The San Antonio Spurs are one win away from capturing the 2013 NBA Finals. With their 114-104 victory over the Miami Heat, the Spurs took a 3-2 lead and they looked extremely young in their Game 5 performance.
Manu Ginobili finally joined the scoring party as he dropped 24 points in Game 5. With his roaring performance, Gregg Popovich looked like a genius as he installed a once fading Ginobili into the starting lineup. With Mike Miller in the starting rotation for the Heat, Ginobili was able to take advantage of the matchup and he got the scoring early with a jumper giving the Spurs a 2-0 lead.
Shooting 60 percent from the floor, the Spurs rarely trailed in this game and they could thank their starting five as they all finished with double-digits scoring. Tony Parker, though with a banged up hamstring, finished with a game-high 26 points as he quietly shot 10-14 from the floor. Tim Duncan also had added 17, Kawhi Leonard had 16 and Mr. 3-Pointer, Danny Green matched Ginobili's 24 points.
Green continues to be the Heat's Kryptonite as he went 6-10 from beyond the arc and now holds the all-time three-point record in an NBA Finals series after hitting his 25th in Game 5. As the Heat continue to have trouble defending Green, he continues to hit his shots.
For the Heat, as LeBron James pointed out in the postgame press conference, they missed point-blank shots. James missed an alley-hoop lob while also completely failing on back-to-back Spurs turnovers as he drove to the basket, missing two easy layups.
Without a doubt, the Heat had their chances to complete a comeback. James started the game shooting well, scoring 16 points in the first half. However, when Boris Diaw defended James, he only shot 1-8 from the floor and he was completely shut down in the second half scoring only nine points. James and Wade both finished with 25 points and they received great support from Ray Allen as he scored 21 points off the bench.
The Heat need other guys to step up on offense. Currently, Erik Spoelstra looks confused as far as who to start and who to play. Miller only took one shot and finished with zero points again. He played over 20 minutes in this game and he wasn't making a difference on either side of the floor. Mario Chalmers only scored six points after sinking two three pointers. Chris Bosh only scored 16 points, but he did an excellent job cleaning up the offensive boards. Bosh had five offensive boards and he totaled six in Game 5.
It's obvious, if the Heat are to defend their title, they will have to win consecutive games, something they haven't done this series and last did against the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. A loss would not look good in James' resume as the world's best basketball player would be 1 of 4 in the NBA Finals.
NBA Finals Standings:
Spurs Win Game 1, 92-88
Heat Win Game 2,
Spurs Win Game 3, 113-77
Heat Win Game 4, 109-93
Spurs Win Game 5, 114-104
