LeBron's Thunderous Block Sparks Heat
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – In every NBA Finals, there’s often a play that people will never forget. Michael Jordan’s push-off jump shot against the Utah Jazz is one people still remember. Sunday night gave NBA fans another one of those unforgettable moments courtesy of Miami Heat superstar LeBron James.
The game was starting to get out of hand early in the fourth quarter when the San Antonio Spurs went to execute one of the simplest plays in the modern NBA, the pick and roll.
Spurs center Tiago Splitter set a screen trying to spring point guard Tony Parker free for an open shot. Miami’s defense cut off Parker with a double team and Splitter began to roll towards the basket. That’s when Parker hit Splitter with a perfect pass as the massive center drove the lane towards the basket.
What Splitter didn’t notice was that as he was coming down the lane, LeBron sagged off of his man and moved under the basket. What happened after that will be talked about for years.
Splitter leaped with his arm extended to go for a dunk and LeBron jumped to go for a block. When the two men met in the air, LeBron executed a perfect block that sent Splitter’s shot backwards and it ended up in the hands of a teammate of LeBron.
James stopped on the Heat’s end of the court and got the crowd even more fired up than the already rocking AmericanAirlines Arena had been. LeBron would follow this up in one more possession with a thunderous dunk on a no-look pass from Mike Miller.
All of the plays helped propel the Heat to a 103-84 victory to tie the NBA Finals at 1-1.
