Dallas ? On one of his earliest touches Sunday night, Dwyane Wade dribbled the ball off his foot for an unforced turnover right in front of the Miami Heat bench.

From there, things only got worse.

Wade missed what should have been an easy layup. He wasn’t in sync with Shaquille O’Neal on one of their favorite plays, an alley-oop that went awry. And he even drew a technical for arguing with referee Steve Javie late in the first half.

Though Wade finished Game 2 of the NBA finals with 23 points, he went 6-of-19 from the field – his worst effort of the playoffs. His mood wasn’t much better afterward, not after the Dallas Mavericks won, 99-85, to take a 2-0 lead in the series.

“Can’t really explain it,” Wade said. “The second quarter in both games, it got away from us. It really did. They executed, got good shots, we turned the ball over or missed shots, they got open in transition and got open shots. … Our downfall so far.”

Game 3 is Tuesday night in Miami, giving the Heat little time to figure out how to get back in the finals.

The challenge only gets bigger from here.

“We’re going to come out, our crowd will be behind us, we’ll play with a lot of energy,” Wade said. “But we’ve got to execute better on offense. Be patient, and at the same time, attack more. We can’t go through stretches like we have on the road of letting this team go out and be explosive. … A lot has got to change.”

Since the league went to the 2-3-2 finals format in 1985, nine teams have taken 2-0 leads by winning the first two games at home, and each of those have gone on to win the championship.

“The next three games are at home and will probably be the best I feel all series,” said Wade, who’s been fighting a sinus infection for several days. “Looking forward to it.”