San Antonio: The San Antonio Spurs defeated the Miami Heat 104-87 on Sunday to capture their fifth NBA championship and deny the Heat a third straight title.
Fueled by the disappointment of a seven-game loss to the Heat in last year’s finals, the top-seeded Spurs throttled the two-time defending champions in the final three games to take the best-of-seven title series four games to one.
“We remember what happened last year and how it felt in that locker room and we used it and built on it and got back here and it’s amazing,” Spurs center Tim Duncan said.
San Antonio also won titles in 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007.
The Spurs lost the last two games of the 2013 finals after being up 3-2. They led with 28 seconds to go in game six last year but let the contest slip through their fingers.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich claimed his fifth ring and now trails just Phil Jackson (11) and Red Auerbach (nine) for the most in history.
“Us having that experience and going through that loss pushed us even harder this year,” said 22-year-old Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard, who was named the Most Valuable Player of the finals.
Leonard led the Spurs in scoring in the final three blowout wins that followed Miami’s only victory in the series in game two. Leonard scored 22 points on Sunday and finished with 10 rebounds in front of a standing-room only crowd of 18,581 at the AT&T Center arena.
The Spurs shot just 28 percent from the floor in the first quarter and trailed by 16 at one stage before turning it around in the second quarter to take a 47-40 lead into halftime.Ginobili and Mills scored 19 and 17 points respectively.
