https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7I6iC_st0k

They fought all year for this opportunity. This moment of redemption. This opportunity to win a title once again.

Game Six still haunts the Spurs. You could see it in Tim Duncan’s response to a David Aldridge question about playing the Heat once again: This time they are going to do it.

Rarely, teams get a chance for redemption in the NBA’s highest stage: the NBA Finals. It has not happened since the 1998 Finals with the Bulls facing the Jazz. We will get to those as we get set for Thursday’s Game One.

For now, the Spurs did what they needed to do. Even with Tony Parker missing the second half with a sore left ankle. Even with the fact the Spurs had been blown out in two previous trips to Oklahoma City in this series. This was going to be the Spurs statement.

A halftime deficit was gone quickly with Cory Joseph taking the reigns. The Thunder came back and forced overtime. The balance and execution won out over Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook’s assault on the basket. That matters in a seven-game series, I guess.

San Antonio got 26 points off the bench from Boris Diaw. Yes, that Boris Diaw. Tim Duncan added 19 points and 15 rebounds. The Spurs pulled together once again.

The Thunder got 34 points from Russell Westbrook and 31 from Kevin Durant. They forced overtime and extended their season five more minutes. But down three points, Durant missed a 3-pointer. And then down four, Westbrook flung a wild 3-pointer over the backboard.

Scott Brooks took out his stars for one more appreciative applause. The Spurs mastery is simply too breathtaking. And they have one more series to go.

The Pacers wanted the chance for a Game Seven in their building. Their whole season was built toward that goal. They felt they could topple the defending champions after last year’s classic series.

Indiana will not even get that chance. The Pacers are going home. No championship. No Game Seven. No certainty about their future.

The Heat are moving on to their fourth straight NBA Finals, becoming just the third franchise to accomplish that feat — joining the vaunted Celtics and Lakers — and becoming the first team to reach four consecutive Finals since the Celtics from 1984-87. It is an incredible accomplishment.

To get there, the Heat completely dismantled the Pacers from start to finish. All the in-fighting and squabbling from the Pacers seemed to bubble over and those are questions they will have to answer in the offseason. Their window is dangerously close to being shut.

Miami’s window remains wide open. A chance tow in a third straight title is four wins away. So tantalizingly close.

LeBron James was his typical brilliant in Game Six with 25 points and six assists. Chris Bosh wrapped up a fantastic series with 25 points and eight rebounds. Miami shot 57.9 percent from the floor and made 11 of 26 3-pointers. The Heat were advancing and there was nothing the Pacers could do about it.

Paul George scored 29 points and grabbed eight rebounds in his team’s finale. The Pacers though just fell behind. Their opportunity to beat the Heat ended with a thud. Miami still has Indiana’s number.

Tim Duncan could not quite explain the wild swings this Western Conference Finals has seen. Gregg Popovich jokingly would not even answer the question.

It is strange though how momentum changes as the teams travel to each other’s buildings. Two Spurs blowouts at San Antonio in the first two games were followed with two Thunder blowouts in Oklahoma City. San Antonio looked like the team reeling after giving up the last two games and looking completely helpless on offense. Popovich had to change his lineup, finding the right mix inserting Boris Diaw into the lineup.

Whatever buttons Popovich pushed worked incredibly well. A 30-point win well, as the Spurs won 117-89.

San Antonio’s balance and pace returned. The Spurs moved the ball seamlessly and got the 3-point shots they were not getting in Oklahoma City. San Antonio found its rhythm.

The Thunder lost that rhythm. Serge Ibaka was not as much of a presence in the paint as he was the previous two games. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook got their numbers but did not find the rhythm to keep this game close. Not after the first quarter.

Tim Duncan scored 22 points and Manu Ginobili scored 19 points for the Spurs. Durant scored 25 points and Westbrook had 21 points. But Oklahoma City shot just 43 percent from the floor.

Now if the Thunder want to win this series, they will have to win one game at AT&T Center. That has not changed. But first they have to return the favor on their home court.

This is the Paul George everyone expected to see in the Playoffs — particularly at this critical moment in the Pacers’ goal of passing the Heat and winning a championship. George scored 21 of his 37 points in the fourth quarter helping Indiana erase a double-digit deficit int he second half and take control of the game.

Still, the Heat had a chance to win. After David West split a pair of free throws, LeBron James drove to the rim needing a basket to tie the game but fed it to Chris Bosh in the corner for an open game-winning 3-pointer. It missed and the Pacers held on for a 93-90 win.

Indiana can live to fight another day.

That would certainly be thanks to Paul George breaking out and becoming the star everyone thought he would become after last year’s Eastern Conference Finals. This was his game and his moment.

Indiana finally came through in the third quarter — the period Miami has often dominated and taken control in this series — with a 31-15 quarter. The Pacers finally contained LeBron James to seven points. Somehow someone held James down.

Yet, Indiana should have some worry because the Heat still almost won the game. Literally one play away, one missed shot away, from reaching their fourth straight Finals. Miami is still very much in control of the series heading back home needing just that one win to advance.

The Pacers have hope though. Hope in their star to lead them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPSHjQxHEDo

The Spurs have been here before. The Thunder have been here before. History is having a nasty way of repeating itself for San Antonio. And not in a good way. The lesson the Spurs should have learned two years ago they may be incapable of learning.

San Antonio and Oklahoma City have exchanged pairs of home blowouts each looking equally inept in their losses. We now have a best-of-3 series to determine an NBA finalist after the Thunder defeated the Spurs 105-92.

The Thunder got tremendous games from their pair of stars — Kevin Durant poured in 31 points and Russell Westbrook had 41 points to go with 10 assists. They were unstoppable once the Thunder got rolling. San Antonio’s 8-0 run to start the game seemed to be the only high point for the team. From there, it was Westbrook’s energy and bravado that propelled Oklahoma City forward.

This was not about Serge Ibaka. Not anymore. Maybe Game Three was about that.

This was about the Thunder dominating the game and controlling the pace of play. Everything went right for them. Everything went wrong for the Spurs.

How else can you explain San Antonio being led in scoring by Boris Diaw with 14 points. Tony Parker did have 14, I guess.

Westbrook and Durant did more by themselves than the top two scorers from the Spurs did combined.

Game. Set. Match.

On to Game Five. San Antonio has some serious questions to answer as the team continues to struggle to solve the fully healthy Oklahoma City team.