One down, three to go, and the San Antonio Spurs will have won their fifth title in franchise history.
Game 1 was all it promised to be and more, as the Spurs stole homecourt advantage from the top-seeded Miami Heat in a 92-88 win.
Tony Parker was the hero for San Antonio as he created a new HORSE shot by challenging the shot clock with 5.2 left on the game clock. With the clincher, the Spurs’ record of Game 1 victories in the NBA Finals improved to 5-0.
The question most people wanted answered was whether Kawhi Leonard would be successful in defending LeBron James. The pressure was great and the spotlight was bright, but the 21-year-old showed up in his first NBA Finals appearance, “limiting” James to 18 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists. The catch? Miami’s best player was 7-for-16 from the field, including 1-for-5 from on three-point attempts.
Leonard did a fantastic job defending James. He was physical with him all night, checking him in the post and cutting off his driving lanes, forcing him into tough shots from outside the paint all night. James had 12 points in the paint for the game, but worked hard for them. Outside of five feet, LeBron was 2-for-10 in the game. Leonard also did a great job of denying him the ball, surrendering only 16 shot attempts. In the Finals, one would expect the Heat’s leading scorer to attempt more shots than the team’s third offensive option.
Of course, the 6’6” product out of San Diego State was not the sole reason for James’ inefficient scoring night.
The Spurs did a good job of doubling James in the post, especially when Danny Green was guarding him. They would intelligently wait until he would dribble the ball before pouncing on him. They also did a great job of clogging the lane and helping deny James many ball touches. San Antonio would collapse three or four guys on every drive while recovering well on Miami’s three-point shooters.
In order for the Heat to win, James needs the ball in his hands often and needs to mix up his offense in order to catch the Spurs off guard as often as possible. This will result in open looks for his shooters more often then not. Also, four free-throw attempts is not nearly enough for LeBron, even though two of them, both makes, came in the clutch with 31.3 seconds left in the game to cut the Spurs’ lead to two. He needs to be more aggressive in the offense, commanding it to go through him nearly every time, and needs to drive the lane more often. This will either result in made shots at the rim, free-throws, assists to open shooters, nothing, or worst-case scenario, an offensive foul.
Dwyane Wade was very efficient, active and aggressive in the first half.
“I’m trying to be aggressive early. My teammates and my coaches [are] putting me in positions where I can be [aggressive],” said Wade at halftime. He ended the first half with 13 points, the most he has scored in any first half this postseason.
The need for the Wade to give the Heat an aggressive second option on offense was clear in the first half, but he disappeared in the second half, as Wade scored four points in the third quarter and none in the fourth.
As for Chris Bosh, he was an utter mess by shooting 6-for-16 from the field, including 0-for-4 from three and 1-for-5 in the fourth quarter. At first glance, we could say that Bosh only made 28 percent of his three-point attempts during the regular season. However, if we take a closer look, we see that he was shooting 48 percent from the arc in the postseason prior to the Finals, including 50 percent in the series against the Pacers. Bosh had great looks from mid-range and from the three-point line all night, but could not knock down the shots. It is evident that Gregg Popovich’s strategy is to give Bosh long jumpers and threes, as he has no choice but to pick his poison against a team with so many offensive weapons. So far, it seems like he has made the correct decision.
We can deduce that Ray Allen’s long slump against the Pacers that seemingly ended in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals is confirmed to be officially over after his solid contribution last night as he scored 13 points on 3-for-4 shooting, all three-point makes, as well as 4-for-5 from the free throw line, three of those makes coming in the clutch as he was fouled by Green with 1:28 left in the game to bring the Heat within three. It also helps that the Heat are not facing a team as effective as the Pacers or the Chicago Bulls at defending the three-point shot.
The question remains, what allowed San Antonio to win this game even though they were out-rebounded by a poor rebounding team?
They simply took care of the ball.
The Spurs had a total of four turnovers for the game, including zero in the final 12 minutes of play. Miami takes pride in forcing turnovers and capitalizing on them with their deadly fast breaks, but San Antonio did not give them to opportunity to do so.
When asked how they managed to take such good care of the ball, Popovich replied, “I have no clue. Sometimes you have turnovers, sometimes you don’t. We don’t do ‘no turnover’ drills.”