Western Conference Finals Game 3 Vs. Los Angeles: Spurs 103, Lakers 84 (2-1)

I never thought I'd say this in a million years, but I'm getting burned out on all the Manu Ginobili coverage on ESPN.

Like, for cereal.

We lose a tight Game 1, and all the reporting from the San Antonio perspective is that Manu had an awful night, Manu was badly hobbled, and if Manu played anywhere near average the Spurs would've won. All of these bulletpoints were basically honest.

But then we lost Game 2, by 30 points. And again, the Spurs focus is on Ginobili. They got killed because of Ginobili. It wasn't competitive because of Ginobili. How can they win a game without Ginobili?

Now I felt, we were starting to careen off the rails a bit. When your team loses by more points than it could score in an average quarter, it's not one guy's fault. Pretty much everyone stunk out there. Gino took eight shots. He makes all eight, we lose by 12.  Perhaps the media should've looked a bit harder for a story angle after Game 2. Old, boring and slow, old, boring and slow would've been original, right?

Anyway, onward and upward to Game 3. Pregame, everyone is discussing Manu. How hurt is he? Does he feel any better? Will he do better tonight? It felt odd. It's like the media was rooting for him to have a good game, just so the series would be competitive.

And a good game he had, for sure. 30 points on 15 shots, a bevy of threes, and bingo bango, it's a series again. After the game, the lead story: Manu Freakin' Ginobili. The guy with two rebounds, one assist, zero steals and zero blocks. The guy who could've been Allan Houston or Reggie Miller or even - dare I utter it - Ray Allen.

Manu had a good game. He didn't have a monster game, by any means. Perhaps we're spoiled. Maybe I'm ungrateful. But I've seen Manu have awesome games. Manu's awesome games are some of my best friends. This, ladies and gentlemen, was no awesome game. It was merely good.

I thought Timmy was our best player. Manu flipped the switch. He was the ignition, definitely. He turned the tide, changed the momentum, had those two bombs when it was 15-8 LA, all those things. But he still wasn't our best player. He wasn't the guy who had a 20-20-5. He wasn't even the guy who finished +26.

Still, after the game Duncan and Parker's contributions are essentially ignored and it's all Manu, all the time. Lakers vs. Spurs have become Kobe vs. Manu. J.A. Adande wrote that Timmy passed the torch to Manu .

The guy one year his junior.

The guy who can hardly jump anymore.

"The torch."

Insanity.

Is it a Lakers thing? All of a sudden the Spurs are a lot more exposed because we're playing the Lakers. I remember last year playing the Conference Final against the Jazz. Nobody on ESPN made a big deal about anyone having a big game or a poor one. It was just another playoff series, getting the amount of coverage you'd expect from Magic-Raptors in Round 1. We play the Kobester's Krew though, and it's lead story stuff, with several features on the side. It feels odd and overexposed.

Worse, it feels forced.

What happens if the Finals is Spurs-Pistons II? We'll have a Finals with less media coverage than the round preceding it. The story, again, will be the crappy TV ratings and the low scores. It will be how we're the death of the NBA and not mainstream. In 2005 David Stern tried to sell Manu Ginobili - the dunking Manu Ginobili, no less - to the United States, and by all accounts it was a failure. In 2007 they tried to prop up Tony Parker as the counterbalance to LeESPN, and again, it was a disaster. A little French guy (Promoting the French! To Dubya's America! Brilliant!) who doesn't dunk, doesn't shoot threes and whose three favorite English words are, in order, "Unbelievable," "Attack," and "Mode."

Basically, they focused on the guy because of who he was sleeping with. That kind of strategy might work with Monica Lewinsky. It works less when the point guard is boffing a mediocre actress on an even more mediocre TV show and not the most powerful human being on the planet. And by that of course I mean Oprah. Tony should be all up on that.

My point is that no matter how much attention the Spurs get, it never ever seems to be for the right reasons. It's never the team. It's never their accomplishments. It's never proper historical perspective. It's never a sociological question of why people don't like them. The media will never examine their own hypocrisy, admit to their past mistakes. People don't like the Spurs because for 11 months a year you're subliminally and systematically told not to. Then, for two weeks every odd year, you're told, "No, they're cool. Appreciate them."

It just doesn't work that way.

So now, when the Spurs are hyped, it's superficial. The Manu Ginobili Show. The same guy you won't invite to the All-Star Game because he's not as marketable as Brandon Roy. The guy you won't invite next year because he's not Tracy McGrady or Monta Ellis or whomever.

This attention, this adulation, it's fake, it's phony, it's bullshit and it will all disappear the nanosecond the Spurs have played their final game, whether that's this series or next. Spurs fans see right through this stuff by now. We are truly the only ones out there thinking about our team in any kind of proper context. We're the only ones not blowing what Manu does, good or bad, out of proportion because our memories extend beyond one playoff series, one month, one season.

Whatever Manu will do, he's done it before. The team has won championships before. They've been eliminated before. We want them to do well, we want them to win, sometimes desperately so, but it's not out of greed or some ungrateful "What have you done us lately" mentality that makes us this way. No. It's because we see the team for what it is. Weak. Frail. Old. Thin. Slow. We know them better than they know themselves and we know the last hurrah is near. We just don't want the show to end.

It's stupid and alien for us, ESPN's sudden appreciation of the day-to-day activities of Manu Ginobili. It doesn't register, doesn't translate. We've been thinking about the guy for years. He's ours because you rejected him in the first place and we know you plan on dumping him again so we won't subject him to that ridicule. Spurs fans have to fiercely protective of Manu (and Tony) because the media is a sick, creepy,  incestuous vampire, ready to suck the soul out of you and discard the dry husk that's left over.

Me? I want Fab Oberto to go for 30 and 10 tonight, just to confuse the fuck out of everybody.

Western Conference Finals Game 2 at Los Angeles: Lakers 101, Spurs 71

There's not going to be much of Game 2 recap today. After a score like 101-71, there really isn't a whole lot to say.

In a nutshell, the main problem is that the Lakers are bigger, stronger, faster, quicker, younger, healthier, deeper, have better shooters, better coaching, and home court advantage. But besides that, the Spurs could totally come back and win this series.

All they need is for the following players to play better; significantly so in most cases:

Tim Duncan

Manu Ginobili

Tony Parker

Fabricio Oberto

Ime Udoka

Brent Barry

Kurt Thomas

These players on the other hand are playing as well as they can, so they just need to keep up doing what they're doing:

Bruce Bowen

Michael Finley

Robert Horry

Jacque Vaughn

"But Stampler," you're saying. "I'm confused," you're saying. "Finley, Horry, and Vaughn have been horrible. Are you some kind of idiot? Have you not been watching? How can you write that those guys are playing well?"

I didn't write that they've been playing well. I wrote that they're playing as well as they can. They in fact stink, but it's not their fault that they're on the floor. When crappy players are put in a position to fail, it's on the coach. No serious team with championship aspirations plays guys like that in a Conference Final, yet here we are. Team Moneyball, basically, except our stars actually have championships and are clutch performers and stuff. And our coach is the guy who thinks he's smarter than everybody, not the GM. We can't afford to pay for ten decent NBA players. In fact, we're paying below the market rate for our second and third best players, guys who on other teams would probably have max deals. Stephon Marbury makes more money than Manu and Tony combined. That says it all, for both us and the Knicks, doesn't it?

Of course, we can still get it done. We can win these next two home games and make it a best of three going back to L.A. Our guys will shoot better in our building. They'll defend harder. Manu will find a way to make an impact, regardless of his battered physical condition. Tony will play with more nerve and confidence. It can happen.

Here's the thing though - I'm good either way. Honestly. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't hate the Lakers, I truly don't. I hate, in order, the Mavs, the Suns, and the Nuggets. I think I've built a healthy disregard for the Hornets, after seeing Chris Paul and David West up close and personal for seven games. They're punks, and Paul is a sneaky thug, very much like Jason Terry. I dislike the Celtics for the way they instantly turned themselves from bums to contenders, thanks to a couple of shady deals. I think they're arrogant as shit and can't believe that they're acting like they've won the whole thing before they have. I've always despised Garnett and think he's overrated.

I don't hate L.A. though.

Oh, I used to, believe me. But 90% of my hatred for them had to do with that 400 lb. tub of goo that's stealing Robert Sarver's money in Phoenix these days. I was always firmly on the Kobester's side in the Shaq-Kobe feud. All Bryant wanted was for Shaq to work out in the offseason, show up ready to go, and not blatantly tank the regular season. I think it drove Bryant nuts that he had to carry the team for large stretches in the regular season and then give way to Shaq in the playoffs, when he finally felt like playing. Cue the Scottie Pippen comparisons that no doubt drove Kobe insane.

Shaq's gone now. So is the ever-annoying Rick Fox. Fucking Horry (a player I loathed back then) plays for us now. The only guy they got left from their glory days that I can't stand is Derek Fisher.

Can I work up the proper hate for Lamar Odom? Probably. Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar? Absolutely. Pau Gasol? I doubt it. I kinda like him. Always have. Ronny Turiaf works hard and has a lot of spirit. Luke Walton's a great glue guy. The only sulky, bad attitude guy in the mix is Andrew Bynum, and he's not around to hate. Phil Jackson might be the world's biggest egomaniac, but he's still an excellent coach, and not nearly as afraid of change or youngsters as Pop.

I don't hate the Lakers and I can't see myself doing so anytime soon. I respect their coach. I like most of their players. They're not dirty. They were built the right way. They play team basketball but at the same time they've got a star who can take over if he has to. When I see their bench, and then I look at our bench, I feel ill.

Anyway, Game 3 is tonight. Either our guys will make this a series or we will witness the very beginning stages of the game's next great team. As good as the Lakers are right now, they could very well be juggernauts in the coming years if Bynum and Gasol can play together. They're gonna win a title, if not this year than in the near future.

The question for our guys is how long can they hold them off?

P.S. Here's the Friday spot with the Steve Mason show. I got a couple of shots in at Kobe that they loved.

Game 2 was such an ass whipping it was hard to be anything but a little depressed.  So, I decided to toss in some Black Sabbath and air guitar my way through Paranoid.  It's like an energetic mood matcher when you are depressed.

Make a joke and I will sigh and you will laugh and I will cry
Happiness I cannot feel and love to me is so unreal

Buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn, buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn,

Buh, buhn, buhn

And so as you hear these words telling you now of my state
I tell you to enjoy life I wish I could but its too late

Buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn, buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn-buhn,

Buh, buhn, buhn

And around the room I danced and air guitared.

I felt a little better.  Sabbath will do that for you.

Continue reading this post »

Oh, it’s not over.  Not by a long stretch.

 Sure, some people will say it’s over.  They’ll want us to admit it and bow out gracefully.  But you know what I say about those people?  I say they hate white people.  I say they call us crackers behind our backs.  I say they hate the working, hard-working basketball players, white basketball players, that form the backbone of this great sport.  Come June you can’t win with those fancy latte-sipping, loafer-wearing, athletic, young, graceful athletes.

And those games in L.A.?  Those really shouldn’t count.  The Spurs are hard working folks, and they don’t have time to play games that late.  They’re too busy working a second job to pay for day care for their kids.  Now game 3 in S.A., on a Sunday, that’s fair.  The hard-working Spurs won’t have to travel and spend their hard-earned money on these outrageously priced gallons of gas, which, if the Spurs had their way, would cost less.

I don’t think our fellow nominee can win against the Eastern Conference candidate.  The Lakers have not been completely vetted by the media yet.  What if something outrageous comes out?  What if Sasha Vujacic is really part cyborg?  There’s already been rumblings about that.  What if D.J. Mbenga wears leather underpants?  Why won’t my opponent address the questions?  What are they trying to hide?

If you ask me, this series is tied 2-2.  We totally beat New Orleans 91-82 last Monday.  Yes, I realize my opponent wasn’t invited that night, but you look those fans in the eye and you tell them their game didn’t matter.  I won’t do it.  And while that may seem like only one game, it’s actually worth two because everyone knows you have to win New Orleans to win in mid-June.

Ending this series now is just premature.  What if Kobe Bryant gets assassinated?  What then?  Or what if David Stern, despite knowing the Lakers are exactly what the NBA need, stepped in and anointed us the winners?  WHAT ABOUT D.J. MBENGA’S LEATHER UNDERPANTS??

 Whatever happens, I’ll work as hard as I can to elect a Western Conference candidate this June.  We will come together as conference, united in service of the hopes and dreams that apply too all creeds and races, including crackers.  Thank you, and God bless you and God bless the NBA.

Game 1 recap here, filled with all the good cheer, sunny disposition and bouquets for Gregg Popovich that one would expect from yours truly.

Hot damn, I'm glad I get the privilege of writing Round 3 up in the title.  There were a couple days there when I thought maybe our team had gotten too old and we were done.  But no more.

Continue reading this post »

Yes, I know, there just isn't enough Spurs / Lakers content on this blog right now.  I think we've had a thousand comments since the end of game seven, averaging about 100 words a piece.  I certainly haven't had time to read them all, instead only making sure nobody's being meanie-faces.

The guys who write the Lakers blog for the L.A. Times asked me to write something up so they could post it on some other site that isn't really the L.A. Times.  They, in turn, answered the same question.  Here it is:

Continue reading this post »

Was there ever a doubt?

You knew the Spurs were gonna step up. You knew it. They have too much pride, too much experience, and yes, too much depth, to lose to a two man team. In retrospect, the only surprising thing about the series was that it took seven games. Blame Tim's flu. Blame Pop not figuring out at the beginning that Peja must be eliminated from the equation. Blame Joey Crawford. Blame the perimeter shooters for bricking wide open three after wide open three in the second halves of the first three road games.

Were the Hornets scary? Hell yes they were scary. They were probably a better squad than any of the four we played last year on our way to the title. But ultimately I think what made them imposing were a couple of factors that seemed more important at the time than they really were.

1. They got off to that 2-0 lead. Yes, that made everyone very nervous. But we led both games at half (as we wound up doing six of seven) even with Duncan clearly not himself and Peja going off. Let's be real about this one. Home court advantage is real. It is a factor. Winning on the road in the playoffs is difficult against good teams. When you start off a series on the road (not something the Spurs have done a lot of in the Big Three Era) sometimes being on the wrong end of 2-0 happens. But despite the history of the thing, I never for one second thought we were done. Not all 2-0s are the same. You have to factor in all those pitiful 7 and 8 seeds that go into that 94%. We were in both games, despite being at a physical and tactical disadvantage.

2. We finally faced a point guard more dangerous/athletic than Tony. Don't underestimate this. One of the reasons the Spurs have been so successful over the years is that going into a series they knew that their point guard was faster and could get more lay-ups than the other team's point guard. We had the athletic mismatch there. Not with New Orleans though. Tony finally met his match with Paul, a guy who could stay with him, step for step, plus they were doubling Timmy to take him out, so it took us a bit to figure out how to attack these guys. I think by putting Bowen on Peja, Pop sent a message to the team: The Hornets don't have more good players than we do. Their best scorer just happens to play point guard. He's still one of only two guys that can create his own shot. Once the Spurs figured out that they're not dealing with an All-Star team here and that the Hornets had the same weaknesses every other team has, they got their collective groove back.

3. The Game 5 loss. A lot of people wrote the Spurs' epitaph when they dropped Game 5 - convincingly - to go down 3-2 for the series. Whenever a series is 2-2, the team that wins the fifth game has an overwhelming edge, even more so when they have home court. But again, I don't think every 3-2 is the same. Look at the Spurs situation when they were down 2-0 realistically. They knew they had to win four out of five. It would've been wildly optimistic, given how good the Hornets are, to expect San Antonio win four in a row. The more manageable scenario to ask of the guys, is to not look at the task at hand as a needing to go on a four game winning streak. Instead break it into two doable clumps - two two game winning streaks. Win two, take a breather, win two. If I told you after Game 2 that the Spurs would win 4-3 and asked you to guess which game we'd lose, everyone would've said Game 5; it's the only logical choice.

Anyway, about the game itself, it certainly was no beauty. Game 7s rarely are. Honestly though, anyone that's upset that Manu shot 6-19 or Tim shot 5-17 or Tony shot 7-17 can just cram it. Some people just don't understand the psychology of a Game 7 between two great teams.  The pressure is immense and the defensive intensity is unparalleled. There is no such thing as an easy basket. The teams have to fight for every inch.

You think this game was ugly? Go look at the box score of our Game 7 Finals win vs. the Pistons. 81-74. We, the winning team, scored one less point there than the Hornets did on Monday. Pray tell you tell me who had a pretty line against Detroit besides Plainview and Roho. Tony scored 8 points, shot 3-11 and had to frequently be subbed with Brent Barry because he was petrified. Tim Duncan shot 10-27 and he was lauded as a postseason hero and Finals MVP afterward. Game 7s aren't easy, people. And this time it was on the road.

But yes, The Big Three struggled. Mightily so. And one could argue that they were bailed out by the role players: Kurt, Fab, Fin, Ime and Robert. Without their efforts we'd surely be fishing right now.

That is one train of thought.

Me? I'm thinking it's about fucking time they did something. Not to sound ungrateful, but let's call a spade a spade for a minute. If these guys played better in the regular season, not only would we have had home court for this series, but in the upcoming one as well. Also, it's not like the six three pointers that Fin, RoHo and Ime hit came as a result of them breaking guys down off the dribble and then hitting step back bombs. No, they were all wide open shots created by - YOU GUESSED IT - the big three. As open as our shooters were all series, me, you or Matthew could've hit a couple with enough attempts. Hell, even Jannero Pargo canned a couple eventually.

Besides, the story of the game was the Spurs defense. Offensively we learned nothing in Game 7. We were still the same crappy ice-cold shooting second half team we were in Games 1,2, and 5 and only managed 40 points, and that's with Manu's freebies in desperation time. I think the whole team got maybe five lay-ups the whole game (two for Tony, one for Tim, Ime, and Kurt). Defense is what won it for us and we shut down the Hornets by clamping down the paint, (except for the occasional lob to Chandler) rotating out to their shooters on threes, and keeping them away from the charity stripe. The disparity in free throws and threes was the difference. And of course, our rebounding was huge,except for that one horrifying memorable sequence late in the 4th when the Hornets took five shots in one possession with Pargo burying the fifth to make it a three point game.

Pop did a lot of things out there to keep the Hornets guessing and on their toes. Every few minutes he would change up the defense. Sometimes Tony was on Paul. Sometimes Bruce. Sometimes Oberto would take West, sometimes it'd be Tim. We gave them a full court press to start off the second half, just to mix it up and get the guys moving so they wouldn't be sluggish. We played their pick-and-roll a variety of ways, sometimes ambushing Paul, sometimes backing off. Really the only thing that seemed to utterly confuse us is when Byron Scott gave Pargo the ball in the 4th quarter - using Paul almost as a decoy - and let him run the show. Nothing else was working for them and for whatever reason, Tony had a hell of a time with Pargo in the 4th. But we held on.

While we had a lot of heroes in Game 7 (all nine guys who played contributed in some fashion, at both ends) you'd have to say that the unsung star of the game for the Spurs was Peja Stojakovic. God was he terrible. He finished 3-11 and about half of his attempts were awful, contested, forced shots. He choked, simple as that. Peja was so frustrated whenever Bruce was guarding him that whenever somebody else like Manu or Ime took a turn, he immediately chucked one up if he got even a crack of daylight, regardless of how far from the basket he was or who else was open. It's never a good thing when the best thing you can say about Stojakovic's night was his defense on Manu, and even that wasn't all that good.

Also, I just want to take a moment to point out, again, that Chris Paul, in addition to being a wonderful basketball player, is a classless bitch punk. He took a lot of cheap shots at our guys this game and again the zebras seemed to look the other way and the broadcasters (Marv Albert and Reggie Miller, naturally) ignored the Golden Boy altogether. In the 3rd quarter while forcing a turnover from Finley, Paul swung his left arm behind the play and hit Fin on the side of the face. On purpose. Look at the film. In the 4th, while scrambling for a loose ball with Ginobili, he basically punched Manu repeatedly in the face until the ref blew a whistle. He hit him clean two, three times. Both of his desperation fouls late, his fifth and sixth, were also rougher than need be. And of course, he didn't shake anyone's hands after the game and made a bee line for the tunnel. Bee line, get it? Ha.

As for our series MVP, while this round wasn't as easy to pick as the last one,  where Tony just discombobulated the Suns, objectively you'd have to give it to Ginobili. He didn't shoot a great percentage, and he treated the paint like it was Chernobyl for much of the series, but he led or tied for the team lead in scoring in four of the games and led or tied in assists in five of the games. He averaged a team high 21.3 points and 6.0 assists and the former is the most he's scored in any series since the Western Conference Finals against Phoenix in '04-'05 (though he put up the exact same avg, also in seven games, against the Mavs in '05-'06) and the latter is a career playoff high. Again, his shooting percentage wasn't great, but you have to factor in how many three point attempts he had, due to how the Hornets were shutting down the paint, and making 40% from three is like making 60% from two. But yes, I agree with Matthew that he'll have to be better against the Lakers.

They all will.

When the game was over Charles Barkley called the Spurs "cockroaches" as in, they always find a way to survive, no matter what. He said it like it was a novel concept but honestly, my BFF Manolis beat him to it by years.

Ever seen the Italian soccer team? Every World Cup, every Euro tournament, it's the same thing.They're not flashy, they don't have the high scoring forwards or that stud midfielder like Zinedine Zidane who makes the game look so easy. They drop one of their early group games and the experts say they're done. But Italy always comes back, always survives as one of top two teams in their group to advance to the knock-out stages, and then they methodically keep advancing. By playing defense. By having role players step up. And yes, by flopping at opportune times. Almost always Italy makes the final. "They're fucking cockroaches, those bastards" Manolis said dismissively in 2006, though he pronounced it "cock-a-roach-es" to get me angry. "You can't get rid of them."

So there you have it, Team Italy, our brothers from another mother. Marco Materazzi, a no-name defenseman for them, became a World Cup hero because he not only scored a header goal off a corner kick against France in the '06 Final, but he successfully got Zidane riled up enough to get ejected from the game, headbutting Materazzi for suggesting that he slept with Zidane's sister. Sounds a bit like Horry's hip check on Steve Nash leading to the S.T.A.T. suspension, huh? The Cockroaches, I like the sound of that. You can't get rid of us, no matter how much the TV executives and the media try.

And all the suits will certainly have their fingers crossed as we face the league's showcase team, the Lakers. For now I choose to believe that we'll get a fair shake from the zebras. If the fix was in Phoenix would be playing L.A. right now for the Shaq-Kobe hype bullshit. If the fix was in Bryant the M.V.P. would be squaring up against his heir apparent in Paul. If the Spurs can make it this far, maybe the league isn't the WWF after all, no matter what the stereotype is.

I for one have a lot of confidence. The Hornets were a much better defensive team than the Lakers. Chandler is a beast in the middle. Their guys communicate well and really jam the paint. Byron Scott gets them to compete hard in their end. The Lakers don't do this. They trust themselves to win games on the other end. I expect Duncan to destroy either Gasol or Odom one-on-one, and he should have ample opportunity since Big Chief Triangle doesn't believe in doubling much. And like Matthew I totally think Tony has to blow by Derek Fisher time and again. Tony has no excuse to not own that match-up. He doesn't have to do anything on defense buy stay with him on the three point line. Fisher will not dribble, he will not penetrate, and he will not run the pick and roll. All he'll do is float on the perimeter. Tony cannot leave him. CANNOT.

The X-Factor as always will be Manu. He shot terribly against L.A. all year but may not have been fully healthy in any of the games. In one memorable game he was the best player on the court despite shooting 3-16. I don't think Kobe will be on him much unless it's close and late. Most of the time it'll be Walton, Radmanovic, Vujacic, etc. I'm not really worried about his individual defender. The screener gets that guy out of the way anyway. I want to see how aggressive Ginobili will go to the paint. I don't think he'll get like seven open three point attempts like last series. On defense he'll have his work cut out for him because the Lakers can post him up with multiple guys. There'll be a lot of Tinyball this series and he, Ime and Fin have to hold their own and rebound.

I'll tell you this much: I believe. With their eighth playoff win the Spurs did more than get by the Hornets. They crossed their proverbial title threshold, the way Moonlight Graham became Doctor Archibald Graham once and for all once he stepped over the 1st base line in "Field of Dreams." Every time The Big Three have won eight playoff games, they've gone on to win the title. Like they say in those stupid split head commercials that run all the time, they know they're close now. They can smell it.

When Craig Sager asked Manu after Game 7 if he'd like to stay as a starter and comfortable there or whether he'd rather go back to the bench, Manu replied, "I'm comfortable with winning, whatever the team needs..." etc. And really, that's the Spurs attitude in general - They're comfortable with winning. They're used to this environment, this pressure. You can beat them once, twice, or even three times, but you can't get rid of them for good. They looked awfully comfy on the road in New Orleans on Monday, didn't they?

P.S. I hate to be self-promoting, but in case anyone cares, here's the link to my last radio appearance, on ESPN Radio, 710 AM in Los Angeles on The Steve Mason show. It was recorded the day of Game 7 and the host, a big time Spurs hater was positive the Hornets would win. We had a good give and take and they invited me back for Wednesday and Friday, 2:25 p.m. Pacific time. It'll be fun to rub it in his face a little. Again, thanks to Matthew for making it possible for me.

P.P.S. I'm sorry I called you a rotting corpse, Fin.

I can't believe the series starts tomorrow.  I still feel drained and (news flash) I didn't even play.  I also didn't sleep on a plane last night.  I slept in my bed, underneath a comforter which has no use being used during an Austin spring.

I can't hate the Lakers like I used to.  Shaq's gone.  Kobe, well, he never riled me up much as a basketball player; plus he's Everyman's Teammate now, starring in affirming weight loss commercials and helping garbage men at the curbs of suburbia.  Phil Jackson sits atop a disarming cushion of humility.  They still have Derek Fisher, he of point four and a thousand unearned charges, but I don't have the stomach to stir up vitriol for a man with a sick daughter and amazing abs.  They're intoxicating.  (Actually I've never been drunk so hopefully my editor will fact-check that.)  And we know where Robert Horry ended up; still can't believe he's dead alive dead.

----

Keys to the series:

1)  Tony Parker must utterly destroy Derek Fisher.  He must dominate the match-up in a fashion similar to the 2007 Finals.  He must continuously get to the basket and exploit the Lakers relative lack of an inside presence.  He must make Derek Fisher embarrassed to look his teammates in the eye.  Derek Fisher cannot guard Tony Parker.  He can't.  He musn't.  I had musnt in Hamburg once.  Really salty.

2)  Tim Duncan must thoroughly outplay Pau Gasol.  Duncan doesn't have the quicks to guard Odom.  Pop just might be zany enough to put him on Radmanovic, but that takes Tim awfully far from the basket he so loves to protect.  That leaves only Pau.  He must make the Spaniard a poor option on the offensive end.  He's got to frustrate him and limit his fast break opportunities.

3)  Fatality, Findog, the Detritus that is Robert Horry; somebody has to step up every game and play beyond their means.

4)  Bowen needs to defend like he's 31 and not 36.

5)  Pop needs to be perfect.  Taking two games to put Bowen on Peja is unforgivable.  And don't get me started about David West and Duncan.

6)  Manu needs to be more Manuer than he's been all playoffs.

You might be looking at this list and thinking "wow, that's a lot of stuff the Spurs have to do to win."  Yeah.  It is.  The Lakers are really good.  During the regular season they were 22-4 when Pau Gasol played.  Include the playoffs and that becomes 30-6.  They're demonstrably a better team than New Orleans.

There's also the matter of schedule.  During the playoffs the Spurs are 2-3 in games played on one days rest and 6-1 in games played with more than one days rest.  What's the Laker's schedule like?  Every single game will be played on one days rest.

Can the Spurs beat the Lakers?  Yes.  Absolutely.  But. 

Here's the thing.  Four things, actually. 

1)  I'm not a cheerleader.  This blog, for me, isn't about ignoring the Spurs foibles (this is, from a building audience perspective, really dumb).  I write about Manu's perfection because he is, in fact, without flaws.  And a wizard.  And a ninja.  He's a ninja-wizard.

2)  I'm not a liar.  If you ask me what I think about the Spurs I feel compelled to be honest.

3)  I don't believe in juju.  Whether or not I think the Spurs are going to win affects absolutely nothing.  I could say "Spurs in four!" and tell all the Faker-fans to suck it, but, really, what's the point?  You think Tony reads this blog and thinks "Well if Matthew think we can do it then well ok alright let's do this thing!?"

4)  I hate being wrong.  Hate hate hate.  Would I rather be right than have the Spurs win?  Well maybe.  Of course not!  How did you know?  How dare you even ask?!

Look, I know we just pulled out a tough win in game 7 against New Orleans.  Everything was riding on that game and the Spurs came through.  Except they didn't.  Duncan, Manu and Parker all played badly.  The Hornets just played worse.  You think for a single second the Lakers are going to lay an egg like that in a game 7?  The Lakers would have beaten us by 20. 

Lakers in 6.  Sorry.  Here's to hoping you guys can throw that in my face for the rest of eternity.

(My extra apologies to SiMA, who will have to spend all day Wednesday thinking of ways to counteract the immense about of bad juju I just released into the internets.)

Fuck it.  The Spurs have Manu.  The Lakers do not.  Spurs in 6.

The Spurs have done this before.  Playoffs, must wins, huge road games; it's old hat to them.  They haven't always come through but they've been down this path.

The Spurs experience wasn't evident in the quality of their play, but it was obvious in how they played.  The Big Three combined to shoot 18-53 with nine turnovers, but they played energetic and determined basketball all night.  They never looked worried or doubtful.  Was it arrogance?  No, it was knowing the danger and futility of doubt.

The Hornets, meanwhile, seemed to linger on the fringes of the game, like they expected their youth, exuberance, and the fact that 99% of NBA fans were rooting for them to be enough.  Paul, their anointed leader, put up impressive numbers but seemed timid and diminutive down the stretch.  Too often he passed up uncontested 18 footers, opting to probe and probe, looking for the beautiful lob pass, the deft lay off for a 3-point dagger, or the and-1 that would put the pesky Oberto in his place.   But sometimes basketball isn't a beautiful game.  Elegance and subtlety always give way to stronger forces out of necessity.

Tonight the Spurs were the stronger force.  While the Hornets were going to Jannero Pargo down the stretch, the Spurs were getting the same wide open threes they had gotten all game.  While Peja forced contested threes, Michael Finley calmly drained the only two shots he took:  two wide open, in rhythm jumpers. 

Throughout the series the Hornets never managed to find a way to win a game where they didn't play high-quality basketball.  The Spurs, in a game 7 on the road, did.  And, having already packed their bags before leaving San Antonio, they're on their way straight to L.A.

Was that arrogant?  Hell yes.  But like I said, they've done this before.