Spurs Pull Away in Game 1 With Fantastic 4th Quarter Finish

Spurs 1-0

Alright welcome in to the full recap for game 1 of the 2014 NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs where the Spurs completed 1 game of the revenge rematch pulling away from the champs 95-110 with a 36 point performance in the 4th quarter.

Some things I have to get off my chest, I was dealing with all kinds of issues on Blogger during this game from the halftime post to the 2nd half of the Q-by-Q, where usually my 3rd and 4th quarter are set to update over the halftime post and Blogger said "an error occurred in this page" something like that. Same with the halftime post, hence why there are some texts that are missing that Blogger didn't save as I was typing. So hopefully those issues get resolved before the next game or I'm going to be really angry because I want to cover the Finals in real time as much as possible. So I apologize for that.

Miami Heat

The Positives

Big 3. LeBron James 25 points, Chris Bosh 18 points, and Dwyane Wade 19 points. In my opinion, I thought both big 3s from both teams did well for the most part. LeBron, we all know with him in the early stages of the big moment, he tends to be a little passive not looking for his shot. Well I'm not going to give him crap because he turned it up in the 2nd half and gave Miami the lead at the end of the 3rd, 9-17 from the field is a decent stat in shots for the current best player on the planet. Bosh definitely stood out this game firing the first shot in the game and hitting 3-4 from beyond the arc, also finished with 9 rebounds and part of the fact was that Chris Andersen didn't play much, Udonis Haslem didn't even play at all so Bosh had a lot of work to do banging with Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter in the paint. Wade, he had a decent game, showed some vintage moves when his knees were not bothering him.

Ray Allen 16 points, 6-12 shooting. Allen's gonna pick up the slack that Mike Miller left behind considering he's a prominent bench player that provides shooting and scoring, he had a good showing defensively too racking up 5 steals, expect Allen to get involve more in future games. Though he's getting up there in age, he's still a dangerous, streaky shooter from beyond the arc and no Mike Miller, Allen's providing the shooting unless guys like Battier or Cole step up. 

The Negatives

Point guard play. Really lackluster point guard play from the Miami Heat. Mario Chalmers 3 points, 5 turnovers and Norris Cole 2 points, 5 assists, 2 steals. The offense just wasn't there for Chalmers and Cole couldn't stop an ankle injury-riddled Tony Parker this game. Chalmers or Cole are one of the X-factors for the Heat and if one of the point guards step up, sky's the limit for the Heat, but the point guards were ice cold this game.

Rashard Lewis 10 points, 4-10 shooting. Spoelstra's finding answers to the 4 spot and Lewis didn't play great today, so expect Battier or Haslem to be in the starting rotation at the 4 by next game.

San Antonio Spurs

The Positives 

Big 3. Tim Duncan 21 points, Tony Parker 19 points, Manu Ginobili 16 points. Sensational game by Ginobili also adding 11 assists, he was one of the key reasons why the Spurs were able to clamp Miami's defense down a bit. As I said, one of the keys for the Spurs is for Ginobili to limit his turnovers while being aggressive and Manu only committed 2 TOs. Didn't take any shots and he provided the perfect balance for scoring and facilitating. Duncan, the Big Fundamental getting some touches in the paint, I mean they got to him early and he was hitting every shot, well nearly, he finished shooting 9-10 from the field. Feeding the ball inside to Duncan pretty much exposed Miami's lack of defense within the interior. Parker bad ankle at all, also finished with 8 assists, he was missing shots he could make early on, but he finished strong in the 2nd half.

Tiago Splitter 14 points, 5-6 shooting. Splitter surprised me this game, he was well-respected defensively, but offensively he was a laughing stock. What a difference a year makes. Splitter was the X-factor this game for the Spurs and his improvement on the offensive side definitely showed. 

Danny Green 13 points, 4-9 shooting. I said in my halftime post, if Danny Green or Kawhi Leonard, or both get it going, the Spurs pull away and Green came alive in the 4th. He was a non-factor early on this game, but he was able to adjust and find his rhythm at the right time. 

The Negatives

Kawhi Leonard 9 points, 3-5 shooting. Also a non-factor early on, but hit his shots when it mattered the most, but he didn't reach his double-figure point totals and the Spurs need a really fluid, balanced game from him if they want to pull away from Miami early on in this series.

Turnovers. San Antonio barely commit any turnovers, but they committed like 22 turnovers this game, part of it was that I heard that the Spurs' arena, the air conditioning malfunctioned and caused some fatigue among players. Not using that as an excuse, but the Spurs will correct those turnovers, if it continues, then credit to Miami's defense.

Conclusion

The Spurs take a 1-0 lead to begin the NBA Finals. Like I said it's a dog fight, so don't be surprised if the Heat respond back because they barely go back to Miami down 2-0, they possess the art of stealing home court advantage. For the Spurs, the turnovers should be easy for them to correct, I'm sure Coach Pop will give them an earful after learning they committed 22 turnovers. Game 2 on Sunday. I'll see you guys then, I'm out.