.
The Heat made a furious comeback in the final moments and pulled out an overtime victory to force a seventh game against the Spurs on Thursday night. It was the fourth time in NBA Finals history that a potential elimination game went into OT:
1957 Game 7: Celtics 125 Hawks 123 (2 OT)
1962 Game 7: Celtics 110 Lakers 107
1974 Game 6: Bucks 102 at Celtics 101 (2 OT)
The only one of the first three that was in Game Six was 1974. The Bucks staved off elimination in Boston, only to lose Game Seven at home.
The Spurs will look be just the fourth road team to win Game Seven of the NBA Finals. The others were the 1969 Celtics (at Lakers), 1974 Celtics (at Bucks) and 1978 Bullets (at Sonics).
Miami is the seventh team to play a seven-game series in both the Conference Finals and NBA Finals. The first six are 2-4 in the championship round, with the home team winning all six Finals Game Sevens:
Won Conference Finals in seven games, pushed to seven again in Finals
| Year | Team | Conf Final Opp | Finals Opp | Game 7 |
| 1960 | Hawks | Lakers | Celtics | Lost 122-103 |
| 1962 | Celtics | Warriors | Lakers | Won 110-107 (OT) |
| 1966 | Lakers | Hawks | Celtics | Lost 95-93 |
| 1988 | Lakers | Mavs | Pistons | Won 108-105 |
| 1994 | Knicks | Pacers | Rockets | Lost 90-84 |
| 2005 | Pistons | Heat | Spurs | Lost 81-74 |
| 2013 | Heat | Pacers | Spurs | ??? |
* Going back to the early days of the NBA, the 1951 Knicks beat the Syracuse Nationals 3-2 in a best-of-five Eastern Division Finals before falling in seven to the Rochester Royals. In 1954, the Lakers beat Rochester 2-1 in the Western Finals, then beat Syracuse in seven for the title.
The Spurs are just the third team to sweep their Conference Final opponent in four games before going the distance in the NBA Finals:
Swept Conference Finals, pushed to seven games in Finals
| Year | Team | Conf Final Opp | Finals Opp | Game 7 |
| 1970 | Lakers | Hawks | Knicks | Lost 113-99 |
| 1974 | Bucks | Bulls | Celtics | Lost 102-87 |
| 2013 | Spurs | Grizzlies | Heat | ??? |
* Going back to the olden days once again, the 1954 Nationals beat the Celtics 2-0 to reach the finals before losing to the Lakers 4-3. Both 1957 Conference Finals were 3-0 sweeps (Celtics over Nationals, Hawks over Lakers). Boston beat the Hawks 4-3 to win their first championship, which I'm sure was a fluke.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about NBA Finals matchups between a team that played all seven games in its Conference Final and a team that had just swept theirs. This is the first of those meetings that has gone the full seven games. It did happen once in the Stanley Cup Finals. The 2003 Devils beat the Senators 4-3 to win the East and the Ducks swept the Wild to take the West. New Jersey then beat Anaheim 4-3 in a great series.
The Spurs certainly had their chance to win the championship last night, and now they're in a winner-take-all championship game as the visiting team. Across the NBA, NHL and MLB, here are how road teams have fared in this ultimate game:
NBA Finals: 3-14
| Rk | Date | Tm | Opp | Result | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2010-06-17 | BOS | @ | LAL | L 79-83 | |||||||||
| 2 | 2005-06-23 | DET | @ | SAS | L 74-81 | |||||||||
| 3 | 1994-06-22 | NYK | @ | HOU | L 84-90 | |||||||||
| 4 | 1988-06-21 | DET | @ | LAL | L 105-108 | |||||||||
| 5 | 1984-06-12 | LAL | @ | BOS | L 102-111 | |||||||||
| 6 | 1978-06-07 | WSB | @ | SEA | W 105-99 | |||||||||
| 7 | 1974-05-12 | BOS | @ | MIL | W 102-87 | |||||||||
| 8 | 1970-05-08 | LAL | @ | NYK | L 99-113 | |||||||||
| 9 | 1969-05-05 | BOS | @ | LAL | W 108-106 | |||||||||
| 10 | 1966-04-28 | LAL | @ | BOS | L 93-95 | |||||||||
| 11 | 1962-04-18 | LAL | @ | BOS | L 107-110 (OT) | |||||||||
| 12 | 1960-04-09 | STL | @ | BOS | L 103-122 | |||||||||
| 13 | 1957-04-13 | STL | @ | BOS | L 123-125 (2OT) | |||||||||
| 14 | 1955-04-10 | FTW | @ | SYR | L 91-92 | |||||||||
| 15 | 1954-04-12 | SYR | @ | MNL | L 80-87 | |||||||||
| 16 | 1952-04-25 | NYK | @ | MNL | L 65-82 | |||||||||
| 17 | 1951-04-21 | NYK | @ | ROC | L 75-79 | |||||||||
Stanley Cup Finals: 4-12
| Rk | Date | Tm | Opp | Result | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2011-06-15 | BOS | @ | VAN | W 4-0 | |
| 2 | 2009-06-12 | PIT | @ | DET | W 2-1 | |
| 3 | 2006-06-19 | EDM | @ | CAR | L 1-3 | |
| 4 | 2004-06-07 | CGY | @ | TBL | L 1-2 | |
| 5 | 2003-06-09 | MDA | @ | NJD | L 0-3 | |
| 6 | 2001-06-09 | NJD | @ | COL | L 1-3 | |
| 7 | 1994-06-14 | VAN | @ | NYR | L 2-3 | |
| 8 | 1987-05-31 | PHI | @ | EDM | L 1-3 | |
| 9 | 1971-05-18 | MTL | @ | CBH | W 3-2 | |
| 10 | 1965-05-01 | CBH | @ | MTL | L 0-4 | |
| 11 | 1964-04-25 | DET | @ | TOR | L 0-4 | |
| 12 | 1955-04-14 | MTL | @ | DET | L 1-3 | |
| 13 | 1954-04-16 | MTL | @ | DET | L 1-2 (OT) | |
| 14 | 1950-04-23 | NYR | @ | DET | L 3-4 (2OT) | |
| 15 | 1945-04-22 | TOR | @ | DET | W 2-1 | |
| 16 | 1942-04-18 | DET | @ | TOR | L 1-3 | |
World Series: 17-19
Road teams on these three lists are just 2-20 since 1980. They had lost 19 straight between the 1979 World Series and 2009 Stanley Cup, but the '09 Penguins and 2011 Bruins pulled upsets in Detroit and Vancouver, respectively.
