Heat vs. Spurs Final Score: San Antonio Roughs Up Miami 92-88 to Take 1-0 NBA Finals Lead
By Josh Hill
The San Antonio Spurs hadn’t played in months it felt like as they wrapped up their series against the Memphis Grizzlies with relative ease. It’s almost as though the Spurs were doing us all a favor as the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers series was without a doubt the most entertaining series of the postseason so far.
San Antonio’s next task was to top not only the series the Heat had against the Pacers but to top the Heat themselves in the NBA Finals. That’s exactly what happened in Game 1 as the Spurs traveled into AmericanAirlines Arena a well rested team and came out on top of the Heat. It wasn’t an easy win but we generally saw exactly what we thought we’d see out of the Heat and Spurs in Game 1.
It came down to a battle of Big 3’s and while each of Miami’s big players hit double digit scoring totals, the Big 3 of the San Antonio Spurs out did them in just about every way they could. Tim Duncan finished with 20 points and the Spurs were able to hold the Heat offense down with stout defense we all knew we’d see.
Another big reason San Antonio won was the fact they tallied a Finals record low in turnovers with just four. Miami only gave up 9 turnovers which isn’t bad on an average night but this is the NBA Finals and the Heat learned how devastating each turnover can end up becoming in the end.
The first game of this series gave us everything we thought it would. San Antonio matches up great against the Heat and it was a battle right to the end on both ends of the court. We saw this kind of hustle from the Pacers in their first game against the Heat but San Antonio is much better equipped to hang with Miami the whole series while Indiana couldn’t muster up the effort game in and game out.
It was a game that came down to the very end and it’s likely that the series will end this way. Miami has a tall order ahead of them in stopping a much more experienced version of themselves as Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili have been together and done this many times before. Miami is a talented team but we found out what happens when they run into a wise team that knows how to win in this situation.
This game won’t decide the series but it very well could define what we see game in and game out. Miami is a wildly talented team but the Spurs were better in Game 1.