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Seven things that matter about the Finals as we head head into a historic Game 7 in Miami. With J.A. Adande, Israel Gutierrez, Alvaro Martin, Michael Wallace, Tom Haberstroh and Royce Young. TrueHoop TV at the Finals.

David Thorpe says if he were Gregg Popovich he'd prepare his team for Game 7 with the message "we're better than them."

What he'd tell the Heat, what worked in an epic Game 6. and more. TrueHoop TV at the Finals.

 

Chris Andersen has been an essential player in the NBA Finals, and a forgotten one. He talks about how he, and his team, will get themselves ready for Game 7. TrueHoop TV at the Finals.

Dan Le Batard on the incredible emotions of Game 6. When Ray Allen lofted his game-saving 3 the entire Heat team, its ethos, stars and formation were set to be doubted for eternity.

Instead, the Heat walk tall into Game 7, while the only people who disappointed Le Batard were the Heat fans who left early.

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.

Why hasn't Chris Andersen played since Game 3?

That's what I have been wondering. He's a big dude with -- it would seem -- the ability to hinder those Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili drives that have been causing so much trouble for the Heat. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are good at getting the ball into the paint, where Andersen is good at turning touches into buckets.

Andersen is shooting -- wait for it -- 82 percent in the playoffs and 78 percent on 7-of-9 shots in these Finals.

There are two theories explaining Andersen's benching:

• Tim Duncan abused him in the post.
• The Heat have been good playing small, for instance with Mike Miller taking Birdman's minutes.

So, thanks to the media version of NBA.com/stats, I dialed up all of Duncan's shots in the paint in this series, and assessed:

• Duncan has attempted a grand total of one shot against Andersen. It came in the second quarter of Game 1, when the big Spur backed Birdman deep into the paint, turned and scored easily with a little up-and-under move.
• As it happened, ESPN's Jeff Van Gundy said, "Chris Andersen brings great energy, but Tim Duncan can do work against him in the low post." An idea was born. Only, as it happens, Duncan has yet to do that work. Just for fun, I went back and looked at several recent years of these two facing each other, which hasn't happened much. Duncan has been his typical self against Andersen -- some years shooting better than average with Andersen in the game, some years worse.
• Andersen is best off the ball, including against Duncan. As a counterpoint to the idea that Andersen loses that matchup, consider this: In Game 1, at one point, Duncan found himself with excellent post position guarded by LeBron. Andersen threatened to help. Whether it was the threat of James, Andersen, or both, Duncan -- one of the best short-range shooters in NBA history -- missed a short jumper off the top of the backboard.
• The Heat lost Game 1 at home, and change was inevitable. Birdman has played 36 total minutes in the series and none since Game 3.

The Heat are pretty good against the Spurs with Birdman in: plus-9 over 36 minutes. They are also good with Miller in: plus-34 over 101 minutes. They are also good with both in: Perhaps Miami's best run of the series came in Game 2, when for the key stretch, it was LeBron, Miller and Andersen with Ray Allen and Mario Chalmers. That lineup rattled off 22 points in seven minutes, while giving up a mere five.

There has been that one-bucket hint, but certainly no trend, that the Heat are abused while Andersen is on the court.

Put it all together, and I don't know that we can say with any certainty that Birdman must play. But without a doubt, he should be considered. He is a well-rested, highly effective and energetic big man with good hands, and the Spurs have shown no signs of "solving" him.

At full speed, the Heat may well be unstoppable. But even in these NBA Finals, you can see the Heat occasionally deciding not to bother challenging Danny Green, for instance. Ethan Sherwood Strauss has interesting ideas about intensity.

Gregg Popovich pulls the strings like a master, the Heat struggle to score, Danny Green sets a record and the series heads to Miami where the Heat face a must-win Game 6. TrueHoop TV at the Finals, with Doris Burke and J.A. Adande.

San Antonio's basketball team is all business. But the city is way more interesting than that. Writer Shea Serrano grew up in San Antonio, and shows TrueHoop TV's Henry Abbott and Jade Hoye life away from the Riverwalk.

It's a rallying cry not just of San Antonio and Texas, but of the U.S. But, um ... what happened at the Alamo again? Talking the San Antonio view of the world at the Alamo with Andrew McNeill of 48 Minutes of Hell.

Kevin Arnovitz has been digging into that question -- he has written it up beautifully here -- and the answer is interesting: They're playing exactly the kind of ball people say they want to see, but they've never been hot in the national TV ratings.

ESPN's Doris Burke has a tough job. Not only has to try to predict what'll happen in these unpredictable Finals, but she also has to interview Gregg Popovich regularly.

J.A. Adande and Marc Stein on how Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh tied the Finals at two games apiece. TrueHoop TV at the Finals.

The ESPN analyst says coaches have never been valued less in the NBA. Nevertheless, he is interested if the right situation arises. TrueHoop TV at the Finals.