Heat survive after Allen’s trey forces overtime

Published on Wednesday, 6/20/13, at 12:55 p.m. Eastern.

By Brian Edwards

When Miami signed Ray Allen away from Boston in the off-season, you knew it was a huge get. You knew it would matter at a crucial time as the Heat tried to repeat as NBA champions.

But I don’t know that anyone knew it would be the difference between winning and losing a title.

Whether Miami repeats on Thursday night remains to be seen. What is undeniable is that the Heat were toast if not for Allen’s game-tying trey with 5.3 seconds left to force overtime in last night’s epic Game 6.

We could spend hours breaking down Game 6. There were questionable plays on both sides. There were head-scratching coaching decisions. There was an arsenal of factoids to spew at LeBron James if his team had come up short during what could have (and still might be) a long off-season in Miami.

But all that matters is that the Heat won a 103-100 decision to force Game 7. The Spurs took the cash as 6.5-point underdogs.

Bettors taking the ‘over’ (191.5) cashed a fortunate winner that would’ve been a loser if not for Allen’s heroic triple that made it 95-95 (190 combined) going into the extra session. The ‘over’ has hit in four consecutive games after the ‘under’ emerged in Games 1 and 2.

For Game 7, most books, as of early Wednesday afternoon, were listing the Heat as a six-point ‘chalk’ with a total of 190. The Spurs are +240 on the money line (risk $100 to win $240).

Click here for my picks on the side and total.

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