MidValleySports.Com

Steven Mercado

By Steven Mercado

The San Antonio Spurs proved me wrong. They did not need a game to get back into the mix of things, as they beat the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the NBA Finals at the American Airlines Arena by the score of 92-88.

Tonight, the Heat fight to stay alive in Game 2. With a triple-double from LeBron James in Game 1, with 18 points, 18 rebounds, and 10 assists and Dwyane Wade’s 17-point performance, the Heat did not play particularly bad. They beat the Spurs in rebounds, assists, and field goal percentage.

The Spurs simply made the right plays at the right time, only committing four turnovers all game. For the majority of the game, whenever the Heat would make a shot, the Spurs would answer with a shot of their own. The Spurs finally pulled ahead with seven minutes left in the game when Kawhi Leonard tipped the ball in off a Gary Neal miss to make the score 79-78. He finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Tony Parker proved to be the one causing the most headaches for the Heat as he was the top scorer in the game with 21 points. He also dished out six dimes grabbed two steals. Miami did their best to stop Parker, but when you have a guy who is scoring nearly half of his points in the fourth quarter, including the game-winning runner with 5.2 seconds left in the game where he lost his balance, went down to his knees, kept his dribble alive, turned the corner and got the shot off just before the shot clock buzzer sounded. The guy is simply unguardable.

The Heat’s chances of winning would increase if Chris Bosh would stop taking so many outside shots. Ever since head coach Erik Spoelstra has allowed him to shoot threes, it seems that he has fallen in love with the long-range shot. What happened to the Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors? Miami could use an inside presence like that.

After looking at Game 1, it looks like the Heat need to have their offense firing on all cylinders. LeBron only had 18 points thanks to Leonard’s defense. While Leonard guarded James in Game 1, James only scored six points on two-of-eight shooting. If he can continue to keep LeBron out of the paint, the Heat will quickly be extinguished against this Spurs team.