The Thunder Rolls through the Heat in Game 1

It may have taken a little while but eventually, the Oklahoma City Thunder took a 105-94 victory against the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the NBA Finals last night. And while the Heat don’t seem to be worried, their biggest players will need to step up their game if they expect to take the title.

The Heat were the ones to hold the lead for most of the game, and that was mostly due to Lebron Jame who was the top scorer for Miami last night with 30 points. Together with Shane Battier, who took Chris Bosch’s place in the starting lineup and went on to take 3-pointers in the first quarter, put the Heat on the board early and helped keep their tally up above the Thunder’s for most of the game. Unfortunately, they were the only ones. Dwayne Wade put on a poor performance, missing 12 out of 19 shots; and Chris Bosch proved his coach, Erik Spoelstra’s decision right, missing 7 of 11 shots.

But when the third period only had 15 seconds remaining, Russell Westbrook stepped up for his team and put up two points to add to the 12 he collected for the quarter. After the game he told reporters, “I think we just came out [in the second half] with a lot more intensity on the defensive end, made them feel us a little bit.” His redemption late in the game was definitely a help after he missed seven of nine shots in the first half.

Nerves are what’s largely being attributed to the Thunder’s poor performance in the first half; something that they seemed to shake in the second. “This level of basketball is the hardest we play,” small forward Kevin Durant said after the game, “and we just want to take it slow.” Slow they did. But if they want to keep on over the Heat, they’ll need to step it up for the entirety of Game 2, instead of just the second half.

Categorized in: NBA