Game one of the NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs was fantastic. It had drama, beautifully executed basketball, and one of the silliest plays I’ve ever seen in a finals game. RPadholic 1ceman was on the scene and snapped some excellent photos that you can see in a gallery below. Naturally, I want your thoughts to the start of the NBA Finals. Let’s do this!
Tony Parker’s Shot: His shot at the end of the game was ridiculous. He dribbled around like a dick for 20 seconds, fell down, got up, and managed to hit an awkward bank shot with 0.1 seconds left on the clock. While that’s impressive on its own, LeBron James was draped all over him. Just…wow.
While I admire Parker’s game, I don’t trust him. He’s French and sleeps with married women. That said, the French thing, getting dumped by Eva Longoria for sending naughty text messages, and getting his eye damaged in the crossfire of the Team Chris Brown vs. Team Drake battle royal aren’t enough to negate how crazy that shot was. If the Spurs win this series, Parker’s “The Shot” will be replayed for decades to come. Even if they lose, it will get a fair amount of play.
Underrated stat that’s not getting enough play: Parker had 0 turnovers in the game.
Kawhi Leonard’s Hands: While LeBron James had a great game (18 points, 18 rebounds, 10 assists), he’s had more spectacular playoff games and the Heat really needed one of those spectacular performances last night. It’s not unusual to be loved by anyone for James to shoot over 50 percent, but last night he was under that mark and Kawhi Leonard was a big reason why. He played some nice defense on James, which is especially impressive considering that he’s only 21 and this is his first NBA Finals. His unusually large hands help his defensive game. Put on a pair of oven mitts and you’ll understand what it’s like to have Kawhi Leonard-sized hands. They remind me of Tom and Jerry cartoons when Jerry would cause Tom’s hand to get slammed by a door and it would comically balloon. Leonard’s paws are comically ballooned 24/7.
Fourth Quarter Woes: The game was really tight for the first three quarters. It was wonderfully executed basketball, with only a few breakdowns (most noticeably the Spurs’ transition defense). In the fourth quarter, the Spurs defense got a little bit better and the Heat tightened up just a bit. Miami made some poor decisions and sloppy plays that resulted in a bunch of Q4 turnovers. Miami had four turnovers through three quarters and four in Q4 alone. As amazing as Parker’s aforementioned shot was, it was the defense and turnovers that decided the game. It’s fascinating that it came down to subtle elevation by one team and subtle decline by the other.
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Chris Bosh Sucking: Poor Bosh. He’s been getting slammed for his 2013 playoff run and his 6-for-16 game last night added fuel to the fire. I haven’t read much about Mario Chalmers’ 3-for-10 performance, but he gets a pass for not being one of the “Big Three” and getting paid a lot less. I’m a fan of Bosh; he’s one of the nerdier and more interesting players in the NBA. I’d like to see him do better. The upside of Bosh sucking is that it leads to a lot of dinosaur-related jokes on ESPN.com. Those crack me up.
Your Take: Now it’s your turn! Kindly leave your thoughts on game one and predictions on game two in the comments section.
Go Spurs!
That game was horrible. There officiating was horrible. There were at least three or four non-calls for walking/traveling. Whats-his-name is all over LeBron like a hungry zombie on a brain and nothing gets called, yet when Bosh lightly brushes up against someone, it’s a foul.
Whatever. Bad officiating goes with the game, I guess.
The only quarter they don’t win is the last one. Gha! So frustrating because I know they are better than this. There was only about three to five minutes when they were really in “attack” mode during the second quarter. For most of the rest of the game, they were pretty flat. The missed shots, missed free throws, turnovers killed us. Just a bunch of stupid stuff.
I know the Heat can beat the Spurs easily if they just stop turning the ball over in such stupid, clumsy ways and make a few more of their shots. Bosh has typically been inconsistent and Wade is playing through pain (knees). I know that James likes to pass the ball around to develop the multiple threat from all the players, but sometimes, I think he’s too generous with the ball.
I have to respect the mature, selfless LeBron for passing the ball around and elevating the team, but man, sometimes, you just need the angry, selfish “Hulk Smash” LeBron and just give him the damn ball on every play, clear the lane, and have him pound it in.
Credit to the Spurs for blockading the paint for most of the night. Their defense locked that down pretty tight so it was hard to get penetration. Their 3-point shooting was better than ours, too. I cringed when the Heat would sacrifice a defender to move in and leave that one guy by himself behind the 3-point line. We paid dearly for making those mistakes.
All in all, I knew from day 1 this was going to be a long series. If the Heat can stop shooting themselves in the foot, I know we can win. What amazed me was as bad as they were playing last night, they managed to win three of four quarters.
Hopefully, I can see them tie the series on Sunday.
-M
Your three-point shooting was good in the first half then got cold in the second. As for the bad calls, I thought the refs did a bad job all around. I too would have liked to have seen LeBron go into eff-you mode. The Heat have a more talented “Big Three,” but the Spurs are arguably deeper. I thought the Spurs were screwed whenever Parker was on the bench, but they held their own. That’s a credit to Coach Pop’s vaunted system and possibly a dig on Coach Spo not taking advantage of matchups.
It will be a cold day in hell before Spo out coaches Pop.
That’s absolutely true, from a logical standpoint. Since Spoelstra is part Filipino, I have to irrationally believe that he’ll have a day when Red Auerbach possesses him and he briefly becomes the greatest basketball genius on Earth.
It was a good game to watch, and unlike Iceman I actually thought the officiating wasn’t that bad, especially when compared to other playoff games this year. There were definitely some missed calls on both sides, but I had almost forgot what it was like to watch a game without a foul being called each possession!
The overall game was very close, and I definitely expected it to be a tough series, but I was a little surprised how the Heat managed to come out with so little fire. Even though the game was played at a fast pace, which is where the Heat shine, they were not shooting their high percentage shots which means they had too many missed opportunities to pull away from the Spurs. The biggest example is Bosh’s wide open 3 point shot late in the 4th. I don’t care how open he is for that shot, Lebron should have taken that one to the pain because Bosh can only consistently hit the corner 3 or the midrange. Bosh took something like 4 perimeter 3s throughout the game and didn’t hit any of them; wasted possessions. Part of that just has to do with Bosh being in a bad slump lately, and part of it was the Spurs defense keeping him out of the corners, but either way it equaled low percentage shooting. Chalmers, James, and Battier also had poor shooting games, although James did an excellent job facilitating and rebounding. No real excuse for Battier, Chalmers plays fast and loose because he knows he can either make the shot or if it misses he still won’t be the person who gets blamed if they lose. James definitely needed to take control of the teams shots a little more and get closer to 25 points.
Wade had a decent night shooting, best out of all the starters I believe, but if James wasn’t going to get more than 20 points Wade needed to step up. I never expected him to, but it still would have been nice to see. Personally I don’t really care for him, and he just hasn’t been able to take control of a game consistently for a long time now.
Allen’s free throws near the end of the game were incredibly tense to watch, and the only reason they aren’t being talked about is because of Parker’s phenomenal last second prayer directly following. He is definitely not a favorite player of mine, but his 3s and free throw shots are greatly appreciated at this time. I might actually be sad to see him leave if he really does end up optioning out of his contract after this year so he can go sign a one year deal and retire as a Celtic.
The big thing in every game of this series is going to be the meticulous things. I’m not so sure we will see a blowout game from either team, rather up to 6 more games of close back and forth games like we just saw. Turnovers, high percentage opportunities, and free throws are going to be the difference makers in this series.
In the end it was a great game to watch and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the series. Go Lebron!