Miami taking a leaf out of san antonios book from last year and doing a great job of walling off the paint.

Spurs really need green, bellinelli or mills to fire.

Parker also playing poorly

Also nba league pass is down, for the 2nd time maybe ever that ive seen.

So its not only the air con issue that doesnt only happen to the NBL...

9 turnovers for the spurs in the 3rd. Jesus.

I think Lebron has never really had a great, memorable finals series, and this is gonna be it. Unlucky for san antone.

I mean he's won back to back titles, but he hasnt ever dropped a bird or Jordan esque finals performance. This will be it. Hes gonna average 35.

I am not even watching the game (at work), but this must be an absolute classic judging by the box score.

Woah, LeBron looks really bad, I mean injured...

Is it cramp or something worse? Spurs up with 3.00 minutes to go and JAMES will not return in this game!

Games was on the line and the wheels fell off...Spurs share the load.

I am not judging how serious Lebron's cramps were..

But lets be honest, Jordan would never sit out the last 5 minutes of an NBA Finals game.

I followed via box scores so hard to assess properly but looked like once Spurs stopped turning the ball over in Q3 and early Q4 they were able to score and shutdown Heat running game (their strentgh IMO)

"If James comes good, Spurs should be worried.... If Heat can tidy up the passes and shots then Miami looking alright"

Wut?

You could say that about the Spurs - they had 22 turnovers!

Horrible to play with cramps, I don't it was realistically possible for Lebron to stay out there and try to play though it.

Great to see Patty playing well

Spurs shot 59% from the field.Deserved to win.

So, let's start a conspiracy thoery shall we?

1. LeBron suffers from cramps, sometimes, maybe more than he should...
2. The A/C isn't working properly in the stadium (Spurs home game), conditions are going to be especially draining on the body.
3. Spurs prepare better for a team oriented game and share some of the load rather than rely on one or two superstars.
4. Miami get off to a flyer, but Spurs know they need to hang in there as they will run the game out better, especially in these conditions.
5. LeBron goes down with bad cramp late in 4th quarter and Spurs run all over the Heat just like they planned it!

Spurs were subbing frequently and pushing the ball at every opportunity which paid off against a weaker bench. The turnovers from SAS kept Miami in it until that flurry of 6-of-6 threes in the fourth.

Definitely looked like cramps for LeBron and not something that he could play through without further damage it seemed.

Diaw was a huge help, +30 with 10 rebounds and six assists. Ginobili with 16/5/11 and three steals. At one point Manu had outscored Miami's bench.

San Antonio's bench combined for 34/20/18 which is very handy but the starters hardly left it to them - Leonard the only one to miss double figures with 9.

36-17 last quarter.

Patty got pulled by Pop at one stage for bad D, but was otherwise useful.

Haralabos Voulgaris not too complimentary about Patty's D:

Patty is an atrocious defender RT @JoeGoodmanJr: Popovich unhappy with Mills' defense. Putting Belinelli in the game. Bosh checking in, too.

Patty doesn't have the body to be a great defender, but he could be a lot better if he didn’t needlessly over help and shoot lanes

@Caplan_NBA Can live with him not getting boards or getting beat by a more physical gifted player, not with him just freelancing the lanes

Don't take my post out of context.

I don't know how well MJ would have played with cramp.

But I damn well know he would have tried to play on it.

That's not disrespecting anyone. Just saying that's what MJ would have done.

I think the irony of my post was slightly lost in its disguise as a serious one...

Isaac, I agree with that, but also I think the attack on Patty's D is a little harsh, he is a shooting guard if they want strong D bring on Josephs.

Funny thing is that back at the 2008 Olympics, scouts and coaches (including Coach K) were raving about his defence.

Coach K in particular:

"I love him defensively; I'm sure Brian does too. I’ve been a defensive coach my whole life and there aren’t very many people who stay with a guard - like right on him – when he has the ball – and if he’s beaten, he doesn’t retreat; he continues to play the play. He’s got to be an extremely tough-minded kid. As good as he is offensively, I think he’s got a chance to be a great defender."

I think he is a good on-ball defender.

But gets exposed a bit off the ball - fighting around screens and positioning on the help side.

I remember seeing him in 2008 pressure the ball-handlers all the way up the court the whole game.

Do the NBA coaches not want him to do this because of the risk of getting burnt and it ending up being a 5 on 4 situation?

The 2014 NBA Finals Series:

San Antonio vs Miami

aka.

Gramps vs. Cramps

I would agree that Patty has a tendency to sag off his opponent to over help or to close a lane up (and it rarely is effective given his size), but i wouldn't say he is atrocious because he can often make up for it with harassing defence leading to steals and turnover.

Good question MACDUB, given patty gets limited minutes it would be effective to allow patty to play on ball pressure the whole way up the court on his player, it would likely lead to at least a steal and possibly an offensive foul.

That was game one, being a home game for the spurs, to me Spurs were expected to win this one, you should win your home games in a playoff series, if you do you maintain par, if you win an away game you are above par. To me it would have been more shocking if the Heat had won and then turned home court into there favour.

So no shocks to me, i still pick Heat in 7, even though its going to be a Spurs home game, i just think LeBron and Co will find a way to get that win!

"Thinking that was more of a Miami loss than a Spurs win"


How so?

The Spurs were 14/16 from the field and 6/6 from 3 in the 4th quarter. Unbelievable shooting.

People will go on about how the Heat didn't win because they didn't have Lebron on the court. What you have to realise is that their defence was the issue - not their offense.

Lebron is a great defensive player but I highly doubt his presence would have changed the result as his teammates couldnt handle the Spurs down the stretch.

SA deserved this. They won this by executing down the stretch. Their clinical 4th quarter display won them that game.

I agree that "atrocious" from Haralabos is harsh and you can see he reels back a little from there.

Doubt MJ would've played through that. Not a matter of toughness but of actually being able to walk or be playing in the next game. If the Spurs are pushing and exploiting the heat, surely at some point a sub is going to be more useful.

Spoelstra said that LeBron wanted to check back in with 3-4 minutes to go but he told him "Don't even think about it."

Patty is one of the worst defenders who tries super hard in the league. They are a select group. He is just clueless. Watch how many times he does full 360 turns when running around screens off the ball. He is just spinning like a top for god knows why, constantly turning his back on his man and losing footing.

Then on the ball, he plays what I call "australian guard defense": body up way too tight on your man and then get blown by / sprint to recover / then repeat.

The weird thing is he is trying so hard out there (which is half the battle) he just has no idea how to play defense.

I think the heat are good value to win at this point at around $3. They havent lost anything except a game 1 on the road, which they always lose anyway. Tremendous value.

I used to suffer from cramps a bit but have been better lately thanks to improved flexibility and better fluid intake. Once they set in you can get the pain to subside and the mobility back somewhat but the second you explode off one leg for a layup or quick move its TWANG and youre stuffed again.

So maybe he couldve come back in but the second he tried to jump explosively he would have been done (as we saw the last time he checked out after that layup). You could argue that he could have provided value down the stretch as a decoy and as a great passer / the smartest guy in the league without playing explosively.

Try increasing your Magnesium intake Mick.

Oh, and on the Mills defense, personally I don't agree with your example and I'll explain why.

The players Patty is asked to guard in the NBA are among the fastest on the planet, explosive and quick.

They also shoot the ball from range, better than almost anyone else on the planet, this is why they are in the NBA of course.

In truth, I think Mills is trying very hard, but I also believe he will get better at defending in isolation, which is what I think you are refering to.

As far as team defense and what he brings to the table for his team, I don't think he is a liability, this is what seems to be the perception and IMHO I don't agree with it...

Everybody gets cramps
even the best of them
green won the game
fire
cant knock it
everybody chopping at lebron cause he is human for once
Mills leave him alone , when hes got the boomers jersey on , hes the best player on the floor . but for the spurs , he is the backup . does what he can but is not expected to be the replacement
his game is very different to parkers