Lebron James caught the ball and went for a 3 pointer. Brick. The Ball wildly bounced off the backboard touching four different players before finding itself in Mike Miller’s hands. He passed it out back to James and this time James made the shot to bring it within 2. Kawhi Leonard went on to make one free throw to make it a 3 point game again. On the next possession Lebron again took a 3 pointer and missed. The ball bounced high off the rim and Chris Bosh caught it despite being surrounded by 4 Spurs players. Bosh passed it to Ray Allen for the game tying 3. Luck of the bounce. Miami experienced it twice in the last 2 minutes of game 6. Miami is on the road to a 3-peat. Lebron James is the greatest basketball player in the world. It’s not even an argument anymore. The Miami Heat is its own force at this point. Only a couple of teams can hang with them. Miami fans and analysts will argue they are by far the best team and amazingly talented and they’re probably right. But there seems to be one thing no one is talking about when it comes to Miami’s success, luck.

Any real analyst will tell you there it takes a certain amount of luck to win a championship in the NBA. One key injury can change an entire conference. While they are still a great team, the Chicago Bulls have not been in the contender discussion the last couple years without Rose. Suddenly one of the only three contenders in the Eastern Conference was taken out. One lucky bounce, one small injury, one call can change an entire series. We all witnessed it this year in the Oklahoma City/San Antonio series. The San Antonio Spurs tore the Thunder up in the first two games without Ibaka. They kept pushing the ball inside and the Thunder couldn’t do anything about it. Suddenly luck shifted and Serge Ibaka received some miracle cure for his calf muscle (if you want to make an argument for NBA players using performance enhancers that’s a case study right there). The series changed entirely once he came back and the Spurs squeezed out a victory in overtime to take the series. How does all of this pertain to the Miami Heat? This is a top heavy team that has yet to experience any major injury in its four year run. Can we take a minute to examine how amazing that is? Sure fans will argue about Dwyane Wade’s health last year and this year but that’s not a serious injury. That’s just years of wear and tear. Wade is getting old. He used his athleticism to his advantage all those years and it took a toll on his body. An NBA player can’t stay so athletic his entire career. The only other example that comes to mind is Chris Bosh having a strained abdomen a couple years ago but even that injury was only for a couple games and it nearly cost Miami the series against a young Indiana team.

While Miami leans heavily on James, Wade, and Bosh it has also had a healthy cast of important supporting players. Mike Miller looked like an old man gimping around the court last season and somehow kept making big plays every time his name was called. Big shot after big shot nothing was able to keep him out of a game. All these important key players like Ray Allen, Shane Battier, Mike Miller, Mario Chalmers, and Norris Cole have somehow remained healthy all these years. While stars like Derrick Rose, Steph Curry, Rajon Rondo, Russell Westbrook, and Chris Paul have all dealt with injuries Miami’s mix of physical players and old men have defied odds. This is not even taking into account that Miami is playing in a historically weak conference and the luck they experienced in the Finals last year.

The Eastern Conference is terrible. Everyone agrees on this. Without Derrick Rose it has been especially terrible. While seeds 1-8 in the Western Conference battle to the death the Miami Heat took a stroll to the Finals. By the time any team the Finals from the Western Conference they are beaten down and exhausted while Miami barely broke a sweat this year. They faced a Bobcats team without Al Jefferson. They beat up an old battered Brooklyn team. And then they easily beat a confused and uncoordinated Indiana team. The San Antonio Spurs nearly lost the first round against an 8th seed. That’s how stacked the west is. I am willing to bet that if the NBA put a team like the Grizzlies or Warriors in the Eastern Conference they would be playing Miami in the conference finals. I don’t recall a conference being this weak in all the time I’ve watched basketball. The recent rise of the Washington Wizards gives me hope.

And finally there’s last year’s NBA Finals. The Spurs were devastated. They had the championship in their grasp and a series of very unfortunate things seemed to go against them. The Ray Allen 3 point shot in game 6 may have been the most clutch shot to ever occur in the NBA Finals. Lebron James took a crazy shot and the ball bounced weirdly into the right hands. Kawhi Leonard grabbed nearly every rebound with his massive hands before that but this bounce was too fast for him to react. The Spurs had the perfect box out for the Heat and yet the ball still bounced away from them and Ray Allen just happened to be in his sweet spot to collect the pass. It was an amazing shot and a heartbreaking one too. Of course one shot does not define a series. The Spurs dealt with their fair share of other troubles as well. Manu Ginobili was dealing with some kind of curse because it was the worst series he’s ever had in his long career. He kept turning the ball over and making bad plays. It was hard to watch such a great player struggle and look utterly confused as to what was going on. Tim Duncan had his biggest shot of the series rim out. The usual stoic Tim Duncan showed emotion for a rare moment visibly angry and disappointed. Danny Green and Gary Neal were on fire earlier in the series and their flames seemed to die out by the last two games. The San Antonio Spurs experienced a Murphy’s Law type of series. Everything went wrong for the team. Miami got all the lucky bounces and breaks to take back the series after the NBA was ready to crown the Spurs as champions.

The Miami Heat is staring down a third consecutive title and once again things are falling their way. Tony Parker is dealing with an ankle injury and probably won’t be 100% for the entire series. It’s debatable if he even plays every game at this point. Parker is probably the best player at this point on the Spurs and Miami may not even need Lebron to cover him this time. The Miami Heat has received a lot of hate over the years but have all received tons of praise. People are already saying Lebron James is one of the greatest of all time and some have been crazy enough to declare him better than Jordan. And while Lebron and the Heat will go down as one of the greatest teams ever, rightfully so, people seem to completely miss that they have also experience quite the streak of luck in their time. No major injuries in four years, all the right bounces in their toughest series yet, and playing in a conference with only one other contender every year. No real contender this year. It’s possible the luck finally runs out in these Finals but I wouldn’t bet against it.