The Miami Heat soundly defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 121 - 106 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals to win the franchise's second NBA Championship. LeBron James recorded a triple double (26 points, 11 rebounds, 13 assists) in the game and snatched NBA Finals MVP. The proverbial monkey is now off of James' back. He has his ring and he was a critical contributor to the championship.
The Heat started off the series dropping Game 1 in OKC, but grabbed home court advantage by stealing Game 2. When the series switched to Miami I don't think there were many people who thought the series wouldn't make it back to OKC. After taking Game 3, Miami had a 2 - 1 series lead and a little momentum. Game 4 was the pivotal game in the series. The Thunder, who started off each game very slowly offensively, finally came out the gate hot. They did a lot of great things during the course of the game but was frustrated by the officiating. Their frustration grew bigger and bigger as they seemly was not getting the proper calls. Miami made adjustments and went on a run between the 2nd & 3rd quarters. The home town crowd began to get extremely loud just the way that they do in OKC. The Thunder was losing control and broke; they became rattled. The moment suddenly seemed too big for them. They started turning the ball over and making bad decisions on the court. Kevin Durant, the league's leading scorer, was starting to not look like himself. James Harden, who was the Sixth Man of the Year and was an assertive player suddenly became tentative. Russell Westbrook was the only player who seemed unfazed; he almost single-handedly won the game for them. But OKC fell short and suddenly found themselves in a 3 -1 series hole when they should have tied the series up and guaranteed another game back in OKC. Their season then came to a "thunderous" end as the Heat torched them in Game 5.
Ultimately, I feel the Heat won this series because they executed on offense better than the Thunder did. Aside from Game 1, the Heat didn't have the scoring droughts that plagued them throughout the playoffs. They moved the ball beautifully on offense, playing unselfish team basketball. The Thunder on the other hand had their offensive struggles. They relied too heavily on their perimeter game and at times didn't even appear to run any offensive sets. Also, the Heat role players were fabulous; Shane Battier, Mario Chalmers, Udonis Haslem, Norris Cole and Mike Miller all had big moments in this series that significantly contributed to the Heat's championship. It didn't take long for the big three, James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to bring the championship to South Beach. Like it or not, these fellas got it done this year after coming just 2 wins away from almost doing it last season (their first together). They were heavy favorites at the start of this season, had their struggles throughout the regular season and playoffs but eventually still came out on top. The Thunder took a nice step in the championship direction this year. They had a nice playoff run but just couldn't quite leap over the last hurdle. James' destiny with the Larry O'Brien trophy was standing awfully tall.
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