NBA Finals Game 4 Preview: Does Miami have an answer?

Game 4 of the 2014 NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs is live from American Airlines Arena in Miami tonight, with tip scheduled for 9:00pm EST.

 

Watch on TV: ABC (check local listings for channel information)

Watch online: Watch ABC, Primo High-Definition Stream, List of Wiziwig.tv streams

 

Latest on the Spurs/What They’re Saying:

Spurs look to match Miami's urgency in Game 4 (My San Antonio)

The case for the Spurs winning Game 4 (Pounding the Rock)

Spurs fans react to Kawhi’s not so “Kawhi-et” return and more (Project Spurs)

 

Latest on the Heat/What They’re Saying:

Skolnick: Miami Heat have a '30% chance' to add Melo to Big 3 (Bleacher Report)

Heat need Mario Chalmers to step up vs. Spurs (Yahoo! Sports)

5 things to watch in Game 4 of the NBA Finals (CBS Miami)

 

The Rundown:

After scoring just 18 points in the first two games of the series, San Antonio's Kawhi Leonard eclipsed that output in Game 3 - in the first 24 minutes of the game.

A 21-point outburst by the 22-year-old rising star keyed a historic first half which saw the Spurs shoot an NBA-record 75.8% from the floor - eclipsing the best shooting percentage for a half in NBA Finals history set by the Orlando Magic in Game 3 of the 2009 Finals (75.0%).

“That will never happen again,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said, via Michael Lee of the Washington Post. “I mean, that’s crazy.”

Facing a 71-52 deficit at the break, the Heat kept their resolve where lesser teams would have folded. Tightening the screws on defense, Miami held the Spurs to just 15 points in the third quarter - trimming the San Antonio lead to 11.

However, San Antonio was just too much to handle on Tuesday, reigniting their offensive spark in the fourth to cruise to a 111-92 victory, taking a 2-1 series lead (along with reestablishing home-court advantage).

"We did not play a good basketball game," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the loss, via the Associated Press. "All of us have owned that. It doesn't matter ultimately how many you lose by or what the game is like. You have to learn from it, move on."

Miami will have to "move on" rather quickly on Thursday, or face the harsh reality of a 3-1 series deficit heading back to Texas this weekend.

 

 

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