Ray Allen has made more 3-pointers than any player in the NBA but with five seconds left and his team three points down, he had not made a single one in the crucial Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
Miami’s only hope of keeping alive their series with San Antonio, and their season, was to make a basket from beyond the 3-point line and LeBron James tried his luck.
The ball bounced out off the backboard, Chris Bosh grabbed it and zipped it to Allen, who with his trademark nonchalance effortlessly made the shot and forced the game into overtime.
“When I saw CB get the ball, I just back pedaled right to the three-point line and I was hoping I was where I needed to be. But I wasn’t quite sure,” said the 37-year-old Allen.
“But just from years of shooting, I got to my spot. It is going to be a shot that I am going to remember for a long time.
“There are a lot of shots that I have made in my career but this will go high up in the ranks because of that situation,” he added.
Allen’s modesty led him to acknowledge that the Heat had survived with their 103-100 overtime victory to force a Game 7 with good fortune.
“I’ve known my whole career that sometimes you just get lucky. When you win championships, it involves a little luck. That right there was luck shining on our side,” he said.
After Bosh grabbed the rebound, James screamed at him for a second chance but not surprisingly was cool about the decision to pass to Allen.
“If it’s not me taking the shot, I have no problem with Ray taking that shot. He’s got ice water in his veins,” James said. “Ray can be 0-99 in a game and if he gets an open look late in the game, it’s going down. That’s just the confidence he has in himself. It is the way he prepares for every game and the belief we have in him. We have seen it before.
“We are happy to have him on our side and this is the reason why we wanted him in games like this.” REUTERS
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, "script", "facebook-jssdk"));
No comments:
Post a Comment