Miami Heat Outlast Spurs In Overtime Thriller
By Mike Dyce
San Antonio Spurs came into the American Airlines Arena ahead 3 games to 2, one victory away from their 5th NBA Championship. The Miami Heat came in hoping to force a game 7 by taking advantage of home court.
The game was a chaotic back and forth, but despite big games from LeBron James and Tim Duncan, it was Ray Allen who was the hero of this game.
The first quarter was a back and forth. Miami had held the lead till Kawhi Leonard hit a three pointer to give the Spurs a 12-10 lead. The Spurs held on to a 2 point lead for most of the quarter before letting it slip at the end of the quarter. Mario Chalmers hit a three-pointer with 48 seconds left to give the Heat a 27-24 lead, their first lead since 8:55 left in the first quarter.
The second quarter began with Shane Battier draining a 3 point, but Danny Green responded with his own three. That 3 point tied the NBA team record for most 3’s made in an NBA Finals with 52. But the Heat kept piling it on racing to a 6 point lead with 9 minutes left in the second.
But Tim Duncan scored 13 points in a row for the Spurs and they lead at the half by six points. He went 11 of 13 from the field and had 25 points in the first half. Kawhi Leonard was the only one really giving Tim Duncan any support in the first half with 10 points of his own and the Heat found themselves down 6 at the half.
The Heat closed the gap around midway through the third quarter and at one point were trailing only by 1 point. But Tony Parker drove the lane got a hard foul from Dwayne Wade, made the bucket and 1 to give the Spurs back a 4 point, and two possession lead. Boris Diaw made two free throws, to make it 6 forcing the Heat to take a full timeout.
After the time out, Kawhi Leonard makes a layup and draws the foul and converts the free throw. Then Tim Duncan makes a jumper, draws a foul and converts the free throw to give the Spurs a 68-56 lead, the largest of the game at this point.
And old school three-point plays helped the Spurs pull away from the Heat.
Coming out of the timeout the Spurs continued to pour on the points with Tony Parker converting two free throws from a foul by Ray Allen. The Spurs were up by as many as 13 but ended the quarter with a 10 point lead.
But the Heat came fighting back and opened the 4th quarter on a run behind a pair of 3 pointers from Mario Chalmers and Mike Miller and a LeBron James lay up. That narrowed the gap to 4 points.
The game returned to its earlier back and forth form behind a couple of dunks from LeBron James and the Heat brought it within 3 with 7:35 left in the game.
The Heat then pulled within 2, Tim Duncan went for a lay up and Chris “Birdman” Andersen blocked the shot, and LeBron James converted a lay up to even it up with 6 minutes left. After this point it was the Spurs trying to keep the Heat from pulling away. Around this time LeBron James lost his headband, and many credit that with his sudden take over of the game. Scoring or assisting 16 consecutive points for the Heat.
And LeBron outscored the Spurs 13-9 in the 4th quarter with 3 minutes left in the game.
Tony Parker hit a 3 with 1:30 left in the game to tie it at 89 a piece. Parker then got a steal on the defensive end and spun into a jumper in the paint to put the Spurs ahead 91-89 with 58 seconds left. The Spurs got another turnover and Manu Ginobili was fouled, converted both free throws to put the Spurs ahead 4 points with 37 seconds left.
LeBron James then air balled a shot, and Many Ginobili got fouled crossing mid-court with 28 seconds left. Manu made 1 out of 2 of the ensuing free throws to put the Spurs ahead by 5 points.
LeBron hit a big 3 with 20 seconds left to bring the Heat within two points. The Heat fouled Kwahi Leonard, who makes 1 free throw. And with the Spurs ahead 3, chaos ensues after a LeBron missed 3 but Bosh gets the rebound and the ball gets kicked out to Ray Allen who makes a 3 with 5 seconds left, tying the game.
This forced overtime in South Beach.
The Spurs stayed ahead of the Heat in overtime. Miami was forced to convert buckets to keep the score even early in overtime. Tony Parker got a steal drove down the court and was fouled by Ray Allen. With a chance to put the Spurs ahead by 4 points, making it a 2 possession game he could only convert one.
Ray Allen makes a jumper then, James made an easy jumper to give the Heat a 1 point lead with under two minutes left.
Danny Green made an incredible stop on LeBron James driving to the basket that sent the ball out of bounds and gave the ball back to the Spurs. The Spurs couldn’t take advantage.
The Heat force the Ginobili turnover with 1.9 seconds left. The Spurs foul and Ray Allen makes both free throws to give the Heat a three point lead with just under two seconds left.
They got the ball into Danny Green, but Chris Bosh blocked the three point attempt to send this series to a Game 7.