THE FACT: The San Antonio Spurs have now won five NBA Championships. Two titles have come over teams with LeBron James, and James has a 5-11 record in Finals games vs. San Antonio (he's 6-6 in all other NBA Finals games). The Spurs won this one in five games after dropping the heartbreaking seven-game series last year to Miami.
THE LEAD: Kawhi Leonard wrapped up a Finals MVP performance, scoring 22 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and shooting 7-for-10 from the floor (3-for-4 at the 3-point line) and leading the Spurs to another convincing victory, 104-87, over the defending champion Miami Heat on Sunday at AT&T Center.
They did it by overcoming a 22-6 start to the game by the Heat, with James scoring 17 in the first quarter. The Spurs got locked in after that though, routing the Heat for the third straight game.
James, last year's MVP in a seven-game NBA Finals over the Spurs, finished with 31 points and 10 rebounds. The Heat have won two championships from their four-straight Finals appearances.
It's the Spurs' first title since 2007, when they swept James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
QUOTABLE: "I'm not skilled enough to explain properly how we feel. Not only me, but I'm sure Tony (Parker) and Tim (Duncan) and Pop (Gregg Popovich) feel the same way. Last year was a tough one for all of us. We felt like we had the trophy, that we were touching it, and it slipped away. We all felt guilty. We got to this spot, and we didn't let it go."
-- Manu Ginobili (19 points off 6-for-11 shooting, 3-for-6 from the 3-point line, 4-for-5 from the foul line in 28 ½ minutes)
THE STAT: The Spurs again won the final three games by an average of 19 points, and they outscored playoff opponents by 214 points this year, a playoff record.
TURNING POINT: The Heat had been outscored by 38 points in the first quarter this series, then opened Game 5 on a 22-6 run and finished the opening 12 minutes leading 29-22. Then they followed it was a stinker of a second quarter, outscored 25-11. That was their lowest scoring output in any quarter of the playoffs this year.
QUOTABLE III: "They played exquisite basketball in this series and in particular these last three games. They are the better team. There is no other way to say it. They played great basketball, and we couldn't respond to it."
-- Heat coach Erik Spoelstra
QUOTABLE IV: "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
HOT: Leonard went 6-for-14 from the floor and scored 18 points in the first two games of the Finals. He finished by shooting 24-for-35 (68.5 percent) in Games 3-5 and scoring 71 points (23.7 points per game). ... Patty Mills went 5-for-8 from the 3-point line in Game 5 for San Antonio. He was 13-for-23 in the Finals (56.5 percent). ... Parker missed his first 10 shots of the game. After that, from late in the third quarter onward, he went 7-for-8 from the floor for 16 points.
NOT: Ray Allen started for the first time in these Finals, and he shot 1-for-8 from the floor (1-for-3 from 3-point territory). The only game that was worse in the playoffs was his 0-for-4 performance in Game 1 in the first round against Charlotte.
FANTASY SPOTLIGHT: In the last three games of the Finals, Leonard averaged 23.7 points and 9.3 rebounds. James averaged 27 points 7.7 rebounds.
INSIDE THE ARENA: Commissioner Adam Silver presented the Larry O'Brien Trophy for the first time. Before handing out the hardware, he said the Spurs' Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford are "perhaps the greatest GM-coach combination in sports."
GOOD MOVE: Ginobili is usually quick off the bench for San Antonio, but not always. He was the first reserve in, for Danny Green, in Game 5 after the Spurs missed their opening five shots of the game and trailed 8-0. Undeterred by a pair of missed 3-pointers, Ginobili soon made an impact with a driving basket in the lane and a make of the foul shot, hassled Shane Battier into an offensive foul, nailed a 3 and dished to Leonard for a 3 to cut the Heat lead to single digits after Miami had been up 22-6. After Ginobili came in, the Spurs outscored the Heat 22-21 through the rest of the first quarter.
NOTABLE: Leonard, 22 years old, is the youngest Finals MVP since Duncan in 1999, and he's fourth-youngest overall (Magic Johnson won it twice while younger). ... The Heat's 8-0 start to Game 5 marked the first time since Game 2 that Miami led by more than two points.
