It’s the NBA Finals, the San Antonio Spurs against the New Jersey Nets. That’s right, get ready to . . . grab the remote?
“We thought we were better than people saying it was a rebuilding year for us,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “We knew we’d be better than that. But to say we’d be here right now, I can’t say we expected that.”
And they’re the favorites.
Yes, you waited five days for this.
The Spurs, who open the Finals here Wednesday against the Nets, were hoping to build a championship team next season. The Nets are bidding to become the sixth team and the second in 25 years to win a title without winning 50 games in the regular season.
“I think we’re similar in that we each have one huge star in Jason [Kidd] and Tim [Duncan], and then you have everybody else who feeds off them,” Nets forward Richard Jefferson said. “Jason and Tim might cancel each other out. I think a lot of it’s going to be determined by who plays well between me and Stephen Jackson, Kenyon Martin and Malik Rose, Kerry Kittles and Manu Ginobili.”
Anyone want to break down the strengths and weaknesses of Rose and Kittles?
Where’s Shaq? Where’s Kobe? Where’s T-Mac? Where’s KG? Where’s C-Webb? Where’s AI? Where’s Duncan?
Oh, that’s right, Duncan is here. He just hasn’t said anything.
Let the games begin?
Unlike the NHL’s Stanley Cup finals, also on WLS-Ch. 7, there will be some scoring here. There could be quite a bit.
The Nets, driven by Kidd, are a wonderful running team, though their half-court offense is about as spirited as TV golf coverage. Containing that offense will be strategy key No. 1 for the Spurs. They need to slow Kidd, which means Duncan and David Robinson need to rebound well. Robinson hasn’t done much thus far in the playoffs, but against miniature Eastern Conference inside players he could be a factor in this, his final season.
“David has more important things to do than basketball,” Popovich said. “He has interests that have impact on the world and have some value, unlike the rest of us.”
Kidd is among the many who do not, but he is a heck of a basketball player. Yet he has never led a team to a playoff series victory over a Western Conference team. He was injured the only time the Phoenix Suns got out of the first round when he played for them. The Nets made the Finals last season, but the Lakers swept them.
The Lakers used a tactic the Spurs might copy with Bruce Bowen. They had Rick Fox chase Kidd, which pretty much neutralized Kidd as a rebounder. When Kidd doesn’t rebound, the Nets are not a good rebounding team.
No rebounds and no running equals no rings.
No Net has one, but they sound a lot more confident than they did last season.
“Any time you put Shaq in the equation, it’s going to be rough,” Kenyon Martin said. “So everybody has a chance when you don’t have to deal with him. No matter who came out of the East or the West, everybody started looking at that and saying they had a legitimate shot, knowing the big guy’s not in there.”
So much for Duncan being the next great one.
No, the Spurs don’t scare anyone. For one thing, this wasn’t supposed to be their year, not with the team in the hands of Tony Parker.
The second-year point guard from France who just turned 21 was supposed to be an ex-Spur soon. With Robinson’s retirement the Spurs will go well below the salary cap. Their plan was to make an offer to Kidd, pair him with Duncan and win a championship–or five–beginning next year. Kidd believes he can do it now, thank you. As for the Spurs, do they rebuild after they have won a title?
The Nets’ plan is to frustrate Duncan with Martin’s physical play and then run at Parker to take away his aggressiveness, as the Suns’ Stephon Marbury did in the first round of the playoffs.
There’s also this little problem of blown leads. The Spurs have lost five of their six playoff games after leading by 10 points and would have lost a 25-point lead to the Lakers if Robert Horry’s shot hadn’t rattled out.
“We realize the fourth quarter has been a problem,” Popovich said. “I could break it down for you, but I don’t think you have the time. We would need a blackboard, some film and, oh, about a week.”
The problem is the kids. Parker sometimes plays like he’s from France. Ginobili sometimes plays like a rookie from Argentina. And Jackson sometimes plays like a rock-headed journeyman cut by three NBA teams, including the Nets, who also played in the CBA and in Venezuela.
So when things get tight, the Spurs throw it to Duncan and drop back on defense. And Popovich has to take Bowen out of games because he can’t shoot free throws.
Yes, this is a beatable team.
More beatable than the Nets? Not likely.
They return to the Finals worse than they were last year. They won fewer games, 49, and were a laughable 16-25 on the road. Now they’re trying to join the 1995 Rockets, 1978 Bullets, 1977 Trail Blazers, 1975 Warriors and 1969 Celtics as the only sub-50-victory teams to win a championship.
They have won 10 straight in the playoffs and are 12-2 overall, but that follows four losses in their last five regular-season games, which cost them the Eastern Conference’s best record. The last time they went west in the regular season they were swept by the three Texas teams.
Blown leads? The Nets know blown leads. They blew the mother of all leads against Boston in the playoffs last year when they lost after leading by 26 and by 21 in the fourth quarter. Since then they traded their second leading scorer, Keith Van Horn, for Dikembe Mutombo, who doesn’t play. So what, them worry?
“Last year we never truly felt we could beat the Lakers,” Nets coach Byron Scott said. “[We] were in awe of being at Staples Center and playing the Lakers. I think it’ll be different this time. I think all our players feel a little more confident than we did last year. This year is a totally different situation. As a team, we are peaking at the right time.”
– – –
New Jersey vs. San Antonio
Wednesday: at San Antonio, 7:30
Friday: at San Antonio, 7:30
Sunday: at New Jersey, 7:30
Wed., June 11: at New Jersey, 7:30
Friday, June 13: at New Jersey, 7:30-*
Sunday, June 15: at San Antonio, 7:30-*
Wed., June 18: at San Antonio, 7:30-*
Note: All games on WLS-Ch. 7
*-if necessary; best-of-7
