Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili combined for a mere 25 points Tuesday night against the Heat in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. See if you can guess which team won by 36 points. If you picked Miami, you’d be wrong, as San Antonio pulled off one of the most stunning blowouts in championship history, led by Gary Neal (24 points) and Danny Green (27), who shot a combined 13-19 from three-point range (the team made a Finals-record 16 threes).
This contest wasn’t anything like Game 2, when the Spurs led the Heat late in the third quarter before Miami went on a decisive run to put things out of reach. On Tuesday, the Spurs won every quarter, scoring more in the fourth than Miami did in the entire second half. As good as their offense was, they Spurs’ second-half defense was equally superb; wherever LeBron James (a paltry 15 points on 7-21 shooting) went, Kawhi Leonard and Duncan seemed to have him blanketed, and Sunday night’s top scorer, Mario Chalmers, was held scoreless. Better yet, the annihilation was so thorough that no Spur besides Green played more than 30 minutes, providing valuable pine time for the Big Three.
This article appears in Jun 5-11, 2013.