The San Antoino Spurs won their fifth NBA championship in franchise history as they defeated the two-time defending NBA champion Miami Heat 104-87 in Game 5 of the 2014 NBA Finals on Sunday night at AT&T Center. The Heat, who lost the best-of-seven series 4-1, had appeared in the last four NBA Finals, won their previous 11 playoff series and were last eliminated in the postseason by the Dallas Mavericks back in the 2011 NBA Finals.
Miami blasted out as they scored the first eight points of the game and had their biggest lead over the Spurs anytime in the last five games of the NBA Finals. The Heat went on a 22-6 tear in the first seven minutes of the opening quarter. They were up 29-22 after one quarter as LeBron James poured in 17 points.
In the second quarter, the Heat had a 35-28 lead at 7:09 until San Antonio scored 14 consecutive points to take their first lead of the game 42-35 with 2:46 remaining in the first half. The Spurs led 47-40 at halftime as they outscored Miami 25-11 in the second. It was the least amount of points scored by the Heat in a quarter this postseason.
The Spurs expanded their gap to 21 points at 65-44 with 5:01 to go in the third to complete a 31-9 run over a two-period span. They had outscored their opponent at that point of the third quarter 18-4. The Heat trailed 77-58 after three quarters. The closest Miami cut the deficit to in the final quarter was 14 points as they were down 79-65 with 9:56 remaining.
James compiled a double-double for the Heat as he had a team-high 31 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in 41 minutes of play. Chris Bosh contributed 13 points along with seven rebounds while Dwyane Wade added 11.
Kawhi Leonard, who was named NBA Finals MVP, had 22 points and 10 rebounds in 34 minutes for the Spurs. Five-time NBA champion Tim Duncan put together 14 points with eight rebounds and Tony Parker had 16 points. San Antonio picked up bench scoring as Patty Mills got 17 points and Manu Ginobili dropped in 19.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment