• Horry is the hero as Spurs take lead in series Horry is the hero as Spurs take lead in series AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Big Shot Bob did it again. Robert Horry, the veteran player whose clutch postseason 3-pointers
• Horry is the hero as Spurs take lead in series
Horry is the hero as Spurs take lead in series
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Big Shot Bob did it again.
Robert Horry, the veteran player whose clutch postseason 3-pointers have defined his career, knocked down a wide-open 3-pointer with 5.8 seconds remaining in overtime Sunday night to give the San Antonio Spurs a 96-95 victory over the Detroit Pistons in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
The Spurs took a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series, bouncing back from a pair of lopsided losses to defeat the defending champs in their own building and send the series back to San Antonio needing just one more victory for their third title in seven years.
Horry inbounded from the left sideline near midcourt with 9.4 seconds left, finding Manu Ginobili in the corner. Detroit’s defenders collapsed on Ginobili and left Horry wide-open for the return pass.
Bad idea, as so many of Horry’s opponents have learned in the past.
Detroit had one final chance after Horry’s shot, but Richard Hamilton missed a runner from the lane and Bruce Bowen rebounded to end it, allowing the Spurs to run off jubilant.
After four blowouts, this was the type of game everyone had been waiting almost two weeks to see — an intense, closely-fought nail-biter befitting of a championship series.
The fourth quarter was close throughout, with clutch shots coming from Billups and Hamilton for the Pistons, and Robert Horry and Manu Ginobili of San Antonio.
The player who wasn’t hitting the big ones was two-time NBA Finals MVP Tim Duncan, who missed six straight foul shots and a putback at the end of the fourth quarter that would have won it for the Spurs.
Biffle wins his fifth NASCAR race of year
BROOKLYN, Mich. — Greg Biffle is making winning look easy.
Biffle won for the fifth time in 15 Nextel Cup starts this season, outdueling Tony Stewart on Sunday to take the Batman Begins 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
The powerful Roush Racing team, winner of the last two season championships, won its eighth race of the season. It was another strong showing for the entire team, with three of Bifle’s four teammates finishing in the top five and the fifth driver, defending series champ Kurt Busch, fading to 12th after running in the top 10 throughout most of the 200-lap event.
Stewart led a race-high 97 laps but lost a strategy battle at the end.
Biffle, who led 63 laps, was running second to Stewart when he decided to stay on the track during a late caution as Stewart and several of the other leadlap cars pitted for fresh tires with 31 laps to go. Biffle and the rest of the leaders had pitted only about a dozen laps earlier.
“It was my decision,” Biffle said. “It’s just so hard to pass here. I was hoping that six or eight guys would stay with us and give Tony some people to have to burn his tires off to try to catch us.”
That’s exactly what happened as Stewart, trying for his first win since last August at Watkins Glen, restarted eighth when the green flag waved on lap 174. He got all the way to third by lap 178, but it took him until lap 198 to get past Biffle’s teammate Matt Kenseth, the 2003 series champion.
Roush drivers Mark Martin, Kenseth and Carl Edwards finished third through fifth, followed by Joe Nemechek, Michael Waltrip, Elliott Sadler and rookie Kyle Busch.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. started near the back of the 43-car field and worked his way up, but wound up finishing 17th.
