The cities of San Antonio and Oklahoma City are separated by less than 500 miles, but as teams they are in different galaxies. So those that find solace in the fact that the Heat have responded positively in the past to losing Game 1 of a playoff series need to realize that they were not playing the Spurs, and they have not played a team that executes as well as them.
The Spurs turned the ball over a mere four times in Game 1. And Kawhi Leonard, making his Finals debut, turned in a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double and made brilliant plays down the stretch on both ends of the floor.
Leonard cut when he was supposed to, Parker passed when he should have, Duncan shot when he needed to. The end result was more of – as James himself called it – the “Spurs being the Spurs.”
The Heat? They had five buckets and five turnovers in the fourth quarter. Once they lost the lead for the first time since the opening period, they never got it back.
A perusal of the box score will not reveal anything out of the ordinary for the Spurs. Duncan’s 20-point, 14-rebound, four-assist performance on 8-for-19 shooting is simply Timmy being Timmy.
And the most impressive part of Parker’s game, aside from his heroic shot, was not that he scored 21 points, made 9-of-18 shots or had six assists. It was that he did not turn the ball over, not even once.
The Spurs shot just 7-of-23 from the 3-point line, lost the rebounding battle, 46-37, and made less than 42 percent of their shots from the field.
The truth of the matter is they did not do anything exceptional in Game 1. All they did was hang around, absorb the Heat’s punches and make timely plays and shots when they needed them.
In other words, they were simply the Spurs.
These Heat simply cannot bully Gregg Popovich’s team into making turnovers. And down the stretch of Game 1, what we saw from the Spurs was a team that looked like it had been on this stage before, despite the fact that the lone Spurs holdovers to play in the 2007 Finals are Parker, Ginobili and Duncan.
It was the Heat that shot just 5-of-18 in the fourth quarter. It was Danny Green – not Chris Bosh – that hit the game’s biggest 3-pointer.
At the end of the day, when it was all on the line, the Heat could just not shake loose of the Spurs but saw Parker do just that to James. Trapped in the corner, on a broken possession and in a desperate attempt to avoid his first turnover at the worst moment, Parker got James to bite on a shot fake and leave his feet.
Then, the fourth defender was down.
“Tony did everything wrong and did everything right in the same possession,” James said. “He stumbled two or three times, he fell over, and when he fell over, I was like ‘Okay, I’m going to have to tie this ball up,’ but he got up and went under my arm.”
In last year’s Finals, the Heat lost Game 1 and responded by winning the next four games over Kevin Durant’s team. And last year, in these types of moments, the Thunder suffered from stage fright.
But these Spurs will not be giving anything to the Heat. And a magnificent 18-point, 18-rebound, 10-assist triple-double from James obviously will not be enough.
When it was over, James, in his lime green polo shirt, sat at the podium. Confident and rebellious.
“It’s the first team to four,” he said. “They came in and beat us on our own floor in Game 1 … so we have to be able to combat that and come back.”
“It’s a seven-game series,” he reminded everyone.
And hopefully for him, the rest of it goes a bit differently.
James has become a champion and is now used to being asked questions which he can answer proudly and confidently. But after Game 1, the first question was not about his own performance or his team’s triumph.
It was about Parker’s shot.
“You’re going to make me go back to that play?” James asked rhetorically.
And after he explained exactly what happened, he told us what we all knew.
“That was the longest 24 seconds that I’ve ever been a part of,” James said.
With 33.1 seconds left and the game on the line, Tony Parker took the ball, nursed it, danced with it, fumbled and recovered it.
And by himself, he beat these Heat. He beat Miami. Yes, it felt like an eternity.
But in actuality, it was just 23.95 seconds.
Still, it felt much, much longer. So no worries, LeBron. It wasn’t just you.
Moke Hamilton is a Senior NBA Columnist for SheridanHoops on assignment in Miami for the NBA Finals. Follow him on Twitter.
Bonner was on the 2007 team as well, not his first rodeo as they say 😉