[Basketball] NBA Finals 2008

[Taurus]

Cavaliers set to make NBA finals debut

LeBron James and the Cavaliers can end the city of Cleveland's championship drought. All they have to do is get past a team that's been an expert at winning titles.

The Cavaliers will make their NBA finals debut Thursday night in San Antonio, where the Spurs have hung three banners since 1999 and will be favored to add another.

San Antonio's Gregg Popovich will be matched up against one of his former assistants. Mike Brown spent three seasons with San Antonio and was on the Spurs' bench when they won the 2003 title.

The Cavaliers selected James later that month with the No. 1 pick in the draft, and he needed only four years to get his team to the NBA's biggest stage.

Cleveland secured its finals spot by beating the Detroit Pistons 98-82 Saturday night in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. James had 20 points and 14 rebounds, and rookie Daniel Gibson added 31 points - 19 in the fourth quarter.

Cleveland hasn't had a championship team in any major sport since 1964, but has rarely had a player like James, who scored a playoff career-high 48 points, including the Cavs' final 25, in a double-overtime victory in Game 5.

"This is the best thing that ever happened to me, man," James said after the clincher. "But look here, look here. It doesn't stop."

The Cavaliers beat the Spurs in a pair of low-scoring games this season, not surprising because Popovich and Brown are defensive-minded coaches.

"We have a great relationship, we do talk from time to time," Brown said this week. "He'll call and check up on me, I'll call and ask for advice, he'll call to say 'good win,' or whatever and I'll do the same. But, you know, that's about it.

"I learned a lot from him and I grew a lot while working for him, and I continue to look at him as a mentor and a guy that can help me out."

The Spurs will be the more-rested team, having wrapped up their five-game victory over Utah in the Western Conference finals on Wednesday night. San Antonio took two days off before returning to practice Saturday.

"I spent some time in the pool for the first time in a year," Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said. "It's kind of nice to have a couple of days off. We really enjoyed it, and I think we needed it."

The Spurs, who won titles in 1999, 2003 and 2005, are led by their trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Ginobili. Duncan is averaging 23.2 points and 11.4 rebounds while shooting 53.9 percent in the playoffs, while Parker is scoring 19.8 points per game and Ginobili is adding 16.4.

Bruce Bowen, one of the league's best defensive players, will try to slow down James.

James scored 35 points in the Cavs' 88-81 victory on Nov. 3, Cleveland's first win in San Antonio since 1988. He was held to only 19 in the second meeting, but the Cavs limited the Spurs to 38 percent shooting in an 82-78 home victory on Jan. 2.

Cleveland has won the last three meetings.

The Cavs will try to give the NBA consecutive first-time champions. Miami beat Dallas last year in a matchup of teams making their finals debuts.

The first two games are in San Antonio before the NBA finals arrive in Cleveland for the first time for Games 3-5.

- www.foxsports.com

[SonnyBlack]

Auch wenn ich die Spurs nicht mag, Sweep:/

[Taurus]

Obwohl ich absoluter Spurs Fan bin, "nur" 4-2 für San Antonio. Ich glaube es wird ne ganz interessante und relativ ausgeglichene Serie werden.

[Herz statt Kommerz]

Ich mag die Spurs überhaupt gar nicht!!!! Cavs for the win! :icon_mrgreen:

[Taurus]

Spurs are still the NBA's best



Now it's a fait accompli for the San Antonio Spurs, completing the sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers to win their fourth NBA title in nine years and third in five – proving that coach/executive Gregg Popovich still has put together the best organization in the NBA and has stepped into Hall of Fame territory for good.

As usual, it wasn't pretty, with their tenacious individual and team defense preventing young Cleveland superstar LeBron James from ever getting off in the series, and holding the often hideous Cavs offense to just 80.5 points a game, with James making just 32-of-90 from the field during the four games.

To win this championship, however, it was young point guard Tony Parker stealing the Most Valuable Player trophy from Tim Duncan, who had won three previously – although Manu Ginobili should have won in 2005. Nevertheless, the Spurs joined the Boston Celtics (8 from 1957-65), Chicago Bulls (6 from 1991-9 , Los Angeles Lakers (5 from 1980-8 and Minneapolis Lakers (5 from 1949-54) as the only franchises to win as many as four titles in less than 10 seasons.

Parker, whose upcoming marriage to actress Eva Longoria often masks what an exceptional young point guard he really is, was magnificent the entire season and gained momentum in the playoffs. However, the Finals proved to be the exclamation point to complete the evolution of the Belgian-born, French-raised Parker into stardom if it wasn't quite official before. With uncommon quickness and now a deadly pull-up jumper all the way out to 3-point range to match, he is nearly impossible to stop.

The Cavs just hoped to slow him down, and rarely did.

He set the tone early Thursday night, sank 10-of-12 to start the game, and finished with 24 – along with 7 key rebounds. But the Spurs weren't particularly sharp in Game 4, just as they weren't in the ugly 75-72 win in Game 3.

It was a nightmare for Popovich at the free throw line, missing 13 of 25 free throws until the final 2 ½ minutes and they finished 8-of-9 to wrap up an often confounding game that was bereft any consistent offense. Mostly it was Ginobili, truly unguardable down the stretch after a terrible Game 3 in which he didn't score until 3 free throws in the final 10 seconds to ice the game. This time around, he had 13 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter – slicing through defenders to the rim, drawing fouls or draining perimeter jumpers.

And while it was Parker who set the table, with Ginobili cleaning it up, there was Duncan steadily keeping it all together despite a second consecutive bad night offensively. Duncan had just 12 points, but he also had 15 rebounds and 2 blocks – forever the immovable force in the middle on defense and coming up with the loose balls around the basket.

But the Cavs hung around, if only because the Spurs couldn't make free throws. James was struggling all night – 10-of-30 – from the field, and as usual, nobody was helping him, either. The starting lineup was just 23-of-66 from the field, completely befuddled by the Spurs defense and All-World defender Bruce Bowen completed a spectacular defensive run in the playoffs by sticking to James like flypaper.

Finally, the Spurs offense went dead late in the third quarter and early fourth, awakening the dormant Cleveland fans – so crushed in their first trip to the Finals by their team's inability to establish anything – into a state of frenzy. The Cavaliers defense orchestrated by former Popovich assistant Mike Brown, held the Spurs without a point for more than six minutes with a 14-0 run to take a 63-60 lead .

James, who finished with 24 points, 10 assists and 6 rebounds (22.0 ppg., 7.8 apg, 7.0 rpg for the series) got extremely aggressive going to the glass and created for himself or others like Donyell Marshall and Anderson Varejao. Their 61-60 advantage was the first lead in the second half they held the entire series.

But after the 63-60 lead, the Spurs' gauntlet came down and their answer came in the form of a 12-3 run and the Cavs never led again after that 2:30 minute stretch they all savored. The Spurs took over the boards against a great rebounding Cleveland team – at one point had four separate possessions from offensive rebounds with Fabricio Oberto helping Duncan in the middle of the fray. Indeed, the Cavs got within a point at the end, but it was really just flotsam because of some odd timing and fouls – but never serious because Ginobili was deadly on his free throws and a meaningless 3-pointer at the buzzer from Cavs reserve Damon Jones ended the contest.

Perhaps this dominance was misleading because the Spurs and at least a handful of other teams in the West were very likely capable of manhandling the Cavs out of the horrid East. More importantly, this produced the first title for veterans Michael Finley, surprising Jacque Vaughn and Oberto among the key contributors. It was the second for Brent Barry, third for Parker and Ginobili, and Duncan is the only one left from the 1999 title in his fourth. But count 7 rings for 37-year-old Robert Horry, only the second player to win titles with three teams (two with Houston and 3 with the Lakers), second with the Spurs, and said after the game he's got one more in him.

That brings us back to Popovich, both the architect and coach of this regime. With 8 players over 30, they were the oldest team in the league this season, and in the end, it spoke volumes against a Cavs team that had only Eric Snow with Finals experience and he played all of 41 minutes in the series

So whether Pop will gamble bringing back all of the guys or begin to reload again around Duncan, Parker, Ginobili and Bowen, remains to be seen. No doubt, the rest of the league promises to feature plenty of turnover in personnel, but considering the Spurs overall age, it could require some merely minor tinkering since those guys have so much left.

In fact, despite their circuitous route this season, with the 25-year-old Parker running the show in a point guard dominated league, when it comes to unseating the Spurs, you just might say, Bon chance.

- http://www.foxsports.com

[SonnyBlack]

Auch wenn ich die Spurs nicht mag, Sweep:/

:-(

[Mr. Shut-out]

Hat jemand gestern im DSF gesehen? NBA live. I hab dacht i spinn. :shock: Und am Samstag um 19:00 wieder, Dallas gegen Atlanta. :-P

[schmidl66]

Zufällig vorbeigezappt - in den Werbepausen zum bombastischen RTL-Film :icon_twisted:

[Bonefire]

Atlanta - Dallas......... Dallas führt.......
Die wie von damals gewohnte gute DSF Qualität!!!
Mei des gfreit mich ja....

[Mr. Shut-out]

Heute kam Orlando-Bulls. Orlando gewinnt nach Overtime, da die Bull einfach zu blöd ware, und immer kurz vor Schluss den Ball verloren haben.

[1860 Predator]

Basketball anguggn is ja mal voll öööööde

[siggi.aev]

Basketball anguggn is ja mal voll öööööde

aber ein 60er-Spiel.... :?

[Rigo Kaka]

Ich packs jetzt einfach hier mal rein. Falls sich jemand für die NBA interessiert, das DSF überträgt jetzt die Pre Season Partie zwischen New Orleans und den Washington Wizards live aus der O2 World.

[Rigo Kaka]

Abartig was die Hornets mit den Wizards machen, auch wenn bei denen ienige fehlen. Nach 15 Minuten 45:9.

[Rigo Domenator]

*lupf*

Dirkules in den Playoffs 2011 überragend...

- heute Nacht 48 Punkte (12 von 15 Würfen getroffen)
- dabei alle 24 Freiwürfe (NBA Rekord!) getroffen


Schafft er doch endlich den NBA Titel?!

Immerhin führt er im Conference Final schon mal 1:0!!

[Mr. Blubb]

Und auch noch 13 Freiwürfe in einem Viertel, damit einen Jordan-Rekord geknackt.

[AEV Fan AB]

*lupf*

Dirkules in den Playoffs 2011 überragend...

- heute Nacht 48 Punkte (12 von 15 Würfen getroffen)
- dabei alle 24 Freiwürfe (NBA Rekord!) getroffen


Schafft er doch endlich den NBA Titel?!

Immerhin führt er im Conference Final schon mal 1:0!!

Was nur nervig ist, dass es nirgendwo live im TV kommt.

[Rigo Domenator]

sensationelles letztes Drittel und somit 3:1 in der Serie vorne!!!

[Flubbi81]

Nowitzki wieder überragend, wie der kurz vor Schluss den Dreier verschießt um ihn dann ne gefühlte Sekunde später knallhart zur Führung zu versenken, ist schon sehr beeindruckend.

http://youtu.be/ypOmKPCI6Po

59 von 61 versenkte Freiwürfe in der Serie, in der Form holt der sich den Ring. Zumal auch das restliche Team endlich mal auf den Punkt in Topform ist.

Auch geil, wie bodenständig und ruhig er den Conference-Sieg genießt, erst schämt er sich fast ein wenig, als das Team "MVP"-Gesänge anstimmt und dann ist er der Erste der sich während der Feierlichkeiten in die Kabine verzieht.

[Rigo Domenator]

Auf gehts Dirk, hol dir das Ding...