That helped them overcome their rust shooting the ball. Miami played well but they forgot Wade or he was hurting in the 2nd half.

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Obviously the 4 turnovers is the key stat of the game. The Spurs kept Miami off the line and shot a higher percentage from the line with 3 more makes. Because of the turnovers the Spurs were able to get up an additional 6 shots more than the Heat, which made up for shooting a slightly lower percentage.

Overall a very low foul game. I can't remember only 24 total fouls being called in a Finals game before. The only two negatives on the Spurs stat sheet were missing open shots and getting outrebounded by Miami, which was mostly due to LeBron James. Spurs gave up too many fast break points and three pointers in the first half, but that was fixed in the second half.

LeBron was mostly neutralized. He filled the stat sheet, but he didn't get to the line more than 4 times, so none of those superstar calls got called. He was unable to just drive right to the rim and get a layup every time or go to the line.

Like I've said before Miami is a confidence team. If one or two of their big guys get hot everyone on the team can get hot and make every open shot. The difference with the Spurs is that they can guard the 3 point line better than some of the other teams, so those easy shots are a little more difficult.

It's kind of funny to see people like Stephen A. Smith making fun of Chris Bosh for not driving or posting up. Bosh was always considered the half of the two and a half men in Miami. He's a good player and has made some all-star teams, but he's not a clutch player down the stretch. He doesn't have that killer instinct that Wade and LeBron seem to have at times.

This is similar to the Bulls matchup against the Heat in the 2nd round. The Bulls were coming off a big win and the Heat were rested. Except this time the Spurs were rested and even though they missed shots they pulled off the win. Miami missed a lot of open shots against the Bulls and couldn't hang with Nate Robinson down the stretch.

The Spurs pulled away toward the end of the game. At one point they were up by as many as 8 points. The foul by Danny Green on Ray Allen could have proved to be a costly mistake. Tony Parker scores on LeBron to beat the clock and after that it was all over.

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only because he was too busy trying to be Magic Johnson and dish to Chris Bosh for 3's....he drove the lane and scored EASILY in one of the final few possessions, i forget how much time was left but it was around 2:00 left or so...he should have been doing that every single time. Bosh for 3 in a crucial possession is the shot you want? it's fine to try and get your teammates involved in the first 3 quarters but when it's crunch time I don't care how reliable Haslem is from the baseline or how wide open broke ass Bosh is, James should be taking it to the hole EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

The refs aren't going to fuck the spurs like the Pacers, pop wont tolerate it. Although Wade travels constantly n no call. Don't see the usual heat flops either. Spurs in 6

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Me too. Spurs just couldn't get over the hump and take the lead. When they did they kept it and went on to win.

Fundamentally sound is what they are, don't give possessions away, taking care of the ball, good passing and good D. Once Duncan started to hit is jumper and do some good inside work they were set.

The Heat were great, as well. But, as Bagels emphatically stated, LeBron needs to drive, get contact and head to the line...or just drive and score. Wade was good but totally disappeared in the 4th and Bosch was Bosch, meaning a non-factor.

Good game though.

I don't think Lebron will catch much heat if they lose this series. Most of the blame will fall on the shoulders of Bosh and Wade. Bosh had been mostly God awful, and still continues to Jack up terrible 3's. Meanwhile Lebron had a triple double with 18 points and 18 rebounds. That's insane.

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yeah, nice stat line...but should have scored more than 18 don't you think????

Lebron should score no less than 30 at any point the rest of the way. 18 points for him is a disappointment considering what's on the line here and the lack of consistency he's going to get from his other supposed big two. It's his job to carry the scoring load if the team can't get points elsewhere.

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In the big picture, losing the championship and accepting some humbling will be good for James' public image. However, he will most likely blow that by pouting and not going to the podium at the end of the series

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yes, exactly

the time to get everyone involved is over

lacking that killer instinct. to some degree, its the same thing that pissed me off about Garnett in his prime

I disagree with you and Kid. LeBron played the game the right way. I've actually begun to respect him more this season. Last series he tried to take over when Wade and Bosh were playing terrible and it hurt the team because they decided to pout instead of play. There is a fine line he has to walk. If he is too aggressive he will lose Wade and Bosh. His play contributed to nearly 50 points and those 18 rebounds were huge. We don't need to talk about his defense because it is usually great and it was once again last night. Blaming him in anyway for the loss is wrong.

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so he shouldn't dominate because then Wade and Bosh will pout?

I agree with everyone. Lebron is the reason they lost.

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They need Wade and Bosh to win. He has to be careful about shutting them out. We saw what happened in Game 6 in Indiana. LeBron can't win by himself. Blaming a guy that had 18 rebounds and a triple double seems misguided.

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well there's 2 sets of blame
Bosh is a trainwreck now. so obviously he gets the majority of the blame. Wade to a lesser degree but i'll give him somewhat of a pass since he's clearly injured
BUT, while James did play great, I still think there's some amount of blame on him for continuing to trust Bosh. It may be the correct basketball play to pass to him for a wide open 3, but when you have the ability to get to the rim like Jame does, and knowing that Bosh has been awful, it's really NOT the correct basketball play anymore.

I'm defending LeBron. Never thought this would happen.

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Miami lost because they played a poor 4th quarter. Until then they were equal or better in every quarter. LeBron James has more physical talent than Michael Jordan. But the difference is that Jordan would will his team to victory. LeBron does not have that killer instinct every game. The fact that he got on a team with some all stars and former all stars sort of masks his inability to consistently do that. Wade was the star in Miami and Bosh was the star in Toronto, but neither of them were/are completely consistent at the end of games. It seems they can only pull it together against inferior Eastern Conference teams. But the opposing team can beat Miami if they keep the score close and have a good closer at the end of the game (i.e. Dirk Nowitzki).

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Wade was a closer his entire career.

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so you're saying they lost because they scored less points overall?

I agree that you can't blame LBJ for the loss but I think it's fair to say he was (in large part) why they didn't win. As MiniD stated, Jordan would have done whatever was necessary to finish the game. If his team-mates weren't doing their part he would have taken over and scored repeatedly. LBJ has that capability but lacks that mentality.

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The Spurs tailored their defense to force LeBron to pass the ball. They had 3 to 4 guys in his path on nearly every play. We all know LeBron isn't Jordan but even MJ wouldn't go 1 on 4. Kobe would though.

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He actually did under Doug Collins, which is why the Bulls would have never won a championship with him coaching and Jordan continuing to play hero ball like that.

I'm not asking Lebron to go 1 on 4. Just be more assertive and get to the basket. They could have won that game had he actually drawn the number of fouls that he could have.

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They were cutting off his paths to the basket.

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Absent a key player getting tagged with fouls, quarters 1 through 3 have mattered not in an NBA game since the 24 second shot clock came into effect

He had the one season they won the title with Shaq and then Miami was a first round exit the next 3 out of 4 years. The other year landed them in the lottery. Certainly he was a closer, but it wasn't as though the Heat were ever going to compete for a championship with Wade as the best player.

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if mj had lebrons body there would have been 12 titles in 10 years.

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The pass to Bosh for three reminded me of a similar play LBJ made in the Finals against the Spurs in 2007, except he passed to Donyell Marshall for an open three that would have been huge in the finals seconds of game one or something. Like with Bosh, it was probably the "right" basketball play, although I agree with you here that James should have been more assertive.

This thing about assertiveness and James is weird because every so often it seems like he becomes that guy, only to regress at a later time. It was James nailing jumper and jumper in the 4th quarter against the Bulls to close out game five in 2011, then he kind of disappeared against the Mavs in the Finals. He was big against Boston last year, and now in game one he's passing the ball to Chris Bosh. Not sure what to make of it.

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Lebron/Wade/Bosh have lost game one in three other series the last the three years. Won all those series in five games.

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For what it's worth, here is Tim Donaghy's insight on game one's referee performance:



http://deadspin.com/tim-donaghy-on-game ... -511978874

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Not the highest def picture, but the ball is clearly off his hand.. no red light.

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