NBA Playoffs Blog – Page 56 – NBA Blog

Tony Parker having fun, happy to be back in NBA Finals

Despite the notion they’re old, the Spurs are actually overall the younger, less-experienced team in these finals. Miami has nine players in their 30s to the six on the Spurs, and their Big Three and Bonner are the only Spurs to have played in the NBA Finals.

That makes it easier for the Spurs to enjoy this trip more than when they were the team expected to be here every year.

”We definitely are having fun,” Tony Parker said. ”I think we appreciate every moment. We don’t take anything for granted, because it’s been a long time. It’s been six years. Felt like forever. After the Memphis series, there was a lot of emotion.”

Heat veteran Shane Battier wasn’t exactly sold on the notion of this Spurs transformation into a happy-go-lucky group.

”Don’t believe them, first of all,” he said. ”They are extreme competitors and they have a level of self-deprecation I think that is part of them, but don’t buy it for one second. Those guys are killers. They’re cut-throat and they will stomp on you if need be, and we’re the same way.

”We appreciate the opportunity to play in the finals. Difficult to get here. Hardest thing you’ll do in this game is to try and win a championship, so we appreciate the opportunity and we want to make the most of it,” he said.

Reported by Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press

LeBron rethinking game plan against Spurs

Coming off a Game 1 loss when he saw his triple-double go to waste and was outdueled in the fourth quarter by Tony Parker, James knew he’d be hit from all sides about his approach for Sunday. The basic underlying tone was, why was he so content in the opener to set up misfiring teammates right until the final gun, rather than “go Cleveland’’ on the Spurs and try to win the game all by himself?

But he wasn’t about to tip his shooting hand.

“We’ll see what type of game plan I come out with,’’ he said. “It will be dumb of me to reveal it today.’’ …

He doesn’t need to reveal anything to anyone, but he does need to figure out how to solve a defense that is entirely different than the one that the Pacers presented in the Eastern Conference finals. Dwyane Wade talked about the need to “crack the code’’ in this next game to avoid a 2-0 series crater, and the one who that really falls on is James.

Reported by Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News

Playoffs not fun unless you win, says D-Wade

He is playing on basketball’s greatest stage in front of adoring crowds and a global TV audience, but for Dwyane Wade there is little joy to be found at this late stage of a grueling season.

The 31-year-old Miami Heat shooting guard knows all too well the rigors of playoff basketball as he is competing in his third consecutive National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals.

“Playoffs ain’t fun, man. I’m sorry to bust anyone on the outside’s bubble. As a player in the playoffs, you have no joy until it’s over and you won,” Wade, a two-time NBA champion whose Heat trail the best-of-seven Finals 1-0, said on Friday.

“If you don’t win, you have no joy for a while. So for us it’s the grind every day as a team of trying to win the series, trying to win four games in the series.”

Reported by Simon Evans of Reuters

Playoffs: Chris Bosh struggling with shot lately

Chris Bosh was 6 for 10 from 2-point range, 0 for 4 from 3-point range, including a miss from long range that would have gotten the Heat within one point with about a minute remaining.

The Heat have no problem with Bosh taking the long shot, though the Spurs were clearly trying to ensure that the likes of LeBron James, Ray Allen and Mike Miller did not have any good looks from 3-point land in the final minutes. Bosh was alone, the shot missed, and the Heat wound up falling in Game 1.

”No mattter what the situation is I have confidence in myself and I know my teammates have confidence in me,” Bosh said. ”Every shot I shoot I expect to go in. Some do, some don’t.”

He’s now shooting 14 for 50 – 28 percent – in his last five games.

Reported by Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press

Tiredness and late turnovers cost Heat in Finals Game 1, says Wade

Miami guard Dwyane Wade said the Heat may have paid the price for their gruelling seven-game series against the Indiana Pacers as the San Antonio Spurs took advantage of late turnovers and missed opportunities to win game one of the Finals 92-88.

The Spurs took care of Memphis in four games in the Western Conference final, a full week before Miami’s game seven against the Pacers and while there is always a debate over ‘rust v rest’ as an advantage, Wade felt the Heat had tired.

“I thought that we were a little fatigued, honestly, in the fourth quarter, looking around,” Wade, who had 18 points, told reporters.

“We looked like a team that came off a seven-game series. I thought we got some shots we wanted but we were a little careless at times as well. We turned it over,” he said.

“We did a great job all game but having five turnovers in the fourth quarter isn’t going to win you a game, especially not in the Finals.

“We’ll be better prepared next time and hopefully make better decisions in the fourth quarter.”

The five Miami turnovers in the final quarter resulted in six points for the Spurs.

Reported by Simon Evans of Reuters

Tony Parker stepped up in 4th quarter of Finals Game 1 for Spurs

Tony Parker led a masterful fourth quarter performance from San Antonio as the Spurs beat the Heat 92-88 in the opening game of the NBA Finals in Miami on Thursday.

The Heat led 72-69 at the end of the third quarter but the defending NBA champions were out-scored 23-16 in the fourth and Parker sealed the victory with a superb late basket as the shot clock expired.

With the Spurs possessing a two-point advantage and on their likely final play of the game, Parker dribbled and wriggled and yet was still faced with the daunting presence of LeBron James in front of him.

With time and space running out, Parker slipped to his knees but managed to leap back up and find the basket with a jump shot from 16 feet (4.8 metres) that put San Antonio four points up with just 5.2 seconds remaining.

“We were very fortunate. It looked like he had lost it two or three times… but he stuck with it,” Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich told reporters.

“He got control of it again and then got it up there on the rim. It was a great effort by Tony,” he said.

Reported by Simon Evans of Reuters

Spurs beat Heat 92-88 in NBA Finals Game 1

The San Antonio Spurs still have that winning NBA Finals formula of good defense and a little luck on offense.

Tim Duncan overcame a slow start to finish with 20 points and 14 rebounds, Tony Parker banked in a desperation jumper on a broken play with 5.2 seconds left and the Spurs withstood LeBron James’ triple-double to beat the Miami Heat 92-88 on Thursday night in a thrilling Game 1.

Parker ended up with 21 points after referees reviewed his shot to make sure it just beat the shot clock, giving San Antonio a four-point edge in the game that was close the whole way.

”We got a little bit lucky in Game 1,” Parker said. ”Sometimes that’s what it takes to win games.”

Playing for the championship for the first time since sweeping James’ Cleveland Cavaliers in 2007 for their fourth title, the Spurs improved to 5-for-5 in Game 1s, hanging around for three quarters and then blowing by the defending champions midway through the fourth.

Manu Ginobili, the third member of San Antonio’s Big Three that has combined for 99 postseason victories together, finished with 13 points, and Danny Green had 12.

”It doesn’t matter how we’re categorized – old, veterans, whatever you call us, we’re in the mix,” the 37-year-old Duncan said.

San Antonio turned up its defense in the fourth quarter, limiting Miami to seven points in the first 8 1/2 minutes in returning to the finals just the way it left – with a victory over James.

James had 18 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists in his second straight NBA Finals triple-double, but he shot only 7 of 16 against some good defense by Kawhi Leonard, and Miami’s offense stalled in the fourth quarter.

Reported by Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press

Heat vs Spurs NBA Finals Game 1

Before reaching the top of basketball, LeBron James was run over by the San Antonio Spurs.

The Spurs swept James’ Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2007 NBA Finals, so long ago that the winning game plan focused on exploiting James’ weaknesses. Those are nearly impossible to find now, and James essentially warned the Spurs that they shouldn’t bother looking.

The Spurs already know.

”He’ll be a lot more of a problem than he was in ’07, that’s for sure,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Wednesday.

Tim Duncan told the beaten James minutes after that series that the league would someday belong to him, and he was right. The NBA’s MVP guided Miami to last year’s championship and the league’s best record this season.

Now the Spurs will try to take it back.

But James is now the best player in the game, is surrounded by more talent in Miami than he ever had in Cleveland, and still carries the memory of the beating the Spurs laid on him six years ago.

”I have something in me that they took in ’07. Beat us on our home floor, celebrated on our home floor. I won’t forget that. You shouldn’t as a competitor. You should never forget that,” James said.

He joined the Heat in 2010, experienced more finals failure a year later, then was finals MVP last year when Miami beat Oklahoma City in five games. Another title now would put him halfway to the four that Duncan and Popovich have won together.

”That’s what I’m here for,” James said. ”I’m here to win championships, and you’re not always going to be on the successful side. I’ve seen it twice, not being on the successful side.”

Reported by Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press

NBA Finals provide fresh start for Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh

Conference championships are nice, but rings are the only things that matter in Miami. Simply put, for the Heat to defeat the Spurs in The Finals, and repeat as NBA champions, Wade and Bosh will have to rejoin the triumvirate alongside LeBron James. The Big 3 was put together to make history, and it is going to take a historic effort to knock off a San Antonio team that has gone 12-2 in the playoffs, rolled through the Western Conference finals in four games and has had nine days to rest and prepare. Wade’s knee is a constant bother and Bosh’s ankle, which he sprained against the Pacers, still isn’t right, but the confidence had better be back.

“I thought [Bosh’s] mind-set of being aggressive was a change to hopefully bring into this series, and my mind-set as well,” Wade said. “So hopefully there was a turning point. If not, doing whatever we can to make sure we’re part of the team and helping our teammates to win this championship that we’re trying to get.”

Wade is averaging 14.1 points per game in the playoffs and Bosh’s average stands at 12.3. Both are career postseason lows. And while Wade and Bosh limped through the Eastern Conference finals, the Spurs were busy dissecting film on what Indiana did so well to limit two-thirds of the Heat’s core. Of course, that’s no secret. The Pacers closed the talent gap with physical play and a big front line.

The Finals will be the height of competition in professional basketball but don’t expect it to get nasty like the Eastern Conference finals. The Finals Media Day at AmericanAirlines Arena on Wednesday was a love fest. Both teams displayed a level of respect for their opponents that bordered on fandom.

Reported by Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald

Did Pacers provide blueprint for beating Heat?

Yes and no.

Big Roy Hibbert demonstrated during the Eastern Conference finals what most everybody suspected all along: If you’re going to challenge Miami, you’ll do it with height, length and muscle.

Hibbert, and frontcourt mate David West, provided some of all three.

The Spurs have size, but neither Tim Duncan nor Tiago Splitter is Hibbert, a 7-2 shot-blocker whose presence tested the Heat.

The Spurs, like the Heat, will spread the floor more, with Parker’s ball handling creating space for three-point shooters Danny Green, Manu Ginobili, Gary Neal and Matt Bonner.

“It’s going to be a little different,” said Heat center Chris Bosh, who struggled to find his way against the Pacers. “It’s kind of like our practices playing each other.”

Reported by Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star Tribune