Tony Parker has certainly made more ridiculous shots in his lifetime.

The man has made a career out of wild floaters, spinners in the lane, points in the paint that typically belong to big men, and long jumpers that make his head coach cringe. And as obviously injured and winded as Parker appeared to be in the second half of Tuesday’s Game 6 NBA Finals loss to the Miami Heat, many in the moment thought that Parker’s jumper at the buzzer of regulation still had a great shot to go in.

Mainly because this is Tony Parker, noted slayer of giants, that we’re talking about. Alas, it was not to be. Watch:

Parker’s jumper, as ABC color analyst Jeff Van Gundy noted in the broadcast, “wasn’t even close.” It still wasn’t a bad look, considering the circumstances.

San Antonio was without a timeout with 5.2 seconds left in regulation, and mindful of this (following the previous Ray Allen three-point make) the Spurs attempted to immediately push the ball into play while taking advantage of a recovering Miami Heat defense. Referee Mike Callahan, though, decided to stop the ballgame to check to see if Allen’s feet were behind the three-point arc; a move that Spurs coach Gregg Popovich vehemently disagreed with, yelling “you can’t do that” to the refereeing crew as they stopped San Antonio’s attempt at putting the ball into play.

San Antonio – and pay attention to this, all you wack-job NBA conspiracy theorists – then countered with a massively illegal move of its own that the refereeing crew allowed.

The Spurs entered Tim Duncan back into the game while Allen’s shot was being reviewed. Teams are not allowed to substitute players during referee reviews, because reviews aren’t technically a dead ball situation.

Think about that. Tim Duncan could have capped a legendary career with a game-winning shot to win the 2013 NBA Finals, and it wouldn’t have even been legal. And there wouldn’t have been anything the referees – considering the NBA’s current in-game rules regarding mulligans – could have done about it.

Once again – put that in your pipe, conspiracy lovers. The Spurs were allowed to re-introduce their best player into the game illegally in the game’s final seconds. This refereeing crew made some significant mistakes in Game 6, but not because they were trying to tilt the action one way or the other. They just screwed some calls up.

More important is the state of Parker, who played over 42 minutes in the loss with a hamstring pull, and was obviously tripping over his own dragging tongue by the time the third quarter ended. Tony ended up missing all three of his shots in overtime and clanking on 17 of 23 shots overall, and if he’s unable to drive the San Antonio offense in Game 7, then it may not even be worth it for the Spurs to drive to the arena.

Though they will. And Parker will try. And we’ll get a Game 7, to see if Tony can try to nail another game-winner.

(With legal players on the court, this time, we hope.)

The Miami Heat entered the fourth quarter of Tuesday night’s Game 6 in need of a run to extend their season to one more game. Down 75-65 to the San Antonio Spurs entering the quarter, the Heat responded with five quick points from a Mario Chalmers three-pointer and LeBron James lay-up. A lay-in by Spurs center Tiago Splitter communicated that the visitors wouldn’t give up, but the Heat made their statement. They would work through any obstacles to get back in the game.

Of course, teams don’t win NBA Finals games simply through hard work and gumption — sometimes it takes a heavy dose of the improbable to get a victory. As Splitter made his basket, Heat wing Mike Miller lost his left shoe while jockeying for rebounding position with Boris Diaw. In order to make sure his team wouldn’t play a key possession down a man, Miller carried his shoe back up the court to the offensive end and threw it towards his team’s bench.

That’s not to say that Miller was in good position to make a player. Anyone who’s stepped onto a hardwood floor in socks knows that it can be difficult to maintain balance or traction. Yet Miller gingerly jogged to his spot on the right wing, took a pass from LeBron James, and calmly drilled a three-pointer to cut the lead to 77-73. Gregg Popovich followed up the shot with a timeout, and Miller retreated to the bench to recover his lost sneaker. Meanwhile, the Heat went on to capture the game 103-100 in overtime.

The craziest thing about this shot may have been that it wasn’t the first time Miller performed well with one shoe in a big playoff game. In Game 5 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Semifinals, Miller played two defensive possessions without one of his shoes and helped to hold the Indiana Pacers scoreless on both.

All we can assume, really, is that Miller should play with one shoe on every possession for the rest of his career. At the very least, the man has earned himself a high-profile sock endorsement.

San Antonio Spurs sharpshooter Danny Green has had an unbelievable 2013 NBA Finals, setting a new record for the most three-pointers in a championship series and making a much greater name for himself in the process. It’s been enough to get the Miami Heat to notice his skills. In the lead-up to Tuesday night’s Game 6, big man Chris Bosh said that the Heat would not let Green stay open for the rest of the series.

On the last play of the game, Bosh kept his word. With the Heat up 103-100 and 1.9 seconds left in overtime, the Spurs ran a play to get Green a look from the far corner that would have tied the game. (There were some similarities to Manu Ginobili’s game-winning shot in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Golden State Warriors.) However, Bosh tracked the pass, closed out on Green, and managed to block the shot for one of his several big defensive plays down the stretch. The Heat held on to win, and the two teams will meet again on Thursday for a decisive Game 7.

The block was immediately met with some speculation as to whether Bosh had fouled Green. Join us after the jump for a screengrab of the contact (via Erik Malinowski) and more discussion of the play.

In the aftermath, ESPN on ABC commentator Jeff Van Gundy noted that this play would have been called as a foul at any other moment in the game. As this image shows, Bosh got ball up top, but it does not communicate the force with which he hit Green’s body. Yet, while the letter of the law suggests this should have been a foul, NBA referees have always called the game based on situation. Simply put, defenders get more leeway on game-deciding plays. That’s why Van Gundy also said he liked the non-call, and why most of the outcry after this block was limited to pro-Spurs observers.

Regardless, the result of the play ensures that Bosh’s terrific effort in the fourth quarter and overtime will be remembered for some time. Despite his importance to the Heat, Bosh has been derided often for perceived soft play and difficulties protecting the rim. In Game 6, he covered several Spurs all over the court and helped ramp up the Heat’s defensive intensity with their season on the line. This block — his biggest play of the night, surely — was just the best expression of his stellar performance.

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• LeBron James, Ray Allen rally Heat to Game 7 of NBA Finals
• Miami Heat fans leave NBA Finals Game 6 early, not allowed back in for comeback win
• Ray Allen nails huge late 3-pointer to send Heat-Spurs Game 6 to overtime

While arguments about which city’s or team’s fans often tend to be a dumb, parochial domain, and while it sometimes feels like Miami catches a #BadSportsTown rap that’s a bit overstated, I think we can agree that leaving an NBA Finals game before its completion is kind of a bad look. Let alone a game in which your hometown team would be eliminated with a loss. Let alone a game in which your hometown team fought back from seven points down at the start of the fourth quarter, that was a one-possession affair from just inside the eight-minute mark all the way into the final minute, and in which said hometown team held a three-point lead with less than two minutes remaining.

And yet, a number of members of the AmericanAirlines Arena faithful on hand to cheer for the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs did choose to exit with the game still in the balance in the final minute. And based on the escalator shot above shared by ESPN’s Bomani Jones late in the fourth quarter — and the commentary of several others on the scene — it was a fairly large number:

Mass exodus. Gotta beat traffic, you know?

— Dan Le Batard Show (@LeBatardShow) June 19, 2013

So many people have left that I’m honestly embarrassed for this city. — Dan Le Batard Show (@LeBatardShow) June 19, 2013

I’m happy for the 2,000 or so Heat fans who left with 30 seconds left. No traffic!

— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) June 19, 2013

The real fun, though, came after the Heat came back from a five-point deficit in the final 30 seconds of the fourth quarter thanks to some critical Spurs miscues and a massive 3-pointer by Ray Allen to tie the game and send it into overtime. Suddenly, some of those early-exiting fans started to suspect that they’d left something at their seats that they needed to retrieve post-haste. Except, y’know, you’re not allowed to do that … which made some AAA-abandoners unhappy.

Nothing captures the scene quite like the tweets of Victor Oquendo, a reporter with Miami ABC affiliate WLPG-TV, who saw the whole thing unfold while preparing for his evening broadcast:

Fans streaming out…I’m gonna throw up — Victor Oquendo (@VictorOquendo) June 19, 2013

Honestly embarrassing. I’m setting up for my live shot outside the arena, just watching fan after fan exit early.

— Victor Oquendo (@VictorOquendo) June 19, 2013

Now I’m watching horrible, drunk, quitting fans desperately trying to get back in. This is madness. — Victor Oquendo (@VictorOquendo) June 19, 2013

None of them deserve to be let in. They are pounding the glass doors. I’m all for gender equality but I’m only seeing female guards….

— Victor Oquendo (@VictorOquendo) June 19, 2013

Might need to call the big dogs in soon. Just sayin’ — Victor Oquendo (@VictorOquendo) June 19, 2013

Cops finally here. Fans still pounding on the doors begging to be let in.

— Victor Oquendo (@VictorOquendo) June 19, 2013

@BrodyLogan @ThisIsChucker same fans screaming about how much they paid for their tickets by the way. — Victor Oquendo (@VictorOquendo) June 19, 2013

@Ms_Mambo not being let in and it’s glorious.

— Victor Oquendo (@VictorOquendo) June 19, 2013

The Heat, of course, went on to win Game 6 in overtime, 103-100, setting up a winner-take-all Game 7 at AmericanAirlines Arena on Thursday.

After the game, CBSSports.com’s Royce Young spoke with arena staff and fans who stuck around about the premature evacuation:

One worker expressed actual worry and there was a little bit of fear because of the aggressiveness some were showing.

“They were saying, ‘I just left! I just left! Please!’” an arena worker said. “They’d run up there, then they’d run back here trying different doors to see if they could get in.”

Asked if there was any consideration to open the door, an arena official said that was firmly against policy — the doors are marked in big red letters “NO RE-ENTRY ALLOWED” — and said if the doors were opened, that could only make things worse. [...]

“I was kind of devastated to see so many people leaving,” one Heat fan said. “I said, ‘they will feel really, really bad when the Heat get back in this game and win.’ And they did.”

A quick pro-tip for those lucky enough to have tickets to attend just the 18th Game 7 in NBA Finals history: Stick around. You never know what might happen.

NBA Finals coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• LeBron James, Ray Allen rally Heat to Game 6 victory
• Slideshow: LeBron James loses headband, leads Heat to victory
• Watch: LeBron James blocks Tim Duncan at the rim
• Ray Allen nails huge 3-pointer to send Game 6 to overtime

In a series full of surprises, the San Antonio Spurs shocked NBA fans across the country in Tuesday’s Game 6 by failing to do what they’ve done so well since the Clinton Administration — execute fundamentals down the stretch.

San Antonio gave up two crucial offensive rebounds in the final moments of the fourth quarter of the Miami Heat’s eventual 103-100 win, leading to two dagger three-pointers from LeBron James and Ray Allen. The Spurs also aided Miami’s cause by missing two big free throws in the final minute of regulation and not calling a timeout down one point with a minute to go in overtime. Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich also curiously sat Tim Duncan late in regulation defensively in order to match up with Miami’s small lineup, and Tony Parker (who had hit a clutch three-pointer late in the fourth quarter) offensively for the final play of overtime.

It was enough for Miami — a team that was down double-digits in the fourth and seemed to have no answer for San Antonio’s long-armed, paint-packing defense — to pull out the win. In a night full of shrugged shoulders and clueless offense, the Heat had all the answers in the fourth quarter and overtime when it came to opportunistic play. And while Miami doesn’t have much to build on Xs and Os-wise heading into a decisive Game 7 on Thursday, it has a Large Hadron Collider’s-worth of momentum as it suits up for the final game of the 2012-13 NBA season.

Despite the missteps on either end, it was a classic game, and perhaps the best NBA Finals contest in years. The Spurs rocked out to an early advantage in the first half based around Tim Duncan’s efficient and decisive work in the paint. The Spurs center made his first eight shots and dove into halftime with 25 points, dominating a Miami defense that seemed hell-bent on stopping sharpshooter Danny Green from getting open looks on the outside.

The roll kept on in the third quarter, except by then Duncan (who finished with 32 points and 17 rebounds) had stepped aside to let Tony Parker (19 points) and Kawhi Leonard (22 points) take over some of the scoring load. The real breakthrough came on defense, though, as San Antonio continually went under screens and clogged the middle so as to bait Heat scorers into turning into Heat shooters. The result was a combined 38 points for Miami in the middle two quarters — hardly the sort of output needed to pull even in an elimination, NBA Finals game.

By the end of the third, though, the Spurs were absolutely gassed. Popovich had no choice but to sit Tony Parker and Tim Duncan for extended minutes to start the fourth period, and as a result the Heat clawed their way back to an eventual two-point lead on a Dwyane Wade lay-in. LeBron James, meanwhile, began to dominate on his own — taking advantage of step-slow San Antonio defense in the recovery zones, making up for a 3-12 start to the game from the field to finish with 32 points on 11-26 shooting, with 11 assists and 10 turnovers.

A quick mini-run from San Antonio, predicated on defense and opportunistic offense of its own (including the aforementioned desperation three-pointer by Parker over tough defense by James) gave the team a five point edge heading into the game’s final minute, and after Dwyane Wade clanged a turnaround jumper it seemed like the title was all San Antonio’s.

The champs weren’t done, though.

After Manu Ginobili split a pair of free throws with 28 seconds to go, LeBron James missed a 26-foot heave in an attempt to cut the lead to two. Mike Miller secured the offensive rebound and immediately dished back out to James, who hit on his second three-point attempt. After Kawhi Leonard was intentionally fouled, the second-year swingman’s first free throw spun in and out. He made the second, but the Heat were down to a one-possession deficit. With Tim Duncan watching from the sideline, James again missed a three-pointer, but Chris Bosh sent his offensive rebound toward Ray Allen, who hit a game-tying three-pointer with just five seconds left. The Spurs could not score to end regulation.

San Antonio had its chances in overtime, but it simply did not have the legs to compete offensively, scoring just five points in the five-minute overtime period. Parker looked especially winded, and while Spurs fans will bemoan a missed foul call that could have sent Manu Ginobili to the line to tie the contest late in OT, the Spurs seemed to receive all of the close calls in what at the time appeared to be the deciding third and fourth quarter. And Manu himself did the Spurs no such favors with eight turnovers in a poor performance.

The Spurs competed in that overtime, though. And while that may seem like slim praise for a team that blew a chance at winning the NBA title in six games, understand that no other team in modern NBA history has entered an overtime period like that with a burden such as San Antonio’s. And though the Spurs eventually fell, most other teams would have fallen in a far more decisive and embarrassing manner after a gut punch like that. This bodes well for their Game 7.

LeBron’s brilliance, Miami’s younger legs, and San Antonio’s closing window does not bode well, however. Then again, this why we play these games. On-paper advantages haven’t done a damn thing for the Miami Heat in the 2013 postseason, so why should things start working that way on Thursday?

We get a game on Thursday, and that’s all that matters. One game to win it all. It’s hard to ask for much more from an NBA season.

NBA Finals coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Ray Allen nails huge 3-pointer to send Game 6 to overtime
• Slideshow: LeBron James loses headband, leads Heat to victory
• Watch: LeBron James blocks Tim Duncan at the rim

Jesus saves. Momentarily, at least.

With just under 20 seconds remaining in the thrilling, back-and-forth fourth quarter of Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals, San Antonio Spurs small forward Kawhi Leonard split two free throws to give his team a 95-92 lead. The Miami Heat came up the court without timeouts, and rather than attack the basket in search of a quick, game-extending 2-pointer, LeBron James — who had been huge in the frame, scoring 16 points on 7 for 11 shooting, but had committed a couple of costly late turnovers — rose and fired from 3-point range.

James missed his jumper, but Heat center Chris Bosh — free of opposite number Tim Duncan, who had been taken out of the game in favor of Boris Diaw on the prior possession — grabbed the offensive rebound and kicked it out to the right corner. And if you’re talking about the Heat, and you’re talking about the corner, you’re talking about Ray Allen:

It was Allen’s first long-range make of the night, and I think it’s fair to say that it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Allen’s 3-pointer splashed through with 5.2 seconds remaining in the game; the referees triggered an official review, which determined that Allen’s feet were behind the line and the shot was worth three points. The Spurs came up empty on their ensuing possession, with point guard Tony Parker missing a 12-foot fadeaway along the left baseline, sending this brilliant Game 6 to overtime tied at 95.

Video via sky2847.

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Most of Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals has belonged to San Antonio Spurs big man Tim Duncan, who dominated the first half en route to 25 points on 11 for 13 shooting and eight rebounds, and has been the primary low-post and paint force on Tuesday night. On the other hand, LeBron James entered the third quarter on a subpar streak, missing nine of his 12 shots and looking for all the world like he was ready to don the goat horns if his Miami Heat lost and watched the Spurs celebrate their fifth title of the Duncan-Gregg Popovich era.

But starting in the waning seconds of the third quarter, the Heat started to get themselves going and embarked on a big fourth-quarter push, which reached its apex when the two all-time greats met at the rim in the San Antonio offensive end … and, like he did earlier in Game 2, James got the better of the exchange:

James came back on the other end to make a driving layup that tied the game at 82, and after all that, we were level. This game, man. This series, man.

Video via sky2847.

Through the first five games of the NBA Finals, San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard has received praise mostly for his defensive work on Miami Heat MVP LeBron James. Yet Leonard has also been very impressive at the offensive end, where he’s chipped in four double-figures scoring games and added another option to the Spurs’ balanced attack.

Leonard has also had his fair share of athletic highlights. In the first quarter of Tuesday night’s Game 6, he had perhaps his best of the playoffs. After a stellar outlet pass from Tim Duncan to Tony Parker, Leonard took the ball on the fast break and exploded over Mike Miller at the rim. Miller did his best to challenge the dunk, but Kawhi has a clear athletic edge in that matchup and took full advantage. The resulting posterization is available for your viewing pleasure above.

Join us after the jump for a GIF of the play, along with some thoughts on a potential offensive foul by Leonard and some words of encouragement from one of Leonard’s previous postseason victims.

As you can see from this screengrab (via @badlhoch), Barnes put his hand over Miller’s face while completing the jam. The ESPN on ABC broadcasting crew — including retired official Steve Javie — agreed that the referees on the floor were right not to blow the whistle on Leonard, although Heat fans can be forgiven for thinking the rule book does not allow players to push opponents in the face at any point during a game. On the other hand, this call is pretty much never made on dunks, so it is not terribly surprising that the basket stood.

Miller will have to contend with the fallout, most of which will be limited to internet jokes and rumblings. The good news for him is that other players have been in the same position during this postseason. During the Spurs’ Western Conference Semifinals series against the Golden State Warriors, Leonard had a similar posterization on rookie Harrison Barnes. Right after the dunk on Miller, Barnes had some words of encouragement:

Happens to the best of us Mike

— Harrison Barnes (@HBarnes) June 19, 2013

Chin up, Miller. Every player gets a chance to reclaim his good name.

More NBA Finals video from Yahoo! Sports:

NBA Finals coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Ray Allen nails huge 3-pointer to send Game 6 to overtime
• Watch: LeBron James blocks Tim Duncan at the rim
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Off Tony Touch’s upcoming compilation, The Piece Maker 3: Return Of The 50 MCs, arriving July 9.

Previously: Tony Touch ft. Too $hort, Xzibit & Kurupt – V.I.P.

Nelly connects with Skateboard and Nicki on his new single, “Get Like Me” off his forthcoming M.O. album likely to drop towards the end of the year. Stream it after the jump.