The Miami HEAT fell to the San Antonio Spurs 110-95 Thursday night at AT&T Center. LeBron James led the way for the HEAT with 25 points, six rebounds and three assists. Miami is now down 1-0 in the NBA Finals.
Impact Performance of the Night: Although limited in the fourth quarter with cramps, LeBron James did all he could to try and take Game 1. James was very aggressive from the start and got to the rim early on despite the Spurs converging on him. In the second half, James started to get it going from the perimeter and hit some big threes for the HEAT. In all, James shot 9-of-17 for his 25 points. On the defensive end, James was very active in the passing lanes and came up with three steals as he went for strips when the Spurs penetrated in the lane.
Dwyane Wade also had a great performance. Early on, Wade made some great cuts and was very decisive on his drives to the rim. As in the Eastern Conference Finals, Wade converted on some nice floaters inside. Wade shot 8-of-18 for 19 points, grabbed three boards and dished out two assists.
The Deciding Run: The Spurs went on a 15-4 run to go up 94-90 with 4:35 left in the game. Danny Green came alive in the fourth quarter and made some big plays for the Spurs. LeBron James answered right back with a drive, but had to come out of the game due to cramping after he landed. James would sit out the final four minutes of regulation.
Earlier, the HEAT went on a 13-2 run in the third quarter to take an early 62-60 lead. Dwyane Wade continued his hot start in the run and converted from deep.
Play of the Game: With about two minutes to go in the third quarter, Ray Allen stole an errant pass from Tony Parker, took it all the way down court to the middle of the lane and finished the one-handed slam over Danny Green to put Miami up 73-69.
Another great play came with 2:36 left in the second quarter. Norris Cole passed to Chris Bosh on the right elbow. Bosh drove right in and blew past Tim Duncan for the easy two-handed flush that cut the Spurs’ lead to 51-49.
Lastly, with 7:05 left in the first quarter, Dwyane Wade drove from the right corner into the lane. As he approached the restricted area, he fooled Tim Duncan with an excellent ball fake, spun around and finished the easy floater to put Miami up 11-10 early.
Efficiency Rating: Offensive Efficiency: 101.2; Defensive Efficiency: 115.0
Trend to Watch: Ray Allen simply came to play in Game 1. Along with the aforementioned one-handed slam in the third quarter, Allen also nailed three 3-pointers and finished with 16 points on 50 percent shooting. Allen got some good looks from deep throughout the game thanks to the solid ball movement from Miami. In the Finals, role players often can swing the game and Allen did pretty well for a majority of Game 1.
The Takeaway: It was a shame to see LeBron James miss the final four minutes of regulation due to cramping in his leg. The air conditioning in AT&T Center malfunctioned early on and temperatures approached 109 degrees on the court.
Up until that point, Miami did a great job forcing the Spurs into uncharacteristic turnovers, especially in the third quarter where they had nine.
In all, the HEAT forced the Spurs to commit 23 turnovers which they converted into 28 points. The HEAT rotated quickly and gave the Spurs no air space. San Antonio had success passing off the pick-and-rolls, especially to Tiago Splitter, but that was really the only offense it had for a long stretch in the second half. The HEAT did a good job of playing the passing lanes and being aggressive.
Chris Bosh was very aggressive in Game 1 and finished with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting and nine boards. He not only had the mid-range game going and went 3-of-4 from downtown, but he also took it inside when he had a mismatch with Danny Green on him.
Game Highlights: