2014 NBA Finals: San Antonio Spurs beat the Miami Heat 104-87 to win the title

The San Antonio Spurs celebrate their victory

The San Antonio Spurs earned redemption and won their fifth championship in franchise history as they beat the Miami Heat 104-87 to wrap up the series 4-1.

It was the first championship for the Spurs since they swept LeBron James and his then Cleveland Cavaliers in 2007. Future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan and Head Coach Gregg Popovich celebrated their fifth NBA title having won all together, while for the guard duo of Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker it was their fourth.

With averages of 17.8 points on 61.2% shooting from the field along with 6.4 rebounds and 1.6 steals for the series, Kawhi Leonard was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) as he had another big night in Game 5 recording 22 points and 10 rebounds on 7 of 10 shooting from the field.

At 22, he became the youngest player to be named the Finals MVP since Tim Duncan back in 1999, and fourth youngest overall since Magic Johson had bagged it twice when he was younger.

Leonard’s stellar Game 5:

In the team huddle before the Miami Heat went out on the court, the final words from LeBron James were to follow his lead and so they did for the opening few minutes of the Game leading 22-6 and showing signs of running away with the game.

However the team followed it up with disappointing closing minutes to the first quarter, and a disastrous second quarter to head to the locker room trailing in haltime by 7, after being outscored 30 to 16 in the second period.

The Heat had their chance at taking the game but handed it to their opponents. The Spurs not only retained the lead from the second quarter but continued to pileup the points in the third quarter.

Heading into the fourth, the Spurs led by 19 and although there were still 12 minutes remaining the body language of the Heat’s players was not positive. The Spurs continued outplaying the Heat on both ends of the floor till the game was completely out of hand for the Heat.

Until the third quarter, Tony Parker struggled from the field shooting 1 of 10 but finished the game with 16 points floating in 7 of his next 8 shots. Tim Duncan had 14 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocked shots

Manu Ginobili and Patty Mills sparked the Spurs coming of the bench combining for 36 points of the total 47 points by the Spurs second unit. Mills recorded 17 points on an impressive 5 of 8 shooting from beyond the arc, while Ginobili had an all-round game with 19 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.

Patty Mills was impressive off the bench:

Miami’s embarrassing loss had nothing to do with James not stepping up. James finished with 31 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists, but set the tone early leading his team to an early 16- point lead. Wade struggled from the field as he went 4 of 12 shooting and ended up with 11 points.

"We lost one (Finals), we won two and we lost another one. (We'll) take 50 percent in four years in championships any day. Obviously, we want to win all of them, but that's just the nature of the game. Not proud of the way we played (in this series)."-LeBron James

Ray Allen who was inserted in the starting line-up in place of out of sorts point guard Mario Chalmers. He managed to score just 5 points on a disappointing 1 of 8 shooting (1 of 3 from long range). They were outscored by a margin of 23 points with Micheal Beasley contributing 9 points.

Miami Heat’s 16 point lead was only thier second of the series after they led by 2 points in Game 2. James now has a sub .500 record in the NBA Finals winning twice on five attempts.