Finals series tied at 1-all

WITH the best-of-seven series deadlocked at 1-1, the 2014 NBA Finals between the two-time defending league champion Miami Heat and Father Time-defying San Antonio Spurs slug it out in Game Three tomorrow, Wednesday (Manila time, 9:00 a.m.), at the AmericanAirlines Arena in Florida.
The two clubs had split the first two games on San Antonio’s home floor, the AT&T Center, essentially allowing the Heat to steal homecourt advantage from the Spurs.
The Spurs grabbed the series opener, 110-95, behind vintage frontliner Tim Duncan’s 21 points and 10 rebounds, bad ankle-troubled Tony Parker’s 19 points and eight assists and reserve Manu Ginobili’s 16 points and 11 dimes.
Heat meal ticket LeBron James collected 25 points in 33 minutes but was sidelined in the final four minutes (when Miami trailed by just two points, 94-92) due to a left thigh cramp that most likely resulted from the air-conditioning malfunction at the AT&T Center that caused arena temperature to reach as high as 90 degrees. The other two of the Heat’s Big Three, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh produced 19 and 18 markers, respectively.
In Game Two, Miami and San Antonio shadowboxed and exchanged leads through the first 46 minutes before Miami regained the lead for good, 95-93, on a corner triple by Bosh off a James assist and Wade then knocked in a short shot on a Bosh pass en route to a 98-96 success by the Heat. Ginobili hit a meaningless trifecta at the game buzzer to finalize the count.
James came out cool and hydrated in registering a double-double of 35 points and 10 boards along with three assists and two steals in 38 minutes. Bosh and Wade totaled 18 and 14 scores, respectively.
Seldom-used and practically forgotten veteran power forward Rashard Lewis came up big for Miami, too, with 14 points on 5-of-9 field shooting, including 3-of-7 from the three-point arc, in just 26 minutes as a starter. In Game One, the 6-foot-10 Lewis contributed 10 points (including 2-of-6 from beyond the arc).
For San Antonio, Parker was the top scorer with 21 points along with seven assists. Ginobili chalked up 19 markers and Duncan posted his second straight double-double in the series with 18 points and 15 reebies.
The fourth game of the NBA Finals will also be hosted by the Heat on Friday, June 13 (MT, 9:00 a.m.).
Regardless, the titular series will return to San Antonio on Monday, June 16 (MT, 8:00 a.m), for Game Five under the comebacking 2-2-1-1-1 Finals format (vs. the old 2-3-2 format that was utilized from 1985 until last year).
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Are the San Antonio Spurs America’s Team in their ongoing National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals duel with the two-time reigning league titlist Miami Heat?
Maybe so since the oddsmakers have pegged the Spurs as the slight favorites to romp away with their fifth championship since 1999.
Then again, maybe not since the majority of the players on San Antonio’s 15-man roster for the NBA Finals were not born in the United States.
In contrast, the Heat are parading a 15-man all-American cast in their titular rematch with the Spurs. A year ago, when Miami retained its NBA crown following an epic 4-3 decision over San Antonio, the Florida club only employed a single non-American in its lineup in seldom-used backup center Joel Anthony. Anthony, a native of Montreal, Canada, was traded to the Boston Celtics last January.
Nine of the 15 Spurs first saw the light of the day on non-American soil.
And of the six “homegrown” players, four are marginals that have not gotten much playing time through the first three rounds of the playoffs and another that has yet to come off the pines after 18 games.
The six “stateside” Spurs are Kawhi Leonard (Los Angeles, California), Danny Green (New York, New York), Matt Bonner (Concord, New Hampshire), Jeff Ayres (Ontario, California), Austin Daye (Mission Viejo, California) and Damion James (Hobbs, New Mexico).
While Leonard and Green are in the starting lineup, Bonner (6.1 minutes per game), Ayres (14 games, 4.2 minutes) and Daye (1 game, 6.0 minutes) has seen limited service and James has yet to see a second of action.
The nine internationalists in the Spurs lineup are starters Tim Duncan (St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands), Tony Parker (born in Bruges, Belgium but raised in France) and Tiago Splitter (Joinville, Brazil), Sixth Man Manu Ginobili (Bahia Blanca, Argentina) and reserves Patty Mills (Canberra, Australia), Cory Joseph (Toronto, Canada), Boris Diaw (Cormeille-en-Parisis, France), Marco Belinelli (Bologna, Italy) and Aron Baynes (Gisborne, New Zealand).
Aside from the U.S., eight countries are represented on the San Antonio roster – U.S. Virgin Islands, France, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Italy, Canada and New Zealand.
Spurs bench boss Gregg Popovich was born in East Chicago, Indiana to a Serbian father and Croatian mother.
If the Spurs can’t be America’s Team, then they surely qualify as the NBA’s United Nations squad.
For the record, however, the Heat have overtaken the Los Angeles Lakers as America’s favorite NBA team, according to a year-long survey taken by ESPN Sports Poll among sports fans aged 12 and older.
Overall, the survey shows that the Heat rank sixth overall among America’s favorite professional teams – three spots ahead of the Lakers.
The Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League are the polled fans’ favorite sports squad.  Three other NFL teams are in the top five.