Hamilton: LeBron James Scored a Game 6 Win, But Gregg Popovich Assisted

MIAMI — As chants of “Let’s Go Heat!” rained throughout the corridors of AmericanAirlines Arena, Armando, holding the hand of his female companion, led her through a sea of fellow Miami Heat fans. Euphoric.

Shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers united by a white hot love for their Heat, they were packed as tightly into the arena’s Northwest stairwell as a bag of cotton balls.

“Wow. Wow. Wow,” he said. “I can’t believe what I just saw.”

What he saw was a clash of two champions and two teams for the ages.

And what he saw was one of those teams—his team—simply refuse to meekly cede the throne that they endured tremendous scrutiny and heartbreak to capture.

What we also saw, sadly, was one of the greatest coaches in NBA history make one small decision that may be talked about for years to come.

And now, what we will see is a Game 7 that will result in Tim Duncan either capturing his fifth title or LeBron James his second.

History. Legacy. Legitimacy and glory. Up for grabs.

It simply gets no better.

For the better part of the 53-minute, 103-100 slugfest that the Heat managed to snatch from both the Spurs and the jaws of defeat, the image of thousands of Miami fans flailing their arms in unison and groaning with disgust was the story.

Through three quarters, LeBron looked resigned to his fate as Duncan’s court jester—not the King.

To that point, James had managed just 14 points on 3-for-12 shooting. And to that point, Duncan had by far been the game’s best player, scoring 30 points—more than James and Dwyane Wade combined. Amazingly, the 37-year old, smelling his fifth championship, had shot 13-for-16 and grabbed 14 rebounds.

Through 36 minutes, Duncan had successfully made minced meat of Chris Andersen and Chris Bosh.

And then, the fourth quarter happened.

With just 12 minutes remaining in their season and their reign atop the NBA, the Heat dug deep and collectively looked less like the spent prizefighter they resembled over the game’s first 36 minutes and more like a bloodhound that caught a fresh whiff of the subject of its search.

Ahead 75-65, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich began the quarter with a five-man unit of Tiago Splitter, Manu Ginobili, Boris Diaw, Gary Neal and Danny Green. Ninety seconds into the quarter, after Mike Miller’s 3-pointer cut the lead to just four, the building was so loud that Popovich had to yell “Timeout!” to Joey Crawford three times before the referee heard him and blew his whistle.

Crawford, by the way, was standing only about five feet from Popovich.

A renewed spirit overcame the American Airlines Arena. Suddenly, all 19,900 in attendance were on board.

Suddenly, everyone believed.

Miller’s 3-pointer was one of the key baskets that sparked the Heat on a 19-7 run to begin the fourth and gave Miami an 84-82 lead midway through the period.

James scored 10 points over that stretch and assisted on Miller’s 3-pointer as well as an earlier one by Mario Chalmers. And although he arrived in Miami with Bosh and Wade, and although the three of them came together with the intentions of turning Miami into the site of a dynasty, it was not the Big Three that pulled the Heat back from the abyss.

It was the Big Six.

Flanked by Chalmers, Miller, Chris Andersen and Ray Allen, James rescued the Heat while Wade and Bosh were watching from the sidelines.

As he took the game into his hands, he shot 8-for-14 in the game’s second half, scoring 21 of his 32 points and turning in an inspiring 32-point, 10-rebound, 11-assist triple-double that only he could make look so easy.

Allen converted a backdoor layup on a secondary break to give the Heat the lead, and they managed to keep the Spurs at bay until Tony Parker put together his second brilliant 24-second stretch of the series. Unlike Game 1, this one did not lead the Spurs to the victory they needed.

Parker tied the game at 89 on a step-back 3-pointer over James, stole the ball from James on the defensive end and connected on a difficult 12-footer to give the Spurs a 91-89 lead with 58 seconds remaining in regulation.

For the record, it was actually a 29-second stretch, but who’s counting?

After James committed consecutive turnovers, Ginobili hit 3-of-4 free throws and gave the Spurs a 94-89 lead with 28 seconds remaining in regulation. Fans began heading for the exits, disappointed and dejected.

And if the game ended at that moment, Danny Green and Gary Neal would have known what it feels like to be a champion.

Instead, they must fight for that right on Thursday night.