The Miami Heat defeated the Indiana Pacers in game 7 last night, which means the Spurs flew to Miami today and game 1 will start in Miami on Thursday night.

Here are 5 factoids to get ahead before the series starts.

1) The Heat and Spurs have played each other twice this season, but neither was at full strength in two Miami victories.

In the first matchup on November 29, before the season was even a month old, Gregg Popovich rested three of his starters who didn't even travel to Miami with the team: Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Danny Green and super-sub Manu Ginobili. The Spurs were later fined $250,000 by the NBA for resting their starters so early in the season. The Spurs' stars didn't play, but Miami had each of it's big three in the game and barely won 105-100.

In their second matchup on March 31, the Heat had already wrapped up home court advantage, and so LeBron James and Dwyane Wade did not play, but Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Danny Green all played for San Antonio. The Heat won 88-86 despite lacking their two stars (Chris Bosh did play in that game and lead the Heat with 23 points).

2) San Antonio has faced LeBron James in the Finals before, but it was a vastly different LeBron James.

The last time this San Antonio Spurs team made the NBA Finals was 2007, and they faced LeBron James' little Cleveland team that could. The Cavaliers were roundly swept by San Antonio in that series with Tony Parker win the NBA Finals MVP (the only time Tim Duncan hasn't won the honor). The Spurs dared LeBron to shoot, and he couldn't shoot. This year is a lot different, and James has a much better supporting cast than he did in Cleveland during the 2007 season.

3) Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are banged up.

Wade's knee hasn't been right for some time, and a lot of people pointed to that excuse as he struggled during the Eastern Conference Finals against Indiana. But Wade matched his 2013 playoff high in game 7, scoring 21 points, and opponent David West said it was the most active he'd seen Wade in the whole series.

Chris Bosh sprained his ankle early in the Indiana series and was tentative going to the bucket from there on out.

With both players struggling to overcome the tweaks and sprains that come along with playoff basketball, look for LeBron to take a more active role on offense than he has in previous seasons with the Heat. We saw some of it in the Indiana series where he took over like he used to do with the Cavaliers.

2) This is probably the Spurs' last hurrah.

Duncan is 36, and he's dealing with a divorce from his long time wife this postseason. Manu turns 35 at the end of July, and you have to take into account all the summer's Manu has played for his native Argentina in international competition.

Tony Parker is only 30, but he's already in his 12th NBA season.

Popovich has said he'll retire the moment Tim Duncan hangs it up, and he's not usually one to make such pronouncements without them being grounded in truth.

Last season the Spurs had rattled off 20-straight wins over the last 10 of the regular season and this first 10 of the playoffs before running into the Thunder who beat them four straight times after San Antonio won the first two games.

If San Antonio wins the title, and they're not favored, this will the last series of games that Popovich, Duncan and Manu play. If Miami wins, who knows, but they'll probably come back next year. These Spurs have never lost an NBA Finals, going 4-0 during the four appearances Duncan has been a part of.

1) Miami is the favorite in the series as the defending champions, but it's really hard to repeat as NBA champion if Phil Jackson isn't your coach.

The Phil Jackson coached and Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol dominated Lakers in 2009 and 2010 repeated as champs, but they barely got by Boston in that 2010 game 7 and many observers think they would have failed to do so if Kendrick Perkins hadn't been injured in game 6. Phil also coached the last three teams to successfully repeat as well, the 2000, 2001, 2002 Lakers with Shaq and Kobe, the 1996, 1997, 1998 Bulls with MJ, Scottie Pippen and Rodman and the 1991, 1992, 1993 Bulls with Scottie, MJ and Horace Grant as their big three.

The last time a non-Phil Jackson coach team repeated as the NBA champs was the 1987 and 1988 Los Angeles Lakers led by Magic and a hobbled Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Those Lakers were coached by Pat Riley, who just so happens to be the head of basketball operations and general manager of the Miami Heat.