Steven Mercado
By Steven Mercado
The Ageless Wonders
Tonight at six o’clock, the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs gear up for game one of the NBA Finals at the American Airlines Arena.
The Miami Heat are the Eastern Conference team most people expected to be in the Finals, but the road was no walk in the park after capping off a seven games series with the Indiana Pacers.
The San Antonio Spurs are probably one of the last teams that people expected to make it to the Finals for the Western Conference. A lot of people, including myself, thought the Spurs did not have enough gas left in the tank to play the way they have been playing this postseason.
Those people could not have been more wrong.
The Spurs are showing age does not make a difference in this league, but what matters is how you handle that age as a player. Manu Ginobili is 35 years old and is still hitting big shots. Tony Parker is 31 and has been the best point guard in the league this postseason. Tim Duncan is 37 years old and is still one of the best big men in the game. When was the last time a big man was as effective as Duncan at the age he currently is? I couldn’t tell you.
Ginobili summed it up well yesterday when talking with the press, calling Duncan a “freak of nature.”
Speaking of freaks of nature, LeBron James has the chance to be the third person in NBA history to win an NBA title and win the MVP award in back-to-back years, which has only been done by Bill Russell and Michael Jordan. That is good company to be in.
This postseason, LeBron is averaging 26 points per game, seven rebounds, six assists, and 51.4% from the field. However, he still is only one player. He is the not the Miami Heat. His teammates need to step it up in order for this team to win and frankly, I do not think this Miami Heat team is good enough to beat the San Antonio Spurs.
As a whole, the team has been inconsistent; more importantly, the other two parts of the big three, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, have not been able to produce consistently for the team. This postseason, Wade is averaging 14 points per game, which is the lowest playoff average he has had during his whole career. Chris Bosh is averaging 12 points per game and seven rebounds this postseason; the series against the Pacers, he averaged 11 points and four rebounds.
If you ask me, that is not going to cut it against a team like the Spurs.
Like I said on Tuesday night during the Mid-Valley Sports show, the Spurs will win this series in six games due to the Spurs being an all-around better team than the Heat. With Tim Duncan, the Spurs have what the Pacers had in David West and Roy Hibbert. Duncan is a great rebounder, is a defensive presence, he can hit the mid-range shot, and can own anyone on the block.
The attack on the inside is what kept Indiana within striking distance throughout the series. The Pacers guards inability to produce on the road was their downfall. This is where the Spurs will find the advantage over the Heat. When comparing the guard tandems of both teams, the Pacers have George Hill, Lance Stephenson, and D.J. Augustin. The Spurs have Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green and Gary Neal.
In the end, the Spurs will be too hot for even the Heat to handle.
Leave a Reply