2014 NBA Finals Game 4 Preview

Tonight, at 8:00 CT, the San Antonio Spurs will look to take a commanding 3-1 series lead over the Miami Heat at the American Airlines Arena.

Both this year and last year the Spurs have dismantled the Heat in Game 3 wins, but last year Miami came out with a huge second half of Game 4 to even the series.

Given history, and Miami’s potential embarrassment at losing both home games, we know that the Spurs will not be able to win while playing sloppily, as they did in Game 1 and the second had of Game 3.

In order to win tonight, San Antonio need to do something that I never thought I would say in my entire life: imitate the Mavs.

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Basically, the offense needs to keep moving and to stay unpredictable, while the defense needs to shut down LeBron and Wade. If the Spurs can force Chalmers to beat them, they are very happy.

Another key will be the play of Boris Diaw. After being called into the starting line-up for the previous game, Diaw responded well and posted a +/- of +20 (best on the team). If he can keep it up, the Spurs can continue to dominate Miami’s small ball lineups.

Having won back the home court advantage they lost in the second game of the series, San Antonio and Tim Duncan can put themselves on the brink of a fifth NBA title with a win in Miami tonight.

Los Spurs en la ‘era Popovich’ están con un record de 15-3 en series a 7 partidos en las que marchan 2-1.

— AntonioGA (@Theanswer83) June 12, 2014

For those of you who don’t speak any Spanish, what this means is that under Popovich, the Spurs are 15-3 in all seven-game series when they take a 2-1 lead.

One of those three losses? Last year to the Miami Heat.

Winning Game 3 should hopefully put the Heat in too deep a hole to climb out of.

Spurs are up 2-1 but the news could get worse for Heat after tonight. Coach Popovich has never lost a series when his team takes a 3-1 lead.

— Desmond M. Wallace (@MisterWallaceGA) June 12, 2014

For Miami, this is a must win game.

If they lose, they can pretty much kiss their three-peat goodbye, as well as say goodbye to their stars.

For the Spurs, if they lose, they will still be the favourites to emerge with the Larry O’Brien trophy, so there is definitely less pressure on them. But we know, the Spurs get most of their pressure from Coach Pop who demands perfection regardless of the scenario.

Bovada.com has the Spurs as five-point ‘dogs on the road tonight.

I can see Miami blowing the game open pretty early, and Pop resting his stars for another night. On the other hand, LeChoke might let the pressure get to him and get cramps again, right? Well, we can all dream. I’m going to apprehensively take Miami (-5) to win tonight, but lets hope not!

#GoSpursGo!

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