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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

Kawhi Leonard happy to guard LeBron James in NBA Finals

Chances are, the Spurs will use Kawhi Leonard often on defense against four-time NBA MVP LeBron James.

That’s just fine with Leonard.

”I would rather guard the best guy on the floor,” Leonard said. ”I want to get better myself. Guarding him is going to make me a better player. I accept the challenge to go out there and play.”

Leonard said he won’t take much from how Indiana defended James in the Eastern Conference finals, since the teams have a different overall defensive game plan.

And he also thinks being on the NBA’s biggest stage shouldn’t be a reason to change how anyone plays.

”It’s another game,” Leonard said. ”I don’t think it’s going to be any different. Everybody wants to compete to win a championship. People are competing at their highest level.”

San Antonio Spurs excellence continues

The 1950s-60s Boston Celtics dynasty, to which every subsequent NBA championship run gets compared, lasted 13 seasons. The Magic Johnson Lakers faded after 12 seasons. The running of the Jordan Bulls? Eight seasons.

San Antonio’s looking to slap NBA title bookends on 15 seasons of excellence.

That’s an NBA title in a lockout-shortened season followed by 14 consecutive 50-win seasons, among which the Spurs sprinkled three more NBA championships and now have a shot at a fifth.

Expansion and free agency didn’t pre-empt such consistency in professional team sports. But the grudging fade of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings leaves San Antonio as the most consistent success show among the major professional sports. That can be said now that the Spurs returned to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2007.

“It feels like forever since we’ve been to this point,” San Antonio center Tim Duncan said after San Antonio swept Memphis in the Western Conference Final. “We’ve been on the verge of getting here. In the last couple of years, we still feel we’re in contention, but we can’t get over that hump to get back in the Finals. It’s just an amazing feeling, honestly.”

Asked if he was worried the Spurs might never get back there, Duncan said, “Nothing’s promised. I don’t know if there was doubt. I would hope we did, but nothing’s promised.”

Reported by David J. Neal of the Miami Herald

Manu Ginobili gearing up for another title run

Ginobili and the Spurs are gearing up for the franchise’s fifth appearance in the NBA Finals, where they will meet the defending champion Heat starting Thursday in Miami.

Not since Hall of Famer George Gervin finger-rolled his way into the hearts of San Antonio fans during an 11-year career have the Spurs had a player as popular as Ginobili. Duncan, Tony Parker, David Robinson and Sean Elliott all hold a special place in fans’ hearts, but Ginobili has become one of the city’s own.

”I don’t know how we connected at first,” the Argentine said. ”I just know that they kind of adopted me from the first minute I got here. Maybe it’s my Latin roots, Spanish speaking, or maybe it’s my type of game. I guess it was a little bit of everything.

”But it really helped me, especially early in my career. Now I’m a developed player, I’ve been everywhere and now I’m more used to it. But at the beginning, when I had so many doubts, I was the new guy in the NBA, the uncertainties and all that, having 18,000 people supporting me and cheering you up was a big help.”

The 6-foot-6 guard has given Spurs fans plenty to cheer about – and groan over.

He averaged 20.8 points and 5.8 rebounds during the postseason in guiding San Antonio to the 2005 NBA championship…

”It’s great to have had this opportunity to keep playing,” Ginobili said. ”I feel better. If we had lost in the first round, I wasn’t even back. After three weeks sitting, then four games, five games and the season’s over, you go back home with a really bad feeling about the season. But since the way things have turned out, to tell you the truth, I even forgot what happened during the season. I’m feeling good now. We’re in the Finals, so who cares? No one is going to remember I missed 20 games during the regular season.”

Reported by Raul Dominguez of the Associated Press

Heat to play Spurs for NBA title

No more sitting out stars, and for the San Antonio Spurs, no more sitting around.

Finally, the NBA Finals matchup is set, and the Miami Heat will either win a second straight championship or the Spurs will go a perfect 5 for 5 in the title round while denying LeBron James a ring for the second time.

The Heat earned their third consecutive Eastern Conference title on Monday night, beating the Indiana Pacers 99-76 in Game 7 of their series. So it’s Heat vs. Spurs for the Larry O’Brien Trophy, a series that will begin Thursday in Miami, on the same floor where the Heat and James finished off Oklahoma City to win last season’s title.

Miami is looking for its third championship, San Antonio its fifth. And for James, it’s a chance to erase a memory that has stung him for six years.

His first trip to the finals came when he was with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2007, and it was ugly – the Spurs winning in a four-game sweep for what was their fourth title. San Antonio has not won the West since, so maybe it’s fitting that its return comes against James, albeit with the now four-time MVP in a different uniform.

”Obviously, I needed more,” James said. ”Our team, we were really good, but we weren’t great. And that was a great team. We lost to a better team. So I understand that we needed more. We continued to get better over the years, but we never got to that level.”

Reported by Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press

2013 NBA Finals schedule

2013 NBA Finals Schedule:

Miami Heat vs. San Antonio Spurs NBA Finals schedule

Game 1 – Thu June 6 San Antonio at Miami 9:00PM ET ABC/R
Game 2 – Sun June 9 San Antonio at Miami 8:00PM ET ABC/R
Game 3 – Tue June 11 Miami at San Antonio 9:00PM ET ABC/R
Game 4 – Thu June 13 Miami at San Antonio 9:00PM ET ABC/R
Game 5 * Sun June 16 Miami at San Antonio 8:00PM ET ABC/R
Game 6 * Tue June 18 San Antonio at Miami 9:00PM ET ABC/R
Game 7 * Thu June 20 San Antonio at Miami 9:00PM ET ABC/R

*If necessary

R – ESPN Radio

Spurs playing waiting game for NBA Finals opponent

The San Antonio Spurs can only watch, wait and practice until their NBA Finals opponent is decided and they can return to action after a nine-day break.

The Western Conference champions will play the winner of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals, led 3-2 by the Miami Heat over the Indiana Pacers, when the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship series begins June 6.

“Too much rest? Sure there’s concern,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich told reporters after practice on Thursday. “What are you going to do? You do your best.”

The long hiatus is a byproduct of San Antonio’s efficiency in dispatching the Memphis Grizzlies in a four-game sweep of the West final that concluded on Monday.

Tim Duncan, a stalwart of all four Spurs NBA titles during his 16 seasons in San Antonio, said he and his teammates are naturally keeping an eye on the Miami-Indiana series.

“Just trying to pick up a little on either squad,” Duncan told reporters. “Just trying to find anybody’s rhythm I can, see how they play, see what they do and just get a rhythm.”

Reported by Larry Fine of Reuters

Atlanta Hawks find their new head coach

The Atlanta Hawks are taking a piece of the San Antonio Spurs coaching staff, and putting him atop their organization.

The Hawks named Mike Budenholzer the team’s new head coach today, President of Basketball Operations/General Manager Danny Ferry announced. Budenholzer becomes the 12th full-time head coach in Hawks history.

Budenholzer, 43, spent the past 19 seasons with the San Antonio Spurs, including the final 17 seasons as an assistant coach. For the last six seasons, he has served as the team’s no. 1 assistant to current San Antonio Head Coach Gregg Popovich, the longest-tenured head coach in major professional sports and third-winningest coach (by percentage – .681) in NBA history behind only Phil Jackson and Billy Cunningham.

More info about the new Hawks coach is here.