Series Tied 2-2, Heat beat Spurs, 109-93

For me Game 4 was like the Amityville Horror..."They're Back!" LeBron James, 33 PTS, 15-25, 11 REB, 4 AST, 2 BLK, 2 STL...Dwayne Wade 32 PTS, 14-25, 6 REB, 4 AST, 6 STL, 1 BLK...Chris Bosh 20 PTS, 8-14, 13 REB, 1 AST, 2 STL, 2 BLK. With the Heat's Big Three all contributing (and 14 from Ray Allen off the Bench), they had the game their fans have been waiting for. Give Spoelstra credit for changing everything up for Game 4, from pushing the ball up the floor, to full court presses when Parker wasn't in the game, to even changing uniforms from their red road to the black road uniforms. Would have been perfectly happy seeing any of the trio stay in the slump they were in, but to have all three breakout at the same time didn't work out well for the Spurs. 

Still there's some encouragement that the Spurs can pull this out. Despite the breakout game of the Big 3 and a lot of turnovers, the Spurs played the Heat to a 49-49 tie at the half. Tony Parker was playing his game up to that point (15 PTS, 7-14, 8 AST at halftime), but only ended up taking 2 shots in the 3rd quarter. Don't know if the Hamstring was bothering him or not...I haven't seen anything reported about it. Parker, who leads the Spurs in minutes played per game, was 4th in minutes played in Game 4. Manu Ginobili is still in a funk (1-5, his only basket coming in the 4th quarter when the outcome was decided). It may be sacrilegious to Manu fans, but I think it may be time to cut his minutes and give them to someone else. It's getting to the point where the Spurs can't wait for him to find his game. 

Much talk has been made about the Heat's small lineup, but the Spurs have been much more effective on offense in this series going small with Gary Neal. We also saw a reappearance of Boris Diaw, who didn't perform well in Games 1-2 and had no playing time in Game 3. Diaw was effective in the first half and ended up with 9 PTS, 3-6, 3 REB while playing in just 11:18. 

For me, the most disappointing thing about Game 4 was that the Spurs lost the offensive rebounding battle 5-7. As I said in the last post, OREB is the one glaring weakness the Heat have. This should be the one area the Spurs should dominate every game. It comes down to effort and the Heat just went after the boards harder. The Spurs also had 18 turnovers and shot just .443 as a team. Every made shot is one less opportunity for the Heat to get out in transition and every turnover is one more opportunity for the Heat to get out in transition. 

Heat had everything going in this one, also beating out the Spurs in steals (13-5) and blocks (7-4). Yea the Big 3 for Miami are back, but if the Spurs can keep the turnovers down, crash the boards, and keep the steals/blocks even they'll have a chance to win the Championship. That's not anything that's outside the Spurs normal character as a basketball team. The Spurs won with extraordinary circumstances in Game 1 (tying the record low for turnovers) and Game 3 (record 3-PT shooting), but last night's game, even though it was a loss, showed me that they can stay with the Heat without an abnormally good game...just play fundamentally sound, which is the Spurs trade mark.

In this Tennis match of a series, the ball is back in the Spurs court...it's their turn to need a win. Lose and they need 2 straight in Miami...possible, but not probable. Win and the Spurs are up 3-2 with a good shot at upsetting the defending Champs. Due to TV ruling the scheduling, we have to wait until Sunday to find out who gains the edge....I'm obviously hoping the Spurs can hold serve and put the ball back in the Heats court for Game 6.