The Spurs snatch game one

San Antonio, Texas – LeBron James was the talk of the sports world preceding the start of the NBA Finals. But it was the efficient play of Tim Duncan, the San Antonio Spurs three-time Finals MVP, who reign supreme in game one of the finals. Scoring 24 points on 58 percent shooting, Duncan grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked five shots as he led the Spurs to 85-76 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Tony Parker, the Spurs guard, scored 27 points and dished out seven assist.

As efficient as the Spurs were on offense, it was their defense that may have been the difference in the game. James, coming off a phenomenal series against the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals, found the Spurs defense stifling. Their defensive rotation and pick-and-roll coverage was well executed.

“San Antonio was terrific, especially on defense,” explained Cleveland’s coach, Mike Brown. “They didn’t allow us to get into the paint and when we did, there were three bodies in there.”

Offensively the Spurs ball movement was excellent. They dished out 18 assists. Parker, a bit tentative in the first quarter, became aggressive in the second quarter and continued his assertive play throughout the came. Nine of Parkers’ 12 baskets were lay-ups. The Spurs also grabbed 11 more rebounds (43-32) than the upstart Cavs.

As tough as the game came for the Cavs on both ends of the court, it was their horrific third quarter, being outscored 24-14, that may have truly been their demise. The Cavs trailed by five points at the half (40-35), but outscored the Spurs by six points in the fourth quarter. The Spurs 10 point difference in the third quarter proved to be the difference in the game.

James finished with 14 points, shooting 4 of 16. He missed is first eight field goals, converting his first shot in the third quarter with 7:15 minutes remaining. James also committed six turnovers.

“I have to play better in order for my team to win,” James explains in the post-game interview.

Daniel Gibson continued his phenomenal playoff play, leading the Cavs in scoring with 16 points on (7 of 9) shooting.

Game two takes place Sunday at the AT&T Center in San Antonio.

The Cavs were better!

Chauncey Billups still believes the Detroit Pistons are the best team in the Eastern Conference. This despite three monstrous slam dunks by LeBron James in the closing moments of regulation play in the fifth game of the Eastern Conference Finals; three consecutive slams dunks are extremely rare in a regular season game. Chauncey still believes his team is better than the Cleveland Cavaliers despite James converting the game winning lay-up, with 2.2 seconds remaining, in the second overtime of that game. And Chauncey believes his team is better even after getting beat by 16-points in the sixth game of the finals.

“I feel like we’re the better team. And even after this defeat [game six] I still feel the same way,” Billups tells Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press. “Did we play better than that team for the last six games? No, we did not . . . but nobody can tell me that team is better than ours.”

Chauncey, sometimes there’s a taste of truth in a fantasy.

If the Pistons had played like the well oil machine they have come to be identified with, Chauncey’s ascertain would have been on point; there’s no way the Cavs would have beat the Pistons had they played like the Pistons of their Championship season; and they were capable of that. But if grandma had a scrotum she would be grandpa.

The rule of thumb in basketball is the team who wins in a seven game series is the better team. Someone should share that with Chauncey.

While Chauncey believes Detroit is the better team, how interesting is it that last year about this same time Coach Flip Saunders made a similar acertain after being eliminated by the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Final. “We didn’t play how we play,” Saunders said.

Poised, proven, playoff teams are suppose to play how they play; see the San Antonio Spurs.

The Pistons, over the last four seasons, have strutted their swagger. They’ve built a reputation for grinding out big games, and players like Billups and Rasheed Wallace have hit big shots in the closing moments of games to stick the proverbial dagger in the heart of their opponents.

But for all their swagger this current Pistons’ team is just a .500 team in championship games. They’ve been to two NBA Championships, winning one; and they’ve been to four Eastern Conference Finals, winning just two.

Sure they've been more successful than most teams, but remember they walk with a air of arrogance that says, ‘We Are Champs.’ In reality they are living on a memory.

Last season during the Eastern Conference semi-finals, Wallace predicted the series against the Cavs wouldn’t go beyond five games; the series went seven. Their swag wasn’t quite as phenomenal as they thought. Cleveland played tough and the Pistons, while they won’t admit it, were thankful they survived. Then the defending Eastern Conference Champs followed their performance against the Cavs by losing in six games to Miami. There was some truth to Saunders claim that his players did not play Pistons basketball.

One would think the Pistons would have learned their lessons.

Champions should walk with a swagger. But more importantly, they should play with a swagger. The Pistons claim to be a great fourth quarter team, and the Cavs have been a notoriously bad third quarter team throughout the playoffs. If Chauncey’s Pistons were as good as he thinks they are then the second half of each game should have been all Detroit. But talk is cheap.

Playing with swag means you dominate the greater percentage of the series; not turn on and off when you feel like it.

Maybe the Pistons are the better team, but they weren’t for those six games. Even “Mr. Big Shot” admitted that the Cavs outplayed them – not in four games, but in six.

The playoffs have a way of exposing all a team's faults.