The 2014 NBA title run by the San Antonio Spurs against the Miami Heat was a story of a team vanquishing the ghost of their season's past while playing an inspired brand of selfless and team basketball.
A year before, the Heat got the better of the Spurs after an epic seven-game series as the Miami Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh enjoyed their second straight championship.
But in 2014, the Spurs dominated the Heat quickly in five games. It was a tale of redemption for San Antonio but it also signified a significant turning point for the league. The Golden State Warriors era loomed on the horizon while James eventually went back to Cleveland.
Background
The Heat entered the 2013-2014 NBA season as kings of the league having won back-to-back titles. They would go on to win 54 games, finishing second in the Eastern Conference standings behind the Paul George-led Indiana Pacers who boasted a 56-26 record. James was still at the peak of his powers but his running mate Wade missed 28 games nursing various injuries.
Out West, the Spurs blazed their way to 62 wins. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and the rest of the team played with a sense of determination especially after losing the year before. Relying on ball movement and their staple defensive identity, they finished sixth in offensive rating (110.5) and third in defensive rating (102.4).
Coach of the Year Gregg Popovich had no player averaging more than 30 minutes in the regular season. They were a fine-tuned orchestra, playing beautiful basketball every night.
The 2014 Finals were played in 2-2-1-1-1 format for the first time since 1984. This meant that the higher seed will host the first two games, Game 5, and Game 7 if necessary. In years prior, the league enforced a 2-3-2 format for the Finals.
The conclusion of the 2014 season was also the first championship series overseen by new commissioner Adam Silver.
Best game of the series
If the 2013 Finals was a slugfest between the Spurs and the Heat, then the sequel in 2014 was much more one-sided. The Spurs were out for blood, and in their four victories, they won with an average margin of 18 points, including a 21-point blowout in Game 4.
The closest and fiercest battle between the two teams came in Game 2 of that series when the Heat came away with a narrow 98-96 road victory. The big story was James bouncing back with a staggering stat line of 35 points on 63 percent shooting, plus 10 rebounds, three assists, and two steals. The King was heavily criticized after the Heat's Game 1 loss when he only played five minutes in the fourth quarter due to cramps.
Game 2 was reminiscent of their 2013 battle when nobody knew who would come out. Bosh nailed a clutch 3-pointer with roughly a minute left to give Heat the lead.
The momentum was with the Heat after Game 2 especially as they were heading back home to Miami. And if you chalk up Game 1 as a weird occurrence (more on that later), you could argue that it was still anybody's series.
Memorable moment
The 2014 Finals Game 1 will go down in infamy as the "No AC game."
The air conditioning broke down inside the AT&T Center in San Antonio, which turned the arena into a melting pot. It was reported that the temperature rose to as high as 90 °F. The biggest victim of the unkind heat was the Heat's biggest star, LeBron James.
As mentioned earlier, James had to leave Game 1 early because of leg cramps. He still racked up 25 points, six rebounds, three assists, and three steals in 32 minutes, but his team needed more out of him. With Miami's best player out, the Spurs took full advantage, outscoring their opponent in the final 12 minutes, 36-17, to secure the 110-95 victory.
Just look at James' postgame quotes. It was just something that you don't usually see, let alone in a Finals game.
"It was the whole left leg, damn near the whole left side," James said via ESPN. "I was losing a lot [of fluids] throughout the game. It was extremely hot in the building, you know, both teams, fans, everybody could feel it. I was the one that had to take the shot."
X-Factor MVP
A 22-year-old Kawhi Leonard rightfully earned Finals MVP honors by averaging 17.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists and was a beast defensively with 1.6 steals and 1.2 blocks. It was clearly the birth of Leonard as a superstar. His 61.2 percent shooting was the highest field goal percentage of any Finals MVP before Giannis Antetokounmpo surpassed the feat with a 61.8 clip in 2021.
As for the low-key MVP, Borias Diaw would fit the bill. If Leonard posted all the numbers and highlights, Diaw was the do-it-all forward who helped turned the tide. His insertion in the starting lineup in Game 3 made a key impact on his squad.
Diaw’s size, deceptive quickness, and overall skill level were the perfect counter for Miami's small-ball style. He could guard any Heat player, including LeBron James. Same for his effect on offense as his ability to shoot from the perimeter and find open teammates was an antithesis to the Heat's aggressive trapping defense.
Diaw played 35.2 minutes in the series, tied with Tony Parker with the most minutes logged. He put up 6.2 points, 8.6 boards, and 5.8 dimes. He astonishingly led all players in the series with 29 assists and pulled down the second-most rebounds with 43.
Aftermath
The Heat's Big Three era was put to a dramatic end in 2014. After the Finals loss to the Spurs, James opted out of his contract and eventually became an unrestricted free agent by July of that year. More than a week later, he would write his first-person essay "I'm Coming Home" in Sports Illustrated, signifying his return to Cleveland.
Chris Bosh’s departure from the game began the following year. Though he re-signed with the Heat, he wasn't able to finish the 2015 season because of a blood clot found in his lungs. He made multiple attempts for a comeback in the next few years but his career was ultimately cut short because of medical reasons.
Dwyane Wade, meanwhile, stayed with the Heat for two more seasons before jumping ship to the Chicago Bulls and then reuniting with James at Cleveland. Wade would later return to Miami to finish his career.
After the 2014 Finals, the Heat would miss the playoffs three of the next five seasons. It took a while for the franchise to return to prominence, highlighted by the team's 2020 runner-up finish.
As for the Spurs, their 2014 title run after their heartbreaking defeat the year before, remains one of the best redemption stories of the league. The championship turned out to be the final one for the Spurs' Big Three of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Tim Duncan. Parker and Ginobili ended up with four rings while Duncan and coach Gregg Popovich each had five.
Duncan retired with the Spurs in 2016 after 19 seasons, leaving the game as one of the most decorated players in history. Ginobili followed suit in 2018, completing 16 seasons in San Antonio. Parker didn't finish his playing days for the Spurs, signing with the Charlotte Hornets in 2018. Then after just one season, he called it quits.
The Spurs would remain a playoff team, appearing in 22 straight postseasons, before the streak ended in 2020.
