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Previewing the 2014 finals: A crucial point in NBA history

Roar Guru
5th June, 2014
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Miami needed a Ray Allen miracle to hold to off San Antonio last year. The Spurs are better now than they were then, while the Heat have taken a small step back.

They haven’t regressed much, but they have regressed none the less. What does that mean for this year’s NBA finals?

Wade still finds ways to score and be effective, but it’s no secret that he lost half a step. He commenced his gradual decline a couple of years ago. He’s registering a career low in minutes per game (32.9) and points per game (19.0).

How effective can Wade be during the games when his age and soreness really shows? He can’t get to the bucket as often as he’d like, and can’t counter with long range shooting (currently sitting at 28 per cent for both this season and his career).

Miami miss Mike Miller. Miller’s three-point shooting is as potent as my alliteration. Outside shooting, namely corner threes, are a big part of Miami’s deadly offense, and few provided it better than Miller.

Udonis Haslem and Shane Battier have also regressed, becoming relative non factors in the process. Free agent signings Greg Oden and Michael Beasley have provided very little, as many expected.

Whereas in San Antonio, it was meant to be over years ago. Every year, many of us say the same things.

“The Spurs are another year older, and will finally drop off. Yes, I know we said this last year, and they didn’t, but this year they surely will.”

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We’re all guilty of it. When they actually start showing legitimate signs of demise (which came well after the demise chatter started), it was what we thought was belated confirmation for what we all thought was coming.

Following their second round sweep at the hands of the Suns in 2010, most folks thought it was finally over in San Antonio. Those who didn’t, sure as hell did when they lost in the first round to the eighth-seeded Grizzlies the year after.

Yet here they are. Timmy, Tony, Manu, Pop and their supporting cast, in the finals for the second straight year. With the personnel and systems they have in place, it shouldn’t come as a surprise, but that doesn’t make it any less astonishing.

In San Antonio, you won’t see a team defeated and past it, as they could so easily be. You’ll find one full of life and optimism.

You’ll see a rejuvenated and healthy Manu Ginobili, moving around the court unhindered by his usual array of injuries, allowing the endless artistic improvisation that is his game to flourish once more.

Marco Belinelli arrived on the scene this season, giving the Spurs another marksman who can take advantage of the long range opportunities the Spurs’ masterful ball movement creates.

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Kawai Leonard continues to scare the life out of opposing teams and is absolute elite defensively. With his quick feet, quicker hands, massive hands, enormous wingspan and even bigger basketball brain, there’s no doubt Kawai is the Spurs’ best chance of slowing LeBron James down.

Patty ‘thrills and spills’ Mills has come on leaps and bounds since last season. For the most part, he has beaten out Corey Joseph for the backup point guard spot.

Then there’s Boris Diaw, fresh off his 26-point effort which helped bury the Thunder.

If I was writing this during his time with Charlotte Lolcats, I may well have followed the hardly original Patty ‘thrills and spills’ Mills line with Boris ‘I got the fries that will cross your eyes’ Diaw, or Boris ‘I got the burgers that will…I just got burgers’ Diaw.

Diaw has trimmed down since then (hilariously fending off Twitter trolls along the way), and went from ‘that washed up guy from the Bobcats’ to ‘a crucial piece in the NBA finals race’, and is playing some of the best basketball of his career.

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The man is a walking mismatch. Put a remotely small guy on him, and he’ll bully them in the post. Send a big post defender on him, and Diaw will introduced them to the perimeter and a world of three-point pain.

Should the defender close out effectively, Boris has the ability the go by them with surprising bursts of speed. This is uncharacteristic for a gentleman of his well-documented heftiness.

It’s basic basketball stuff, but Boris does it so well.

Despite hailing from France, Diaw acts an army knife of the Swiss variety (because, you know, the Spurs definitely need more international flavour). As well as his inside outside game, Diaw has shown he can hit big shots, lock guys down on the block and crash the offensive boards like it’s his job (which it quite literally is).

Yesterday, two people said to me something along the lines of “how good would it be to get a Diaw jersey?”. They were only semi joking.

When have people (outside of the Diaw family) ever said such a thing before? The Boris Diaw movement is in full swing.

Before this becomes a 5,000 word Boris extravaganza (not that that’s a bad thing), I best calm down and press on.

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San Antonio had a brutal path to reach the finals. They proved what they were made of in three tough, first-round series against Dallas and Portland, Oklahoma City respectively, bending but not breaking against Dallas and OKC.

Meanwhile, Miami breezed through Charlotte and Brooklyn, before beating a challenging Indiana team in what was still an incredibly easy road to the finals.

These playoffs, Miami have proved they’re good, but were never pushed to find greatness. That’s not to say it isn’t still there, but they haven’t been required to show it as the Spurs have.

The Spurs have home court. Bearing in mind that Adam Silver reverted the finals format to 2-2-1-1-1, after the 2-3-2 format was implemented in 1985.

Plenty of folks believed the old format actually favoured the lower seeded team, with three straight home games wedged in the middle able to swing the series. The counter argument was that for the lower seed, they’d likely have the very tricky task of clinching the championship on the road, unless they were able to win or four or five games like the 2007 Spurs and 2012 Heat.

Regardless of the format debate, the Spurs have home court, and fantastic fans surrounding it.

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Add to the Spurs’ individual improvements and the collective, relentless drive and hunger that comes from the heart-breaking agony of coming unfathomably close to winning the finals and then just falling short.

That’s what driving these Spurs, on top of everything else, and they’re a better team for it.

Despite everything that’s leaning in the Spurs favour, it’s never safe to bet against LeBron James. The team with the best player in a series so often prevails, and Miami have the best player on the planet.

He knows what’s at stake and will do everything possible to plug Miami’s holes, with his absurd ability to play all five positions on both ends.

So much rides on this series. Will Wade claim four rings, LeBron three, and Miami cement itself as one of the great teams in NBA history? Would a Spurs victory open to door to a big three split in Miami, dramatically altering the landscape of the league like they did when they joined forces?

Will the Spurs win their fifth title in 15 years, propelling Pop and Duncan into the basketball stratosphere and perhaps leading to them walking off into the sunset together?

How many NBA finals have had these kinds of historic implications?

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I don’t pretend to know the answer to any of these questions. Nor do I know who’s winning this thing.

All I know for sure is that we’re about to see legacies altered, and history made.

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