San Antonio Spurs clinched their fifth NBA Finals title after wrapping up the seven-match series with a 104-87 victory in the fifth game and ending Miami Heat's two-year reign at the top, here today.
The Spurs capped off a dominating campaign in style with a comfortable win in the end, much to the delight of their home crowd, who lined up the streets till late at night to celebrate their team's victory, chanting slogans "Go Spurs Go" and dancing.
The 22-year-old Kawhi Leonard, who was awarded the most valuable player in 2014 NBA Finals, had 22 points and 10 rebounds. Manu Ginobili also impressed with 19 points to his credit.
Patty Mills stole 17 points, while knocking down five threes. Four of those threes were in the third quarter when the Spurs opened up a 21-point lead. Tony Parker (16) and veteran Tim Duncan (14) also chipped in with important points for their team.
For the Heat, star player LeBron James once again led with 31 points on 10-of-21 shooting, but he got little support from his teammates. While Chris Bosh had 13 points, Dwayne Wade continued his disappointing show with just 11 points.
The hosts though did not have an ideal start today as they looked a bit rusty to begin with. In fact after the first quarter, it was the two-time defending champions Heat, who were leading 29-22.
While round 2 saw some fierce battle being fought between the two sides, the Heat soon lost steam and the tide started to turn in favour of the Spurs. The home team soon erased an early 16-point deficit and at the half-time were leading 47-40 with full capacity crowd of 18.581 backing them.
