LeBron, Heat need 'something special' to rally past Spurs in Finals

The Spurs are going to be desperate to finish off the fifth championship of the Tim Duncan era in Game 6. Throughout this series, the Spurs have spoken of

Ian Thomsen | Jun 18, 2013

LeBron, Heat need 'something special' to rally past Spurs in Finals /

LeBron James faces an offseason of questions about the Heat if Miami cannot win Games 6 and 7. — LeBron James faces an offseason of questions about the Heat if Miami cannot win Games 6 and 7 :: Greg Nelson/SI

The Spurs are going to be desperate to finish off the fifth championship of the Tim Duncan era in Game 6.

Tony Parker and the Spurs will look to close out the Heat as efficiently as they did the Lakers, Warriors and Grizzlies. — Tony Parker and the Spurs will look to close out the Heat as efficiently as they did the Lakers, Warriors and Grizzlies :: John G. Mabanglo/Getty Images

Throughout this series, the Spurs have spoken of Miami's gambling defense. The all-or-nothing goal of the Heat has been to force turnovers and take the ball away before it can find Green and the other shooters in the corners. The Heat have had their best moments when turnovers have led to easy baskets in transition.

Both the Heat and the Spurs are going to approach this game Tuesday as if it were a Game 7. But only one team wants to experience a seventh game for real.

Published Jun 18, 2013

IAN THOMSEN

Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Ian Thomsen, who joined the magazine in 1998, is one of SI's top basketball scribes. Along with writing columns and features for SI, Thomsen is a frequent contributor to SI.com. Before joining SI, Thomsen spent six years in Europe as the sports columnist for the International Herald Tribune, the world's largest international English-language daily. While at the paper Thomsen wrote about an array of sports for a global audience, including the major world and European soccer tournaments, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Olympic Games, Ryder Cups, Grand Slam tennis events, Grand Prix auto races and, very rarely, cricket. Thomsen, who graduated from Northwestern with a journalism degree in 1983, was a feature writer for The National Sports Daily during its short, expensive run of 1990-91. His first job was with The Boston Globe, where he covered Doug Flutie's Boston College Eagles and all three of the Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals of the 1980s. Thomsen was a feature writer at SI before taking on the NBA beat fulltime in 2000. With Luis Fernando Llosa and Melissa Segura, Thomsen covered the 2001 scandal of overaged Little League pitcher Danny Almonte and wrote the first SI cover story on Kobe Bryant in 1998. Thomsen lives with his wife and two children near Boston.