By TOM WITHERS

The Associated Press

MIAMI – Outside Bongo’s Cuban Cafe, workers in golf carts whizzed around the home of the Miami Heat preparing for the first NBA finals game in South Florida.

Roughed up on their road trip to Texas, the Heat are in familiar surroundings again. But unless they make some drastic changes – like maybe sinking their free throws – the team won’t be traveling again this season.

“We can’t get down 3-0,” guard Gary Payton said. “We have to focus on Game 3 and get that one.”

Or else.

By double-teaming Shaquille O’Neal’s every touch and congesting Dwyane Wade’s routes to the hoop, the Dallas Mavericks dominated Game 2 on Sunday night, winning 99-85 to take a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven series that has hardly been close.

So far, the Mavericks have been superior in every phase. They’ve displayed an overlooked depth, an unmatched perimeter game and have exuded absolute confidence in moving within two victories of their first NBA championship.

They’re playing like they want one.

“We haven’t really done anything,” said forward Dirk Nowitzki, who had 26 points with 16 rebounds in Game 2. “We won two games at home. We know they are a different animal at home.”

So far, the Heat have been, well, lukewarm. Two tepid performances in their first finals have them in a desperate situation.

O’Neal and Wade, the club’s resident superstars, are out of sync and Miami’s bench hasn’t given them enough help. The Heat and their fans awakened Monday to an 0-2 deficit and a gloomy start to their work week as some southerly bands from Tropical Storm Alberto shrouded the city in a humid, depressing gray blanket.

The forecast is for heavy rain. The Mavericks’ arrival could be stormier.

Still, the prospect of a comeback – only the 1969 Boston Celtics and 1977 Portland Trail Blazers have recovered from an 0-2 hole to win an NBA title – remains a possibility, albeit a long one.

“We have been in situations like this before,” Heat center Alonzo Mourning said. “We have been down. I’m very confident we’re going to find a way to get ourselves out of this. I’m confident we’ll come out and give a better showing on Tuesday.”

The team’s charter flight didn’t arrive in Miami until 4 a.m., and the Heat didn’t practice Monday. Instead, coach Pat Riley ran a film session to study the errors of Game 2.

Watching the remake of “The Omen” might have been less horrifying. For the Heat, there were plenty of scary sights:

O’Neal, all 7-foot-1, 325 pounds of him, taking just five shots and scoring only five points – a career-playoff low – in one of his worst games as a pro. With Miami being embarrassed in the third quarter, O’Neal was replaced and spent the entire fourth quarter watching from the bench.

Wade, perhaps still fighting the flu, went 6-for-19 from the floor, made four turnovers and was called for a technical foul.