SAN ANTONIO -- Early Sunday evening, LeBron James will gather his Miami Heat teammates around him and offer a few final words of wisdom before they try to extend their reign as NBA champions. Al Kaline Tigers Jersey . James never rehearses the speech, but already knows what the gist will be. "It would be in the range of, Why not us?" James said Saturday. "Why not us? History is broken all the time. And obviously we know were against the greatest of odds." Against the greatest of odds, against maybe the greatest of San Antonio Spurs teams, too. Both are very much against the Heat now, and both are winning. The Spurs are a victory away from their fifth championship, and will go for it at home Sunday night in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. The Spurs are the 32nd team in NBA history to hold a 3-1 lead in the finals. All 31 of the previous teams have won the title. "History is made to be broken, and why not me be a part of it? That would be great," James said. "That would be a great story line, right? But well see what happens. Ive got to live in the moment, though, before we even get to that point." The Spurs have the same way of thinking. They took command of the finals in stunning fashion by not just winning in Miami, but winning twice -- and winning big. San Antonio won Games 3 and 4 on the road by a combined 40 points, never trailing by more than two in either contest and running out to 25-point leads in each. "Weve got to act like were coming into it like its a road game," Spurs guard Danny Green said. "Its a mentality thing. We have to come up with the same mentality we do on the road and try to protect home court and play with desperation." There was no talk from the Spurs on Saturday about closing in on a title, or anything remotely close to that topic. They thought they had it wrapped up with 28 seconds left in Game 6 last season against Miami and saw it slip away -- so even with a 3-1 lead and being at home instead the road for this potential clinching situation, its pretty clear that San Antonio isnt willing to leave anything to chance. "Theyre going to come out and give us their best punch possible," Spurs star Tim Duncan said. "We know that theyre back-to-back champs and theyve been in this situation before and they have all the confidence in the world that they can win these games. So we have to do just the same. Come out there and say, hey, were going to take it little by little, quarter by quarter, and see what happens." That all sounds good, and he meant every word. Thing is, the Heat -- these Heat, anyway -- havent been in this situation before. Since James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh teamed up, the Heat have never trailed 3-1 in a series. Until now. "Were not so entitled or jaded that were above having to fight for it, and thats what it is right now," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "Its competition. So weve got to find a way to fight and get this next game, and thats what its all about." Miami took a day off Friday. Mario Chalmers played with his son, James watched some film and rested at home, Udonis Haslem tried to relax with family. Wade, who missed nine of his first 10 shots -- raising questions about his health -- went a different way. He went into the gym, by himself, looking for answers. "I have very good reason that everything could change," Wade said. "As I continue to say throughout the season, its a game-to-game thing." Wade was down 2-0 in the 2006 finals, and trailed by 13 points in the fourth quarter of Game 3 of that series against Dallas. The Heat won that championship in six games. "You have to pull from your experiences," Wade said, "and know where you came from to know where youre trying to go." That also applies to the Spurs. Losing the last two games of the finals last year still stings San Antonio. That series was portrayed widely as the Spurs last hurrah -- an aging team with old stars, theres no way they could come back from something as devastating as letting the 2013 championship slip away, right? Wrong. The Spurs finished with the best record in the regular season, and are one win shy of just being the best team, period. "Whatever success anyone has is due to a lot of factors," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "Some of it is not even your doing. Sometimes things just happen. So success is a pretty complicated thing." So are comebacks. But James is eager for the chance. "For me, its like you either dont make the playoffs or you win a championship," James said. "Theres no in-between." sandy koufax Dodgers jersey . LeBron James and Chris Bosh didnt need any more. Williams scored 11 points in 10 minutes, Alan Anderson scored 17 points, and the Brooklyn Nets finished the exhibition season with a 108-87 win over the Miami Heat on Friday night. Andy Pettitte Astros Jersey .S. national basketball team this summer. Thats fine, hes got another Olympic option. The Cleveland Cavaliers rookie point guard may play for Australia in the London Games.NEW YORK -- After further review, the play stands as called. Not because it was right, but because referees werent allowed to determine it was wrong. NBA officials were already considering expanding referees instant replay options before two key plays in this post-season couldnt be changed even after refs saw them on the monitor. For now, the rules are clear about what referees can look at. But Commissioner Adam Silver said the league will "inevitably" reach a point where they can do more. "So far, in terms of all of our triggers, weve tried to maintain a line of what is clearly objectively ascertainable," Silver said Thursday. "You know, foot on the line or not, buzzer or not. My sense is where well end up is giving the referees more discretion over what they can look at once we go to replay." Silvers comments to a group of Associated Press Sports Editors came hours before Atlantas Jeff Teague tossed in a wild 3-pointer as he dribbled left with the shot clock winding down and the Hawks leading Indiana by six. When officials later reviewed the shot to see if Teague was behind the arc, it was clear he had first stepped out of bounds before shooting. As Indiana players screamed for the basket to be overturned, referee Tony Brothers explained that it couldnt be. The Golden State Warriors hung on for a 109-105 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 1 of their series after a similar replay issue. When officials went to the monitor to review a ball out of bounds with 18.9 seconds left and Golden State leading by two, they could see that the Warriors Draymond Green had first fouled Chris Paul. However, because that wasnt reviewable, all they could rule was the ball had gone off of Paul. Silver said its confusing for viewers to see something obvious on replay, yet the officials appear to have "blinders" on and do nothing about it. "I think the most difficult area now, even for our fans to understand, is when an official can go to replay and everyone can see something that looks like a foul or wasnt a foul, but yet the official is restricted from being able to apply, in essence, his judgment on the play," Silver said. Jason Kipnis Jersey. "And I think thats an area that I think inevitably were going to reach, where an official is going to need to have some more discretion." But senior vice-president of basketball operations Kiki VanDeWeghe said its a bit of a "slippery slope" in determining how far officials can look backward before the play they are reviewing. "Those are things that when you start to have subjective calls and youre looking at a lot of things, and youre giving more discretion on what to look at, those are the problems and the issues that you try to figure out," VanDeWeghe said. "But like Adam said, giving the referees a little bit more discretion when theres something obvious that happens within the context of the foul, you want to get it right." Clippers coach Doc Rivers, a member of the leagues competition committee, said the committee talked about it last year. They apparently had the same concerns as VanDeWeghe. "Its a hard one. It really is," Rivers said. "We all want them to get everything right. But how far does that go when you start doing that? How far do you go on that? Did he step on the line? Well, maybe he fouled him. But there was a travel down there. Look, there. At some point, is it just on the ball? Is it off the ball? It can go a long way. Just think, right now were looking at one play and it takes five minutes. If you start doing that, it may take forever." The competition committee will meet again for two days in July to recommend any changes, which would have to be approved by owners. VanDeWeghe agreed with Silver that the NBA will use more replay. "Its always a balancing act at the end of the day because we want to get the calls right, want to have the players decide the game, get the calls right, but also we dont want to have a four-hour game, so were continually balancing it," VanDeWeghe said. "But if we can utilize replays more, if we can utilize data more, were going to do it to make our game better." AP Sports Writer Antonio Gonzalez in San Francisco contributed to this report. ' ' '
