Happy NBA Finals day!
Thursday is here, which means we'll finally get Game 1 underway between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat. We've been patient. By the time the ball goes up at center court on Thursday night, we will have waited more than 7,000 minutes (or 117 hours) since Game 6 of the Western Conference finals concluded.
It has felt like a lifetime, hasn't it? We're almost there. To get you through the next few hours, here are 10 stats that you need to know ahead of Game 1. Let's dig in.
1. LeBron James has shot 5-of-30 (16.7 percent) when Boris Diaw is guarding him over the past year.
Believe it! According to SportVU 3D player-tracking cameras, the portly Diaw was matched up with James for 8:43 in the regular season and the four-time MVP shot just 2-of-9 and scored just four points. Then we found out from ESPN Stats & Info video tracking of the 2013 Finals that James shot 3-of-21 against Diaw in the postseason, including 1-of-10 outside 10 feet. There might never be a LeBron James stopper for an entire game, but in a pinch? Diaw might be just the guy.
2. Spurs players have collectively run 172 more miles than the Miami Heat have this season.
That includes regular season and postseason. Keep in mind, the Spurs have played three more games than the Heat this postseason, but still, they run a whole lot more on a per-game basis, according to SportVU tracking. In total, that's almost seven marathons more than what the Heat players have trotted out. That doesn't necessarily mean the Spurs will be more exhausted. None of their players averaged more than 30 minutes during the regular season, so the miles were spread out. But the Spurs like to run and the Heat only do in spurts. Which brings me to ...
3. This is the widest gap between team pace in the past six Finals matchups.
The Spurs like to push the pace. The Heat like to say they do, but they don't. The Spurs averaged 97.1 possessions per 48 minutes this season, which is the 12th highest in the NBA. The Heat? Just 93.3 (27th). The gap of 3.8 possessions is the widest since the 2008 Finals (4.7), when the speedier Lakers took on the aging Boston Celtics. To find an even wider gap, you'd have to go all the way back to the 1993 Finals (7.2) between the high-octane Phoenix Suns and the slow-it-down Chicago Bulls. For more on the Heat's snail pace, check out last week's BIG Number. The Heat played at their pace last Finals (91.0). Will it change this time around?
4. Chris Bosh didn't make a 3-pointer in the entire 2013 NBA Finals.
Seems like a typo, right? Bosh went 0-for-4 in Game 1 last year and was never the same. He took just two 3-point attempts the rest of the way and missed them both. That's even more astounding when you consider that he entered the 2013 Finals hitting a 3-ball in six consecutive games. This postseason, he's hit a 3-pointer in 13 of his 15 games. Don't expect last year's drought to continue. He's shot 11-of-20 (55 percent) from the corners this postseason. The Spurs may get a taste of their own medicine.
5. Tiago Splitter and Tim Duncan lineups outscored the Heat by 19 points in the 2013 Finals.
Contrary to popular belief, the Duncan-Splitter pairing actually found some success in the Finals last year, even if Gregg Popovich abandoned it once Erik Spoelstra inserted Mike Miller into the starting lineup in Game 4. The Spurs went "big" with Splitter and Duncan for just three minutes in Games 4-7 after Spoelstra opted for small-ball. It'll be interesting to see if the Spurs go to it more now that Miller is out of the picture. In the two regular-season matchups, Duncan-Splitter saw the floor for six minutes and outscored the Heat 18-15 in that span. Will Popovich feel comfortable throwing it against Heat lineups that include Shane Battier or Rashard Lewis at the 4?
6. LeBron James has never played fewer postseason minutes heading into the Finals.
This might be the freshest James has felt entering the Finals in his career. He has played just 574 postseason minutes up to this point, which is 85 minutes fewer than he did at this point last postseason. It's by far the lowest total in his five trips to the Finals. James is averaging just 38.3 minutes per game, marking the first time in his postseason career he's averaged below 40 minutes per game. Perhaps that Game 5 foul trouble against Indiana was a blessing in disguise.
7. The Heat were a minus-57 with James-Wade on the floor in the 2013 Finals.
For a deeper look on this, check out the Per Diem dispatch from Tuesday. One thing I'll add, which didn't make it into the piece, is that James had a 22.1 player efficiency rating while playing alongside Wade and a 36.1 player efficiency rating with Wade on the bench. Ray Allen's floor-spacing was a huge part of James' increase in production. The Wade-James synergy will be critical in the coming days. With a better Spurs team, the margin for error is minuscule.
8. Danny Green hit 25 3-pointers in Games 1-5 last year.
You might have already known that, but here's the other layer to illustrate how insane that stretch was: The most 3s he's hit in any five-game stretch since the 2013 Finals is 16. Yes, nine fewer. In fact, he didn't make 25 3-pointers in the entire month of December this season, which stretched across 15 games. Green has had his moments this season, but keeping him in check becomes a top priority for the Heat. He means more to the Spurs' success than you think.
9. The Heat have passed the ball more per possession than the Spurs this postseason.
According to SportVU data, the Heat have passed the ball 4,292 times this postseason compared to the Spurs' whopping total of 5,503 dishes. The selfless Spurs move the ball more, right? Well, that's a bit misleading for two reasons: (A) the Heat have played three fewer games than the Spurs and (B) the Heat play at a much slower pace (see No. 3). The Heat actually have averaged 3.28 passes per possession while the Spurs have averaged 3.19 passes. It's not necessarily a bellwether for spectacular offense; the Bobcats and Grizzlies both registered a higher pass rate than the Heat this postseason.
10. Tim Duncan will likely pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most playoff minutes in NBA history.
That's astounding. Duncan has played 8,737 minutes in his playoff career, which is 114 minutes behind the all-time leader, Abdul-Jabbar. Given that he continues playing his current rate of 32.6 minutes per game, he'll eclipse Abdul-Jabbar sometime in the first half of Game 4. To put this in more perspective, four players who played in Duncan's first NBA playoff game against the Phoenix Suns (April 23, 1998) have already gone on to become an NBA coach (Vinny Del Negro, Avery Johnson, Jason Kidd and Monty Williams). Oh, and Kawhi Leonard was in second grade that year.