LeBron James isn't done yet.
The four-time NBA MVP scored 14 points in the fourth quarter as the Miami Heat rallied to force overtime in Game 6 and then a Game 7 in the 2013 NBA Finals. The San Antonio Spurs took a 75-65 lead into the final quarter of Game 6 but could not close out the defending champions. With James leading the charge, the Heat outscored the Spurs 38-25 in the fourth quarter and overtime on their way to a 103-100 victory.
"If we're going to go down tonight, we're going to go down with me leaving every little bit of energy that I have on the floor. And I just tried to do it on both ends," James told Doris Burke of ESPN on the court at AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami after the game. James finished with 32 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. "I still made some critical plays as far as bad plays late in the fourth, couple turnovers, couple mistakes but I can live with those mistakes when I know I gave it my all tonight. We live to see another day."
Heat shooting guard Ray Allen drained a key three-point shot to force overtime and the Heat went on to win after the extra session. Allen's basket capped a frenetic final few minutes in regulation of Game 6 that saw Spurs point guard Tony Parker briefly regain the lead for the visitors in the final minute. Trailing 94-89 with less than 30 seconds remaining in the fourth, James and Allen hit three-point shots to tie it up. Allen's game-tying make came after Chris Bosh controlled an offensive rebound off a miss by James. After grabbing the board, Bosh turned out and found Allen in the corner. With his feet set behind the three-point arc, the 37-year-old sharphshooter took -- and made -- the key bucket.
"Until the clock runs out we still have an opportunity here to win this game," Allen said after the win when asked by Burke what he was thinking during those tense moments late in the fourth quarter. "We've been a resilient bunch all year. LeBron is attacking. We don't have great offense going but we know that we still have a shot. So I just kept my head in it. That ball bounces in weird ways at the end of games and we got a great bounce."
WATCH: Ray Allen's Game-Tying Basket
Earlier in the series, Allen watched Spurs guard Danny Green break his record for most made threes in a single NBA Finals. In Game 6, Allen made the three that mattered most as the Spurs' breakout star struggled through a 1-for-7 performance.
Despite Green's struggles, the Spurs appeared poised to capture their fifth NBA title since Tim Duncan was drafted with the first overall selection in the 1997 NBA Draft. At age 37, Duncan delivered a classic performance, scoring 30 points and grabbing 17 rebounds. Thanks in large part to Duncan's 25 points in the first half, the Spurs took a 50-44 lead into the intermission. Weathering several runs by the Heat during the second half, the Spurs held the lead entering the fourth quarter and then had regained it as game went into the final few seconds of regulation. Thanks to Allen's and James' late baskets and a few missed free throws by the Spurs, it was somehow Miami that was jubilant after the final buzzer.
"It's obviously disappointing, having the lead that we went into the fourth with and the opportunities that we had to close it out. It is what it is. It's a one game series now," Duncan told reporters after being held scoreless after the third quarter. "I don't know what happened in the fourth and overtime. The opportunities weren't there. I did have some opportunities and just missed shots or whatever you want to call it. It's just a disappointing loss."
Through six games, no team managed to win consecutive games. The Spurs will hope this trend continues in Game 7. Having turned the tide late in Game 6, the Heat will aim to disrupt that pattern in the winner-take-all matchup set for Thursday. Either way, basketball fans are in for a treat.
"If you said on September 29th when we started on our trip going to China if we could decide this season with a Game 7 in our building, every single one of us take it," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters during his postgame media availability. "They're the best two words in team sports: Game 7."
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