SIVACRACY.NET

As Sivacracy’s San Antonio correspondent, I’ve been asked by our fearless leader to comment on the upcoming NBA finals.

It’s about time the world was treated to a San Antonio/Cleveland matchup, which is intriguing on several levels. First, you’ve got the potential river parade comparison (ours is excessively touristy; theirs has seen spontaneous combustion). Musically, they’ve got the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame; our claim to fame is Sir Douglas Quintet/Texas Tornados (ironically, the Sivacracy poll’s entrant into the Hall). Basketball-wise, the Cavs are the upstarts, but feature most of the national hype and hope due to their heavily-marketed, globally-iconic, Chosen One superstar.

Conversely, the Spurs are on the verge of a dynasty, but I’ve heard way too many times a lot of their local fan base feels their success has been unjustly marginalized or insufficiently respected.

But get past the Cavs, and dynasty they are, putting them only behind Russell’s Celtics, the ‘50s Minneapolis Lakers, the showtime Lakers, and Jordan’s Bulls (and ahead of Bird’s Celtics and the Shaq/Kobe Lakers) in terms of championships in the history of the league.

The odds are in San Antonio’s favor; top to bottom, the Cavs look like the worst team the Spurs have played in the playoffs. That’s no knock: San Antonio beat a Denver team as loaded as anybody in the NBA (Melo AND AI, just for starters), a terrific Phoenix team (hurt by a ridiculous rule interpretation costing them superstar Amare Stoudamire for a game), and a retooled Utah Jazz (featuring Deron Williams as Stockton and Carlos Boozer as Malone).

The problem with Cleveland is, of course, the top part: the Spurs have to get past poster manchild LeBron James, who it would seem the Spurs have no answer for. Small forward/defensive stopper Bruce Bowen, who did a great job against Steve Nash in the Phoenix series, generally struggles against stronger players (Ron Artest gave him fits in the first round last year, and he’s a level below LeBron).

I suspect, knowing that James is going to have his way, the Spurs will try to shut down everyone else. That’s been the pattern so far (previous championship run patterns featured pure domination in ’99 and wild three-point binges in ’03). Against Phoenix and Utah, one player (Stoudamire and Williams respectively) exceeded his normal output; another (Nash and Boozer) shined in stretches but disappeared significantly in others. In both cases, the rest of the team was shut down.

Cleveland brings not only the most promising young talent in the game but also a team defense modeled on the Spurs themselves. As a Spurs fan, my hope is that the Cavs won’t have an answer for Tim Duncan or Tony Parker (most teams don’t), Manu Ginobili takes over games in stretches, and the numerous Spur outside shooters keep their touch. After all, in local parlance, that’s what brung ‘em.