El Conclusion: Big 3 Lead The Way As Spurs Take Game 1 Lead

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Miami Heat 95 Final

Recap | Box Score

 110 San Antonio Spurs
Tim Duncan, PF 33 MIN | 9-10 FG | 3-4 FT | 10 REB | 3 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 5 TO | 21 PTS | +10Aside from a couple late rotations to Dwyane Wade (in part because he was afraid of abandoning Chris Bosh who fading to the corner), he was great on both ends of the court. He’s going to have a big, big series.

Kawhi Leonard, SF 24 MIN | 3-5 FG | 1-2 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 4 TO | 9 PTS | +11He has to watch the dumb fouls. I’m specifically talking about when LeBron was getting ready to take a contested 20 footer and Kawhi reached in to pick up his second foul and didn’t play the rest of the second quarter. The Spurs don’t have another guy that can defend LeBron in space 1-on-1. Hell, Kawhi can barely do it. He found his jumper late in the game to help the Spurs pull away, but not a great game overall.

Tiago Splitter, C 23 MIN | 5-6 FG | 4-5 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 2 BLK | 4 TO | 14 PTS | +1Loved what he did tonight. Dove to the basket on the pick and roll. Wasn’t overly aggressive, but still looked for his shot and didn’t shy away from contact.

Tony Parker, PG 37 MIN | 8-15 FG | 1-2 FT | 0 REB | 8 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 4 TO | 19 PTS | +13Kind of what we’ve come to expect from Tony, especially if he’s a little beat up. He starts off well, cools off, and then can turn it up in the fourth quarter. Two days off will help his ankle, but he certainly didn’t look 100 percent. Either way, good start to the series for him.

Danny Green, SG 28 MIN | 4-9 FG | 2-2 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 2 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 13 PTS | +2Lesslie Stanford asks: “Can we get two grades for Danny Green. One for quarters 1-3 and one for the 4th quarter?” If only that were allowed. BUT, Lesslie is right, Danny gets an A+ for the fourth quarter but is in the D to C range for quarters 1-3. He defense was still solid but he was forcing shots, air balling floaters, etc. Let’s just be glad he stayed aggressive. So important moving forward.

Boris Diaw, PF 33 MIN | 1-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 10 REB | 6 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 2 PTS | +30Best two point game a guy can have. He just kept the ball moving, he kept finding open shooters. Basically he was the Swiss Army Knife he’s been all season.

Patty Mills, PG 12 MIN | 3-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 7 PTS | -3This is going to be an interesting series for Patty. On one hand, the Heat go small often and Tony and Patty should be able to play next to each other. On the other hand, he can the type of defender that tries to anticipate where a defender is going to try to jump a passing lane or whatever. The Heat will kill you if you guess wrong. That becomes an issue if he’s guarding a shooter, which is a problem since that’s pretty much every Miami wing player.

Manu Ginobili, SG 32 MIN | 5-10 FG | 3-3 FT | 5 REB | 11 AST | 3 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 16 PTS | +22Sometimes when Manu starts off shooting hot, he can cool down and still take some ill advised shots. That didn’t really happen tonight. He had 11 assists! Pretty much the perfect Ginobili offensive game. Defensively, well, let’s just say he and Dwyane Wade aren’t great at guarding each other.

Marco Belinelli, SG 18 MIN | 2-3 FG | 3-4 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 9 PTS | -11Looked infinitely better than he did against Oklahoma City. The two trips to the line show he was looking for his shot and was able to get some separation to pull the trigger.

Gregg Popovich
Good call by Pop to mix and match Duncan, Splitter and Diaw. There was a lot of talk of whether Splitter would be able to stay on the court and Pop found a way to go big, then smaller with Diaw, then bring Splitter in to attack the Heat’s smaller units.

One Thing We Saw

  1. The air conditioning thing needs to get figured out and I’m sure it will. Pretty embarrassing moment all around for the league and the AT&T Center.
  • Joseph Dooley

    Felt like game 8

  • http://seriesandtv.com/ Series And TV

    Boris and Manu are A+ on my books.

  • Andrew

    I felt like Patty merited better than a C. He hit a couple of key shots in the first half to keep the Heat from running up a big lead.

  • Stephen

    5TO’s still gets an A+? Oh wait its Tim Duncan, that’s why

  • samhl

    true , the whole bench came big tonight esp. in first half , since kawai and danny were out of rythem. they all hit big shots (marco, matty, manu , even diaw with his passing and rebounding).
    I think parker wasn’t 100% too, the heat have no shot blockers and no one to guard him especially when they go small but he turned the ball over and was having a lot of meaningless dribbles without moving the ball. hopefully rest will help his ankle get better, the heat really have no one to guard him (and really lebron can’t either because to limit him I think u need a tall defender and an athletic shot blocker at the rim where defenders lead him towards the shot blocker in the paint).
    I am tired of hearing about the air conditioning and the heat. Tim Duncan is 38 , manu is 36? and Tony is 32 and even Ray Allen is 36? and they all played great. Lebron just got muscle cramps in his leg and it happens in NBA games. I don’t know how much that has to do with the heat, yes surely u get tired quicker and u get fatigued by end of the game, but the spurs turned the ball 22 time, and that is clear indicated of fatigue which causes poor execution.

    now everyone is just saying we won the game because of the heat and not because of playing better.

  • David Donnel

    The title of this blog could not be more appropriate right now.

  • samhl

    what about the 9 of 10 fgs?? or 10 reb?? didn’t u see how much he was sweating at end of game , the ball would be slippery in his hands lol. he is posting those numbers at 38 (21/10/3) and good defense under the rim

  • Tim in Surrey

    Maybe excessive cramping is a side-effect of HGH…

  • Pauly B

    C+ for Patty seems a little harsh. Hit some shots and was the only Spur without a turnover

  • NYC

    Well look at that: El Conclusion promptly delivered same night after game. Ask and we shall receive.

    But wait… there’s more.

    The Margin’s here too. What a deal!

    But WAIT… there’s more!!

    Refresh now and there’s a fourth-yes, FOURTH-article thrown in. Four articles in one night immediately following the game. Ahhhhh!!!!!!

    Mind blown.

  • Realist

    Patty - shoots 60% - has a steal -ZERO turnovers when the team has 23 - you are kidding right at least a B-

  • Realist

    El conclusion writers hate patty

  • Realist

    60% no turnovers when rest get 23 turnovers deserved more than a c

  • senorglory

    Mills at least a B, Marco prob a D+.

  • Mac Mac

    Partially because of his defense, Miami was better when Mills was on the court.

  • Mac Mac

    All bloggers on deck: this is the NBA Finals, my friend.

  • Realist

    Maybe that’s because of the turnovers by the other spurs when he was on the court - that - + thing is stoopid

  • Ed Yates

    “On the other hand, he can the type of defender that tries to anticipate where a defender is going to try to jump a passing lane or whatever. ” - forget discussing Patty’s’ grade, just tell me what this sentence means!

  • Ryan McShane

    Can we agree that Diaw is the key to this series?

  • Kristian Holvoet

    I think so. He is the most problematic match up for Miami. With his passing, shooting, ball handling and ability to post smaller (okay, shorter) players, the Heat’s best choice is Chris Bosh. Then, maybe Rashard Lewis? or Battier? But then who guards Duncan?

    The problems for the Spurs: Diaw can’t play 40+ minutes per game to play the stretch 4 for both Tim and Tiago, which would be the ideal pairings. What can the spurs do when Diaw sits (wow, that was not my main concern coming into the series).

  • Joseph Dooley

    Great coaching job by Pop. He may have been the difference. I was wondering why Bellinelli was in the game so early in the 3rd quarter, and why Tim and Tony came out earlier than usual in the 3rd. He was keeping them fresh for the home stretch. Wade and Lebron were tired in the 4th, resorting to jumpers and slow to rotate on defense. Bad adjustments from Spo.

  • Lesslie Stanford

    Thanks for the shout out! Craziest part of this game and what I really took from the game is we had 23 turnovers and found a way to win!

  • S. (Slam) Dunk

    C+ for Millsy. Wot r u Mayor of Miami?

  • Ryan McShane

    Spoelstra said last night that Chris Bosh was their “most important player”, which is basically “key”.

    The Spurs will need some good minutes from Bonner. Rashard Lewis is also going to be that guy for the Heat.

    I’m surprised Pop didn’t go Diaw on Lewis, Duncan on Bosh, and Leonard on James last night, but then again, Leonard couldn’t stay out of foul trouble. That guy needs to spend his defensive energy doing things other than swiping at the ball before LeBron even drives. He’s probably gotten four or five fouls like that in the last two games. If he hadn’t, I think the Spurs would have had much more solid defense.