After the first two games in San Antonio saw CrampGate and Miami’s lone win in Game 2, the 2014 NBA Finals turned into a rout. The Spurs offense became unstoppable in a history-making Game 3, and aside from the first six minutes in the first quarter of Game 5, they never relented. The numbers back it up: the Spurs win was the most dominant in NBA Finals history.
The Spurs won every game by more than 15 points, and their net margin of victory was 70 points over five games (Miami only claimed Game 2, 98-96).
By way of Deadspin, comes a LittleWhiteStatistics chart tracking the margin of victory in each NBA Finals:
(Click for Larger Version)
As you can see, the next-closest margin of victory was the Celtics win over the Lakers (Russell being Russell) in 1965 with a 63-point margin of victory (MOV). In the modern game, only the 2008 Celtics, who took Kobe Bryant‘s Lakers in five games, sport a MOV of even 50 points.
At the very bottom of the chart, you can see those 11 teams who won the NBA Finals despite a negative MOV — including the Heat in last year’s NBA Finals.
If the Spurs were looking for retribution after last year’s “horrific” — in the words of Gregg Popovich — loss to the Heat, they certainly got it by asserting their dominance over the Heat more than any other team in NBA history.
Was this Spurs win the most dominant Finals victory ever?
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