VINTAGE Spurs star Tim Duncan proved the Doubting Thomases like me wrong and deservedly so, San Antonio is this year’s recipient of the Lawrence O’Brien Trophy that goes to the NBA champion.
Before nit become a mere footnote in the sports history books, here are some hard facts and figures from the just-concluded NBA Finals that saw Duncan and the Spurs demolish the back-to-back league titlist Heat in five games.
+ San Antonio took the final three games – twice on Miami’s home floor in Games Three (111-92) and Four (107-86) for the Heat’s only home setbacks during the 2014 playoffs and finally, Game Five (104-87) at the Spurs’ AT&T Center – with a winning margin of at least 17 points each time.
Additionally, all four Spurs victories came with a margin of 15 or more, including a 110-95 success in the series opener. San Antonio won by an average of 14 points in the five-game Finals, the largest in NBA history.
+ Spurs bench boss Gregg Popovich and Duncan each secured their fifth NBA title ring, all with the Alamo City squad – 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 and this year. Both cat-quick playmaker Tony Parker and Sixth Man Manu Ginobili collected their fourth championship.
Overall, the internationalist trio of Duncan (U.S. Virgin Islands), Parker (born in Belgium but raised in France) and Ginobili (Argentina) has combined for 117 playoff career victories – the most in NBA history – to erase the previous mark of 110 postseason victories put together by the Los Angeles Lakers’ triumvirate of Earvin (Magic) Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Cooper.
+ During the five-game Finals, Duncan posted averages of 15.4 points (on .569 (29-51) FG shooting, 10 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 23 games; Parker tallied a team-best 18.0 ppg and 4.6 apg; and Ginobili normed 14.4 ppg, 4.4 apg and 3.0 rpg.
The three are the first non-LAL-or-Boston trio ever to win four championships together. (There were 76 other trios that gained four or more titles together but each turned in the trick with the Lakers or Celtics.)
The 7-foot, 38-year-old Duncan is the second man in NBA annals to capture an NBA crown in three different decades. The first was journeyman center-forward John Salley, who won with Detroit in 1989 and 1990, with Chicago in 1996 and with the LA Lakers in 2000.
+ San Antonio finished the 2014 playoffs with a 16-7 record (4-3 vs. Dallas, 4-1 vs. Portland, 4-2 vs. Oklahoma City and 4-1 vs. Miami). The Spurs won 12 games by 15 points or more, the most by any NBA team in a single postseason.
The old mark of 10 set by the LA Lakers during their 1985 title run. San Antonio also outscored Miami by 14 points per game during their titular duel, the largest point differential in a single series in Finals history.
The Spurs also shot .528 (191-for-362) from the field during the Finals, the highest field goal percentage in any Finals series in NBA annals. The old league mark of .527 was established by the Chicago Bulls during their 4-1 Finals triumph against the LA Lakers in 1991.
During the entire playoffs, Parker topped the club in points (17.4 ppg) and assists (4.8 apg), Duncan netted 16.3 ppg and led all Spurs in rebounds (9.2 rpg) and blocked shots (1.26 bpg), and Ginobili came off the bench to norm 14.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg and 4.1 apg.
Parker’s 17.4-point clip is the lowest playoff scoring average by an NBA championship unit’s leading scorer in the shot-clock era (since 1954-55). The previous low of 18.2 ppg was registered by Isiah Thomas during the Detroit Pistons’s 1989 title run.
+ Underpublicized silent killer Kawhi Leonard was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player after posting norms of 17.8 points (on .612 (30-for-49) FG shooting), 6.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.60 steals and 1.20 blocks an outing during the five-game championship series.
A third-year pro out of San Diego State, the 6-foot-7 forward chalked up 20 or more points in the last three games to become only the fourth player in Finals history to accomplish the feat before turning 23 years old. Phoenix’s Alvan Adams produced four 20 points-or-more performances in the 1976 Finals against Boston; LeBron James, while still with Cleveland, got three against San Antonio in 2007, and Boston’s Tom Heinsohn also had three against the St. Louis (now Atlanta) Hawks in 1957.
Leonard topped the Spurs in three-point field goal percentage during the Finals at .579 (11-for-19), barely surpassing Australian guard Patty Mills’s .565 (13-for-23) clip from beyond the arc en route to being the Spurs’ fifth-leading point-producer in the Finals at 10.2 ppg.
At 22 (he turns 23 on June 29), Leonard is the youngest to gain the Finals MVP award since Duncan, then a sophomore pro just two months past his 23rd birthday, gained the honor in 1999 (a lockout-shortened season) when the Spurs grabbed their first league title.
The Lakers’ Magic Johnson was the youngest Finals MVP ever. He secured the first of his five NBA rings in 1980 (vs. Philadelphia) at age 20 years and nine months.
+ For the dethroned Miami Heat, LeBron James was their Finals leader in points (28.2 ppg), rebounds (7.8 rpg), assists (4.0 apg), steals (2.00 spg), blocked shots (0.40 bpg), field goal percentage (.571, 52-of-91) and three-point field goal percentage (.519, 14-of-27).
The other members of their Big Three were also in double-figure scores – Dwyane Wade (15.2 ppg, .438 (28-for-64) FG shooting) and Chris Bosh (14.0 ppg, .549 (28-for-51) FG shooting and 5.2 rpg).
Overall, James normed 27.4 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 4.8 apg, 1.85 spg and 0.55 bpg during the Heat’s 13-7 playoff finish.