Every morning, we will give you five things from the night before in the NBA to start your day.
1: Allen bails out Heat
Lesson No. 1 for defenses should be never leave Ray Allen for a moment beyond the 3-point line late in games. Bad things just happen to your defense when that happens. How Allen continues to get open for these clutch shots is beyond me. But he does.
Why he needed to in a game against a San Antonio team playing without Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, who were sent home to rest after a six-game road trip, might be a bigger question for the Heat to answer.
Miami needed a 12-2 run to score the 105-100 win over San Antonio at American Airlines Arena on Thursday.
Allen scored 20 points on the night and had just that one 3-point make that came at a crucial time in the fourth quarter. LeBron James had 23 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Again, that seventh assist to Allen proved to be the difference in the game.
So what do the Heat have to say about this now?
That is hard to tell. Winning is what matters most. Miami won. But San Antonio proved that a team that is disciplined and plays with effort can hang with the defending champs. Maybe Miami is not quite in Playoff form so right now the team can be picked off, particularly if a team has size.
The Nets might be in trouble Saturday if the Heat play with focus.
2: Execution was enough for Warriors
The final minute of Golden State's 106-105 win over Denver was an exercise in questionable execution.
First, Golden State fouled Andre Iguodala with a 3-point lead behind the 3-point line. The referees allowed Iguodala to continue into his shooting motion and gave him three free throws. The ball didn't lie and Iguodala missed the tying free throw in his final attempt.
Of course, to complicate things, Draymond Green kncoked it out of bounds while fighting Kenneth Faried for the rebound. So Denver got another chance to take the lead.
The Nuggets through a long pass cross court to Ty Lawson who had to fight Stephen Curry for the ball. It rolled out of bounds with 0.5 seconds left and the referees gave it to the Nuggets. Video replay was inconclusive.
Finally, though, Golden State could breathe a sigh of relief. Iguodala's go-ahead 3-pointer was shot after the buzzer despite falling straight through the net and Golden State won.
The Warriors needed an 18-point comeback in the second half to secure the win and shot better than 50 percent from the floor and got a big game from David Lee, scoring 31 points on 13-for-15 shooting. Klay Thompson added 21 points and Stephen Curry had 20 points for the Warriors in this solid victory.
3: HIGHLIGHTS!!!
Charles Barkley interviews Gregg Popovich
James Anderson chases down Mike Miller
McGee finds Iggy
4: Line of the Night: David Lee — 31 points, 9 rebounds
David Lee is kind of a forgotten stat stuffer out there on the West Coast. He has always been able to score and get rebounds even on some poor teams. Thursday night, Lee was fantastic. He was aggressive going to the basket, opportunistic on the offensive glass and active off the ball. Everything you want from a post player on a guard oriented team. He took advantage of it for Golden State's win.
5: You can quote me on that
We're not worried about what it looks like.
–Heat guard Ray Allen on getting the win
I apologize to all NBA fans. This was an unacceptable decision by the San Antonio Spurs and substantial sanctions will be forthcoming.
–NBA commissioner David Stern on Gregg Popovich electing to rest his three best players
