Maybe the Miami Heat should have turned up the air conditioning Tuesday night in an attempt to cool off the San Antonio Spurs.
The Spurs took a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals with an historic offensive performance on the way to a 111-92 win in Miami.
San Antonio set an NBA Finals record by hitting 75.6 percent of its first-half field goals, including an 86.7 percent success rate in the first quarter of a game that was even more one-sided than the 19-point deficit indicates.
The Spurs were scorching hot in the first half, especially the first quarter. They hit 13 of 15 field goals in the first quarter (Tim Duncan and Tony Parker had the only misses), and Kawhi Leonard scored 16 points on 5-for-5 shooting.
Here are field-goal totals from the Spurs’ first quarter.
Kawhi Leonard: 5 of 5
Tim Duncan: 1 of 2
Boris Diaw: 1 of 1
Danny Green: 3 of 3
Tony Parker: 0 of 1
Manu Ginobili: 2 of 2
Tiago Splitter: 1 of 1
The Spurs put up a ridiculous 41 points in the first 12 minutes of Game 3. That helped neutralize a terrific first quarter from LeBron James, who scored 14 points on 5-for-6 shooting.
San Antonio was almost as good in the second quarter, when it scored 30 points on 12-of-18 shooting and held a 71-50 lead at the end of the half.
When it was all said and done, five Spurs had scored in double figures, including a game high and career playoff high from Leonard. He ended the night with 29 points on 10-for-13 shooting from the floor, with all three of his misses coming from behind the 3-point line.
