LeBron James and the Miami Heat were quickly dispatched by the San Antonio Spurs in five games in this year’s NBA Finals, so James is a pretty convenient scapegoat for his team’s failure to win a third straight championship. But LeBron is about as far from blame here as you can get. Just read James’ per-game averages in The Finals: 57.1 percent shooting from the field, 51.9 percent from the arc and 28.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game. His
One of the obvious takeaways from the 2014 NBA Finals was that the San Antonio Spurs clearly have more good players than the Miami Heat. When the series began, it appeared to be a showdown of each team’s “Big Three” – Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker for the Spurs and LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh for the Heat. But as the Finals progressed, the talent gap separating the teams became evident. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich trusted his bench,
Lots of NBA news today, so let’s get right to the latest: FINALS WON’T DETERMINE LEBRON’S FUTURE Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com The Heat’s success or failure in these Finals will not affect LeBron James’ decision on whether to opt out of his contract by the end of this month, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. James and the Heat would be the first team in NBA Finals history to overcome a 3-1 series deficit and come back and win a title.
SAN ANTONIO — Ball movement. Two words. It’s that simple. When the ball moves, good things happen. When the ball stops moving, bad things happen. “You move it or you die,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. If you want to break down Game 2 into the one big thing that separated the two teams, you don’t have to bring up LeBron James’ 35 points. They were needed, of course, but the three biggest plays that James made came in the final 1:43 —
It will be easy for Miami Heat fans to say that LeBron James’ absence cramped their team’s style. James sat for almost all of the last 7 1/2 minutes of Thursday’s NBA Finals opener, and the line of demarcation was too obvious. There was a 17-point swing following the moment when James first exited with leg cramps as a close game headed for a fantastic finish devolved into a 110-95 win for the host San Antonio Spurs. “With five and change (left),
It’s a good thing NBA media members voted for Gregg Popovich as Coach of the Year. Because if the San Antonio Spurs win the championship, we won’t want to look back at the voting 20 years from now and wonder how the man who pulled off perhaps the greatest single-season coaching job in league history didn’t win the award. I didn’t believe Popovich was the Coach of the Year. I thought the award should have gone to Jeff Hornacek of Phoenix, who
I have always pondered the challenge of being an NBA coach, so here’s my attempt at coming up with three different key strategies for both coaches and teams to implement if they are going to win the championship. I personally feel that San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich is not only the premier coach in the game today, I actually believe he is one of the greatest leaders of any sport in the history of our country. On the other side you have Miami’s
Will this be the third time NBA fans are treated to this scene? Home Court Advantage? Some in the media are falling too much in love with the regular season standings and statistics, as if the regular season really mattered to either of the teams in the NBA Finals. Some pundits are touting the San Antonio Spurs as being a superior road team because they had the best road record (30-11) during the regular season. That is bunk. First of