The Heat’s quest for a third straight championship is done, and the Big Three’s run in Miami might be as well.
San Antonio blasted the Heat for the third game in a row, this time 104-87 on Sunday, and won the NBA Finals in five games. Miami put up little fight after tying the series 1-1 a week ago.
As the Heat consider how they landed in this position and what to do moving forward, here are some talking points.
1. There was awe, disbelief and silence after watching the Spurs stomp through the Finals in five games.
The locker room was quiet after the game, with little to be said after losing the last three games of the series by 19, 21 and 17 points. LeBron James picked remnants of tape off his body and soaked his feet in an ice tub before retreating to the training room for privacy from the media. Shane Battier tried to contain his emotions after playing the final game of his 13-year career. Most of the rest of the team silently ate their post-game meal, got dressed and headed for the bus to the airport.
The Heat have always respected San Antonio, but this was full submission. Chris Bosh called the Spurs the best basketball team he has ever seen. James referred to their style is the epitome of team basketball. Udonis Haslem could barely believe what he just witnessed.
“It was their time,” he said. “It was obvious. We gave our best effort. Oh man, shots they were making. So many shots were crazy. Manu Ginobili hit a step-back 3 on me out of a blitz. Patty Mills got hot and hit a couple of contested shots. Kawhi Leonard hit some pull-up shots. It’s demoralizing when they’re hitting contested shots and you’re playing your heart out. They were the better team.
“I never would have thought we could lose three straight. If somebody told me we would lose three straight, I wouldn’t believe that. If you would’ve told me they would shoot the ball like that and scored as many points as they did and we would’ve scored as little as we did, I wouldn’t believe that either.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was the only one to address the team afterward, doing so with team president Pat Riley and owner Micky Arison listening. His message was, “Keep your heads up. You’re champions. Four straight Finals. We have a lot to be proud of.”
2. Dwyane Wade slumps to the finish.
There was so much promise in the way Wade began the playoffs, but here is how his postseason ended: 10 points on 3-for-13 shooting in Game 4 and 11 points on 3-for-11 shooting in Game 5. He refused throughout the Finals to give any information on his health, though it seemed obvious something was wrong. When Spoelstra was asked about it, he deferred the question to Wade. He shot 42.9 percent in the Finals after hitting 54.5 percent against the Pacers in the previous round.
3. This loss clarified Miami’s biggest shortcomings.
Carmelo Anthony joining the Heat sounds like a fun experiment, but is that really what they need? Miami was so bad at point guard in this series that it started Game 5 without one. Spoelstra stuck Mario Chalmers on the bench and opted to start Ray Allen instead of going with back-up Norris Cole. The Heat could use some defensive help and some muscle in the paint, two things Anthony would not help. Battier, James Jones and Haslem made minimal contributions in the series. Last year’s free agent signings, Michael Beasley and Greg Oden, did nothing. Miami needs significant upgrades and will have to make some tough decisions in the next month or so.
