2013 NBA Finals

2013 NBA Finals

The 2013 NBA Finals was the championship series of the 2012–13 NBA season. The Miami Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs to win their second straight title. Miami became the sixth team to win consecutive NBA championships. This was the last NBA Finals played during the tenure of NBA commissioner David Stern. In the 2014 Finals, the Spurs and Heat would both advance to the 2014 NBA Finals, where the Spurs won in five games.

About 2013 NBA Finals in brief

Summary 2013 NBA FinalsThe 2013 NBA Finals was the championship series of the 2012–13 NBA season. The Miami Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs to win their second straight title. The finals began with Game 1 on June 6, and ended with Game 7 on June 20. Miami became the sixth team to win consecutive NBA championships, joining the Boston Celtics, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Detroit Pistons, the Chicago Bulls, and the Houston Rockets. This was the last NBA Finals played during the tenure of NBA commissioner David Stern. It also marked the last time the Finals used the 2–3–2 format, after which it reverted to the 2-2–1–1-1 format. The Spurs had won all of their previous four finals appearances, putting them only behind the six-time champion Chicago Bulls for most titles without ever losing a Finals, making this series the first Finals loss in Spurs history. This series was also the first time San Antonio had played in the NBA Finals without home court advantage, as Miami had home-court advantage based on their league-best regular season record. The Heat won both games they played against the Spurs during the regular season: 105–100 on November 29, 2012, and 88–86 on March 31, 2013. Tim Duncan became the fourth player in NBA history to make a Finals appearance in three different decades. In 2010, Spurs president of basketball and head coach Gregg Popovich made a congratulatory phone call to Heat president Pat Riley for signing LeBron James and Chris Bosh to play with Dwyane Wade. In 2012, the Heat won their third consecutive NBA Finals appearance, the first Eastern Conference team to achieve that since theChicago Bulls.

Since then, only the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers have been able to do so, making five and four consecutive Finals appearances, respectively. In the 2014 Finals, the Spurs and Heat would both advance to the 2014 NBA Finals, where the Spurs won in five games. The Finals also set a record for most international players on either Finals roster, with four former NBA Finals MVPs playing in the series. The series marked the fifth time the Spurs have made the NBA finals since 1999, second-most for any franchise in that span behind the LA Lakers. It was the Heat’s fourth appearance in theNBA Finals and the third appearance for three straight years, attempting to win their third NBA championship. They finished with a league leading 66 wins, and first place in the Southeast Division. They swept the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs in four games before eliminating the ChicagoBulls in five games in the second round, winning four straight games in a series. They also eliminated the Golden State Warriors in six games in the second round, then swept the Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference Finals in four games. They won the Eastern Conference Finals in seven games, beating the Indiana Pacers in the final game of the series in the final game on November 29, 2012. This marked the first time a team made three consecutive Finals appearances since the Lakers did so in 2008–2010.