2013 is a painful memory for all of us. Sometimes, I randomly think back to that fateful Game 6 and wonder what could have been had just a few things been different. The Ray Allen shot may have been the nail in the coffin, but there were several other mistakes made by the Spurs. Danny Green spoke about that series, mentioning a glossed-over snafu that wasn’t SA’s fault but was very costly.
After Allen made the shot that sent the arena into an uproar, the officials stopped the clock at 5.2 seconds. Nobody had called a timeout, and San Antonio was trying to take the ball out quickly, so Miami didn’t have a chance to set its defense. Joey Crawford took the ball out of Boris Diaw’s hand, and Coach Popovich was going crazy about it. We all know what happened after that.
The Spurs 2013 loss could have never happened
Not only could it never have happened, it should never have happened. That ball was going to Tony Parker, one of the fastest players in the league, with the ball in his hands. There are no guarantees in sports, so nobody can say for certain that TP would have made the bucket, but that also means that you can’t say that he wouldn’t have.
What we do know is that Parker was an unbelievably clutch player throughout his career, and if you were to put money on whether he would or wouldn’t make it, you would be a fool to bet against him. Especially when you consider the ridiculous, timely shot he made to win Game 1 of the very same series.
None of this takes away from Miami’s victory, unfortunately. Bad decisions were made by Coach Popovich when he decided to take Tim Duncan out of the game for some inexplicable reason. It wasn’t like Miami possessed the capability to take advantage of one of the greatest defenders in the league, even at his age. He was phenomenal in that series and likely would have won Finals MVP.
But that wasn’t the only slip-up that day. Kawhi Leonard missed a crucial free throw that would have slammed the door shut on the Heat. He was only in his second year, and the stage was immense, so you forgive him for that. It was less forgivable in the moment to watch Manu Ginobili step to the free-throw line and also miss a critical one.
Those were two chances to end the game right there. They didn’t do it. If you leave the door cracked for a team like Miami had when the stakes are that high, they were going to make you pay. They did that. However, none of that excuses the inexplicable decision the referees made to stop the game. It was a missed opportunity that had nothing to do with a Spurs mistake, and that’s frustrating.