NBA Finals Betting: Spurs May Have Blown Their Best Chance To Beat Heat
by Bovada Sportsbook Staff | June 9, 2014
What did you expect? Was there any chance that LeBron James wasn’t going to have a huge Game 2 after he couldn’t finish Game 1 of the NBA Finals against San Antonio because of cramps? There really was no doubt that James would dominate Game 2, and now Miami has stolen home-court advantage and become the series favorite at Bovada.
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Expect many men around the world to start trying yoga now. That’s what James did on the morning of Game 2, and he said it worked wonders (imagine the surprise of the other three people in that class at the San Antonio hotel). LeBron had a game-high 35 points on Sunday night as Miami won 98-96 in San Antonio to even the series at one game apiece. In games in which there was air conditioning, Miami is 1-0. LeBron took a lot of heat — pun intended — for not being able to play through cramps in the fourth quarter of Game 1 when the AC was out at AT&T Center. Everyone brought up the fact Michael Jordan played through the flu in an NBA Finals win over Utah. Anyone who has cramped up knows it’s impossible to play through it, but James will always be compared to Jordan.
On Sunday, the Heat outscored San Antonio by 11 points and shot a stellar 60.4 percent when James was on the court. When he wasn’t: the Heat were outscored by
nine and shot only 29.4 percent. The numbers were similar in the Game 1 loss when James had to watch. Miami is now 15-1 all-time when James has at least 35 points and 10 rebounds in a game. He also played tremendous defense on Spurs point guard Tony Parker at times in Game 2. San Antonio’s 96 points were the fewest the team has scored at home in six weeks. Starters not named Parker and Tim Duncan combined for just 20 points.
Spurs backers can take some solace in a few things. For one, after Parker was flagrantly fouled by Miami point guard Mario Chalmers with 6:43 in the fourth quarter, Parker missed two free throws and then Duncan missed two as well. That’s unlikely to happen again. San Antonio cut its turnovers from 23 in Game 1 to 11 in Game 2. The Spurs did lead 93-92 late in the game before Chris Bosh hit the go-ahead 3-pointer on a pass from James with 1:18 left.
Also, the new 2-2-1-1-1 format seems to hugely benefit the higher seed, which San Antonio is. Now the Spurs are guaranteed at least one more home game. That wouldn’t have been the case in the 2-3-2 format. That Miami stole one road game wasn’t exactly a shock. The Heat have won at least one road game in all 16 playoff series they’ve played together since 2011.
Still, you can’t fail to point out the fact San Antonio missed an opportunity to put a hammerlock on this series. The Heat haven’t lost consecutive playoffs games in forever — that’s now 13 straight wins following a playoff loss — so it would have been a huge victory. Miami has never trailed a series 2-0 since LeBron and Bosh joined Dwyane Wade in south Florida. The Heat lost Game 1 of the past two NBA Finals and went on to win the series. When James was in Cleveland, his teams were 1-3 in a series when losing the first two games of it.
"We knew going down 2-0 was a tall order for us," Wade said Sunday night. "Was it the end of the series? No. But it would’ve been a tall order for us."
Miami is a 4-point favorite for Tuesday’s Game 2 and there will be live betting available.
