The Miami crowd, wearing all white, was roaring after LeBron James' deep 3-pointer from the Heat logo as the third-quarter horn sounded, pulling the high-stakes playoff game to within two points.
But James ignored it, moving toward and then locking eyes with Paul George.
"I got you back young fella!" James yelled over the sound of the buzzer.
A moment before, George had beaten James on a drive for a thunderous dunk that instantly became a career highlight for the then-Indiana Pacers guard.
"All right," George said back.
Then, as the two headed toward their benches, they exchanged a high-five, a rare but respectful acknowledgement that the fight was on.
It was in Game 2 of the 2013 Eastern Conference finals. At the time, the two stars were intensely focused on carrying their teams to a win. Now with distance, it was really the beginning of a decade-long dance between contemporary stars as James and George have played roles as rivals, near partners, and then rivals again.
Other than Paul Pierce, who perhaps was James' most intense on-floor foil, George has served as his multilayered shadow to James during his 20-year career.
As they once again prepare to face each other, when the Los Angeles Lakers play the LA Clippers Wednesday (10 p.m. ET, ESPN), here is a look back at their careers in three epochs.
Phase 1: The Heat-Pacers tri-battle royale
Between 2012 and 2014, James' Heat and George's Pacers took part in three rather intense playoff series.
George was just in his second season in the first one and was still a role player, though he was already demonstrating his defensive abilities as he chased James around for more than 40 minutes a game in the series as the primary defender. The Pacers got up 2-1 in the second-round series, perhaps aided by an injury to Chris Bosh, before the Heat won the final three games on their way to a championship that spring.
The rivalry really got going in 2013 when George had made the leap to star status, making the All-Star Game for the first time. This was a seven-game slugfest in the Eastern Finals. In Game 1, George made a vital 3-pointer late in regulation to force overtime, at that point the biggest shot of his career, and then fouled Dwyane Wade out of the game with 2.2 seconds on a play that got Indiana the lead.
Then James made a game-winner at the buzzer, slipping past an overaggressive George for a driving bucket.
"I was boneheaded," George said.
By Game 2, it was clear the series was very much an emerging showcase between the two stars. Both spent significant time guarding each other. The Pacers won that game, feeling like they could've been up 2-0, and setting the stage for what ended up being a seven-game series.
"He's going to be a great one," James said about George after watching him score 28 points in Game 6 to force the deciding game.
James dominated George in that final game, scoring 32 to George's seven as the Heat moved on to the Finals and eventually won another title.
The following season, in 2014, the Pacers were on a mission to get the No. 1 seed, so they would have home-court advantage in a rematch. George made the All-NBA team for the first time, leading Indiana to 56 wins and the No. 1 seed. He had 24 points and seven assists in Game 1 as the Pacers took a 1-0 lead.
The series is remembered for Lance Stephenson's antics against James, from flagrant fouls to blowing in James' ear midgame. George had one of the best playoff series of his career, averaging 24 points including a heroic Game 5, when he put up 37 points to keep the series going, and then 29 in Game 6.
"[LeBron is] someone that motivates me," George said that season. "This league is all about guys being competitive and competing. And don't get me wrong, every time I'm matched up with him, I'm going to try to get the best out of him and come out as the best player of that game.
"But at the same time, he's been someone that I looked up to. He's someone I'm going to continue to look up to because at the end of the day, the position I want to be in is where he's at."
Phase II: Near misses as teammates
For a three-year span, between 2017 and 2019, James and George could've been teammates. They wanted to be teammates. They both had free agency windows to make it happen. They had trades on the table to make it so. They both wanted to be Lakers. But it just didn't work.
Everything changed for the pair in 2014. James left the Heat that summer to re-join the Cleveland Cavaliers and, a few weeks later, George suffered a horrific broken leg while playing in an exhibition game for Team USA.
The Pacers were never the same as their contending window closed after George missed a majority of the following season. George recovered impressively and was an All-Star again by 2016, but two straight first-round exits left him asking for a trade in the summer of 2017.
The last playoff loss was particularly painful. George was brilliant against James' Cavs, averaging 28 points, 8.8 rebounds and 7.3 assists but was overmatched in a 4-0 series sweep. James was otherworldly, averaging 32.8 points, 9.8 rebounds and nine assists on 54% shooting.
"It's really frustrating to lose to the same team, the same person," George lamented in the end. "Ultimately, it's always who I'm going to have to see and face."
Which is why there was mutual interest between George and James, who was beaten 4-1 by the Kevin Durant-infused Golden State Warriors in that year's Finals, when the Cavs showed interest after the trade request. Over the course of several days in June, the Cavs and Pacers worked to assemble a trade that eventually included the Denver Nuggets.
James and George started formally communicating about playing together, which would've formed a dynamic grouping alongside fellow star Kyrie Irving.
Before agreeing to a deal, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert held a call with James and agent Rich Paul, team sources said, to try to get a commitment for James to extend his contract if the team was willing to go all-in to get George. The framework of the trade included sending star Kevin Love and at least one future first-round pick out along with other players. James stopped short of outright committing past 2018, team sources said, but expressed great optimism about such a deal.
For a brief period, the teams thought they'd agreed on terms. The Nuggets would've received Love, the Pacers would've gotten prospect players including Gary Harris as well as multiple picks and the Cavs would've gotten George. A conference call was set up to finalize the terms, and George and James were potentially minutes away from being teammates, team sources said.
But for various reasons, the deal fell apart when it came to getting final ownership approvals, which isn't unusual on multiteam complex trades. A few days later, George was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Domantas Sabonis and Victor Oladipo. James never extended his contract, and several weeks later, Irving asked for a trade out of Cleveland.
Then in 2018, James and George were possible teammates again. The Lakers had cleared salary-cap space and had a roster full of promising prospects plus a full cupboard of draft picks to use in possible sign-and-trades. In the days leading up to the July 1 start of free agency, word spread that James might join the Lakers. The team was hoping to add George, too, and create a super team.
But George declined to give the Lakers a meeting when free agency started. He announced shortly after midnight he was staying in Oklahoma City on a four-year deal as he'd formed a bond with new teammate Russell Westbrook.
The Lakers were dismayed. They had hoped George, who is from Southern California, would've listened to their plan. As it turned out, George held something of a grudge from the year before when he felt the Lakers could've been more aggressive in pursuing him via trade when he asked out of Indiana.
"As far as the Lakers, I wanted to go to L.A.," George said in a 2018 interview. "They didn't make that happen. They didn't put nothing together. That was in the back of my mind."
He later told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski that he didn't even consider waiting for James to finalize his choice of the Lakers.
"At the time, I wanted to go obviously play back in L.A. Regardless of what was going to happen. I didn't care if I was the first one or only player to join the Lakers. It was just something about being back home, playing in front of a franchise I grew up watching," George said. "But then, you know, things change. You're somewhere else for a year, get relationships and start to feel a part of something different."
A year later, in 2019, George asked for a trade out of Oklahoma City to go to L.A. But again, it was not to be with James. He selected the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard.
The Lakers had already made their big move that summer, trading for Anthony Davis, and didn't have the same assets to compete for George.
James has since extended his contract twice with the Lakers, and George extended with the Clippers, making it unlikely they will ever play together.
Phase III: The L.A. years
For the past five years, the Clippers and Lakers have danced around each other. But the James/Davis duo and the Leonard/George pairing have never had the on-court showdown so many hoped for when the groupings formed in 2019.
The Clippers have routinely had the better record and have owned the head-to-head meetings. They have won the last eight matchups heading into Wednesday's game, including a 103-97 Clippers win on Oct. 20.
James famously declared there was no rivalry in his first game as a Laker in 2018, a game the Lakers lost. But he's come around on that a little.
"If my momma played for the Clippers and she's in the lane, she's getting punched on," James joked on his YouTube series "The Shop" earlier this year. "And I hope she be like, 'You know what son, you got that, but I'm coming back for your ass.'"
George didn't feel it either at the start, but he, too, has come around.
"There's a real rivalry within the city that I didn't understand or recognize until I became a Clipper," George told The Athletic in 2019. "It's real, it's fun, being a Southern California native and someone that grew up in the L.A. area, it's just awesome to be able to have two really good basketball teams."
In 2020 in the Orlando bubble there was a chance for there to be a true showdown as the Clippers and Lakers were lined up to play in the Western Conference finals. The teams that share the same arena have never played in the postseason, and this was set to be a high-stakes first meeting.
But the Clippers blew a 3-1 series lead to the Nuggets and the Lakers captured the title.
In the following seasons, injuries to all four players, especially Leonard, have dulled any traction in the rivalry. George has averaged 44 games per year in his first three seasons in L.A. James has missed 63 games the past two seasons combined. Last year, neither team made the playoffs.
But there's still time, and George and James are holding out hope this final chapter of their side-by-side careers will bring with it one last dramatic twist.