Thanks to Ray Allen, the Miami Heat survived Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals. Where were you when Jesus Shuttlesworth took on his role as savior?
Where Were You When Ray Allen Saved the Heat?
Peripheral Vision: June 7
It’s a lot of fans!
All the talk about the non-functioning air-conditioner at the AT&T Center in Game 1 still hasn’t cooled off, lame pun intended. Now, Danny Green admitted to the Associated Press that the Spurs locker room had cooling fans to counter the suffocating 80-degree heat (33 to 35-degree celsius), while the Heat didn’t have any. Was it done on purpose? Or did the Heat just didn’t bother to ask? Hey, the Spurs have home court advantage after all.
NBA Conference Finals Random Power Rankings
It’s the penultimate round of the NBA Playoffs and as it’s supposed to be, the top seeds in the East and the West at the end of the regular season are the ones battling it out for the coveted tickets to the Last Dance. It has been an entertaining Conference Finals so far despite San Antonio’s trampling of OKC.
But aside from the final score, updates, and the highlights, other equally fascinating stuff has been happening. Trivial or not, they’re all part of the adrenaline-pumping post-season experience. Since we’re suckers for anything basketball-related, we decided to make a Power Rankings of the random and sometimes incoherent things that have transpired in the Conference Finals.
Christmas Day
After more than a 3-month hiatus, BuhayBasket is back not with a vengeance, but with fresher legs and the eye on the proverbial ball. Just like Steve Nash. Minus the Gatsby haircut, of course.
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Photo: Robyn Beck / Getty Images
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Speaking of Nash, who played in his second straight game in nearly two months, his side part orchestrated another Laker victory at the expense of the New York Knicks.
Nash dished out 11 times in another entertaining Christmas Day match-up (thanks NBA marketing execs!), which featured two MVPs-in-the-running in an epic scoring battle.
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Photo: Andrew D. Bernstein / Getty Images
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Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony both dropped 34 points, but it was the Black Mamba emerging victorious, thanks to Dwight’s 14 and 12; Pau’s 13 and 8; and Metta’s defense.
Metta World Peace clamped down on Melo in the fourth—limiting him to “only” 7 points in the quarter—before fouling out with 1:58 left to play. He also chipped in 20 points.
Even Nash was impressed.
”This is what he’s been doing all year. He gets his hands on a lot of balls, pounds on the other team’s best guy. You can’t win without that type of effort,” he said of World Peace.
Without Metta, the gargantuan task of guarding Melo in the clutch fell on Kobe. Challenged accepted.
The Lakeshow escaped with a 100-94 win and a few choice words from Kobe to Carmelo.
“If you can’t trash talk with your friends, what type of relationship is that?” Kobe told reporters after the game.
The win was the Lakers’ fifth straight, and just like that, the Lakers is a .500 team once again.
In other news, the Heat beat OKC (again), Clips are on a 14-game winning streak, KG and Crash don’t like each other, the Rose-less Bulls suck, and Mike Brown is still jobless.
Just another Christmas Day in the NBA.