NBA Finals Game 2 Recap

Some notes about Game 2:

This time, the Heat didn’t take any risks w/ LeBron James… James played the entire first quarter in Game 1 (the only player on the floor to play 12 straight minutes), but in G2, with 2:26 left in the first quarter, LeBron was replaced by D. Wade – lesson learnt!

On my series preview, I’ve said that Tiago Splitter could be a major factor (for both teams):

"Tiago Splitter could possibly be the X factor of this series. In the last year’s finals, when MIA downgraded their lineup to a more “small ball” unit w/ Mike Miller instead of U. Haslem, they didn’t care about Splitter and things have worked pretty well for them. I’m curious to see what Popovich will do if the Heat keeps using the same strategy… He was flexible enough to not start Splitter in games 5 and 6 vs. OKC, so we can expect Pop to be more active in adjustments this season vs. last season, when he was clearly outcoached by Erik Spoelstra in my opinion."

In the last game, he played only 19 minutes vs. 32 from Boris Diaw… It looks like Popovich doesn’t want to play “big” against the Heat right now, but it was w/ Splitter on the floor that the Spurs explored better their size edge down low – he had 5 assists!

His minutes-numbers quarter-by-quarter + SAS scoring + SAS points in the paint:

First Quarter -                   6:14       | 26pts  | 14pts paint
Second Quarter -             4:45       | 17pts  | 6pts paint        
Third Quarter -                  5:30       | 35pts  | 10pts paint
Fourth Quarter -               2:38       | 18pts | 4pts paint

The correlation w/ him on the floor + SAS scoring more points near the basket is pretty clear to me. Let’s see how many minutes Splitter will get tonight!

Like in the first game, the pace of the second half was slower when compared to the first half, and once again, the Heat looked more comfortable than the Spurs in the half court. Also, Game 2 was way slower than the first game of the series! In my opinion, the Spurs were “extra” focused in not turning the ball over after committing 23 TO’s in the first game and so, they played w/ a more conservative mindset that turned against them late in the 4th quarter. Popovich said it all: “You move it or you die,”