SPORTS INSIDER – Spurs defeat Miami Heat for fifth championship

Ceci Ferrara
June 16, 2014
Sports Writer
Sports Insider

“Why not us? History is broken all the time.”
Lebron James said in a pre-game press conference

For the fifth time in franchise history, the San Antonio Spurs are champions. The victory came Sunday night, in a one-sided game 5 dominated by the Spurs. Down 3-1 in the series, the Heat needed to win in order to stay alive. LeBron James knew the odds were stacked against them; no team had ever come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the title. Despite that statistic, he refused to concede defeat.

“Why not us?” James said in a pre-game press conference. “History is broken all the time.”

While that’s true–no MLB team had come back from a 3-0 ALCS deficit before the Red Sox did it in 2004–it was not true for the Heat Sunday night. Instead of performing at the reigning champion level that they needed to, they looked slow, deflated and confused.

Only James, with 31 points and 10 rebounds, played well. The remainder of the Miami trifecta — Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade — combined for just 24, while Ray Allen added an anemic 5 points. It was just another subpar performance for Miami, who struggled against San Antonio throughout the series, and whose sole victory in game 2 was won by a single basket.

Though they may not be as high-profile as the Miami “big three”, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, who combined for 49 points on the night, are now the winningest trio in NBA history. They have contributed to four of the five Spurs titles–2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014. San Antonio’s first title came in 1999.

“I’m not skilled enough to explain properly how we feel,” Ginobili said. “Not only me, but I’m sure Tony and Tim and Pop (Coach Gregg Popovich) feel the same way. Last year was a tough one for all of us. We felt like we had the trophy, that we were touching it, and it slipped away. We all felt guilty. We got to this spot, and we didn’t let it go.”

Kawhi Leonard, who had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Spurs, was named Finals MVP.

The 104-87 game 5 victory gave the Spurs the title and redemption they were looking for. Almost a year after losing to the Heat in the 2013 Finals, the Spurs have buried the past and can stop doubting themselves.

“We wanted to redeem ourselves,” Parker said.

In front of a cheering, elated hometown crowd, they certainly did just that.