The Miami Heat wear the crown. The San Antonio Spurs will try to take away that same crown. Which team is going to rise above the other in a series that was introduced to basketball fans a year ago at this time. Will the Heat maintain their edge, or will the Spurs manage to change the final outcome of the NBA Finals? People can’t wait to see what will happen.
Thursday, June 5th – 8:00 PM ET
NBA Odds: San Antonio -4
Why The Heat Can Win
They are the champions and have a champion’s kind of confidence as a result. The Heat came through all sorts of obstacles last year on the road to a repeat. They have actually had an easier time of things in the first three rounds of the playoffs this year. Last year, the Heat were 1-1 in their second round series against the Chicago Bulls, and had to work a little harder to win that series than they did against the Brooklyn Nets, a series in which they led, 2-0. In last year’s Eastern Conference Finals, the Heat were tied at 2-2 after four games against the Indiana Pacers, and they were taken to a Game 7. This year, they jumped to a 3-1 lead over the Pacers and won that series in six games. They also won Game 6 by a huge margin, rolling to the Finals without being tested the way they were in 2013.
The Heat haven’t played since Friday. They’ve been rested, and this is great news for Dwyane Wade, whose first priority has been to be physically ready for the Finals in these past few seasons. Preserving his body is the top focus for Wade, and since he should be in very good shape for this series, Miami will have a chance to do what it needs to do on both offense and defense.
Why The Spurs Can Win
They are determined to win this rematch against the Heat. Motivation might not mean much at this level of competition, but there’s an idea in the Spurs’ minds that they have to do things differently in order to win this series. The Spurs failed to make free throws and they failed to get a few defensive rebounds in Game 6 against the Heat last June. San Antonio is going to remember these kinds of failures, and those remembrances are going to make this team focus a little more on each and every little activity. It’s not as though San Antonio played poorly in that series against Miami. The Spurs just didn’t finish. It’s not as though this team needs to worry about its ability to compete with the Heat. The Spurs just need to make the final step. Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard – they’re all going to be ready. They’re all going to play well, along with the other members of the Spurs’ very deep rotation. San Antonio should be prepared to play a high-quality game in Game 1.
Outlook
This is a game in which both teams will be a little rusty, but not so that one team’s going to be hurt a lot more than the other. This is going to be a game in which execution will matter, and the Spurs are better at running halfcourt offense than the Heat. Take the Spurs, expecting them to draw first blood in this series.
Pick: Spurs -4
