Scribbler's Highlights of the Week: The NBA Finals Triple Play

Huge congratulations to the Miami Heat for winning their second straight NBA championship.  Truth be told, I was cheering for the San Antonio Spurs because I am a Tim Duncan fan and wanted to see "The Big Fundamental" get another ring before leaving the game.  However, I knew from the beginning that the Heat would win this series.  Although the Spurs came in healthy, rested and with momentum off of a sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies, I knew the defending champs would need every bit of seven games to beat the four-time champion Spurs and could beat them because they had LeBron James.  It is clear that he has vowed not to disappear from an NBA Finals like he did against Dallas in 2011 and to carry the team on his back if it means winning as many Larry O'Brien trophies as possible.  It took more than just James to win this series because, as we saw in 2007, even he couldn't topple the Spurs by himself as he and his "team" in the Cleveland Cavaliers were swept.  However, as Finals MVP for the second consecutive year, he was the major contributor for four out of the seven games--three of those being victories.  Thus, that's why I am giving you not one...not two...but THREE (see what I did there) of the greatest highlights of the week because they were three of the deciding factors in the franchise's third NBA championship and second in Miami's "Big 3" Era.

Highlight #1: you've heard it a million and one times since Tuesday.  The Spurs were up five on the Heat and only 28 seconds away from their fifth NBA championship in one of the greatest Game 6s in NBA Finals history.  American Airlines Arena security had the sidelines roped off and staff allegedly had the champagne ready as many Heat fans had already (and prematurely) exited the building, thinking that their team was toast.  (For the record, I'm in total agreement with How Chris Bosh told those "fans" not to come to Game 7.  How quickly they forgot who they're team was.)  Forget the fact that 12 out of 13 teams who won Game 3 since the 2-3-2 Finals format was introduced in 1985 went on to win the series--the only team that lost up until about 48 hours ago was, ironically, the 2010-11 Miami Heat.  Teams that had those kinds of leads in postseason games of the past fifteen years with approximately that much time remaining in regulation won 98.6 of the time.  Thus, all of the odds were against LeBron and the Heat.  Then Kawhi Leonard missed a crucial free throw that would've potentially made the score 96-92.  As soon as he missed, I got on my Rick Ross "I think I'm [fill in the blank]" ish and swore I was Miss Cleo or, better yet, Moses.  I absolutely knew that they would get the ball in Ray Allen's hands because as the all-time best three-point shooter in NBA history, that's exactly what the Heat organization brought him in town to do.  Chris Bosh tipped the rebound to the right sniper, even as LeBron was calling for the ball after just doinking a three ball off the rim.  With Tony Parker defending, Ray Allen could've hit that shot with the Great Wall of China blocking his view.  What answer can you have for a guy that instinctively knows where the three-point line is, although he caught the ball in two-point land?  You just knew what the outcome of this game was going to be...it's Jesus Shuttlesworth for Heaven's sake.

Highlight #2: after such the disappointing breakdown in regulation, the Spurs kept clawing in OT and had chance after chance to stay alive.  With 1.9 seconds left in OT, Tim Duncan threw a cross-court inbound pass to Danny Green, the very guy that broke the record for the most three-pointers in the Finals (27), and got a look at the basket.  However, he had Chris Bosh aka "The Velociraptor" in his face, who was having none of that in his house.  Bosh, the most unheralded and often ridiculed member of the Big 3, didn't consistently register mind-blowing stats in the Finals except in Game 4 when he contributed 20 points and 13 boards in their 109-93 win in San Antonio.  He made up for it though with three big plays in Game 6: a huge block on Tony Parker, the tip-drill pass to Ray Allen for the game-tying trifecta to force OT, and this super-epic block of Green behind the arc that was the exclamation point to force Game 7.  Many people argue that this play was a potential foul, but this was all ball, son.  Green just got his feelings hurt and his impressive streak--which truly looked like a streak instead of the norm by Game 7--ended by one of Miami's best hustlers in Bosh.

Highlight #3: although Allen's three pointer is already one of the greatest clutch shots of all time, LeBron's 37-point, 12-rebound performance in Game 7 was one for the ages.  Gregg Popovich clearly designed a game plan that wouldn't allow LeBron to go to the hole at will as he could've fit a Buick Electra 225 in between him and his closest defender as they were daring him to shoot.  LeBron responded with, "Okay...no problem."  With the help of his teammates setting meaner picks than Tiago Splitter (First Take watchers get that joke, and I do mean joke), he shot over 52% from the field that included 45% of his jump shots (a dramatic leap from his previous six games of 34%) and 50% from downtown.  After Tim Duncan had the size advantage on Shane Battier but missed a hook shot darn near at the rim that he makes in his sleep AND couldn't get the tip in to tie the game at 90 a piece, LeBron wanted to 1) clear the air about the one area of his game that many people have questioned for years--including your favorite blogger--and 2) ensure that the game was further out of reach.  With the scrappy Kawhi Leonard guarding him as he had done most of the game, James pulled up from about seventeen feet away and hit arguably the most clutch shot of his 10-year NBA career.  I think everybody knew that the exception to history was not going to repeat itself two nights in a row with 27.9 seconds left--not with the best basketball player on Planet Earth balling out of his gourd.  This clearly wasn't 2007.

Although I've had a roller coaster ride of emotions when it comes to LeBron James--particularly with a few of his poor displays of proper sportsmanship, being unapologetic about it, and the manner in which he left Cleveland to take his talents to South Beach--I have nothing but respect for him.  In fact, I have more respect for him as a person than the player to whom he is compared the most in Michael Jordan, and I got madd love for MJ.  It's extremely difficult to cheer against him because he's typically been one of the most humble, naturally selfless superstars of his caliber that the NBA has ever seen outside of Magic Johnson.  Despite the Heat having more fanfare and exhibiting more flash than the Spurs, Miami is still a very classy organization from the top down.  Unlike a lot of LeBron and Heat haters, I'm actually happy that they won because the best team in the NBA should've won and, more than anything, they were a part of arguably the most memorable Finals series since the Jordan era.  (A strong case can be made for the second Celtics-Lakers series in 2010.)  Besides, any team that is goofy enough to do one of the best Harlem Shake videos ever deserves to win it all because it's a clear indication that they know how to have fun on and off the court.