This is Going to Be Ugly

Screw it, I don't have the mental energy to come up with a proper introduction for this post.

The Cavs have no chance.  None.  Zilch.  Zero.  Don't give me this crap about them taking the season series 2-0.  Those games were in early November and early January.  Since February 13th the Spurs have gone 37-10, and two of those losses were the last two games of the season, when their leading scores where James White and Beno Udrih.

The Spurs won 8 more games during the regular season while playing in the much better conference.  They posted a 38-14 record against the Western Conference while Cleveland went 19-11.  The Spurs posted the best point differential in the league while the Cavs were 7th.  The Spurs finished 2nd and 4th in defensive and offensive efficiency, compared to 4th and 19th for Cleveland.  There's just no rational argument for Cleveland having the better team.

There's also the little matter of the Spurs having the best player in the series.  Yes, Tim Duncan is a better NBA basketball player than Lebron James.  He's not as gifted, talented, exciting, explosive, attractive, lucrative, muscular, quick, well-dressed, well-endorsed or well-endowed.  He's just the more effective player.  He dramatically effects both ends of the court and repeatedly demonstrates what it means to dominate a basketball game.  He just does it quietly, without pomp or flare, without posterizing dunks and without fade away threes taken off the wrong foot.

And who exactly is going to guard Tony Parker?  Larry Hughes, who's dinged up anyway, is more of a passing lane defender and at 6'-5" is too big to stay in front of TP.  Eric Snow is too fossilized and kills them on the offensive end.  Pavlovic is too Eastern European.  And Boobie Gibson?  Please.  Can everyone settle down about this guy?  He's a 6'-2" rookie SG who had two good games against Detroit.  Yeah, he went 5-5 from three in game 6 against the Pistons.  He'll be lucky to get 5 3PA against the Spurs in any give game.

The Spurs are the best in the league at defending the 3PA.  In the Cavs 4 wins against DET they averaged 19.5 points from 3. PHX, in their 6 playoff games against the Spurs, averaged 18.5 from 3.

Look, I know Lebron is a great offensive basketball player.  He's taller, stronger and quicker than Bowen.  But who in the league would you pick to guard him over Bruce?  So why exactly is "Lebron can take Bowen down low" or "Lebron can get buy Bowen on the perimeter" especially relevant now?  You could say the same against the best Lebron defender on every team in the league.  Cleveland still lost 32 times this year.  I don't get it.

The Spurs are currently playing their best basketball of the year.  Duncan is healthy, peaking and, based on some rare, honest comments to the media, extremely motivated.  Tony Parker is playing the best playoff basketball of his career.  Ginobili has shown the ability to take over the occasional game.  Oberto is contributing on both ends of the court.  Finley is canning open jumpers.

And don't even get me started on the coaching matchup.

I realize that in the podcast I said Spurs in 6.  Eff that.  What, besides the refs, are Spurs fans supposed to worry about?  You think the Spurs are hated now?  Wait until they crush Golden Boy's team.  Wait until they prove unequivocally that it takes more than a superstar who rests on defense and a bunch of misfits (seriously:  a 7'-4" plodder, a clueless 6'-9" PF with a jackasstackular haircut and two men named Sasha and Boobie?) to win an NBA title.  The general public can have their posterizing dunks, their 100 million dollar endorsement deals and their media love fest.  They can even keep their dreams of Cleveland having a chance (for about 6 more hours).  We'll just take title number 4.

Spurs in 4.