Pressure cooker — A/C breaks down, leaving fans, LeBron sweatin' it out

The Miami Heat are in town. And Tim Duncan certainly was cookin', making his first six shots and scoring 15 points to help the Spurs take a 54-49 lead over the Heat into halftime of Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night.

But even with the lead, Spurs fans in attendance were doing plenty of sweating as the air conditioning in the AT&T Center began malfunctioning in the first half, leaving fans trying to figure out how to cool themselves on the hot night. During the halftime show of ABC's broadcast, the crew even harkened back to the days of the air conditioning being shut off in the old Boston Garden when the Celtics and Lakers got together.

ABC later announced in the third quarter that the Spurs and the league were drafting a statement about the air conditioning, and that players on both teams were talking about it.

One coach did tell ABC, however, that the increased heat would not have an impact on their rotations as the game wore on.

However, with seven minutes to play in the third quarter, LeBron James asked Heat coach Erik Spoelstra to remove him from the game, and during the subsequent timeout was heard saying:

"I feel like I played a whole game . . . they're trying to smoke us out of here."

Then, the Internet weighed in.

As the third period neared its end, ABC reported the temperature on the sidelines was near 90 degrees.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report