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One of the most clucth shot in the history of basketball needs a deep review so now lets go back in time to where it happened, It's June 18 2013 Game six of the NBA Finals between the Spurs and heat the Spurs are up 3-2 in the series and up three points in the game just seconds away from an NBA championship they just need a stop we're about to reach a climax it's the climax of one of the greatest games and one of the greatest series between two of the greatest teams in NBA history it's a moment significant enough to turn major storylines and it's so big that it might eclipse some pretty wild stuff that happened prior.  So let's rewind it's no surprise to see the Spurs facing this Miami super team in the finals but this wasn't a sure thing Miami had the best record in the east and they slugged out a 7 game Conference final against the big bruising Pacers. to get you the Spurs did not have the best record in the West that belonged to the Oklahoma City Thunder after falling to the heat in the 2012 finals OKC opened the season by trading James Harden into the Rockets for some picks and some guys and they improved OKC went 60 games and entered the playoffs.

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Well-positioned to make a Finals rematch happen until Patrick Beverley smashed up Russell Westbrook's knee ending his season and leaving OKC ill-equipped to reach even the conference finals without the Thunder to challenge them the Spurs lost just two playoff games both to the Warriors in a cruise to the finals and that's how many games they've lost in this series to San Antonio took Game one on a big Tony Parker shot and they've been trading convincing wins with the heat since then the Spurs pulled ahead 3-2 because of an all-time great team shooting performance in Game five and if they get a stop here they clinched the championship on the road.

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No less the court in Miami is already getting roped off in preparation for a trophy ceremony some heat fans have already departed to skip the enemy celebration and beat the traffic it'll be yet another ring for pop and for Manu and Tony and Tim to wait where's Tim Duncan Duncan is nearing his career Twilight he took a pay cut last summer so the Spurs could more comfortably re-sign their role players and he did a lot of resting during the season and that resting has paid off when it counts even at 37 years old Duncan has been a machine in this game but you got to understand we are at an important point in the history of small ball Miami coach Erik Spoelstra has long dabbled with small pace and space lineups and especially after the heat fell behind in this series.

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He leaned all the way into that style playing more units featuring Chris Bosh as the only big man Spoelstra even started Game four that way replacing Udonis Haslem with Mike Miller and Gregg Popovich has countered he went from relying on two big men Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter to just one and eventually started a third guard Ginobili instead of splitter and here at the end of Game six I mean look at this with under 30 seconds to go in the Spurs up five neither team had a big man on the floor so this offensive rebound off a LeBron miss was up for grabs and it turned into another opportunity for the brown Miami's only made field goal in the last four and a half minutes and now we are up to precisely one big man on the floor Bosh typically Duncan would be on the floor to neutralize Bosh.

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But Popovich knows that the heat probably want to take a three and he needs his players to be able to switch to contest any perimeter look pop doesn't want the large and creaky Duncan stranded against a quicker player so he's sticking extra small the key to this alignment is Boris Diaw diao is the languid lovable Frenchman who first broke out as an undersized Center inside a prior lineup laboratory Mike D'Antoni's sons after Phoenix D I'll join the dismal Charlotte Bobcats gained way and kind of floundered but here in his first full season with the Spurs alongside his good friend Parker he's had a career Renaissance and back in November he was part of something controversial in a nationally televised regular-season game against the Heat Popovich decided to rest not just Duncan but all four of his best available players Parker Ginobili and Danny Green even while young Kawhi Leonard was out injured

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 It was all anyone talked about for a couple days and it led to David Stern finding the Spurs a quarter million dollars for ruining the marquee matchup with him except it didn't quite ruin the matchup the Spurs lost thanks to a big ray on three but they kept it close and they saw something intriguing in a starting big minute roll D out did a pretty solid job guarding LeBron James Popovich filed that secret weapon away for later and sure enough has busted it out in this series successfully LeBron missed nine of his 12 shots through three quarters and Diaw was guarding him for a bunch of that so yeah Diaw has experience guarding big men and he has experience guarding LeBron in a situation where the Spurs need to switch a lot to prevent a three he's pops choice to be the only Center on the floor assigned to guard Bosh the ball is going to LeBron behind the arc and Tony Parker is kind of caught on a screen so Diaw has to leave Bosh and help.

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 But like does he it is the King but the King had a weird night shooting the ball he couldn't hit anything through the first three quarters in the early fourth he exploded the Spurs were up 10 but LeBron led a torrid heat rally even after his headband got knocked off it turns out LeBron is pretty good with a naked forehead but in these last few minutes no sir the Spurs rebuilt a little lead because LeBron caught the ball up not once but twice in the final minute if San Antonio didn't miss a couple free throws they'd be up five right now aside from that one LeBron three-pointer off the rebound it's been all Spurs in the last 90 seconds and it's hard to look past LeBron as the one who blew the crucial opportunities of course there wouldn't be crucial opportunities to blow if LeBron didn't dominate earlier in the quarter and you and I aren't here to assign blame but some people are and if the Spurs win this they are definitely going to pile on the Brock and this is not gonna help LeBron bricks the three however with diao scrambling to the perimeter and notall Spurs in the picture Bosh towers over everyone to snag the rebound.

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 What now Miami still needs a three Bosh has to kick it out what are his options Mike Miller hit a three with his goddamn shoe off before it but he's not on the floor Mario Chalmers is wide open is famous for hitting one of the clutches shots in college basketball history and has been hot tonight but he's not really visible to Bosh LeBron is not in bashes field vision either and Dwayne Wade's not in good position the only real option is here Ray Allen Allen wouldn't have been an option at this time last year back then he was still part of the Celtics big three but in the summer of 2012 Ray was turning 37 and figured his next contract would be his last one in the NBA Ray wanted a ring and the Celtics were kind of fading so he rejected an offer from Boston taking less money and a bench roll with the heat instead his old teammates hold a grudge against him for this.

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 But Ray is looking pretty smart right now he's on the floor in the closing seconds of a Finals game that said this is not gonna be an easy look coaches love corner threes but usually the shooter starts in the corner with his feet carefully set between the three-point line and out of bounds he's not sprinting backward into that sliver of space but this is Ray Allen this is a man who obsesses over his shot mechanics whose rigid workout routines have become legend according to s i--'s Lee Jenkins Allen has been doing a drill since his early years in Milwaukee he lies down in the pain then hops up to his feet back pedals into the corner catches the ball and shoots at three yes Ray Allen has prepared his entire career for this exact moment 

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And man what a moment if ray can't hit a three the Spurs can hold on to win the championship and LeBron who fumbled some crucial plays will never hear the end of this if all that obsessive preparation pays off Allen can send this game to ot where the heat will have momentum on their home floor that could carry them all the way into a decisive Game seven and the Spurs who were gifted a late lead then squandered it with their agent superstar off the floor we'll never hear the end of this okay here we are welcome to a moment in history. the heat did indeed win game 6 in overtime and they took game 7 as well to win the 2013 NBA championship but the Spurs got him back the next year.
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source and reference sb nation