Miami Heat Wins 2013 NBA Title

the miami heat defeated the san antonio spurs 95-88 in a hard-won, highly competitive game seven to repeat as 2013 nba champions. miami capped their best season in franchise history with their third consecutive finals appearance. they won 27 straight games - second to the lakers' 33 straight in 1969 - and finished the season at 66-16.

lebron james was named finals mvp for the second year in a row, joining hall-of-famers michael jordan and bill russell as the only men to win back-to-back finals mvp. james had 37 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and two steals. all five of his three-pointers were timely and his defense on spurs guard tony parker limited their successful pick and roll offense. 

in the last 12 months james has two nba titles and an olympic gold medal. pundits have questioned his field goal shooting since his rookie year in cleveland. but afterwards james said, "i work on my game a lot throughout the offseason. i put a lot of work into it and to be able to come out here and have the results happen out on the floor is the ultimate. the ultimate. i'm at a loss for words."

dwayne wade, miami's franchise player and '06 finals mvp, finished the game with 23 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks. the three-time nba champion was noticeably hobbled by knee injuries the last two years and struggled with inconsistent play in this year's playoffs. but the proud father and newly author was all smiles during the post-game press conference. 

wade said, "it took everything we had as a team. credit to the san antonio spurs, they're an unbelievable team, an unbelievable franchise. this is the hardest series we ever had to play. but we're a resilient team and we did whatever it took." wade came into the league with teammates james & chris bosh, yet at 31, he's a couple of years older and his knees might hinder a potential dynasty.

bosh, part of the big three and subject to trade rumors during the playoffs, was scoreless, as was ray allen, who hit the game-tying three-pointer with five seconds left during regulation of game six. shane battier was benched during games four and five, but hit six three-pointers to finish with 18 points. he said, "it's better to be timely than good." mario chalmers scored 14 points for the heat.

san antonio sought to become the first team to win a game seven on the road since washington beat seattle in 1978. the spurs lost game six in overtime, blowing a five-point lead with 28.2 seconds in the game. tim duncan finished with 24 points and ten rebounds. kawhi leonard had 19 points and 16 rebounds. manu ginobli scored 18 points and parker scored 10 points on just 3-of-12 shooting.

duncan said," just give credit to the miami heat. lebron was unbelievable. dwayne was great. i just think they found a way to get it done. we stayed in the game. we gave ourselves opportunities to win the game, we just couldn't turn that corner." ginobli said, "in my case i still have game six in my head. today we played an ok game, they just made more shots than us. lebron got hot, shane (battier), too. those things can happen. but being so close and feeling that you are about to grab that trophy, and seeing it vanish is hard."