After having been blown out by 19 points in Game 2, Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs knew that it was their turn to adjust and respond to the adjustments made in Game 2 by Erik Spoelstra and the Miami Heat.

In Game 3 on Tuesday night, the Spurs blew out the Heat 113-77 at the AT&T Center: a 36-point blowout, making this the third-largest rout in Finals history.

Annihilation is the best word imaginable to describe this game.

After Game 2, I examined the adjustments Spoelstra made and how they resulted in a convincing Heat win

Popovich would surely respond with adjustments of their own for Game 3.

“You need to shoot well and you need to take care of the basketball”, said Popovich in the postgame interview on Sunday night after Game 2.

Did they take care of the basketball? San Antonio had 13 turnovers in Game 3 compared to 16 in Game 2, so we can say that they did do a better job of limiting those numbers.

As for the first part of Popovich’s quote, things get a lot more interesting.

The Spurs shot 48.9 percent from the field on 1.303 points per possession after having been limited to just 41 percent on 1.012 points per possession in Game 2.

The difference was clearly unbelievable three-point shooting.

On a night where the Big Three for San Antonio were unaccounted for, two role players stepped up and delivered.

Gary Neal’s minutes-per-game were being cut as the playoffs went on. In the first round, he averaged 19.3 minutes per game. In the second round, 15.3, and in the Conference Finals, 12.8, shooting 25 percent from long-range in the three rounds combined.

When his number was called upon, Neal came out and was on fire as soon as his feet were planted on the floor. He finished the game with 24 points on 9-for-17 shooting, including 6-10 from the arc.

He is now averaging 22.9 minutes per game in the series to go along with 9-for-18 shooting from long-range, all of his makes coming from above-the-break.

Having not played less then 21 minutes in any of the three Finals games, we can conclude that Popovich made a great decision by choosing to increase his playing time in this series to match up against Miami's small ball lineup. It has payed off with an average contribution of 13.7 points on 45.5 percent shooting from the field, including 50 percent from beyond the arc.

The MVP in the series so far could be Danny Green, who is averaging 18.7 points per game on an unbelievable 63.3 percent clip, including a monster 69.6 three-point percentage, averaging 5.3 makes a game. In Game 3, he scored 27 points on 9-for-15 shooting, including 7-for-9 from long-range.

What adjustments did the Spurs make offensively then?

Two words: ball movement.

San Antonio knew that they would need to keep the ball moving if they were to limit their turnover numbers. Popovich becomes furious when the offense becomes stagnant, and so, after having totaled 16 assists as a team in Game 2, the Spurs came out and moved the ball in Game 3, finishing with a total of 29 assists.

They took advantage of Miami’s lack of aggression and energy and got the shots they wanted instead of taking the shots the Heat wanted them to take: great ball movement led to great shot selection.

In Game 2, 28.9 percent of the Heat’s offense came from mid-range. In Game 3, the Spurs forced the Heat to make that part of the floor a much bigger part of their offense, and it accounted for 42.7 percent of the Heat’s offense. San Antonio’s mid-range game however accounted for only 17 percent of their offense in Game 3.

Turning to look at San Antonio’s defense, the first thing we notice is Miami, an offensive powerhouse, scoring a pitiful 77 points on a disastrous 88.8 points per possession in 48 minutes of play.

The first thing they did was force Miami to turn the ball over 16 times. This accounted for 13 points off turnovers, a much better number than the two points they got off of the Heat’s six turnovers in Game 2.

The Spurs’ defensive strategy to make LeBron James more of a facilitator then a scorer is paying dividends, as 14 of his 24 shots were beyond eight feet from the basket. Of the 14, two were makes, and he finished the game 7-for-21. Not all of his looks were tough though. In fact, he has been missing shots from mid-range and beyond quite consistently in his career in the Finals.

“I hope he continues to miss shots,” said Danny Green in the postgame interview following Game 3. “We know what kind of player LeBron is and we know he’s not at the top of his game right now.”

Keeping James so far out from the basket has also kept him off of the free-throw line, as he did not attempt a single free-throw in Game 3, the first time this has happened to him in 18 games in the Finals.

Kawhi Leonard is the major reason why the Spurs have done a fantastic job of keeping James from becoming an offensive force so far in the series. He is playing him physically, not allowing him to get into position, and when he does manage to do so and find the open lane, his teammates are doing a great job of helping him by clogging the lane. Instead of sending instant help to Leonard, the Spurs are playing James straight up with Leonard most of the time so as to deny his shooters open looks.

In a nutshell, San Antonio played James the exact same way they did in Games 1 and 2. They simply played with a lot more energy and aggression then they did in Game 2 by closing out on the Heat shooters. It is up to Spoelstra to either find a way for James to get around Leonard, his 7’3” wingspan and his teammates, or the greatest player on the planet must find his rhythm and make the shots he’s getting. It’s uncanny how he is shooting 24 percent outside of the restricted area in his 18 Finals games.

In the end, what did Popovich do differently on defense?

He made sure that his team forced more turnovers, ten more then they had in Game 2. Other then that, he simply helped his team come out with more focus and aggression, and it paid off.

The Spurs are now up 2-1 in the series and could potentially close it out at home in Game 5 if Spoelstra, James and the Heat don’t find ways to score and defend the three-ball.