Game Two of the Redemption Finals occurred ten years ago today — June 8, 2014. LeBron James scored 35 points, including 3 of 3 from three, to lead the Heat to a 98-96 win.
Manu Ginobili made a three-pointer at the buzzer to make the final score closer, but the important thing was that the Spurs had lost home court advantage only two games into the Finals. As alluded to below, a key to the Spurs’ loss was going 12 for 20 from the free throw line. A more normal 15 for 20 from the line would have made Manu’s buzzer-beating three a game-winner.
As noted in my post about Game One, these Finals occurred several months before I was lucky enough to be invited to join Pounding the Rock. As a result, this is my summary of the game written the next day on my old-time personal blog spot
“Dating from the 2011-12 season, up to and including last night’s Game 2, the Heat and the Spurs have played 14 games. In those 14 games, the Heat have scored a total of 1,385 points and the Spurs have scored 1,386 points.”
Manu’s “clutch” and meaningless 3 at the buzzer last night put the Spurs up one point for this stat.
And another stat I stole: In the third quarter of Game Two, the teams combined for 69 points with only two turnovers between them. That, my friends, is some good playing.
All this led to the result – A down to the wire game that the Heat won. (If you didn’t know the Heat won, you are not allowed to read further.) You will hear that this game “was decided in the last minute”, or perhaps in “the last 1:17” which is when Bosh made the three pointer to change a one point deficit into a two point lead. In fact, games are never decided in the last minute. All the plays that happen earlier also decide the final score. Put another way, the points scored or allowed in the first quarter happen to count just as much as the points scored or allowed in the fourth.
Put yet another way, I used to tell my players – “this isn’t Double Jeopardy”. In the TV game show that has been on the air since before television was invented, correct “questions” in the second round count double. In basketball, points in the second half count the same as those scored earlier. Which means that all these earlier moments helped decide Game Two:
SECOND QUARTER, SPURS UP 30-19. Belinelli misses wide open 3, so the Spurs don’t score. On the subsequent possession, both Belinelli and Diaw go with the roller in a pick and roll situation, instead of some guy with the ball named Ray Allen. Allen drills the wide-open three.
After a steal by Kawhi Leonard, Tiago Splitter decides to go “coast to coast” with the ball, crashing into traffic at the rim. Unfortunately, Splitter doesn’t make it all the way to the coast, instead running into a roadblock near San Bernardino. The Spurs don’t score.
The next time Splitter gets the ball, he wisely gives it to another Spur. Unfortunately, that Spur then gives the ball back to Splitter, who then decides to give it to Miami. The Spurs don’t score.
So even though Miami only scored the gift three to Allen, the Spurs missed the chance to go up something like 37 – 22. Instead, when the Spurs miss a couple more shots, Miami decides to score some themselves, and the game goes from a big Spurs lead to a dogfight. I would have preferred the big lead.
Here is that skirmish, one that caused me to write in my notes: “Worst Two Minutes Ever”. An exaggeration, but the Splitter “coast to coast” was still fresh in my memory banks.
The Spurs also gave away two points at the end of the first quarter. On an inbounds play in front of the Spurs bench with 3 seconds left, Splitter set a screen away from the ball, immediately slipped the screen and cut to the rim, was hit with a perfect pass – and air-balled the lay-up. Coaches love drawing up these types of plays. Less so when your seven-footer doesn’t hit the rim with the shot.
Of course, the other points “given away” were the four consecutive free throws the Spurs missed after the Mario Chalmers flagrant foul elbow to Parker’s rib cage. That elbow could have broken a rib, and certainly led to Parker short-arming each of his two free throws. For good measure, and perhaps in a show of solidarity, Tim Duncan then immediately short-armed his two free throws moments later. Four points the Spurs didn’t score, and which would have been nice to have in the bank during the last five minutes.
In those last five minutes, Miami largely went “big big”. They removed Chalmers, played Lebron as “point guard”, kept Birdman as the 5, with Bosh/Voldemort as 4, with Wade and Allen as wings. This put Lebron on Parker (as the Heat did for much of Games 6 and 7 in 2013) and allowed the Heat to switch most screens, effectively bolloxing up the Spurs offense.
One other reason the Spurs offense got bolloxed up is Duncan’s inability to score on a post-up. After the game, Pop was talking about the necessity for the Spurs to move the ball and players in order to score:
“It’s how we have to score,” Popovich said. “We can’t put it in somebody’s hands and have them create everything for us. It’s got to be a group effort and we didn’t do that. That puts a lot of pressure on everything else. It means we’re going to have to be perfect on defense, we can’t miss four free throws in a row, those sorts of things. You move it or you die.”
In the old days, the Spurs could put it in Duncan’s hands and he would create. He would score if not double teamed, or pass to shooters and cutters if doubled. Now, virtually all of Duncan’s points are created by someone else – a penetration, a seal and drop pass, or a tip in of a missed shot. He still gets his 20 per game on this stuff (he has great hands and instincts), but the days of dumping the ball into TD in the post and having good things happen are gone. The Spurs were hoping that Kawhi Leonard might be the guy who could create. That hasn’t happened yet in this series (unlike last year’s Finals, when he was the breakout star).
Other thoughts:
- The Spurs going on the road for Games 3 and 4 does not scare them as much as it would other teams. The Spurs were 30 – 11 on the road this year. Put another way, if they played the entire season on the road, their projected record would have been 60 – 22. That would have been the best record in the NBA this year.
- Another reason for some level of confidence: Lebron shot 11 times in the second half, all from distance. He made 5 of 8 “long 2s”, all well-defended, several with the shot clock winding down. During the season, he shot 38% on long 2s. He also went 3 for 3 from three. During the season, he did not shoot 100% from three.
- The Spurs had 11 offensive rebounds on 46 misses, a decent but not great 24% — but still much better than Miami’s 5 on 43 misses, 12%. Of course, the Spurs gave away this six possession advantage by not shooting as well as the Heat, either from the field or the free throw line.
- Finally, this play mattered too, when Manu got called for a foul when Wade faked getting hit in the face. I understand Manu was shocked, shocked that there was flopping going on.
