Alright welcome in to the full recap of game 5 of the 2014 NBA Finals where the San Antonio Spurs capture their 5th NBA title, routing the Miami Heat 87-104 to dethrone the now former-2x defending champs in 5 games.
Many thought this would be a great series again, full 7 game series, every game would go down to the wire, but man did the Spurs make sure they don't let a title slip away again. The Spurs dominated the Heat in every way possible all 4 games the Spurs won ended up being won in a rout and the Heat were able to come away with 1 victory in San Antonio with by a whopping 2 points. I thought this series would go 7 and San Antonio pulling out a nail biter, but they beat the Heat with ease these 3 games through team work, ball movement, and defense.
Miami Heat
The Positives
LeBron James, 31 points, 10 rebounds, 10-21 shooting. I am not going to bag on LeBron just because he lost his 3rd finals because out of the whole Miami Heat team, he has been the constant this finals. This finals for LeBron definitely remind us about his days in Cleveland where he was the only spark plug and trying to create offense for his team (not to mention they had an atrocious head coach in Mike Brown). Other than that, bottom line is LeBron came to play in these finals, while the rest of the Heat didn't.
The Negatives
The other two out of the Big 3. Dwyane Wade, 11 points, 4-12 shooting, Chris Bosh, 13 points, 7 rebounds, 6-14 shooting. Let's talk about D-Wade here for a bit. He's obviously showing some decline. Wade doesn't have the same explosiveness, the same jump in his legs as he once had. By the time the offseason starts, Miami's going to critically decide what to do with him, either make him stay and finish career in South Beach or release him, pave some way for the future. For Chris Bosh, if the Heat are considering keeping him, they need to give him cheap money because he's better off as a stretch 4. He couldn't hang with the Spurs inside the paint and that's been the Heat's biggest problem since the Big 3 era is the lack of a true rim protector.
The rest of the Miami Heat team. Yeah true Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers gave some lift, although it was in garbage time. Let's face it, aside from the Big 3, the role players for the Heat were downright atrocious. Ray Allen is getting up there with age, Birdman is getting up there with age, they didn't play Shane Battier or Udonis Haslem that much until it was too little too late. I said in my preview, the loss of Mike Miller will hurt them because nobody provided the hustle, shooting, and scoring he had and it greatly showed here in these finals because the players couldn't carry the burden of being the X-factor of the Heat.
San Antonio Spurs
The Positives
Kawhi Leonard, 22 points, 10 rebounds, 7-10 shooting. The 2014 Finals MVP. He's come a long way, having missed a critical free throw last year that could've given San Antonio the championship, slow start the first two games this year, but he has responded at the right time, putting up stellar numbers the last 3 games for the Spurs. Since Pop gave him a pep talk to be aggressive, Kawhi has averaged 23.7 points per game these last 3 games. He proved it's not about how you start, but how you finished, and he definitely finished strong. Leonard will get better from here, only 22 and has a huge amount of upside.
Ginobili and Mills. Manu Ginobili 19 points, 6-11 shooting, Patty Mills, 17 points, 6-10 shooting. Early on the Spurs weren't getting anything from their starters, but once they inserted their bench, it gave the team new life. Ginobili played a much better game this year, barely turned the ball over while being aggressive, he has a true competitive heart, whenever adversity falls on him, he'll rise to the challenge and Manu did just that. Patty Mills, once he's hot, he's hot and when he gets hot, the momentum skyrockets for the Spurs. He filled in the void Gary Neal left behind very well and he'll get better from here. Mills is the definition of heart and team player whether he's on the floor or on the bench.
Tony Parker, 16 points, 7-18 shooting. What a slow start for Parker, missing his first 7 shots, but like Leonard's performance in these finals, Parker may have started slow, but he finished strong, hitting a couple key jump shots and floaters late in the 4th quarter. That goes to show the depth of the Spurs, Parker was missing shots, but the Spurs were up big and when he got it going, all was pretty much lost for the Heat.
The Negatives
Danny Green, 0 points, 0-5 shooting. I guess you can say the only Spur who under performed was Danny Green. He had an unbelievable finals performance last year. This year, he was nowhere to be found. Lucky enough the Spurs are that deep. I think the Heat's defense really gameplanned against him this year, but they slouch on the other players that could shoot.
Conclusion
For the Spurs, they did it. They saved the dying beauty of team basketball in a professional level. As a Laker fan, I respect their philosophy of team first over individuality and they were always a tough team to go up against in the playoffs whether in the first round, second round, or conference final. With Tim Duncan winning his 5th ring, the debate is open whether or not him or Kobe dominated the 2000s. Personally for me, they deserve equal honors of being dominant players of the 2000 era and no doubt they're 1st ballot Hall of Famers and top 10 players all-time. For the Heat, a lot of questions to be asked in the offseason with the most important question of all "is the Big 3 era over?" Now where does LeBron go now that he's had success with Miami? Credit to the Heat though, 4 finals trips, really a tough task to make the finals and win it all multiple times. Other than that, this concludes my coverage of the 2014 NBA Finals and the 2013-14 regular season. It was a frustrating start, but I finished strong and that's all that matters. Aside from the NBA draft, Lakers' offseason activity, and the Kobe-Shaq article, I am not going to post that much until late August, but I will be collaborating with my friend, Stillmattic again on his Bleach blog http://bleachzealot.blogspot.com/. Until then, I'll see you guys later, stay classy.
Congrats San Antonio Spurs 2014 NBA Champions!
No comments:
Post a Comment