Over 100 games into this NBA season, who knew that the Miami Heat’s least valuable player was LeBron James’ headband? Utterly stymied for a full three quarters of Game 6 of the NBA Finals by the Spurs’ peculiar defensive tag team of Boris Diaw and Kawhi Leonard, James chucked his headband, flexed his receding hairline and then caught fire, leading Miami back from a 10-point deficit at the end of the third quarter to take the lead late in the fourth.
But the Spurs being the Spurs—and this series being this series—the game was far from over. An ice-cold (6-23) Tony Parker hit a step-back three with James (32 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds) hounding him to reclaim the lead for San Antonio, and a few Heat misses later, the champagne carts started heading for the visitors’ locker room. But a couple of missed free throws—one by Leonard (22 points, 11 rebounds) and another by Manure Ginobili (more on him later)—put the Heat in position to tie the game with a three. After a miss, Chris Bosh grabbed an offensive rebound over Manure (Tim Duncan was out of the game, with the Spurs intent on defending three-pointers and only three-pointers) and passed to arguably the game’s greatest jump-shooter, Ray Allen, who buried a corner three to send the game into overtime, where Miami would hold on for a stunning 108-105 victory to set up a decisive seventh game Thursday.
This article appears in Jun 12-18, 2013.
Of course they came back to win and force a game 7. The league doesn’t make any money if game 7 doesn’t happen!