Parker's Heroics Lead Spurs To NBA Finals Game 1 Victory

The long-awaited NBA Finals matchup between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs finally launched Thursday night at the American Airlines Arena.  Both teams had spectacular seasons in the 2011-2012 campaign and were expected to meet in last season's NBA Finals, but fans had to wait another year for the star-filled championship round between San Antonio's experienced Big 3 (Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili) and Miami's Big Money Big 3 (Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh).  Both teams are deserving of winning this year's Larry O'Brien trophy because they were two of the league's top teams this season and a Game 1 victory would be a great first step in accomplishing that achievement.

It took heroics to earn the imperative victory in the very competitive Game 1.  Tony Parker stepped up with 10 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter and nailed a memorable game-winning shot with 5.2 seconds remaining.  His shot will go down as one of the greatest clutch plays in NBA Finals history because he beat the shot clock by milliseconds to put the Spurs up 92-88 after nearly losing possession of the ball seconds earlier.  Tim Duncan also had an impressive individual performance, totalling 20 points and 14 rebounds in becoming only the second player in NBA Finals history to accomplish that feat at age 37.

The Spurs were down for most of the game, including a nine-point deficit in the second quarter, but fought hard in the second half to steal the victory in Miami.  They attacked the basket, forced turnovers and limited mistakes in the game's final two quarters.  Normally a great shooting team, the Spurs recognized early that their normal shots were not falling but relied on great ball control throughout the game to tie the NBA Finals' record for fewest turnovers in a game (4-tying the mark set by the Detroit Pistons in 2005).  The Spurs' defense was spectacular against the Heat's top shooters in the second half, forcing a dismal shooting perfomance in the fourth quarter and six turnovers.

LeBron James has become the leader of the Heat during this year's playoff run and played well in Thursday's loss.  He tallied his third career NBA Finals triple double with 18 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists in 42 minutes of play.  Dwyane Wade, bothered with a nagging knee injury, added 17 points for Miami.

The San Antonio Spurs stole both Game 1 and home court advantage from the Miami Heat and now hold a 1-0 series lead in the NBA Finals.  Coach Gregg Popovich is 20-3 in series with a Game 1 victory and the Spurs are 5-0 all-time in NBA Finals' Game 1's, so Miami could be in trouble as it enters Sunday's Game 2 because it doesn't want to go down 2-0 in the best-of-seven series that they once held home court advantage.