The San
Antonio Spurs proved me wrong. I’ll be the first to say it, I didn’t expect
them to come out firing, and I definitely didn’t expect Danny Green and Gary
Neal to have career nights.
The two
shooting guards scored a combine 51 points, and made a total of 13 threes to
help their team destroy the Heat 113-77. I mean, this was a butt whooping from
the start. Throughout the entire game, it looked as if the Spurs were in
complete control, just like the Heat were in game 2. LeBron played solid
defense, and the Heat came out playing aggressively, but Parker and Duncan
didn’t falter like they did Sunday, and only turned over the ball 12 times,
holding the Heat to 11 fast break points.
The MVP of
last night’s game has to be Danny Green. I mean, the guy went off: 27 pts on
9-15 shooting, and 7-9 from three. This is the same guy who shot 6-6 two nights
earlier. Danny Green is making $4 million this season, and he made LeBron,
Bosh, and Wade look like overpaid fools. Green was hitting threes almost 3-4
feet off the line. It almost looked like every shot he put in the air was a
sure fire jumper (basically, it was).
No Miami
Heat player was able to contain him. Knick fans all know that in order to beat
the Heat, the three point shooters needed to go off, because the Heat play poor
perimeter defense. That was surely the case tonight, with Parker and Ginobili
passing a total 14 assists.
Now, LeBron
James, the king of the court, the beast of the southern wild, the man of steel,
the avatar in a red jersey…played no better than Carmelo Anthony on a bad
night. LeBron said after the game, “I gotta do more, I gotta be better.” He is
exactly right. After shooting an abysmal 7-21 and only dishing out 5 assists,
the 2013 MVP had an NBA finals night Michael Jordan never conceived of, in a
bad way. MJ would never score less than 20 in the finals (I don’t think he has,
but I’ll get back to you). I know Kobe never played that poorly on this stage.
San Antonio is a tough place to play, but this is the NBA Finals! You can’t be saying
that you gotta do more, you just gotta do more!
Ok, I’m
done yelling at LeBron, I know the media is on his case and he doesn’t need be
chirping on about how terrible he played. I give credit to Kawhi for shutting
him down. My biggest qualm with any Heat player not named LeBron is someone you
wouldn’t expect. Not Bosh surprisingly, and not Wade, but Chalmers. The big
three played like a small three, but they did decide to show up and compete. I
cannot say the same for their “reliable” point guard. In Chalmers’ 20 minutes,
he was able to shoot 0-5 with 0 points and 4 turnovers. Spoelstra then asked
Norris Cole to step in, who shot 3-8 with 3 turnovers. In order to win a
basketball game, the team point guards must take of the basketball. Chalmers,
who was the leading scorer of Game 2, played the worst basketball of anyone on
the court last night, and I expect his play to remain in the dumpster for the
rest of this uncomfortable road trip.
Popovich
knows how to get the best out of his guys, and he certainly did that tonight.
My only question is, can they continue their hot shooting streak and take 2
more games from the Heat before going back to Miami? I think they can take 1,
but only time will tell.
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