In this year’s NBA Finals, the road team has won three of the first four games. That trend continued on Thursday night as the San Antonio Spurs grab a 3-1 series lead with a 107-86 win over the Miami Heat.
Hot shooting continued to power the Spurs, as they shot 57.1 percent from the floor. They also connected on 42.9 percent of their 3-point attempts.
This win marks the 11th victory be 15 or more points for the Spurs this postseason, which is the most in history. They also became the second team in NBA Finals history to win consecutive games by 19 or more points; the other team was the 1977 Portland Trailblazers, reports ESPN.
“We’ve won games on the road in the playoffs, and we thought we could win here,” power forward Tim Duncan said in his postgame press conference on spurs.com.
The Spurs led 26-19 after the first quarter and opened up a 55-36 halftime advantage by outscoring the Heat by 10 points in the second quarter. San Antonio continued to pound Miami and held a 24-point edge entering the final quarter.
Small forward Kawhi Leonard was sensational for the second straight game. Coming off of a career-high 29 points in game three, he posted a double-double with 20 points and 14 rebounds. Duncan also recorded a double-double with 10 points and 11 boards, moving him ahead of Magic Johnson and into first place all-time in career postseason double-doubles with 158. Also in the game, Duncan surpassed Wilt Chamberlain for the most minutes played in the playoffs.
“Having passed them, it’s an honor to be in that position,” Duncan said. “The focus is on winning one more, and once that one more is done, then I can look back and say that’s truly an honor.”
Point guards Tony Parker and Patty Mills compiled 19 points and 14 points, respectively. Power forward Boris Diaw, who has the highest plus/minus of any player during the series (+45) barely missed a triple-double, amassing nine rebounds, nine assists and eight points.
For Miami, small forward LeBron James led the way with 28 points and eight rebounds. He scored 19 of the team’s 21 points in the third quarter. Center Chris Bosh and shooting guard Dwyane Wade were also in double figures with 12 and 10, respectively. In three minutes of action off the bench, small forward James Jones contributed 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting, according to NBA.com.
The Heat find themselves in a 3-1 hole for the first time since James, Wade and Bosh have teamed up and will look to keep their hopes for a three-peat alive on Sunday in San Antonio. However, history is not on their side as no team has won the Finals after trailing 3-1.
“If anybody can do this, it’s us,” Bosh said in his postgame press conference on heat.com. “We’ve seen our fair share of adversity in everything, and this is adversity in all caps. So, we’re just going to have confidence in ourselves, and if a guy has a single bit of doubt, then he doesn’t belong here. I know that everybody’s confident.”