During the NBA’s indefinite hiatus, I will be rewatching every game of LeBron’s NBA Finals career. Every Finals game from the last 20 years is available to NBA League Pass subscribers on the NBA app or through apps like YouTube TV. We will be going chronologically through LeBron’s Finals career. 

Previous Finals Game Diaries

Game 1, 2007 NBA Finals: LeBron’s first Finals game.

Game 2, 2007 NBA Finals: LeBron bounces back but falls down 0-2.

Game 3, 2007 NBA Finals: LeBron gets the last shot but it doesn’t go.

Game 4, 2007 NBA Finals: Staying home.

Game 1, 2011 NBA Finals: LeBron’s first Finals victory.

Game 2, 2011 NBA Finals: Heat blow 15-point 4th quarter lead.

Game 3, 2011 NBA Finals: Bosh game-winner helps put Heat up 2-1.

Game 4, 2011 NBA Finals: LeBron has 8 points in Finals loss.

Game 5, 2011 NBA Finals: LeBron bounces back, but Mavs shoot the lights out.

Game 6, 2011 NBA Finals: Jason Terry and the Mavs burn down the Heat in Miami.

Game 1, 2012 NBA Finals: Westbrook and Durant lead comeback to take 1-0 lead over Heat.

Game 2, 2012 NBA Finals: LeBron applies lessons he learned from the Spurs in 2007 in a road win against the Thunder.

Game 3, 2012 NBA Finals: Miami escapes a late Durant rally to go up 2-1.

Game 4, 2012 NBA Finals: LeBron fights through cramps and an epic Westbrook performance to take 3-1 lead.

Game 5, 2012 NBA Finals:’ It’s about damn time’

Game 1, 2013 NBA Finals: Tony Parker hits a clutch shot as Heat crumble with turnovers

Game 2, 2013 NBA Finals: LeBron stones Splitter and gets his first Finals win over the Spurs

We enter Game 3 of the 2013 NBA Finals as LeBron James has just scored his first-ever NBA Finals win over the San Antonio Spurs in his first six tries, between 2007 and this series six years later. It still remains quite impressive that LeBron and the Spurs would meet again, six years after the first time and then again in 2014. But one thing that hasn’t changed since 2007 is that LeBron remains winless in San Antonio. His first game in 2007 he was feeling things out to the degree of letting his teammates feel out too much of the game for him, then responded with a better performance in Game 2, before the Cavs were ultimately swept after losing two close games at home. Now LeBron, who finally obliged the Spurs defense to shoot some pull-up jumpers, has momentum going into San Antonio. But he would again be quiet in looking for his own shot early. 

Tony Parker has been the motor of the Spurs offense for the first two games and in Game 2, the Heat did a great job of putting multiple guys on him and bothering him. Mario Chalmers, in particular, stepped up big time. But the Spurs were still in the game until it was broken open late in the 3rd quarter, mostly thanks to Danny Green, who contributed a barrage of 3-pointers and led the Spurs in scoring. But the Spurs keep you on their toes and after a lackluster game, Tim Duncan makes it a point to be more aggressive, calling for the ball in the post and punishing the smaller Heat by attacking the offensive boards. A Kawhi Leonard 3 makes it 5-2 San Antonio early on. It looks like the Heat have a classic transition opportunity which they are known to exploit, but again Danny Green foils the attempt, as he did a few times in Game 2, forcing Dwyane Wade into a turnover. Green can still shoot it in 2020 as a member of the Lakers and is still a capable defender, but he’s not a one-man wrecking crew of arguably the greatest fast break the game has ever seen. Seven years will do that.

Speaking of years, Duncan throws down an emphatic dunk and forces a Heat timeout at 11-4. It’s feeling a little bit like 2007 early on. It’s time for LeBron to show Coach Pop and the Spurs what he has learned, as well as who he has come to the party with. Just as happened in Game 2, the two-man game with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade leads to a Wade basket. On the next play, Wade uses Haslem as a screener and it ends in a second chance, with Bosh getting to the foul line. The Spurs, however, have their offense whipping the ball and moving bodies around in a tornado of pick and rolls. But Mike Miller comes through with a 3-pointer and then a James steal leads to a Wade layup to calm things down. When this game was happening, I was working a catering shift and watching it on my phone in the back waiting for the event to be over and I could clean up. I do remember that Mike Miller was pretty special in these road games.

LeBron gets his first field goal at the 3:23 mark of the first quarter, a powerful right-handed hook shot over Kawhi Leonard from the left block. Then LeBron finds a cutting Wade to get an easy bucket. I hope Dion Waiters is watching films from these games. Then LeBron works as the screener with Norris Cole, catches the ball in the post and then LeBron finds a cutting Birdman. LeBron turning it on has helped but the Spurs still lead 24-20 after the first.

It’s been a slow start to the 2nd quarter offensively as both teams are locking in on the defensive end. A 3-pointer by Gary Neal is the only basket of the first two minutes between either team. Then Danny Green, again, somehow stifles LeBron in the post. I don’t think I can truly convey how weird this is to see, considering LeBron’s go-to move these days is his classic spin-move where he barrels over guys to a lay-up. Green has all of his moves down and frankly, so far in this game, has been better against James than Kawhi Leonard. The quarter gets to the 9:37 mark before Bosh breaks the Heat scoring drought at the free-throw line, splitting a pair to make it 27-21 Spurs. The Spurs inability to score has been curious as they’ve gone to a smaller lineup with Matt Bonner at the power forward spot. Bosh then hits again to make it 23-27, then Bosh makes a block. A Norris Cole 3-pointer makes it 26-27 and the Heat have cut this lead all with LeBron taking a brief rest. It’s exactly what the 2007 Cavs could never do. But Danny Green hits another 3-pointer as Dwyane Wade leaves him open, rather than stunting.

A rare Ray Allen offensive rebound gives the Heat a little life and LeBron continues to get one of his rare rests, as he averaged 43.3 minutes per game in this series. James is finally back in the game but the Spurs continue a few steps ahead as Tim Duncan is playing like a Hall of Famer. A jumper by Gary Neal follows, then a dunk in transition by Leonard off a turnover, and the Spurs now have their biggest lead of the game at 40-30. Luckily, the lifesaver, Mike Miller is there to keep the Heat afloat with his second 3 of the game. The Heat then force a couple of turnovers and make the game a little bit tighter in the last two minutes of the first half. Mike Miller hits AGAIN and it’s a one-point game. Then Wade ties the game at 44, but it doesn’t last long as Tony Parker hits a corner 3. Then Green blocks LeBron and it ends with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Neal. After all the work to tie the game, the Heat trail by 6 again in the blink of an eye.

But of course, as it always does, the conversation comes back to LeBron as his team is in danger of going down 2-1. For the second straight game, he’s been setting the table offensively and being active defensively, rather than take the open shots the Spurs are obliging him to take. He had four points in the first half and he’s got to do something to make the Spurs pay for their coverage. They are building a wall, but the best way over the wall isn’t through it but over it. Miami is struggling offensively to start and the Spurs are humming, with Green again being a major difference. The Spurs are 8 for 16 from the 3-point line and the Heat continue to come up short. They are trying to play through Wade but the Spurs are walling off the penetration to make life difficult for him as well. Green entries to dunk it on Bosh, but gets fouled and the lead is up to 59-46, the largest Spurs lead of the game and the series.

Mike Miller hits another one to keep the Heat afloat. Glad to know my memories from the back of the catering room are still as good as they were then. But Danny Green just has had everybody on the Heat one better from the outside, hitting again and pushing the lead to 13 again. It’s starting to feel a bit like Game 2 did for Miami, with the Spurs hitting all of the shots and the Heat in a drought. LeBron is taking more jumpers, but they will not go. Meanwhile, Chalmers, a key to the victory in Game 2, has been awful and commits another turnover. Miller thankfully for Miami hits another 3-pointer to make it a 10-point game, but it feels like it’s going to go to waste in Game 3, as valiant as Miller’s effort is. A Ginobili dunk with 5:07 to go pushes the lead to 14 anyway. Miller’s Game 3 is feeling a lot like Danny Green’s Game 2, a great performance that will ultimately be forgotten.

However, all is not good for San Antonio. Tony Parker, who has been dealing with injuries all playoffs long, has walked back to the Spurs locker room, thrusting a young Cory Joseph into the Spurs line-up for the first time all series. But the Spurs machine hums on with a fresh new cog, pushing their lead to 17, then eventually to 21.

 

This one is as good as over, but it’s still the 3rd quarter and the Heat have an obligation to at least try to make one more run. It’s the NBA Finals, after all. LeBron makes a 3-pointer, his first shot outside of the paint, but he’s a loathsome 3 for 14 tonight. LeBron hits another shot and Jeff Van Gundy is having a party that LeBron is finding confidence in his shot. LeBron’s scoring spurt of 9 straight points cuts the lead to 13, but again the Spurs get a basket just before the buzzer with a dunk by Splitter, again slowing the Miami momentum before it can get them back in the game. Altogether, Game 3 was one of LeBron’s four worst shooting performances in Finals history in games where he took at least 20 field goal attempts, going 7 for 21.

LeBron doesn’t come out of the game until the 5:43 mark of the game, as Van Gundy believes Erik Spoelstra is making the Heat own their awful performance. It also turns out I was wrong that the 2012 Social Media Awards were the first and last ones in NBA history. It happened in 2013 too. Sigh. 

LeBron showed some life with the jumper but if there’s a note he’s got to take from both Games 2 and 3 it’s that he’s got to establish that he can hit it earlier in the game and be the biggest threat to score on the court in order to make things easier for the rest of the Heat. The Spurs won’t make it easy, but championships never are. See you for Game 4.

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