Enjoy your view, LeBron?

Seemingly every media outlet that didn't just post a video of exploding heads had the Heat winning this series. That probably has a lot more to do with them and a lot less to do with the teams involved. However, those outlets have forgotten one thing: these are the fucking Spurs we're talking about.

The Spurs demonstrated just that by winning Game 1. Since this series is played in a 2-3-2 format, that gives them home court advantage and an excellent chance at having the Heat on the ropes by Game 5. Still, this thing is far from over; you might remember that the Thunder won Game 1 last year, and across the nation eulogies were being written for the Heat, just as they are now.

The truth is, the Spurs won this one narrowly, and overcame Heat advantages in shooting percentage, rebounding, and total assists. Strangely enough, one of the few areas the Spurs had an advantage at was the free throw line (which really messes with my belief in Stern conspiracy theories *). The Spurs also forced more turnovers, showing again their uncanny ability to beat teams at their own game.

* Stern's probably just luring us into a false sense of serenity before rigging a more important game.

Then there was this:


I know you've probably already seen it, several times at that, but with a shot like that, you can probably stand to see it several times more. It was such an incredible shot that most of what I've read this morning focused entirely on it, seemingly forgetting that 48 minutes had been played leading up to it, or that the Spurs already had a lead.

It was one hell of a shot, but the name of this site is Basketbawful, so let's focus on some of the Bawful from last night, shall we...

Chris Bosh: Oh yeah. You knew it was coming. How long can a power forward jack up threes, even if he hits a few, before he has a game like this. All of a sudden, he's knocking on the doors of exile, as editorials across the nation are clamoring for him to be expelled from South Beach. 5 rebounds (13 less than LeBron) and shooting 6-16 for 13 points is not good, but it's the 0-4 from downtown that really stands out. None of the ones I saw were corner threes either (you know, the kind he occasionally hits). For the record, Bosh actually attempted the same number of threes as Ray Allen. The only difference was that Ray hit 3 of his.

Boris Diaw: Parker's bosom buddy spent about 9 minutes on court and made his only shot. So why is he here? It's because he spent most of that time guarding LeBron James, which invariably resulted in a surge for the Heat. Normally, when something like this happens, it's the coach's fault, and if it had been, I dunno, Scottie Brooks's decision, it'd probably be his name at the beginning of the entry; but it wasn't Scottie Brooks's decision, it was Gregg Popovich's. Therefore, I'm pretty much assuming that it was some sort of brilliant mind game.

The Heat: They lost a game where, even if only for a couple of minutes, LeBron James was being guarded by Boris Diaw. I'm at a loss for words.

LeBron's ankles:

How could I resist? This play was so pretty, it almost feels like the reason gifs were invented.


Thanks for the link Raza.

Lacktion:

Cory Joseph: Joseph missed his lone field goal attempt in 2 minutes and 14 seconds, christening the Finals lacktion section on behalf of the Spurs.