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It took everything they had for the Heat to shake the Spurs in Game 7 of one of the most closely fought Finals in NBA history.

J.A. Adande and Bomani Jones on how LeBron James and company pulled it off, and what it means about how the world sees the MVP. TrueHoop TV at the Finals.

Twists, turns, villains, heroes and Ray Allen; Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals was overloaded with drama. Bomani Jones and J.A. Adande discuss the Heat's come-from-behind overtime victory that sets up Thursday's Game 7. TrueHoop TV at the Finals.

The demand placed on LeBron James is a simple one: Win playoff games by yourself, again and again. That’s all. And as if the San Antonio Spurs’ defensive scheme isn’t doing enough to prevent James from taking over in the NBA Finals, here comes history with the double-team.

Repeated statistical domination of games within a series is historically rare, the type of thing that happens, on average, about once every three years. It also can be indicative of a team that doesn’t have a strong enough supporting cast to win a championship and is overly dependent on a lone star.

I sought a statistical measure for stars delivering multiple spectacular games within a series and looked at series over the past 28 years of the playoffs in which All-Star players had game scores of 30 or higher at least three times.

Game score is a number created by John Hollinger that incorporates points, field goal shooting, free throw shooting, rebounds, steals, assists, blocked shots, fouls and turnovers. (The formula can be found in this glossary.) A game score of 10 is average, 20 is good, 30 is great. Forty and above is the stuff of legends.

Game scores of 30 are hard to come by. LeBron was the story of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, when he had 30 points, eight rebounds and six assists, but that netted him a game score of only 21.7. Missing three of four free throws didn’t help, but if you think about it he played a great second half, not a great game. This wasn’t the start-to-finish effort of Game 6 in Boston last season, when LeBron had a game score of 36.4.

Game score isn’t perfect. Its emphasis on efficiency creates what I believe is a too-harsh penalty for missed field goals and missed free throws. But it does reflect all-around impact, and allows players who flourish in a variety of categories to be accounted for. Also, this isn’t a comprehensive list, because the website Basketball-reference.com only has full game score records going back to the 1985-86 season. My cutoff of 30 for purposes of this comparison might seem too arbitrary as well. For example, it meant leaving out Dwyane Wade’s 2006 NBA Finals, when he had game scores of 32.6, 32.5 and ... 29.8. But I had to draw the line somewhere, and this makes the list even more exclusive.

Besides, any analysis that leaves Michael Jordan on top can’t be too far off, right? And this might be as good an empirical argument for Jordan as greatest player as you can find. Other players have more rings or more points in their careers. In this stat, Jordan is two and a half times better than his next-closest competitors. Jordan had five playoff series in which he had game scores of 30 or more at least three times. No one else has done it more than twice. Also, Jordan had series with five game scores of 30 two times; no one else has done that even once.






For LeBron, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Tim Duncan, their three-30 series came in years in which they won the MVP award. Their regular-season excellence carried into the postseason, turning these game scores into snapshots of superstars at their peak.







A player who produced one of these series in a year he did not win the MVP was Hakeem Olajuwon. And the two events were definitely connected. After watching David Robinson receive the trophy in a pregame ceremony, Olajuwon set out to prove he should have been the winner ... and produced some devastating numbers in the process.


His other entry came in 1986 and was notable because it came in his second year in the league -- the earliest of any player in this group.


If you’re wondering where Kobe Bryant is, he’s right here, from the 2010 conference finals against the Phoenix Suns.


The one name you might not have expected to see here? Amar’e Stoudemire, on the strength of a 2005 series against the Dallas Mavericks.

J.A. Adande and Marc Stein tell how the Spurs managed to set a Finals record for 3s while making the Heat look lost and bewildered. TrueHoop TV at the Finals.

Game 2 was a tightly fought contest, until the Heat blew the game wide open with a tenacious second-half run, creating an instant blowout. What
happened? Bomani Jones and J.A. Adande address. TrueHoop TV at the Finals.

MIAMI -- Now that the San Antonio Spurs are in the NBA Finals, we’re seeing the side benefit of Gregg Popovich’s strategic star-resting program: It has the backups well prepared for this moment.

While the Miami Heat seem to falter whenever LeBron James grabs a seat, the Spurs consistently hang in games while Tony Parker or Tim Duncan are out. That’s due in part to the number of times the San Antonio reserves were asked to fill in for them.

“It was huge,” said backup point guard Gary Neal, who wound up starting 17 games this season. “Just to be able to come out and play, be able to have good games, it kind of instills confidence.”

They didn’t just play; they won. The Spurs went 11-5 without Parker this season.

Throughout the playoffs, I’ve marveled at how Popovich never seems to get caught when he’s resting his main players. Not only have the Spurs survived those stretches, but they have outscored playoff opponents by 54 points while Parker is off the court.

Part of it is Popovich knowing just how much rest Parker and Duncan require, a touch that’s come from so many playoff series together.

“And also it’s the game situation,” Popovich said. “Did the other team just make an eight-point run? Or do we have the game under control to some degree and they need more time?

“It’s all those sorts of things put together. It’s just a feel.”

So what allows the second unit to be so productive?

“I just think, the system,” Neal said. “When Tony and Tim are in the game, the system works a whole lot better. When they’re not in the game, we still follow the system. We still follow the same principles of ball movement, not holding the ball, playing with the pick-and-roll and swinging the ball, going from good [shots] to great [shots]. When those guys aren’t in the game, you have to play the system to make it work. I think the second unit does a pretty good job of it.”

One of their signature performances of the playoffs came with little fanfare near the end of the third quarter in Game 1.

With 4:15 remaining, Danny Green entered for Parker. With 3:53 remaining, Neal replaced Boris Diaw. The Spurs were going small, with Green, Neal, Manu Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard and Duncan. More significantly, they were going without Parker for a critical stretch. The Heat had their Big Three of James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the floor, joined by Mario Chalmers and Mike Miller.

Miami led by two points at the time. When the quarter ended, it led by three -- a gain of one point that really was a net win for the Spurs. San Antonio remained within one long basket of Miami, and Parker was recharged and ready to play the entire fourth quarter, which he dominated by scoring 10 points.

We remember Parker’s brilliance in the fourth, particularly the wild scrambling play that led to his final shot. Don’t forget what came before it. Note the play of the reserves in the third quarter, or even in the first Spurs-Heat game of the season, when the Spurs starters went home, the team was hit with a $250,000 fine, and the second unit pushed the Heat to the limit. It’s all providing a payoff now.

Bomani Jones and J.A. Adande say the Spurs took Game 1 with a defensive strategy of making anyone but LeBron James beat them. TrueHoop TV at the Finals:

This has the potential to be one of the most fascinating matchups of the NBA Finals:

Gregg Popovich against the media.

The in-game interviews might be the most visible, but they’re also the smallest skirmish in the ongoing battle. Popovich will interact with the media before and after games, after practices and shootarounds, and even the occasional encounter in a hallway or parking lot. So with the hope of fostering greater peace, I’m passing along a few tips for dealing with Popovich to my media brethren.

Popovich is actually one of my favorite people in the league. His answers can range from insightful to humorous. But if you go at him the wrong way, you’ll get nothing but hurt feelings. So listen up:

1. If the question is 'Do you guys want to talk to Pop?' the answer is 'No.'

Popovich will show up at his mandatory media sessions but isn’t trying to do anything beyond that. The Spurs public relations department might ask for interest as a courtesy, but you’d be better off waking a bear and inviting it to tea. I learned that the hard way at a morning shootaround before a Spurs playoff game against the Oklahoma City Thunder last year.

I thought Popovich could help me with a story on how point guards had been impacting the playoffs. The San Antonio writers stood behind me, silently, their expressions saying, “Yeah, good luck with that.” I asked my question and Popovich replied, “I’m trying to figure out how to stop Kevin Durant and you’re asking me about the history of point guards in the league?” He spun around and left.

So get your share of Popovich when he has to be there. He won’t be much help otherwise.

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2. Speaking of 'no,' don’t ask questions that can be answered 'yes' or 'no.'

If you do, that’s exactly the answer you’ll get. That principle applies to every interview, but it especially applies to Popovich.

The problem is he’s wise to every trick to getting around yes/no questions. It’s why he called out David Aldridge for his “How happy are you ...” question during an interview in the regular season, and did the same during the Golden State series outside the visitors locker room at Oracle Arena when a reporter framed a question with, “Are you happy with the attitude ...” and Pop quickly shot back, “I’m never happy. About anything.”

Making it worse, Aldridge -- “The Questioner himself,” as Popovich put it -- was there too, prompting Pop to revisit Aldridge’s initial query.

“It was even a degree question,” Popovich said. "'How happy are you?' On a scale of one to 10, or what?"

In Memphis, a reporter kept starting off questions with, “How important is it ...”

Popovich cut him off: “You’re big on this important stuff, aren’t you?”

Go with fewer “How?” questions, use more “What?” and “Why?” questions.

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3. Ask smart questions, but don’t try to look smart.

There’s a sweet spot between dumb questions and overreaching in an attempt to look smart.

Popovich appreciates an intelligent question. He has no tolerance for people eager to display their hoops knowledge. That’s what got Doris Burke in trouble the first time she did an in-game interview with Pop.

“I want him to know I know my basketball,” Burke said. “And instead of just saying, ‘How did Phoenix make their run?’ I said something along the lines of, ‘Shaq was 0-for-6, he went 6-for-6 ...' and just the question went too long.”

Pop folded his arms and looked at her with an expression that caused her to stumble over her words in her next question. It went so badly that the producer decided not to air it.

Basketball savvy can be shown by the types of questions asked, not by the long buildup to the question. It helps if you ...

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4. Listen. Learn what Pop likes and doesn’t like.

For example, he never gets tired of talking about Tim Duncan or Tony Parker. Popovich has been singing Duncan’s praises since 1997 and keeps coming up with new tunes. Popovich had his clashes with Parker earlier in their relationship, but he recognizes he has been blessed with one of the best point guards in the NBA and appreciates Parker’s greatness.

What he’ll never address are vague topics such as mood or motivation. He doesn’t go for the Knute Rockne stuff, as he calls it.

“Teams are made up of human beings,” Popovich says. “Psychoanalyzing them before the games is not something I try to do.”

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5. He doesn’t hate the media. Really, he doesn’t.

“This relaxes me before every game,” he said during one media session held in the hallway outside the Spurs locker room. “This is good.”

He’ll even go beyond the call of duty. Before an early-round playoff game, a local writer asked Popovich for help with a crossword puzzle word. He needed a six-letter synonym for “discombobulated” that ended in a y. Popovich went to his office, the gears in his mind grinding away. Before the game started he delivered a piece of paper to the writer’s seat by the scorer’s table. The paper contained two words: “Punchy” and “Screwy.”

Ask the right questions and Popovich will provide good answers.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The press release promoting the weekend’s big concert in Memphis and all the surrounding activities sat next to my computer as I typed up my story on Tim Duncan’s masterful Game 3 performance.

“Paul McCartney’s ‘Out There’ tour will feature hours of material from the most beloved catalog in popular music,” the release read, “with Paul performing songs spanning his entire career -- as a solo artist, member of Wings and of course, The Beatles.”

I couldn’t help but link it to this quote from Duncan on my screen, which described why the San Antonio Spurs have looked so comfortable and in control during the two overtime games in these Western Conference finals.

“We’ve been together for a long time,” Duncan said. “We have a lot of plays to work from and a lot of experience to work from.”

Whether it’s a deep playbook or an extensive songbook, there’s a level that only sustained excellence can achieve. With McCartney in town and the Spurs enjoying a 3-0 lead in the series, it seems like a good time to bask in their achievements.

Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili have played in 28 playoff series together, winning 97 postseason games. Only the Los Angeles Lakers’ combination of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Cooper won more.

It probably isn’t a coincidence that when the Spurs were trailing in the final minute and a half of the fourth quarter, they came out of a timeout and the ball went from Parker to Duncan to Ginobili in an exquisitely executed play that resulted in an easy layup.

“I have a great deal of confidence in them,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “They’ve earned that. They’ve been together, they’re all very competitive. They may or may not do something perfectly, but they’re going to do it to the best of their ability. That allows one to go to bed at night and deal with whatever the consequences are.”

“We don’t panic,” Parker said. “We know what we want to do. We made a lot of great plays at the end of the game last night.”

Ginobili described it as "corporate knowledge," an institutional memory that resides in this trio that has played together for more than a decade.

“We know how we feel without even having to say a word,” Ginobili said. “And that’s important. And we have five pieces that are very important to what we do that are new.”

The playoff contributions from the likes of Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard and Tiago Splitter can’t be discounted. Green and Leonard have knocked down open 3-point shots when Parker or Ginobili force the defense to collapse. Splitter provides a big presence and is an underrated passer. Matt Bonner has added driving and inside-scoring elements to his game in addition to his 3-point shooting.

“It’s the core group and new pieces, just being altruistic and trying to help out,” Ginobili said. “Pop being very communicative and very clear on what he wants. It’s the whole package. But of course, Tony, Tim, Pop and me, we know each other very well and it’s easy to communicate.”

They’re the ones who Carry That Weight. They’re trying to Get Back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2007. I could go on with the McCartney-written song titles, but I’ll just Let It Be.

Here's more than you ever possibly wanted to know about the status of Stephen Curry's left ankle, which he sprained late in Game 3, from his meeting with the media before this morning's shootaround in San Antonio before Game 5:

"I feel good," Curry said. "I’m ready to go tonight. It feels a whole lot better than it did before Game 4, so that’s all I could ask for.

"When I woke up yesterday, it wasn’t worse than it was before the game [Sunday], which is a huge success.

"Mission accomplished: to be able to play Game 4 and not have any setbacks or delay the healing process for tonight."

Sometimes the altitude and pressurized cabin of an airplane flight can cause joints to swell. Curry said that didn't happen on the trip to San Antonio.

"We prepared for it," Curry said. "Had it wrapped up, almost four times the size of my regular ankle with tape and wraps and compression and all that, just trying to make sure it doesn’t balloon up. And we got through it."

Curry didn't get any practice shots before Game 4, but he planned to participate in the Warriors' shootaround Tuesday and be on the court early before Game 5.

"I think it’s in good enough shape to do that, to be able to put a little of pounding on it, to warm up, to get my legs back and keep my normal routine before games," Curry said.

It's worth noting that he made five of his 10 3-point shots in Game 4 without practicing beforehand.

"He was born a shooter," Mark Jackson said.

For every Stephen Curry action, there is a reaction. I don’t know about equal and opposite, but there’s a clear correlation between the sweetest jump shot in the league and the joyous celebrations they provoke from the Golden State Warriors reserves.

Both Curry’s shooting prowess and the Warriors’ party moves were on display in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, as evident in these highlights

My favorite moment from Game 1 was when four players stood up and simultaneously put their hands on their heads in disbelief, a move I like to call the Thomas Hill.

David Lee’s torn hip flexor has kept him out of most of the Warriors’ playoff games, but it doesn’t keep him from jumping up in astonishment after another Curry jumper splashes home.

“I’ve seen pretty much everything there is to see,” Lee said, “From being on the other end of Kobe dropping 60 in the Garden to you name it. There’s just something special about when Steph gets it going like that. Being the tight-knit group that we are, just encouraging one another, I know when we get hyped over there it just encourages him to keep going.”

When Curry’s on one of his scoring sprees, “It’s kind of a blur,” he said.

“I see them standing up,” Curry said. “There was big talk [Tuesday] at practice about the videos of all the reactions. It seems like they were all in unison last game. They’re out there having fun, we’re all out there having fun playing the game. That’s what it’s all about.”

Kent Bazemore is considered the ringleader. In his rookie season he already has a YouTube reel of his sideline celebrations.

"My situation, being undrafted and just being thankful to be here,
it’s my ode to the game," Bazemore said. "Just showing my passion.

"I’ve got my one signature thing. They call it 'Bazemore.' It’s actually like a crescent lunge, from yoga.

Lee doesn’t put as much thought into it.

"I’ll have reactions," he said, "and later look back and say, 'What was I doing?'”

SAN ANTONIO -- The San Antonio Spurs are unprepared for the Golden State Warriors. It’s not that Gregg Popovich forgot how to coach and has been negligent in his duties leading up to their second-round series opener. It’s just that their first-round sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers -- which feels like it ended around the time “The Sopranos” went off the air -- did nothing to simulate the challenges the Warriors present.

“It’s a totally different matchup than the Lakers series,” Danny Green said. “It’s kind of a 180. The Lakers were more of a big–man dominant, inside-presence type of team. These guys are more perimeter-oriented.”

The good news for the Spurs is that they’re in better shape in their backcourt than the frontline. Tony Parker, who was slowed by a sprained ankle in March, looked fully functional by the end of the Lakers series. He’ll join Danny Green and possibly Kawhi Leonard on the Steph Curry detail. That’s a variety of looks the Spurs can throw at Curry, from Parker’s quickness to Leonard’s length and athleticism. The question will be how much attention do they pay to Curry -- and do they send a double-team out on the perimeter?

Up front, Tiago Splitter is a game-time decision with a sprained ankle of his own, while Boris Diaw might make his return from surgery to remove a cyst on his spine that’s kept him out since early April.

Believe it or not, the Spurs made more three-pointers than the Warriors this season. That doesn’t mean they’re going to engage in a shooting contest with Golden State.

“I think it would be a bad idea to do that,” Parker said. “I’m improving shooting-wise, but I think Steph Curry is better than me.”

The Spurs will try to get some transition baskets and try to make the Warriors defend deep into the shot clock in half-court sets. They’ll also rely on their huge experience advantage. The Spurs have logged 490 playoff games between Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili alone. The Warriors use five players whose postseason experience consists of ... that Nuggets series that ended last week.

It’s about valuing possessions, making proper defensive rotations or maintaining calm when the pressure mounts.

Oh, and as loud as Golden State’s Oracle Arena has been lately, it pales in comparison to the home-court advantage enjoyed by the Spurs against the Warriors. The Spurs haven’t lost to the Warriors at home since Feb. 14, 1997. In other words, since before Duncan came into the NBA.

If you’re wondering how tough Stephen Curry can be in the face of physical challenges from the Denver Nuggets, you’re asking the wrong question. The matter at hand for Curry, both in this first-round playoff series and for the duration of his time with the Golden State Warriors, is how Oakland can he be.

He plays in a city that’s known for producing tough NBA point guards. The list begins with Gary Payton. Raised by a dad nicknamed “Mr. Mean”, Payton would jaw at anyone and back down from no one.

Those who played against Jason Kidd could tell you he’s deceptively strong. Brian Shaw might be the toughest of all: he has persevered with dignity after his parents and sister were killed in a car accident when he was 27.

Damian Lillard, the unanimous rookie of the year, is the most recent addition to the lineage. He led all rookies in points and assists, and even though he played more minutes than anyone in the league his scoring and shooting went up after the All-Star break, when the rookie wall should have kicked in.

“What makes us so tough is we learned on the playgrounds and fought all the time and grew up with that toughness,” Payton said in a text message. “Curry has the heart to do that. I don’t know how he grew up, but in this era he can be really good.”

Curry grew up in Charlotte. But he can be of Oakland. He can represent what it stands for. And just as Payton, Kidd, Shaw and Lillard each offer different takes on toughness, we’re starting to see Curry’s version.

The Nuggets decided that if they can’t block his shot, if his passing will penalize them for double-teams (he’s the leading assists man in the playoffs, with 9.6 per game), then the best way to slow him down is to get rough. They shoved and tripped him in Game 5, causing Mark Jackson to complain about the tactics, leading Curry to spend a couple of days defending himself against the notion that he’s soft.

He’d grown a little weary of the topic by the time I asked him his definition of basketball toughness, before the Warriors’ shootaround Thursday. He sighed and said: “I don’t know, man. I mean it’s….grit. Being able to deal with contact. Stepping up in big situations. Kind of living up to the moment, I guess. But there’s a lot of different definitions that people can throw out there. A lot of different ways that you can assess people’s toughness.”

Curry’s slender frame will never intimidate anybody when he walks on the court. That doesn’t mean he can’t demoralize opponents by dropping a barrage of three-pointers on them all night. He won’t deck people with forearms…but he can exact his revenge after a big shot…or even during a big shot.

Curry’s signature moment in this series came midway through the third quarter of Game 4, when he launched a three-pointer from the sideline near the Denver bench, turned and stared down the Nuggets while the ball was in flight, then ran downcourt just as the ball splashed through the net.

“That was like the best-feeling shot I’d had all year,” Curry said a couple of days later. “They were all up and they were all chirping. So it was fun.”

Normally, Curry says it takes until the midway point of a ball’s arc to the hoop -- when he’s had a chance to assess the rotation and see if the trajectory looks as good as his setup, balance and lift suggested it might -- that he knows a shot’s going in.

“That was a little special one,” Curry said. “I had 120 percent confidence in that one.”

The Warriors have confidence in Curry. They see him out there balling with blood pooled in his right eyeball and bruises on his orbital socket from an accidental poke by Corey Brewer in Game 4. He’s been playing on a left ankle that he sprained in Game 2.

And he’s looking more Oakland by the minute.

“I’m not from here, but I’d like to set up roots here for a long time, hopefully,” Curry said. “It’d be cool. I’m not going to try to infiltrate their [fraternity]. This is where they grew up; It’s their neighborhood.

“But, like, Tim Hardaway, a guy that played here for a while -- Run-TMC and all that stuff -- you remember him as a Warrior. That would be something pretty cool to have. Especially if you win in the playoffs and the teams are doing well.”

A franchise long defined by Dr. Jerry Buss, Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant is coping with a dizzying array of injuries and changes. We examine with J.A. Adande: