Lebron is going to leave me for New York.
Tonight, the Spurs play the team that finished last season with the best record in the league. A team that had one superstar, and not much else. A team that was way overrated due to their regular season performance. But things have changed for the better in Cleveland, enough that they might actually contend for the title. Good thing it's preseason, or we'd have to kick their butts into next week. Ok, maybe we should do that anyway.
Pop is taking the lineups in this game more seriously than the previous 4. Not seriously enough to try to win, mind you... but, seriously enough that the primary lineup should be out there for a while.
 Cleveland Cavaliers @ San Antonio Spurs (Preseason) Where: AT&T Center - San Antonio, TX When: October 16, 2009, 7:30 PM Spurs time Watch: Good luck finding this on TV.
How They Stack Up
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Matchups
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 Tony Parker |
PG |
 Mo Williams |
Since we're assuming that everybody is playing tonight, Tony gets the nod. Remember last season, when Mo Williams was Cleveland's big offseason addition? My, how times have changed. Mo will not win this matchup, not even against George Hill. He's good, don't get me wrong - but our PG's are just better. Advantage: Spurs |
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| Top 5 PG |
Top 25 PG |
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 Manu Ginobili |
SG |
 Anthony Parker |
Anthony "Don't call me Tony" Parker was one of the most underrated signings of the summer. He really solidifies the Cleveland backcourt, and shoots the 3-ball with deadly precision. However, he doesn't shoot it as well as Roger Mason(who does?), and doesn't have the all-around game that Manu does. Advantage: Spurs |
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| I'm watching you, JRW |
Anthony ≠ Tony |
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 Richard Jefferson |
SF |
 Lebron James |
RJ finally got involved in the offense against the Clippers, in pretty impressive fashion. Tonight, I don't care about his offense... the real question is, can he slow down a flu-ridden Lebron? If he can limit Lebron's effectiveness, there's a good chance the Spurs will start catching the attention of the pundits. That said, he's still Lebron. Advantage: Cavaliers |
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| I Can Makez it Big 4? |
Coming Soon to New York |
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 Tim Duncan |
PF |
 Anderson Varejao |
Varejao is extremely tenacious in the frontcourt, and has a hell of a motor - a kind of player the Spurs lacked until recently. And Timmy is going to kill him softly. He might give Ian trouble in the second unit, but Blair will steal his lunch money, not to mention his rebounds. Advantage: Spurs |
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| Some tall guy |
Sideshow Bob. |
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 Antonio McDyess |
C |
 Shaquille Oneal |
Dice likely gets the start tonight, and he looked pretty good in the last game, albeit in limited minutes. On the other end will be the big Shaquisition. We'll eat him alive on pick and rolls, but he'll return the favor by bullying our frontcourt on offense. Advantage: Cavaliers |
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| Win one for Dice |
The Big Liability |
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 George Hill |
Bench |
 Zydrunas Ilgauskas |
We have Mr. IUPUI, Dejuan Blair, Roger Mason, Malik Hairston, Matt Bonner, and more helping to fill our depth chart. Still, this matchup is closer than you might think. The Cavs did a lot to strengthen their depth chart this year. Jamario Moon is an excellent fit, and now Big Z and Boobie Gibson are coming off the bench like they should. When the second units get called in, this game should still be interesting for fans of both teams. Advantage: Spurs |
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| Wingspan |
I must break you... with a smile |
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 Gregg Popovich |
Coach |
 Mike Brown |
Brown is a Pop disciple, but Pop is better than anyone at being Pop. The end. Advantage: Spurs |
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| Nice Brain |
Nice Hair |
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| images via yahoo.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Intangibles: The Spurs are still the smartest team in the league, and have several players that do all the "little" things needed to win. Advantage: Spurs Mojo: The Cavs have swine flu. Not really a boon for the mojo. Advantage: Spurs Winner: What can I say? I'm a homer, so I pick the Spurs. Plus, I think the players will want it more than Pop does. |
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Keys To The Game
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Don't catch swine flu - Seriously, we don't need any of the Spurs catching that shit. They're going to need to hit the ground running when the regular season starts, so illnesses are not exactly helpful. The Cavs apparently have the swine flu already.
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Dominate the guard matchups - I'm not counting LeBron as a backcourt player when I say this: The Spurs' backcourt is so ridiculously superior to Cleveland's, it should be a crime. That said, they're going to kill us at the SF and C positions, so the guards need to bring it tonight.
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Defense - Cleveland had the #1 defense in the league last year. They'll probably slip a bit this season because of Snaq, but that's not what we care about. Where do the Spurs stand defensively? This is the opportunity for our bigs to show us what kind of D they're capable of.
Last Time They Met
The Spurs last played the Cavs in Cleveland on April 5th, and got their asses handed to them, 101-81, in Manu's final game of the season. Ouch.
Some Other Reading
Cavs
Fear the Sword - Cleveland's SBN blog. Enough people read it, but it seems like there's not much audience participation over there.
Cavs: The Blog - This is the TrueHoop network blog for the Cavs. It's a pretty typical hoops blog(Tim V. and Graydon cause me to have impossible standards for the THN blogs.), and of course they have access to ESPN content.
Waiting For Next Year - A pretty slick-looking blog, and the most active one I could find for the Cavs. They actually deal with all Cleveland sports teams, but the Cavs are [justifiably] getting all the attention right now.
RealCavsFans - The Cleveland equivalent of SpursTalk. Proceed with caution.
Cleveland.com Cavaliers Coverage - The professional media in Cleveland work for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. This is where the locals go for their Cavs info.
Spurs
48 Minutes of Hell: Tim V. and Graydon are still holding down the best blog associated with ESPN, and they've put up quite a few good stories this week. If you should read only one Spurs blog besides PtR, this is the one.
Project Spurs - If you're like me and want all the Spurs writing you can find, this is also required reading. This is a great independent blog, complete with podcasts, and a photo slide show from the Spurs' last game.
SpursTalk - The largest and most active Spurs message board on the internets, by far. If you can sort through the douchiness that forums breed(thanks Hipuks), you can usually find some really interesting opinions & insight there.
Robby23's Spurs Blog - PtR regular Robby23 runs a Spurs blog on Blogspot. Sort of like old school PtR, before it was even PtR.
Express-News - The guys at the Express-News have been on their game lately. Required reading, seeing as they're the "real" media.
Spurs on the Internets
Tony Parker
Hello everyone. Tomorrow, we're playing Cleveland with the new guy Shaq O'Neal. Do you think that the signing of O'Neal will make the Cavaliers win more than 60 games like they did last season? I'll tell you tonight… Bonjour.
DeJuan45 Again, I want to thank you for all your support! I had a great time playing the Clippers. I love the Spurs FANS!!!
Bowen12 My son saw some Champagne, and said that's for Spurs to bounce to and win the championship! Priceless. (yes, I still count Bruce as a Spur)
Some Other Viewing
"Nukulus", RJ?
Where to Tune In
TV
Spurs.com doesn't list anything, but it might be on in Cleveland for the lucky few.
Online
Please don't post links to illegal game feeds in this thread. Links to illegal feeds are not permitted on SBNation, but you can probably find them out there on the internets if you're resourceful and desperate. In fact, nobody can stop you from googling "atdhe". You can also shoot an email to dmenendez@gmail.com for more assistance.
Spurs League Pass audio is still free this year, but won't be working until the regular season. Bookmark it now, especially if you don't have the video league pass.
Radio
If you're in the San Antonio area and aren't near a TV, tune in to WOAI (1200 AM). Yahoo might have an audio link at gametime, and we'll post that here if it becomes available.
Photo of the Day
Wait, this happened literally before it happened figuratively?
