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| (Credit: Tumblr) |
The last two teams standing this year are the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat, so this should be a good series. By my count, there are 7 Hall of Famers in both rosters (James, Wade, Allen, Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, and TRACY MCGRADY). If you're looking for in-depth keys to the game and such, well, you're in the wrong place, buddy. The fine writers over at Sports Illustrated and TrueHoop will give you that. Me, I'm just here to list down reasons to root for/against either team. It also doubles as a coping mechanism if your favored team lose out. See, I care for fans of both teams, that's the kind of guy I am!
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| Except this lady. Screw this lady. (Credit: rantsports.com) |
Heat keys:
- LeBron must be the usual all-around basketball savant that he is. I think this is already automatic at this point, anyway, so the Heat is at least assured of this.
- Both Wade and Bosh must contribute. Having them both active on the floor creates more open space for LeBron to work his magic with.
- Miami can very well win with minimal bench support, but a couple of jumpers and threes here and there from non-Big 3 players would do wonders for the Big 3.
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| "Who, me?" Yes, you. (Credit: NBA.com) |
- Put LeBron on Tony Parker for the whole series. That could get Parker out of his comfort zone, and disrupt the Spurs' offensive flow. I don't see why the Heat should put their best defender on Danny Green/Manu Ginobili/Kawhi Leonard. Make them prove their worth against a lesser defender while you lock down on the Spurs' offensive catalyst.
Spurs keys:
- Exploit the Heat's lack of height. Indiana could've changed the result of the ECF if they only had another big or two besides Hibbert to flummox the Heat. The Spurs have Duncan, Splitter, Bonner, and Diaw. That's with DeJuan Blair (who could very well be a starter in other teams) riding the pine, at that.
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| The Bobcats would love to start this guy. Oh wait, they did. (Credit: Spurs Nation) |
- Keep the ball moving and keep themselves moving without the ball. It creates better shot opportunities for everyone and creates mismatches on defense.
- Lock down on everyone else not named LeBron. The King will always get his, but if the Spurs can prevent everyone else from exploding, that will tax James a lot, having to provide both offense and defense.
- Unlike the Heat, the Spurs need production from their bench mob. If they can get those guys to contribute, look out.
So yeah, with that said, let's start with Las Vegas favorites (at -220, meaning a $2.20 bet gets you $1), the Miami Heat.
Reasons to Hate the Heat:
1. Because, honestly, they flop a lot. To be fair, the Spurs themselves do have floppers in Ginobili and Parker, but they don't flop as often as the Heat do. It's just really bad for basketball.
2. Because the bandwagon fans are annoying. I have more respect for fans who openly admit they bandwagon-ed on the Heat once LeBron came in instead of the usual dreck I see online claiming to be lifelong Heat fans through and through but showing themselves easily as fakes. Seriously, many of them don't even know five of the players from the 2006 championship team, and yet they act like they've been there from the start. They're loud and arrogant, to boot. Lucky for me, my Heat-loving friends are of the real kind.
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| Empty seats at the middle of the 3rd quarter of a 2nd-round playoff game? Someone didn't get the "Fan Up" memo, apparently. (Credit: NBA.com forums) |
3. Because you like old-school and you dislike players dropping the teams that made them franchise players to come together and have an easier go at a title.
This is a non-issue for me, though. Let's put it this way. Google offers you a job to work on, say, Project Glass, along with your best friends, who happen to be some of the best and brightest engineers around. The company you're in now also re-ups your contract to work on a similar product for the same pay as Google's, but you'd be working with some mediocre talent and you could conceivably have to work extra to cover for their slack or lack of skill. I say most people will jump to Google in this case. So I don't see why many people fault Miami's trio for doing what most of them would do themselves.
Reasons to Love the Heat:
1. Because LeBron's passing and unselfishness is a thing of beauty. He threads the ball to teammates so quickly, so accurately, and gets his teammates involved. And he makes it look so easy, to boot.
| Caught the Pacers looking. |
2. Because Wade soldiers on without complaint despite being relegated to second fiddle once the Big 3 assembled. It takes a real man to step down and accept that someone else is better-suited to carry the team and not gripe about it. That's leadership by example. I have a ton of respect for Dwyane Wade.
3. Because deep down inside, we'd love to be Chris Bosh. He's highly-paid, he works with some of the best co-workers in his line of work, and blame for failures are shared amongst the whole team and not just him, as we all would want in our own jobs. Also, no one rags on him even if he gets 2 rebounds for the whole game... as a frontcourt player with heavy minutes.
4. Because they have great chemistry with one another, and none of it is contrived.
| The best Harlem Shake I've seen, hands-down. |
5. Because Ray Allen is an all-around class act. I wouldn't mind seeing him get another ring.
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| Pretty sure Boston still loves him. (Credit: enbiej.pl) |
Let's go to the other side of the coin now.
Reasons to Hate the Spurs:
1. Because they're boring. If you're a basketball purist, you love what they do. But for casual viewers (and the NBA Finals tends to draw a lot of these casual viewers around) and when matched against the Heat, watching the Spurs might as well be akin to watching paint dry. I guess they're better viewing-wise now with Parker slashing to the basket and Kawhi's dunks, but they got nothing on the Heat, with LeBron's alley-oops, Birdman's putback slams, and fastbreak jams mixed in.
| Get excited about this! |
2. Because they're perfectly capable of suddenly going into an extended field goal drought. This has been a long-time problem for the Spurs, and it derailed many of their playoff runs. They had one of these droughts in one game against the Grizzlies, and it almost kept them from doing a sweep.
3. Because you're David Stern. The final-year NBA commissioner has long been wary of the Spurs making the Finals, because they usually bring in low ratings (see point 1 above). Good thing the Heat won the East - that should bring ratings way up. I would think that deep-down inside, the commish would rather be handing the Finals trophy to the chic Heat in his final year instead of the boring Spurs.
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| Stern's nightmare, with special mention for Bruce Bowen. (Credit: My San Antonio) |
Reasons to Love the Spurs:
1. Because you have got to appreciate what Duncan brings to the table, even at his advanced age. At 37, most players would just be hanging on as a role player, hoping for one more contract to stash in their accounts or a chance at a ring. Duncan, on the other hand, remains a potent player for the Spurs, and it wouldn't be inconceivable to see him remain effective past 40 years old. He could easily retire now, as he is already a guaranteed first-ballot Hall-of-Famer, has 4 championship rings, and is regarded by many as the best power forward to have ever played the game. Yet here he is, having the same hunger and desire to win as he had back in '99, as well as the same consistent fundamentals.
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| Same facial expression, too. (Credit: FanNation) |
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| This guy got picked 45 spots above Ginobili. (Credit: The Draft Review) |
| Would've made Naismith proud. |
He also does this:
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| Yeah, let's see Doug Collins try that on Jordan during his Wizards' run. (Credit: Smitty Sports) |
| Trolling with style. |
So there you go. My Finals prediction? This goes 7 games, with the Heat winning it, which would make Stern very happy on this, his last year as NBA commissioner.
Totally fearless forecast? Whoever wins game 1 sweeps the whole thing. Yeah, that's really not happening. :)
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