Dwyane Wade (L), LeBron James (C) and Chris Bosh (R) of the
Miami Heat celebrate winning
Game 7 of the NBA Finals at the American
Airlines Arena June 20, 2013 in Miami, Florida.
MIAMI -- Victory in Game 7 brought more than another crown
for LeBron James and the Miami Heat. It validated the team and its
leader, forever cementing their place among the NBA's greats.
For the vanquished San Antonio Spurs, it simply compounded the misery of a championship that got away.
James led the Heat to their second straight title, scoring
37 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in a 95-88 victory Thursday night in a
tense game that was tight until Miami pulled away in the final minute.
Capping their best season in franchise history – and perhaps the
three-superstar system they used to build it – the Heat ran off with the
second straight thriller in the NBA's first championship series to go
the distance since 2010.
Two nights after his Game 6 save when the Heat were almost
eliminated, James continued his unparalleled run through the basketball
world, with two titles and an Olympic gold medal in the last 12 months.
"I work on my game a lot throughout the offseason," said James, who
was MVP for the second straight finals. "I put a lot of work into it and
to be able to come out here and (have) the results happen out on the
floor is the ultimate. The ultimate. I'm at a loss for words."
He made five 3-pointers, defended Tony Parker when he had to, and did
everything else that could ever be expected from the best player in the
game.
The Heat became the NBA's first repeat champions since the Lakers in
2009-10, and the first team to beat the Spurs in the NBA Finals.
"It took everything we had as a team," Dwyane Wade said. "Credit to
the San Antonio Spurs, they're an unbelievable team, an unbelievable
franchise. This is the hardest series we ever had to play. But we're a
resilient team and we did whatever it took."
Players
and coaches hugged afterward – their respect for each other was obvious
from the opening tipoff of Game 1 through the final buzzer.
A whisker away from a fifth title two nights earlier, the Spurs
couldn't find a way to win it all in what was perhaps the last shot for
Tim Duncan, Parker and Manu Ginobili to grab another ring together.
"In my case I still have Game 6 in my head," Ginobili said. "Today we
played an OK game, they just made more shots than us. LeBron got hot.
Shane (Battier), too. Those things can happen. But being so close and
feeling that you are about to grab that trophy, and seeing it vanish is
very hard."
They were trying to become the first team to win a Game 7 on the road
since Washington beat Seattle in 1978, but those old guys ran out of
gas just before the finish.
Fans stood, clapped and danced as the clock ticked down, when every
score was answered by another score, each stop followed by a better
stop. The Heat pushed their lead to six points a few times midway
through the fourth but San Antonio kept coming back.
Duncan had 24 points and 12 rebounds for the Spurs, but missed a shot
and follow attempt right under the basket with about 50 seconds left
and the Spurs trailing by two.
James followed with a jumper – the shot the Spurs were daring him to
take earlier in the series – to make it 92-88, sending San Antonio to a
timeout as Glenn Frey's "The Heat Is On" blared over the arena's sound
system.
He then came up with a steal and made two free throws for a six-point
lead, and after Ginobili missed, James stalked toward the sideline,
knowing it was over and that he was, once again, the last one standing.
Wade had 23 points and 10 rebounds for the Heat, who overcame a
scoreless Chris Bosh by getting six 3-pointers and 18 points from Shane
Battier.
"It was a great series and we all felt that," Spurs coach Gregg
Popovich said. "I don't know if `enjoy' is the right word, but in all
honesty, even in defeat, I'm starting to enjoy what our group
accomplished already, when you look back. And you need to do that, to
put in perspective. So it's no fun to lose, but we lost to a better
team. And you can live with that as long as you've given your best, and I
think we have."
Streamers fell from the arena ceiling onto the fans for the second
year in a row, but this one meant so much more. A narrow escape in Game 6
was still fresh in everyone's mind.
They were down 10 in the fourth quarter of that one before James led
the charge back, finishing with a triple-double in Miami's 103-100
overtime victory. This one was nearly as tight, neither team leading by
more than seven and the game tied 11 times.
Kawhi Leonard had 19 points and 16 rebounds for the Spurs, who had
been 4 for 4 in the championship round. Ginobili had 18 points but
Parker managed just 10 points on 3-of-12 shooting.
"Just give credit to the Miami Heat. LeBron was unbelievable. Dwyane
was great. I just think they found a way to get it done," Duncan said.
"We stayed in the game. We gave ourselves opportunities to win the game,
we just couldn't turn that corner."
The Heat and coach Erik Spoelstra collected the Larry O'Brien trophy
again from Commissioner David Stern, presiding over his final NBA Finals
before retiring next February.
He couldn't have asked for a better way to go out.
James avenged his first finals loss, when his Cleveland Cavaliers
were swept by the Spurs on 2007. That helped send James on his way to
South Florida, realizing it would take more help to win titles that
could never come alone.
He said he would appreciate this one more because of how tough it
was. The Heat overpowered Oklahoma City in five games last year, a team
of 20-something kids who weren't ready to be champions yet.
This came against a respected group of Spurs whose trio has combined
for more than 100 playoff victories together and wanted one more in case
this was San Antonio's last rodeo.
Duncan is 37 and Ginobili will be a 36-year-old free agent next
month, the core of a franchise whose best days may be behind them.
Meanwhile, it's a potential dynasty along Biscayne Bay, but also one
with a potentially small window. Wade's latest knee problems are a
reminder that though he came into the NBA at the same time as James and
Bosh, he's a couple of years older at 31 with wheels that have seen some
miles.
James can become a free agent again next summer with another decision
– though hopefully not another Decision – to make. He's comfortable in
Miami and close with Wade, and the Heat have the leadership and
commitment from owner Micky Arison and president Pat Riley to keep
building a championship core around him.
Why would he want to leave?
San Antonio's most recent title came at James' expense. The Spurs
exploited the weaknesses in James' game though knew someday they would
be gone, Duncan telling him afterward that the league would someday
belong to James.
And James simply isn't giving it back.
He came in averaging 33.8 points in Game 7s, already the best in NBA history, and was even better in this one.
He can't be defended the way he was six years ago, too strong inside
and too solid from the outside. He drove Danny Green back like a
tackling dummy to convert a three-point play in the second quarter, then
knocked down a 3-pointer for the Heat's next score.
Heat fans, criticized over the last two days after many bolted before
the finish Tuesday and then tried to force their way back in, weren't
going anywhere early in this one. The game was too good.
And there was another celebration to watch.
The Heat had the classic championship hangover through the first few
months of this season, too strong to lose at home but not committed
enough to win on the road, where they were just 11-11 following a 102-89
loss in Indiana on Feb. 1.
They won in Toronto two nights later on Super Bowl Sunday and didn't
lose again until well into March Madness, running off 27 straight
victories before falling in Chicago on March 27 and finishing a
franchise-best 66-16.
The small-market Spurs have always been a ratings killer, but
interest grew throughout this series in their attempt to toppled the
champs. Game 6 drew more than 20 million viewers, a total that Game 7
was expected to top.
And the games got better, too. Games 2-5 were all decided by double
digits, neither team able to carry its momentum from one game to the
next.
This one was back and forth for more than three quarters, with Mario
Chalmers' 3-pointer at the buzzer giving Miami a 72-71 lead heading to
the final 12 minutes of the season.
Game 6 could have shaken the Spurs, who were so close to holding the
trophy that officials were preparing the championship presentation
before Miami's rally. The Spurs held a team dinner late that night,
figuring the company was better than having to dwell on the defeat alone
in their rooms.
The pain of that game or the pressure of this one had little effect
on their veterans but brought out a change in their leader, the subject
of some rare second-guessing for his rotations near the end of the
collapse.
The famously blunt Popovich was in a chatty mood pregame, actually
preferring to stay and talk even when there were no more questions,
saying the busier he was, the less he'd worry.
"It's torture," he said earlier of Game 7s. "It's hard to appreciate or enjoy torture."
But it sure was beautiful to watch.
The sport's most pressure-packed game had a nervous start, each team
making just seven baskets in the first quarter and combining for seven
turnovers. The Spurs took an early seven-point lead, but a pair of
3-pointers by Battier during an 8-0 run helped Miami take an 18-16 lead.
The Heat nursed a narrow lead for most of the second quarter, and
after San Antonio went ahead in the final minute of the period, James
tipped in a miss before Wade knocked down a jumper with 0.8 seconds left
to send the Heat to the locker room with a 46-44 edge.
Notes: Home teams are 15-3 in Game 7s of the NBA Finals. ... Miami
improved to 5-3 all-time in Game 7s in the postseason and became the
fourth team to win the final two games at home since the finals went to a
2-3-2 format in 1985, joining the Lakers in 1988 and 2010, and Houston
Rockets in 1994. ... Green was just 1 for 12, going 1 for 6 behind the
arc. He started the series by making 25 3s in the first five games, a
finals record for an entire series.
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