Shane Battier wasn't a factor in these NBA playoffs until the very last game of the season. He went 6-for-8 from behind the 3-point line, and thanked "the basketball Gods" since they "owed" him "big time" after struggling all postseason.

Battier's shooting performance wouldn't have seemed so rare, if he'd shown any ability to knock down an outside shot earlier in the playoffs.

Even after going 6-for-8 from deep on his way to 18 points and 4 rebounds in the deciding game 7 victory by the Heat, he still shot 29 percent from the floor and 29.5 percent from beyond the 3-point arc.

Those numbers drop to 21.5 percent and 22 percent before the Heat victories in game 6 and game 7.

Battier was dreadful in the first three rounds of the playoffs, slowling losing minutes to Mike Miller as his confidence shooting the ball wanned.

Since the Heat depended on a stretch 4 who could defend larger power forwards and knock down a long range shot to clear floor space for LeBron and Wade, the Heat needed Battier.

And Battier's defense is first rate, with Miller not quite his equal. So the loss of Battier's defensive intelligence after his shot left him was a big reason Indiana and San Antonio were able to push the Heat to the brink.

But Battier's words after the Heat's game 7 victory, were reverent in tone.

"I believe in the basketball gods," Battier said. "I felt that they owed me big time. I had a bunch of shots in San Antonio that went in and out. So when that banker went in, I said you know what, they owe me. It was the start of a pretty good streak there.

"Honestly, I felt good the last couple of games. And I made a couple of threes last game, and so I felt really confident tonight. I knew that our starters were going to be pretty tired after Game 6.

"It was an emotionally and physically draining game. I only played 12 minutes so I felt great."

When asked to describe what it was like with the unenviable task of guarding Tim Duncan down the stretch of the game 7 win, Battier again seemed to implement divinity into the proceedings:

"I'm 215 pounds and 6-foot-8, so obviously I'm giving up major weight and height to Duncan," Battier said with a smile. "So I was just praying that he missed it."

The shot Battier is referring to was the short jump hook Duncan put up 5 feet from the basket with the Spurs down just 2 and under 2 minutes to play.

Duncan's "Bunny" near the basket clanged off, and his put-back missed iron altogether.

At the other end of the floor, LeBron James hit another jumper, this time from 19 feet, and the Heat had a 4-point lead with under a minute to play.

Battier might not be an overtly religious man, but judging from his performance in game 7 of the NBA Finals, after such a putrid playoffs, plus his ecumenical rhetoric on the podium after, maybe he'll be prosyletizing the word of the Basketball Gods soon.