Odds Stacked Against Heat In Game 6
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The Miami Heat dug themselves a hole when they allowed the San Antonio Spurs to go up 3-2 in the 2013 NBA Finals. Heading into Game 6, the Heat face long odds of just getting to Game 7, much less winning the NBA championship.
Three teams have gone into Game 6 of the NBA Finals on their home court down 3-2 in the series and then gone on to win the Larry O'Brien Trophy. The 2010 Los Angeles Lakers knocked off the Boston Celtics in seven games, as did the Houston Rockets in 1994 over the New York Knicks. Finally, the Lakers also pulled off the feat in 1988 by beating the Detroit Pistons.
Now, the Miami Heat will try to join this very select club and avoid what happened just two years ago when the Dallas Mavericks came to Miami and knocked out the Heat in Game 6 and celebrated a NBA championship on the home court of the Heat.
"This is the reason that you play 82 games, to get home-court," Heat forward Chris Bosh said. "And we have to defend home-court."
One uniting factor running through two of the teams that did win Game 6 and the series is Miami Heat president Pat Riley. The former coach was in charge of the 1994 Knicks team that lost to the Rockets and also the head coach of 1988 Lakers that knocked off the Pistons after trailing 3-2.
Riley was also president of the last Heat team to bring the Finals back to the AmericanAirlines Arena down 3-2 in 2011. In three shots, Riley is 1-2 and has a chance to even his record if his latest handiwork with the Heat can come back.
Finally, if Heat fans want one more thing to worry about heading into Game 6; in the last 25 years, only one team from Texas that made the NBA Finals lost the series. On the other hand, the only to lose was the 2006 Dallas Mavericks which went down at the hands of Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat.
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