Chris Bosh provided two huge blocks in the overtime win (Getty Images)

In a series full of surprises, the San Antonio Spurs shocked NBA fans across the country in Tuesday’s Game 6 by failing to do what they've done so well since the Clinton Administration — execute fundamentals down the stretch.

San Antonio gave up two crucial offensive rebounds in the final moments of the fourth quarter of the Miami Heat’s eventual 103-100 win, leading to two dagger three-pointers from LeBron James and Ray Allen. The Spurs also aided Miami’s cause by missing two big free throws in the final minute of regulation and not calling a timeout down one point with a minute to go in overtime. Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich also curiously sat Tim Duncan late in regulation defensively in order to match up with Miami’s small lineup, and Tony Parker (who had hit a clutch three-pointer late in the fourth quarter) offensively for the final play of overtime.

It was enough for Miami — a team that was down double-digits in the fourth and seemed to have no answer for San Antonio’s long-armed, paint-packing defense — to pull out the win. In a night full of shrugged shoulders and clueless offense, the Heat had all the answers in the fourth quarter and overtime when it came to opportunistic play. And while Miami doesn’t have much to build on Xs and Os-wise heading into a decisive Game 7 on Thursday, it has a Large Hadron Collider’s-worth of momentum as it suits up for the final game of the 2012-13 NBA season.

Gregg Popovich gets all chummy with Tim Duncan on Tuesday afternoon (Getty Images)

It may not strike you at first, what with Manu Ginobili needing until Game 5 to get going and Miami’s Big Three taking turns at being stuck in the mud – but the best thing about these 2013 NBA Finals may very well be the coaching on both sides. In a quick turnaround series that started just days after the Miami Heat finished off the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals, running the complete opposite to San Antonio’s extended break after being the Memphis Grizzlies on their end, Gregg Popovich and Erik Spoelstra have put together two masterful efforts on their teams’ behalf.

The question for Spoelstra, who is currently facing a 3-2 deficit in these Finals, is if this is even enough. He’s done his part, as a tactician, to get LeBron James and crew going on both ends. And yet, as it has been since 2010, it may not be enough.

[Y! Sports Fan Shop: Buy 2013 NBA Finals merchandise]

Gregg Popovich doesn’t have nearly the same-sized obstacle. Bit of a self-starter, these Spurs are.

LeBron James takes the John Davidson look a little too far (Getty Images)

Nearly three years ago, LeBron James was roundly criticized for his hubris in talking up not just one but several Miami Heat championships in the wake of his signing with the team, in a move that may have actually been the least tactless of all the antics that LeBron and crew gave us in the summer of 2010. After all, that’s what you’re supposed to tell your fans. You’re supposed to cop to being in it to win it.

[Y! Sports Fan Shop: Buy 2013 NBA Finals merchandise]

Kix and the City, via Trey Kerby at The Basketball Jones, has come up with a pretty impressive find that walks hand in hand with that prediction. Or, foot in foot, if that would somehow be possible. Nike has created a pair of low-top sneakers for LeBron that actually say “2-Time Champion” on right heel insert and “11-12 12-13” (referring to the seasons that LeBron’s Heat would presumably take the title) on the left insert. It’s a pretty audacious and bodacious claim, what with Miami currently down 3-2 to the San Antonio Spurs prior to Tuesday’s Game 6.

Via Mr. Marin at Kix in the City, take a look:

(Courtesy Kix and the City)

Sean Elliott and Tony Parker talk it up (Getty Images)

Tony Parker is playing through a grade 1 hamstring pull that, were we in the midst of the NBA’s regular season, would keep him out a couple of weeks so as to avoid a potential career-altering tear of the hamstring. Parker, mindful that this 2013 Finals run could be the last of the Tim Duncan era in San Antonio, has put his future on the line to try and lead the Spurs to their first championship since 2007, and the fourth of Tony’s career.

[Y! Sports Fan Shop: Buy 2013 NBA Finals merchandise]

Former Spur and current San Antonio broadcaster Sean Elliott has rankled some ardent NBA League Pass watchers with his homerish takes on his Spurs and his often rude and dismissive musings about the opponents at hand. League Pass followers haven’t had to fire up the NBA LP for two months now, as the national broadcasters have taken over the airwaves, and yet that hasn’t stopped Elliott from putting his foot in mouth yet again. This time, pointlessly trashing all of France while clumsily attempting to talk up Tony Parker’s toughness while he plays with that painful hamstring pull.

From the San Antonio Express-News:

“Everything that they've said about French people doesn't apply to him,” said Elliott, a former Spurs star who helped the team win its first NBA title in 1999.

Nate Robinson peers into your soul as Joakim Noah, uh, looks on (Getty Images)

Much-traveled NBA guard Nate Robinson won the hearts and minds of many during the 2013 playoffs by keeping his plucky Chicago Bulls in game after game of their unlikely postseason run. The 5-9 guard may disappoint some of those new followers, though, with his recent conversion to the dark arts. That's right, Nate Robinson is a sorcerer, now. Able to shape-shift his way through glass at any number of fast food burger joints.

Watch:

Maurice Cheeks and Joe Dumars say "hey!" to Detroit (Getty Images)

Coaching introductions don’t come much more inauspicious than this. The Detroit Pistons have been flailing as a franchise since dealing away Chauncey Billups in 2008, and general manager Joe Dumars has been through five head coaches since that year. As a response to five straight dreary and ultimately losing seasons, and with his job possibly in danger under new’ish owner Tom Gores, Dumars had to make a splash with someone that could be his final coaching hire.

He decided to go with former Trail Blazers and 76ers coach Maurice Cheeks. First, the internet yawned. Then it set to digging in to research, and it didn’t like what it found.

Cheeks was second in command at Oklahoma City, working for a team that made the Finals last year while appearing well on its way toward defending its Western Conference crown this year before an injury to Russell Westbrook got in the way. This sort of status usually serves to align for a successful hiring, what with types like Tom Thibodeau doing so well after working next to Doc Rivers in Boston, and San Antonio’s Mike Budenholzer recently taking to Atlanta in what was a well-regarded hire.

The Thunder coaching staff has earned its fair share of criticism over the years, though, and while nobody will be able to tell just how much influence Cheeks had over those decisions gone awry (to say nothing of the ones that went well), at least he has his coaching past to lean on.

That might not be a good thing.

Alvin Williams waves to the Raptors crowd just after his retirement in 2009 (Getty Images)

In a lot of ways, Alvin Williams is Mr. Raptor. That could be construed as a diss sent Toronto’s way, but there just aren’t a whole lot of other candidates. Chris Bosh and Tracy McGrady both sped out of town via the free agent route. Vince Carter forced a trade in 2004, Antonio Davis jumped to Toronto too late to carve out some sort of Antonio Davis Era, Marcus Camby was traded before he could ever develop, and Andrea Bargnani really never panned out.

Williams was traded to the Raps in a deal that sent the initial face of the franchise – 1995-96 NBA Rookie of the Year Damon Stoudamire – to Portland in 1998. He worked through the Vince Carter era, developing into a starting-level point guard and sticking things out for years before being bought out in 2006 to make room for the oh-so famous Fred Jones free agent acquisition. Williams returned to the team in 2009 as an assistant coach, though, and since 2010 he’s worked as the team’s Director of Player Development.

And now, with new Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment CEO Tim Leiweke running the show, Williams has been let go. Not exactly a league-shifting move for the Raptors, but one that seems a little needless, and wrought with poor PR potential. From the Toronto Star’s Doug Smith:

In what I think is a terribly short-sighted move that will rankle as many people as anything he does, Leiweke has told Alvin Williams that his services are no longer required.

Dwyane Wade makes the magic happen at Heat practice on Saturday (Getty Images)

We’ve been down this path before. Dwyane Wade’s All-Star-level play is crucially important to the Miami Heat. When he cuts and slashes with ease like he did in Thursday’s 32-point outing in Game 4, scoring in the lane and disrupting the passing lanes on defense, Miami is just about unbeatable. When he misses on runners, bricks his jumpers, and looks a step-slow on the other end of the court? The Heat are quite vulnerable. This has been obvious to any set of eyes during the last two postseasons.

Thanks to Chris Herring of the Wall St. Journal, though, we now have a qualification of how much Dwyane’s regular season-typical 20 points per game help the Heat out. Wade, who turned into “Flash” in Thursday’s Game 4 despite a nagging knee injury, may just be the biggest X-factor in NBA playoffs history.

From Herring:

The Heat have won 42 of the 46 games this season in which Wade scored 20 points or more.

According to Stats LLC, only four players in the past 25 seasons have logged better winning percentages in such scenarios: Chicago's Scottie Pippen (1996), Detroit's Joe Dumars (1989 and 1990), San Antonio's Tony Parker (2003) and Boston's Robert Parish (1986). Each of those men won NBA titles in those years.

Context is crucial, and telling in this instance.