That shot was the most biggest shot in the world. To this day, I think about that shot when I see him. I just see that replay. That's what you know, that one shot. That's what you call some mother excuse me, confidence. Confidence, and that's what I how I played anything I do, music, golf, basketball, whatever. I know, I'm good, I know I'm great, but my confident level is just next level. The way he got that ball and just made that shot.
Come on, James outside, three in the air, off the rimbow gun, screep out ball, seven seconds to play, out of three to the corner shot.
Yeah, that was legendary.
Ray Allen's three pointer that sent Game six of the twenty thirteen Finals to overtime, where the Heat would eventually save their season, was one of those you remember where you were when it happened moments, But for the teams involved, the feelings after Game six were just as vivid, and they would spill over onto the floor for Game seven, when another confident jump shot would close the deal for Miami. Welcome back to four years of Heat. I'm your host,
Israel Gutierrez and this is episode seven the peak. Ray Allen described the reaction to hitting a big three point shot as a bomb going off. The Spurs entered Game seven as if Allan's three pointer was a literal explosion.
Mentally, they were tattered.
You could almost hear it in Mano Genobili's voice after the game.
We were a few seconds away from winning the championship, and we let it go.
There was just one off day between Game six and seven, and Spurs coach Greg Popovich tried to bring the team together for a dinner that would help them regroup. Mono Genobili was particularly hard on himself after only scoring nine points and missing one of the late free throws that helped Miami recover. Matt Bonner remembers how difficult it was for everyone to shake the sense of loss.
I remember after the game that night, it was awful like it started actually, it started out awful, like it was just such a feeling of defeat, you know, a crushing feeling. I remember Manu was really being really hard on himself because he didn't have the greatest game. I don't know how what I could compare it to metaphorically, everybody's really upset. It felt like, all right, we're gonna lose by fifty. In Game seven, like we got nothing
left mentally, psychologically, We're just completely spent and defeated. And you know, in typical coach Pop fashion, he loves dinners in the community, you know, healing over food, and I remember we went to an Italian place. It had a really long team dinner, and by the end of the dinner we were kind of like refilled the cup. All Right, we still have another game to play, We still have another crack at this and everybody was feeling a lot better.
The series had already taken everything out of Bonner physically, as he wasn't even an option in the season ending game.
The Spurs were noticeably off.
Jenobili managed something of a bounce back effort with eighteen points, but the rest of the group had no spring. Danny Green, who set the record for most threes in a final series two games earlier, was zapped of his powers, missing eleven of twelve shots.
Tim Duncan tried.
To erase the memory of Game six with twenty four points, twelve rebounds, four steals in a block, but there was no recovering, not with just a day between games.
Not in the same building.
Mario Chalmers was on the winning side, and he believed even his team was running on empty.
Like I still to this day, I say, Game six is probably the hardest game I ever had to play it in my life. And it was just what it took to come back, what it took, like the mental part of it, the actual playing part of it. That game drained a lot of a lot of players that game. A lot of people was emotionally drained and physically drained
from that game. So I remember when we made in the locker room, it was just like, you know, we really did that, Like we really came back and put ourselves in this moment right here against you know, some of the great so Tim Duncan's a Hall of Famer, My New Hall of Famer, Rey Papovica Hall of Famer, Tony hall of Famer. So it was kind of like like to be able to do that against those Caliburton quality of guys, It's like, you know, we really just
did something special in that Game six. So let's not take this for game Let's not make this Game six one of the greatest games to lose in Game seven and not make this a championship worth happening. So that mindset was just leave it all on the line, this game seven, this is what you this is what you built for. This what you play for is these moments right here.
It was actually the game six moments set'll be remembered as the most exciting, with Allen's shot replaying for eternity. It's been ten years since that shot, and maybe twenty years from now people will incorrectly remember it as a series winning shot in Game seven instead of the shot that tied Game six. But it might as well be remembered that way, because losing Game seven for Miami wasn't an option. The sports gods couldn't possibly be that cruel.
Jackie McMullin had seen something similar before, working as a reporter in the nineteen eighty six World Series. She was waiting by the Red Sox clubhouse, preparing to interview Boston pitcher Bruce Hurst, who looked like he'd be named MVP of the series, as the Socks were leading the series and Game six by two runs in the tenth inning.
As the wait for Hurst grew oddly long, McMullen made it back out to the field in time to see the score was now tied and New York Mets batter Mookie Wilson hit a ground bow that would slide under the glove of first baseman Bill Buckner and into the outfield, allowing the Mets to score a third run in the inning and extend the series. The way most people remember it, that Buckner play alone cost the Red Sox the World Series.
In reality, the Socks had an extended chance to recover, but really, how could they.
Here's Jackie.
People remember what they want to remember. So the Red Sox lose that game and there's a rain delay the next day, they have to wait a whole nother day. But you knew they there was just no way they could win Game seven. It was just impossible to happen.
The Mets won Game seven, forever framing Buckner as a goat the negative version of that word. The Heat would approach Game seven with a goat of their own. You know which version of that word.
I mean.
Lebron James may have needed Ray Allen to extend the series, but he wasn't going to rely on anyone else to win it. It was the most statistically odd game of the series. Game sevens traditionally are, and following the emotional roller coaster of Game six, you could almost predict this game would be a strange one.
One game on our home floor to bring home another championship. Man, This is everything that we worked for all season long, all the sacrifices we'd made to each other, Dog every single day, Dog, every single minute. They say, hard work payoff, man. So let's make that statement become true. All right, and.
Here we go in seven of the finals.
In fact, the game six hero wouldn't score a point in Game seven, but Alan had already seen what his Game six shot did for his teammates, and based on their reactions, he had a strong feeling they'd complete the deal.
There was something wrong with me. I think it was my finger, Like my finger like I don't know, like I've broke an attendon. So it like kind of it went limp. So I had to get this splint on it. So for longest time, I couldn't. I couldn't pick my finger up. It was it looked like it just the nerve. I don't know what happened to me. So I was in the training room before practicing. You know, this was going to the game seven. We will walk in. I was in front training room. All the guys were in
the in the locker room. I walk in and Mike Miller goes there he is, and you know, everybody was in there, and it was like the ultimate sign of respects, you know. And later on he says he I was like, I told him, I said, Bro, you hit a shot with your shoe off. He goes, Bro, if you didn't hit that shot, we wouldn't be here today.
And I just.
Remember just feeling, you know, such a great feeling to know that you did your job when your team needed you to do your job, you know, to do something and and it's more than your job. It's going to love beyond hit and doing something that you know, put your team in the situation to win a game where you you you gain the most, the utmost of respect
from all your peers. That that is one of the greatest feelings and one of the reasons that you play this game to be able to be relied upon, to be you know, buy your team, you know, buy the organization.
Game seven was a win for the organization, but Lebron James would have to do most of the heavy lifting. That's because Allen wasn't the only scoreless Heat player. Mike Miller started and didn't score in nineteen minutes. Chris Bosh played twenty eight scoreless minutes and was in some early foul trouble. Even ultra confident Mario Chalmers was one of seven from three point range in the game. There were three constants in this one, however, Dwayne Wade's mid range
jumper was on. He hit eleven field goals for his twenty three points.
Age seven is tied.
James kicks it out, Wig fags across the lads, flicks.
It up, it in.
So was Lebron's jumper. He hit five threes in that game.
James, we'll try another three bucks it in. Lebron James four to three pointer up the game. James again, Look how far off they're playing. He'll try it again. Jis come Labron, James Murting.
The Spurs play and there was one bench contributor. After not scoring in double figures in his first six games, Shane Battier exploded for six three pointers and eight tries for eighteen critical points.
James open up top Chalmers, Battier for three.
The only other points off the bench were three from Chris Anderson. Here's Chalmers on how rewarding the finish was for Battier.
I felt great for shake. You know, Shane's a great guy, great dude, great person, and it was just to see him, you know, get beat up by David Wes, get beat up by Roy Heiro, get beat up by Kendrick Perkins and KG. It was just like, like, you basically helped us get to where we are just by taking blows and getting beat up. Just putting your body on the line six right from that in a closeout game after what you just went through. It just shows like the grown upness he had about It's just like, yeah.
You can't.
You can keep beating me up, keep beating me up, but you're not gonna get me down. And I'm still gonna be here.
If you need me.
James kicks it out in the corner. Battier puts it in five for five.
Yeah, it was like we were in the NBA for a reason. No matter if you're a defender or whatever your role is, you're still a basketball player at the end of the day. And Shane showed day like, I'm one of the greatest defenders to play this game. But I can also shoot, and I can also make big buckets, and you can also count me in.
Those moments Among the most memorable images of that game seven were the fist pumps from Battier after his fifth and six threes of the game, both of them crucial in a contest where neither team had the energy to pull away.
Yeah the floor, Lebron step through the Battier.
Course three, got up, Battier dropped down down.
Neither team would score more than eighteen points in the first quarter. Neither team would lead by more than six in the second half. Here's Battier.
It's a weird game. And if I watch up you know, obviously I've watched it multiple times and it was one of those games where it's like it just crap happens and the ball just didn't find CB, And you know, Lebron obviously was stounding at d you wit had twenty something, But it was never a point where it's like, cbe we need more from you. Like we knew CB was
battling Tim Duncan. We knew he was. He was unbelievable the pick and roll, uh, you know, blocking shots, and so it was never like, oh, CV, come out, pick up your game. No, he was awesome that game. He just didn't score, which is which is bizarre, but he played like an awesome game for someone who went scoreless.
In a late timeout, with the Spurs summoning every last ounce of energy, Greg Popovich reminded his team how close they still were to a title.
Nice, it's the last game of the year, the last two teams standards.
Why everything out there?
They got talent.
We got to beat him with all of us.
In the final minute, with the Heat leading by just two points, the Spurs scrambled to secure rebound off of Battier missed three In the caaotic transition back to the Spurs end, Battier found himself defending Duncan near the rim. With Battier on his back, Duncan took a dribble and swept across the lane for a short hook shot He's hit thousands of times. He missed the hook shot, then gently tipped the rebound that he easily reached over Battier.
He missed that also.
Under a minute relating dream nearly lost it back to Janaugley inside Duncan across lane.
Duncan misses the.
Techno god in pass rebound.
He clinging to it.
Two point lyad and a point blank missed by Duncan, and then the follow time out, mining.
Duncan slammed the floor as the Heat dribbled the ball up the court and called the time out. Six years earlier in the finals, Duncan was all smiles, thanking Lebron in a not so private moment afterward for allowing him to have that championship before James inevitably took over the league.
Job La, I love how you're fifteen this name, say.
That with my stay that we're gonna drive these guys as it's gonna be your league in a little while too.
But I appreciate you giving my sister back.
In those two thousand and seven finals, Popovich took advantage of Lebron's unreliable outside shooting and swept the Cavaliers. Fast forward back to this Game seven, with the Heat leading by just two and a chance to seal a second consecutive championship, effectively doing as Duncan predicted in two thousand and seven, with less than forty seconds remaining, Lebron James took the inbound pass and faced the defense of Kawhi Leonard.
The Spurs weren't switching defenders on Lebron, so Kawhi would have to work through any screens to stick to him. James used a Chalmers screen and got barely enough space to square up from nineteen feet just beyond the right edge of the free throw line, with Leonard trying desperately to contest the attempt. After initially playing James for the drive, as was the game plan the entire series, James rose up for a championship level dagger that was yet another
example of his growth. It was the exact shot Greg Popovich had been giving Lebron for a decade plus.
James pulls up, puts it inad flow, point.
Ly time out sad it Telio.
Lebron snatched his second steal of the game in the ensuing possession, forcing the Spurs to foul and sending the crowd into something of a controlled frenzy. Remember, the Heat had just come back in stunning fashion in game six, so there was a respectful fear. Not even the gold ropes meant as much as they used to. But the clock would eventually tick down to zero's with the Heat still leading, and a second Larry O'Brien Trophy would now be re routed in the Heat's direction.
It never gets old.
Having up parade for the third time down Bess.
Stain, Lebron would win his second straight Finals MVP trophy, leading the Heat in minutes by almost seventy game and leading them in points, rebounds, assists, and steals also by fairly wide margins.
The twenty thirteen Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player for the second straight Finals Lebron.
James Miami was getting used to this feeling too, And in this moment in time, everything that was promised and that Rockstar celebration was reaching fulfillment. It was as good as they'll ever feel on a basketball court together.
We had to give everything we had and we did it. Ain't got none left.
James, Wade and Bosh were repeat champions.
It was the overcome of all the challenges that we had, all the hallwork that we put into at all the sacrifices, all the blusswa and tears toward the whole season. Man, And this is the way you want to be rewarded.
Lebron's missed to do whatever it takes, and his knack now for making big plays and big shots in big games. Can't nobody say nothing about it. He scored thirty seven points. He grabs twelve rebounds, he dished all seven saysts.
He guards Tony Parker.
He is today's greatest player for us. You know, it's about doing what we came together do and that is to win championships. And we've been able to do that and now we are part of history.
Man. Champagne was cold burned, but it's just a sweet feeling back in that position again. It was like deja vu. Everybody was just hugging, telling everybody we love him, man, And you know, that's what it's about.
For the role players like Mario Chalmers and Adonis Haslam, their names will always be linked to winning at this level. Also, it's not just superstars who create legacies in this association that's been around for more than seventy five years.
The way we want it.
It was definitely one of those like, okay, this is this solidify us as a team, you know, because we did this together as a team to come back. It wasn't Broad hitting this shot, It wasn't d Wade doing this, It was she Begett the rebound, Ray hit a shot. I had twenty points that game, Like everybody did their part for us to win, and I think that just showed us, like, you know, as a team, one of the best teams ever do this.
Like, at the end of the day, the respect that I have in this league and around here is because I won. It's not because I'm a nice guy. It's not because I'm the oldest guy in the league. It has nothing to do with that. As much as these people in this organization loved me, as much as the people in this city loved me. If I didn't win, I would not be here. If I didn't win, I would not have the respect. If I didn't win, I would not have the keys to the city of Miami and to.
Be able to do and move and influence and impact. It's all built off winning.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Let's raise the two thirteen NBA champion Chip Manner.
By the time the twenty thirteen to fourteen season began, the Heat had effectively squeezed the fight out of.
The NBA's Eastern Conference.
With the exception of the Pacers, who were a bit more dynamic thanks to the continued emergence of Paul George and the development of a former mister Basketball in New York, Lance Stevenson, there wasn't a ton of competition on their side of the standings, it was the West that looked like it would cook up a true rival for the two time defending champs. The Western Conference had seven fifty win teams that regular season, compared to just two Miami
and Indiana in the East. Kevin Durant would win the MVP Award for the fifty nine win thunder Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge had the Trailblazers rolling, The Clippers had Chris Paul Blake, Griffin, Andre Jordan and were now coached by Doc Rivers. And the Warriors won fifty one games and were one year away from taking over the league
for their own stretch. Then there were those darn San Antonio Spurs, who dominated the regular season to the tune of sixty two wins each win, both chipping away at the pain of the previous finals and sharpening their edge for a potential finals rematch with the Heat.
San Antonio's won thirteen in a row, Spurs fifteenth consecutive win, and the Spurs with eighteen straight wins San Antonio, They're ten deep, and they play a system and play with the discipline.
That is just remarkable.
Miami, on the other hand, still had the game's most feared weapons somehow finding ways to improve his game. But the Heat weren't playing the game on the same razor's edge that the Spurs were this entire season. Here's Battier.
Look for that team, it was three years of just so much tensity. Every single game on the road, every single game at home. It was an event. And I sense that that last year just we weren't willing to do everything it took to stay at that level. And he just can't cheat the championship, right, And so it wasn't like anything malicious, but just like you know, maybe running back on defense or diving for a loose ball.
Things we would have done, you know, one more pass on offense, things we would have done without thinking the previous couple of years. We just didn't do it. And we had enough of those plays where that's the difference in a little bit of slippage, you know, answering the equation, and that was a difference. That was a difference.
Unlike in twenty eleven when the team added Battier, or in twenty twelve when Ray Allen joined Miami, there wasn't a big name addition to the thirteen to fourteen roster. Sharpshooter Rishard Lewis would join the team at thirty four years old. Michael Beasley would have another run with the Heat after he was one of the pieces traded away
when Miami acquired James and Boss. There was even a heartwarming reclamation project and former number one pick Greg Odin, as the search for competent big men continued to be a constant subplot for this Heat team. Odin's NBA return from a devastating knee condition only lasted twenty three games with Miami, and the only real youth on the roster was at point guard with Chalmers and his backup Norris Cole.
Brian Windhorst of ESPN regularly had his attention fixed on Lebron James, and he recognized this was a Heat team that would rely on James more than any of the previous The.
Free agency they did sign and bring in were much older, and so they just they didn't have a freshness to the roster that you kind of need. You know, the game isn't designed for the same team to go to the finals four years in a row. Your team kind of breaks down, and so the Heat were right at that stage. Dwayne Wade's knee had been bothering him throughout the entire season. It was being held together other with you know, therapy, tape, stretching, and some sort of painkillers
he can get through. He was not at his best, and so they were really in a state where they could be taken advantage of.
Lebron certainly wasn't breaking down. He set a career high in field goal percentage for the second straight season and shot a career best sixty two percent.
From two point range.
His rookie year, Lebron shot forty four percent from inside the arc. In a March third game in Miami against the Charlotte Hornets, despite playing with a mask on to protect a broken nose, Lebron would show just how dominant he could be, scoring a career best sixty one points, which included eight three pointers.
The first sixty point game in Miami Heat history. You know, Lebron very rarely is satisfying, but then right now with a top coming.
Off, he's he knows he's turned off.
He's keeping alove.
Of Irock and turned the two thirty years of Heat basketball to the highest scorer again in franchise history.
Would was sixty one.
With mud Chester.
By the time the season ended, however, it would appear obvious Lebron would have to carry this group even more than he had the previous postseason, even though James was at a stage in his career where he didn't need that much assistance. Wade and Bosch would both average their fewest points since their rookie seasons. The Heat's depth would be headlined by Battier Anderson, Alan and Lewis, who ranged from age thirty four to thirty eight.
Despite all of that, the playoff.
Run to the finals might have been the easiest for the Heat, as that beat down Eastern Conference didn't nearly have as much fight left. A first round sweep of the Bobcats followed by a five game win over the sixth seeded Brooklyn Nets left Miami and Indiana facing off in a second straight conference finals. The Pacers did the same as the previous postseason, splitting the first two games in Miami and taking home court advantage back to Indianapolis.
But the drama wouldn't really last in this series. The most made for TV moment came when Lance Stevenson, who played a somewhat reckless style and had already attempted to irritate by getting involved in the Heat.
Huddle decided to try a softer.
Approach to bothering Lebron during a stoppage and play. In Game five, with Lebron next to him, hands on knees, Stevenson leaned over and softly blue into Lebron's left ear. After a moment to comprehend what had just happened, Lebron smiled with a look of slight disbelief blowing in the.
Ear of Lebron James as James reaction, he can't believe it.
The Heat eventually disposed of the Pacers in six games to advance to their fourth straight NBA Finals.
Well the fourth consecutive year, the Miami Heat are heading to the NBA Finals, the first team of twenty seven years to accomplish defeat.
And there were signs of growth happening around this team as well. Coverage of the Heat had calmed down a few levels from the insane fervor of the first two seasons. Lebron James had done enough to prove he was indeed one of the best players to ever play the sport, making criticizing him to the level that many did seem a bit silly. In retrospect, there was probably no better example of how different the conversations were around Lebron in
the Heat than that Game five against the Pacers. It'll be remembered for Stevenson being an irritant and for the Pacers staving off elimination for one game with twenty four year old Paul George dropping thirty seven points. But does anyone remember Lebron also scored his playoff career low of seven points in that game. He was in foul trouble most of the game, playing only twenty four minutes and going two for ten from the field in a closeout game.
If he had that exact same game two years earlier, it would have been an indictment of his ability to perform in difficult settings. Instead, it's merely a footnote, and Lebron has reached double figures in scoring in every playoff game he's played since, one hundred and thirty of them and probably counting the next series. However, wouldn't allow for
that kind of less than stellar play from James. In fact, the Heat would have to be sharper than ever if they were to defeat a Spurs team That would prove to be Miami's ultimate rivals in this four year stretch.
Oh God, let's go.
Le's get this party started.
Go course call, Let's go baby, Let's beat the Heat.
Let's go.
Wow, it's a finals rematch.
You're in twenty fourteen with the Miami Heat and looking to become the first to three peat since the Kobe shack Lakers.
If you thought the Heat were determined the season after their loss to the Mavericks in the finals, what Miami did to the Spurs in twenty thirteen was so devastating it might have created the most determined team in NBA history. That, of course, sounds like hyperbole for a measurement that can never actually be taken, but it's hard to argue with the result, and as far as the Heat concerned, it
didn't feel like an exaggeration. These Spurs were so ready for the rematch after sixty two wins and playoff series wins over the Mavericks, Blazers, and Thunder that Mario Chalmers joked there might have been a spygate situation happening in this series.
I'll say this, San Antonio looked like they spin every day into that moment. Watching Game six and watching the whole final series, like everything that we planned on doing, they knew what we were going to do. They it was a step ahead. So I take my hand off to them, and it was like they had to bug our practice or something. They had to be and practice with us.
It's like who was doing.
It's just the way they played us and the way they was on all of our adjustments on everything that we did. It was just like kind of like we didn't switch our game plan. We thought the same game plan that from the previous year. It worked the next year.
In truth, there probably wasn't a game plan that could have slowed these Spurs. Unlike the twenty eleven finals, where you could argue Eric Spolster got out coached by Rick Carlisle, or that the Heat would have won if Lebron had just played anything like his normal self, there wasn't much more either could have done to counter san Antonio.
This time.
The two time defending champs were still living the dream. The Spurs were fueled by nightmares. Here's Matt Bonner.
It felt like one of those things that would haunt your dreams forever unless we came back and won it the next year. It was like everybody used that as motivation. Like you always hear these sports movies and books and stories, you got to overcome adversity. That's all we all knew. We all knew that. We knew like, all right, this is adversity. This is going to make us stronger. We
just need to use it in the right way. And I think if you ask anybody on that team from twenty thirteen who was on the team the following year in twenty fourteen, it was like it was like the Blues Brothers. We were on a mission from God, like we are we are going to get back there, and we are going to make this right so that the rest of our life we don't have to have that feeling in our gut every time the twenty thirteen finals comes up in conversation.
Jackie McMullin spent time with the Spurs following the twenty thirteen fourteen season and wrote a story for ESPN documenting their journey from one finals experience against Miami to the next. Players describe the pain they felt for the twenty thirteen finals and how it affected them.
I think they were all just like what in fact, well after the fact. I remember Monogolobi tell me it was the worst summer of my life after they lost set series. In fact, it was the only summer he didn't play for the Argentinian national team. He's like, I got to go home and get myself right and come back and fix this because it's my fault. You know, everybody like great players, that's what they always say, It's my fault. What can I do to make sure this never happens again.
The Spurs, perhaps taking a page from the Heats book, held their training camp at an Air Force academy similar to Miami in twenty ten. It was the academy where Spurs coach Greg Popovich played basketball.
And it earned his degree.
But what Spurs forward Boris Diao remembers more vividly was a meeting more effective than the setting of that training camp. It was the film session that occurred right before they left for the Air Force Academy.
We thought we were going to get killed in that Air Force base pre season, but I actually know it was actually a good atmosphere and everything. And the main thing that I remember is the first day that we started training camp and we actually in San Antonio before going to the base. We go back to the film room, and we watched the game. We watched the game six and the game seven, and I think we watched the whole second half probably if I remember correctly, so not
just the last second of the game. And the idea was attention to details that if we could avoid many mistakes, so not just the last second of the game, it wouldn't have go that far the game, it wouldn't have got to the last second, and to the possibility of Miami making a three at the last second. So we based this whole season twenty fourteen thirteen fourteen of taking care of details and be paying attention and try to make as the least mistake as possible.
Well, the Spurs were encouraging their aging veterans to play such refined basketball that it approached perfection. The Miami Heat were perfectly satisfied, relying on Lebron James.
Here's battier.
We got to the Spurs. We just for a tired team was tired, just tired. I was tired of each other, tired of the grind. And when we lost, we knew that they were so hungry. We couldn't match. We couldn't match their hunger. They were so hurt, so hungry from the year before that we could not match their edge, but we put.
Ourselves in a position of the people where we want to get them, and.
We're here now, so make it count.
So every game is the game seven. It treated that way, so it's meg a statement.
James was still driven by the bigger picture, hoping he can carry this group past that fatigue built up over four straight seasons as one of the last two teams standing, the Spurs had a plan for James as well. It wasn't a secret that the Heat were older and relying more and more on the wrong so on top of the usual plan that included encouraging him to take long jump shots, the Spurs also made sure their ball movement would tire Lebron. Statistically, there were signs of fatigue already.
While Lebron was still ridiculously efficient in the twenty fourteen playoffs, including shooting forty one percent from three, he also posted averages that are still playoff career lows to this day, with under five assists and just over seven rebounds.
Here's Jackie McMullen.
Movie movie moving the ball, Recover, Recover, Recover, and for a Heat team that was kind of sneaky, sneakily getting older. That was a lot to ask, especially for a big body like Lebron, who had to defend. If you ask him to defend like that, in the mixer, recover, recover, move hedge, hedge, hedge, and handle the scoring load. They figured their best chance at beating the Miami Heat was to wear Lebron down. And how do you do that?
You put them in the mixer, You shoot threes. They were, do you remember this Israel shooting pull up three pointers? Pull up three pointers? Because that was going to keep Miami moving out of their comfort zone. Make Lebron work so much harder than anyone had ever made it work.
And just to make sure Lebron's extra tired, maybe put that mixer in an oven. That's kind of what game one of the twenty fourteen Finals in San Antonio felt like. I was sitting atop the lower bowl of the AT and T Center in a row with other media members. As a South Floridian, heat and humidity are practically my relatives, so much so you don't even notice when they're around sometimes. But by the third quarter of this game, even I had to shed a layer and wonder why it was
so warm in this building. As folks around me also started to lose clothing and drip sweat, it became obvious there was something wrong with the air conditioning. Some had noticed before the second half, including Lebron James.
I'm going list some.
Cold of water.
Now they're trying to smoke us out of here.
In the third quarter, the Spurs announced the air conditioning failure to the crowd.
An electrical failure for the power that runs the AC unit is malfunctioning.
At at and two centers to say the least, hot and steamid.
The game was still very much up for grabs as the teams traded the lead throughout the period, which ended with Miami leading by two. For the heat, it felt like a sweaty race against the clock. The team knew Lebron had cramping issues. It happened in a perfectly cool American Airlines Arena during the twenty twelve finals, so this felt like an inevitability.
Here's Chalmers.
You can definitely see that comment, just because you knew he cramped up before. I don't know how he cramped up, but it's just one of those things like no matter what you do, no matter how much potassiti you take or whatever things you do to prevent cramps. It was bat HoTT and nangimn. If you not really prepared, you're going to cramp. And I just think that that's what happened to him, and he went down at the crucial moment.
Lebron first left the game at the seven thirty one mark of the fourth quarter with Miami hanging on to a two point lead.
James crossover move drive torrem and finishes.
And hobble up. He's cramping up again, Mike.
He is looking over at the training staff and saying he can't move.
Reading his lips, he said he can't move, and so they're literally going to carry Lebron James over to the Miami bench.
As he was getting treatment and drinking fluids. It only got hotter in the building. Shane Battier recalls having to escape the halftime locker room.
Just for relief.
He also joked with the Spurs shooting coach Chip England about the Spurs being better prepared for the situation.
It was the.
Hottest, the hottest room ever. It was a hot yoga hot and like the arena is hot. We go into the locker room and there was. They had no fans for us, and I know the Spurs had fans in there in there, so I'm close. I'm close to Chip England. That's my guy said, guys could have given us a fan. Man, that's messed up. So that's messed up. So like, it was so hot you couldn't even be in the locker room, so you actually had to go back to the hot arena just to escape the heat of.
The locker room.
Boris Dial often wears an engaging smile, and he certainly had one on his face when discussing this heated contest.
It was a hot day, start sweating a lot, and you get dehydrated and you just feel the heat. But also maybe maybe it was an advantage for us against that team because a lot of guys play internationally, and internationally we don't have ac We play in the summer, so summer basketball and European Championship and World Cup, and we played so many games with no ACiE every summer basically, and we just you know, get used to. So a few players you know in our team knew or were used to that.
Matt Bonner was not one of those players.
You know, I'm not a big heat guy. I'm from New Hampshire.
I know.
Yeah, I went to University of Florida and I've been in San Antonio. But I just don't operate well when it's hot. And it wasn't just hot, it was humid too. People forget that about San Antonio. They think, oh, that dry heat like Vegas or Phoenix. It's like, no, it's not like that. It's muggy hot down here. And it was muggy hot in the arena, and I remember just sitting on the bench sweating, thinking like, oh my god, Like if Coach Pop puts me in the game, I might not be able to get up and down the
court three times before I like pass out. How are these guys playing forty minutes in these conditions? It was just from a physical standpoint, I was amazed by all the guys who played like significant minutes in that game with their ability to endure that. You know, the one thing I will say, it was the same conditions for both teams.
Lebron would attempt to play one more time, coming into the game at the four p thirty three mark, with the Heat now trailing by four. He'd hit a layup after driving past Boris Diao on the very first possession, but he wouldn't even be able to walk back in bounds without asking for a substitution. He eventually slowly limped his way back to the bench.
And he Kim barely can't even make it down the floor. It's a five on four. Eric Spocher asking him of the foul. Patty Mills struggling with it, and there's the foul. James couldn't even make it down the floor. Man, James gonna have to be helped Oliver. We've seen him again crap up before in playoff situations, but it never seemed to be this severe. And again you wonder how much the lack of air conditioning and the heat of this building is coming into play with this and everything else.
Oh, there's no doubt that this has had a huge impact on this game.
There were thermometers in the building that had temperatures in the nineties in the AT and T Center. Add in the natural anxiety of a finals game with everyone watching to see if and when Lebron would come back, and there was no recovering from this. That meant the heat couldn't recover either. The Spurs flipped their magical switch to finish that game despite the climate, on a sixteen to four run, with twelve of those points coming off three
pointers that were the results of beautiful ball movement. It was a sign of things to come.
Thirty to nine runs San Antonio since trailing.
Eighty six seventy nine.
It's green again, Daddy Green from downtown. The San Antonio Spurs take Game one of the twenty fourteen NBA Finals.
For the Heat, it was just another game one loss in the finals. They're third straight. Miami would recover and win the previous two championships, so there wasn't much about Game one that had the team scared. Miami had the built in excuse of the temperature, causing Lebron to effectively miss the final seven minutes of what was a close game.
Lebron in the Heat hadn't lost back to back playoff games since the twenty two of Eastern Conference Finals, and we all remember how Lebron responded to that in a Game six. This would be a Game two, but Lebron still had the motivation to recover from the cramp game, a situation he was still heavily mocked for on social media. Despite articles being written about how debilitating cramps can be.
Let's when thought them out.
Whatever it take to win, and a motivated James in a fully air conditioned arena was still a scary proposition.
Not much kicks it out Lewis James on the attackles to the rim, Lebron James wanted a foul as well. Impressive move take that dop the first app most of what was in the paint now starting to go from the perimeter and other three.
That's good Lebron James.
Four straight juppers toover from downtown and the Heat back up by two.
James also had some help from Bosh and Wade to seal the deal.
Bosh shot blocked down eight, Bosh gonna go to the rim, inside.
Way lay up and god, what a comeback by the Heat.
By the final buzzer, it was another game two finals recovery for Miami and another stellar performance from a fully recovered Lebron thirty five points, three of three from three, ten rebounds, three assists, and two steals in a two point Heat win.
And that's the ball game. The Miami Heat, even the series.
A three peat, still felt very much doable. Home court advantage was Miami's now and in this new two two one one one finals format, the Heat wouldn't have to win three straight home games to maintain it. They'd only have to win two before heading back to San Antonio. And after the Spurs lost Game two with Lebron's early exit helping them win Game one, the Spurs were a bit concerned their PTSD from the previous season would start to bubble up.
We were up one with a one minute and a half to go, and we just couldn't make the shot to go to come up and top. You know, we had a great opportunity.
But Greg Popovich would make one adjustment that would make this Spurs Game two loss feel like a tiny stumble instead of a monumental missed opportunity. That adjustment would come in the form of course DA. Through the first two games of the series, Spurs starting point guard Tony Parker seemed to be playing just fine, averaging twenty points and seven and a half assists, but Popovich still found a way to get the team's offense flowing even more by giving Parker another point guard.
The split game kind of put us on ols, you know, being at home and giving one away and now going into Miami basically we didn't have a choice, and he became you know, must win game. And so the Game three, the motivation was there. I think Bob put me in the in the starting five in that game to move to move the ball, you know, one of the things that Miami was doing, they were really pressing Tony and focusing on Tony double team, try to get the ball
out of his hand. So I was just you know, acting as a release for him, as you know, almost like a second point guard, because Tony was like double team and trapped on the side and trying to make the decision on the other side. And so that that gave us some freedom to actually move the ball and accelerate the ball behind pick and rolls.
The move was supposed to unlock the best version of the Spurs, the perfect basketball, Diel said the team was attempting to achieve all season. Would be required for San Antonio to overcome the heat. If the Spurs were going to reveal the beautiful game and finally overthrow the champs, However, they'd have to start the process at the scene of their most stunning trauma. Bonner and his determined team were headed back to Miami like to this day.
When I hear the baseline for Seven Nation Army, it takes me right back to their arena in the finals in thirteen and fourteen. That was like their anthem. It was just such an electric atmosphere to be a part of it was awesome.
On the final episode of Four Years at.
Heat, and then we came out that Game four is really the game where we ripped our hearts out.
I probably should have retired after his sixth series in game seven year before, looking back at Chicaga just walked off.
They ran out of villains, Like it was originally the media and the noise, and then it was losing the Dallas and then you know, how were we going to get past this? How we're going to get past that?
Once they got past everything.
They ran out of things to hate.
Without that Miami experience, Lebron James would be a completely different player, a completely different human.
That team would have been a historic underachiever. If not for that shot, one title would not have been enough.
Four Years of Heat is a production of iHeartRadio and the MBA