2014 NBA Finals: 5 Things We Learned In Game 1

3. Turnovers will be a factor

Technically speaking, the turnover battle didn’t determine the outcome of Game 1. While San Antonio committed 23 turnovers that led to 28 Miami points in the game, they still managed to win by 15. How? Well, aside from the obvious of LeBron James missing the game’s final four minutes (not to mention three minutes before that), the Spurs’ disastrous night of not taking care of the ball was offset by 16 Heat turnovers.

These are two well-coached teams with top ten defenses. Though you typically only think of Miami as a deadly fast break team, San Antonio actually outscored the Heat in transition in Game 1, 20-19. The Spurs also converted those Miami turnovers into 27 points, nearly offsetting their own turnovers. But you can pretty much consider this game a fluke between the weird A/C conditions and LeBron cramping up; turnovers will matter in this series. Any time you turn the ball over that much, it’s going to lead to easy points for both of these teams, so it’s something to keep an eye on moving forward in the series.