Okay, when I made my prediction for last night, I used the information that the first four games had provided me. Tony Parker is great, and the only real initiator on the Spurs. So, right on cue, 2007 Manu Ginobili was surprisingly thrown into the starting lineup and dominated. I knew that he was an amazing facilitator, but he had been completely nonexistent throughout the series. Ginobili came out on fire, and took a ton of pressure off Tony Parker at the beginning of the game while he took over the point for a while.
Tony Parker's hamstring looked fine last night, and that was probably helped by the fact that Ginobili was able to handle the ball a lot for him. Parker quietly sneaked his way into 26 points. The combination of the two will be hard for the Heat to defend.
And then, there was Danny Green. He's been a lethal shooter for a while now, thanks to Gregg Popovich, but this is completely ridiculous. This is statistically the greatest shooting performance in the history of the Finals, and probably the best of any series. And we're only 5 games in. I'm legitimately excited to see what he has in store for the rest of the Finals. If the Spurs win, he's getting the MVP. Even if the Heat win, I wouldn't be opposed to giving Green the MVP of the series.
The biggest problem last night was the Heat defense. During Game 4, it seemed like they finally figured out what to do to slow down the Spurs's perimeter game, but it was back yesterday. They were getting pounded in transition, which was supposed to be the biggest strength for the Heat, their ability to run the floor and scramble in transition. The Spurs are dominating that part of the game right now, which is a horrible sign for Miami.
I barely even know what to think anymore, this series has been severely inconsistent on both sides.
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