On June 18th in 2013, Ray Allen knocked down a clutch corner three against the San Antonio Spurs to tie the score up at 95-95 with 5.2 seconds remaining in regulation in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals.
The shot, among the greatest clutch shots in NBA history, capped off the Heat's comeback in the game.
On the back of this shot, the Heat forced overtime after pulling off a defensive stop in the final possession of regulation. In overtime, the Heat outscored the Spurs 8-5 and won Game 6, staving off elimination and forcing a winner-take-all Game 7.
Here's another look at the shot from near the opposite basket:
"We seen the championship board already out there, the yellow tape. And you know, that's why you play the game to the final buzzer," LeBron James said postgame. "And that's what we did tonight. We gave it everything that we had and more."
While Allen finished the game with nine points, being the only Heat reserve to play 40+ minutes, LeBron James led the team, despite his slow start, with a triple-double of 32 points, 11 assists, and 10 rebounds.
At halftime, James had just nine points (3-of-9 FG), five assists, three rebounds, and was a -10 as the Heat trailed 50-44. Heading into the fourth quarter, the Spurs pushed that lead to 10 (75-65).
Then, in the final quarter led by James, the defending champions roared back.
James, who played the final minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime without his headband, scored or assisted on 22 of the team's 30 points in the final quarter. He did more of the same in overtime, being responsible for six of the team's eight points. The only points he wasn't responsible for in the extra session were Ray Allen's game-sealing clutch free-throws.
Other key contributors for the Heat were Mario Chalmers and Chris Bosh. Chalmers finished with a series-high 20 points (7-of-11 FG) while Bosh contributed across the board with 10 points, 11 rebounds, three steals, two assists, and two blocks.
More importantly, with no Tim Duncan on the floor, it was Bosh that pulled down the critical offensive rebound that led to the Allen shot.
Duncan was the best player for the Spurs with 30 points (13-of-21 FG) and 17 rebounds, but he couldn't help the team ice the game. Kawhi Leonard, who scored four of the Spurs' five points in overtime, recorded a double-double of 22 points (9-of-14 FGs) and 11 rebounds.
A couple of days later, the Heat won a hard-fought Game 7, 95-88 and repeated as the NBA Champions. James was named Finals MVP for a second consecutive year.
Other notable events on June 18th
- In 1932, The Federation Internationale de Basketball Amateur (FIBA) - the world's governing basketball body - would be established in Geneva, Switzerland with eight founding members - Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, and Switzerland.
- In 1985, the New York Knicks picked Patrick Ewing with the first overall pick in the 1985 NBA Draft. They received the No. 1 overall pick in the first-ever NBA Draft Lottery, held nearly a month earlier.
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