2014 NBA Finals

[jgiffin]

I start watching pro basketball towards the end of the season and the beginning of the post-season. This year, in case you haven't followed the league at all, the San Antonio Spurs won the title by beating the Miami Heat four games to one. I noted the following things and found them interesting - your mileage may vary.

1. Team ball wins, yo. I love the fact a pass-first team of specialists and role-players beat the big-name assemblage of James, Wade, and Bosh. The contrast was perfect. Ball movement and passing versus "throw it in the post" and "stand around and see what LeBron can do."

2.  Kawhai Leonard. Nice trade, San Antonio. You gave the Pacers George Hill, who is good and nice and stuff, and you got Kawhai Leonard- this year's final's MVP and a near lock-down defender. I see what you did there. Indiana did well with Hill and he's a solid contributor - but, c'mon, ya'll won that shit hands down.

3.  Tim Duncan. He got his first title helping out David Robinson and, now, gets this one (his fifth and perhaps his last) by helping out Manu, Parker, Leonard, et al. Full circle. Duncan learned the trade, dominated for years, and now knows his role. Most impressively, he won rings in all three phases.

[LotsaBadKarma]

I only watched the 5th game because I'm not wild about either team. What I did notice is that Wade seems to pull himself out of the game in terms of that "throw it in the post and stand around watching LeBron". He really seemed to be a non-factor in game 5 in that he really produced nothing of consequence. And Leonard made LeBron work hard for most of his points but even if he got 40 the rest of the team really did very little to contribute to a win. When you have a balanced attack like the Spurs had you can't win with a 1 or 2 man effort in NBA level basketball.
Kudos to Tim Duncan as well. Not only did he play a great game (38 years old!) but he doesn't blow his own horn afterward. Very humble in victory and a class act all the way.