of 13 shots, finishing with 9 points and 11 rebounds. Tony Parker, the Spurs’ fourth-quarter hero last Thursday, scored just 13 points, going 5 for 14 from the field.
Danny Green, the Spurs’ least-decorated starter, was their best scorer, with 17 points and a perfect 6-for-6 shooting line.
The series now moves to San Antonio for the next three games, starting Tuesday night.
“If you would have asked me before heading to Miami, I would have said O.K., I’ll take it,” Manu Ginobili said of splitting the first two games, but he added, “You don’t want to play like this in an N.B.A. finals.”
It was a tight game for 32 minutes. James missed 10 of his first 12 attempts. But the Heat closed the third quarter with a 14-3 run and kept pushing, furiously, ferociously, capitalizing on every Spurs miscue until the run had ballooned to 33-5 and the lead had ballooned to 94-67.
James scored or assisted on 20 points in the run, which started with a James steal and ended with a James 3-pointer. It was in the midst of this scoring binge that Chalmers, whose 3-point play gave Miami its first double-digit lead, went to James and vocalized what everyone in the building was surely thinking.
“Lets go for the kill,” he said.
The final blow was delivered by James, who rose high to swat away Tiago Splitter’s dunk attempt. Within seconds, James was feeding Allen at the other end of the court for a 3-pointer and a 22-point lead.
“Yeah, at least I’m going to be in the news,” Splitter said, smiling. “I just tried to make a good play, but he’s a great player. You got to expect that from him.”
James said: “Just wanted to, I guess, make an impact some way. Offensively, it was a struggle for me — couldn’t make a shot, missed layups, some things I’m accustomed to making.”
The victory extended the Heat’s remarkable streak of games without consecutive losses to 66.
They have not lost two straight since Jan. 8-10.
For the Heat, this game stood as a nice retort to the critics who in the insisted that James needed to shoot more and score more, despite his triple-double in Game 1. As it turned out, James finished with 1 point fewer and just 1 shot more in Game 2 than in the series opener.
“That doesn’t really make sense, that he wasn’t being aggressive,” Coach Erik Spoelstra said, referring to the criticism of James as unwarranted. “He’s being aggressive. He’s creating opportunities for us. It just might not be in the way you’re accustomed to.”
The Game 1 defeat not only cost the Heat the home-court advantage in the series, but revived all the lingering concerns about their perceived frailties, and by implication their ability to repeat as champions.
Suddenly, Wade’s health and effectiveness became worrisome again. Bosh’s assertiveness was called into question again. Neither one had a big game Sunday night, but the Heat still enjoyed a lopsided win.
San Antonio won the series opener by keeping its mistakes to a minimum. On Sunday, the Spurs had more turnovers in the first quarter (five) than they had in all of Game 1 (four). They had 13 in the first three quarters. Miami had just six for the game.
“Their pressure was turned up,” Duncan said, adding: “Obviously, four is where we want to be, ideally. We knew we couldn’t stay there.”
REBOUNDS
The Heat presented Game 2 with a bit more subtlety and much less bellowing, in deference to a stern request from N.B.A. officials. The volume on the arena’s public-address system was turned down a few notches from its usual earsplitting levels. And the arena’s announcer, Michael Baiamonte, who is infamous for his screaming introductions (which he sometimes repeats a half-dozen times per game) and his nonstop histrionics, was also a bit more restrained Sunday night.