by Adam Figman / @afigman
Yo! So I’m here, barely. Literally just walked into the building and took my seat as the game was starting; a host of delays and plane troubles and weather issues and all kinds of nonsense meant I had to bolt straight from the airport to the arena, but hey, here we are! No need to waste any more time with an intro, this shit just tipped off! Let’s get to it…
—Good early showing from the Spurs, who sink a series of quick hoops that I missed because I was too busy setting up this live-blog. Oops.
—Player-signed soccer balls being given away during the first timeout by a dude wearing an oversized banana costume. I love Miami.
—Chris Bosh hits a jumper and now the crowd is coming alive. I was down here for Game 1 of Heat-Bucks, and despite the fans’ (probably deserved) late-arriving reputation, I was shocked by how loud (if nothing else) the audience was.
—Blocking foul called on Tim Duncan, and man, that could’ve gone either way. 9-8 Spurs, 7:46 left in the first.
—Tony Parker drops a gorgeous teardrop to give the Spurs an 11-9 lead. He claims he invented that shot, which is kind of a joke, but I don’t know if we’ve seen anyone with a prettier one.
—Spurs timeout after Heat take a quick 15-13 lead. This will shock you: Lots of Pitbull going on in this arena right now. Lots. Because Miami.
—Boris Diaw with the most Boris Diawest move ever, waltzing along the baseline and then finessing in a reverse lay-up. 18-18 after LeBron counters with a jumper.
—LeBron draws a foul on Duncan, the Spurs big man’s second (with about 2 minutes left in the first). Eeek.
—The inevitable Mike Miller floater in traffic that you knew was coming just happened. You can’t stop Mike Miller floaters, you can only hope to wait no you can definitely stop those and probably should.
—Sorry guys, the internet here is killing us. Keep checking back, though, we should have more updates soon…
—Alright we’re back (I think/hope). Anyway: Halftime! 52-49 Heat, with Miami looking a bit better than the Spurs, receiving contributions from everyone from Mike Miller to Norris Cole to Birdman. When the Heat get legitimate help outside of the Big Three they’re basically unfuckwittable, but the feisty Spurs are somehow hanging around, mostly the result of your standard solid play from Tim Duncan and Tony Parker. Hopefully our wi-fi will step its game up a bit and we’ll be all smooth during the second half, but the reception’s been rough here the past 20 or so minutes so we’ll see. Back soon…
—The teams trade buckets (and missed shots) to start the second half, with a Chris Bosh spin move-into-lay-up wakening up the crowd a bit. 58-51 Heat, 9:30 remaining in third.
—First a Kawhi Leonard lay-up/dunk thing then a sneaky Manu Ginobili lay-in and now the energy is completely sucked out of this building. 58-57 Spurs.
—LMFAO WILL SOLVE THEM ALL OF YOUR ARENA’S ENERGY PROBLEMS.
—Missed jumper by D-Wade who, I should mention, has been great—15 points off 6-11 from the field. He’ll need to keep that up all series, but there’s no reason to assume he can’t.
—A group of drummers and a dude in a hot dog costume hype the crowd during a timeout, because of course. 62-59 Miami with 5 left in the third.
—Maun Ginobili is a wizard. And he just drained a three. 64-62 Heat.
—”Seven Nation Army” over and over and over and over and over. I don’t hate it, but Jesus. Over and over and over and over.
—Thing is, every time they play “Seven Nation Army,” the Heat seem to do something well, so you gotta understand it. Wade just drained a trey, but Danny Green countered it with one of his own. 69-67 Heat, 2 minutes left in the third.
—After slumping for a bit last round, Ray Allen is very much bit. Just hit an open three that looked like a long (and simple) floater.
—72-69 after three. So, yo, this is a good game! And it’s a quick, up-and-down tilt, too, a huge upgrade in pure entertainment value from that slog of an Eastern Conference Finals.
—The DJ played both Trick Daddy and Pharoahe Monch during the break in between quarters. This is a good thing, a very good thing.
—Sloppy play to start the fourth. 72-71 Miami following a host of missed jumpers and a couple of turnovers.
—76-73 Heat after a flying Birdman finish off a Bosh miss. T-shirts are flying everywhere and I think there is more Pitbull happening, of course. So much motherfking Pitbull.
—So of course, things pick up and we lose internet. But we’re back, I believe. Anyway, the Spurs have been Spursing—just getting the ball in the right spots and finishing around the rim and poking the ball away from the Heat and doing everything they need to be doing in the middle of the fourth quarter. 85-79 Spurs, 3:30 remaining in the game. This is going to be a huge next minute/two minutes for Miami… they can pull back or let this thing slip away. We’ll find out which one it’s going to be very quickly.
—More Trick Daddy!
—LeBron finishes a Bosh pass (or terrible shot attempt? was tough to see from here), and Tony Parker attempts to counter with a J but bricks it. 85-81 Spurs, 2:40 left.
—LeBron misses a three, then Danny Green sinks a three on the other end. Strong Island, represent! 88-81 San Antonio, 2 minutes left.
—LBJ blows right by Duncan for a lay-up. Ginobili misses a three. Ray Allen misses one too, but is fouled in the process. Ouch. Three shots upcoming. 88-83 Spurs, 1:28 remaining.
—Just realized LeBron has a 16-17-10 night going with 88 seconds still left on the clock. Hot damn.
—First Allen FT: Wet. Second FT: Wet. Third FT: Wet. 88-86 Spurs, 1:28 left. Ah!
—So that was a pretty terrible time to lose internet, but there it is. Up 2, with the shot clock running down, Tony Parker spun around LeBron and got off a shot juuuuuuuuuuuuuust before the 24-second clock ran out, which rimmed in and gave the Spurs a 4-point lead with 5.8 seconds remaining. The Heat ran a play for D-Wade to hit a lay-up before the clock ran out, but he missed and there wasn’t really enough time to come back from a two-possession deficit anyway. 92-88, Spurs take Game 1. Hell of a game.
Thanks for rocking with us, y’all. We’ll have plenty more news tomorrow morning and a full report from shoot-around tomorrow afternoon. Be sure to let us know what you think of what took place in Game 1 below in the comments….
Peace!
