AdamB's Blog

May 28

For the past 15 years or so, I’ve been using a usual phrase to all aspiring sportscasters.   It is this, “there is no experience like experience itself”. After watching Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals… that phrase rings incredibly true. The Spurs are as great—top to bottom—as any team in recent memory. For a quick refresher, this was my prediction from last December. I had the Spurs as the 7th seed. Yes, silly me. I have been buying into the notion that “they are too old”. Wrong…they are too experienced!   The Finals could still happen this way, but not likely with the complete team that resides in San Antonio. 

Western Conference               
1) OKC          
2) DALLAS    
3) MEMPHIS
4) LAC                     
5) PORTLAND
6) LAL         
7) SA     
8) HOU         

Eastern Conference
1) MIA
2) CHI
3) NYK
4) BOS
5) ORL
6) IND
7) ATL
8) PHI

FINALS:  MIA OVER OKC IN 6 GAMES

It is 19 straight wins for the Spurs now. THAT is simply unfathomable! They become the 4th team in NBA history to win their first 9 playoff games. And, of the prior three, two of them went on to win the NBA Championship. How far do you expect this series to last? Manu Ginobili was sensational. When he wasn’t scoring, he was setting up his teammates. They indeed got nasty on the Thunder. So nasty that they dumped in 39 points in the final quarter to win, 101-98. Gregg Popovich has cemented himself, regardless if they win another title or not, as one of the three best NBA head coaches ever. Only Red Auerbach and Phil Jackson are on my list. Good company for Pop, eh?   Some have called the Western Conference Finals this season as the “de facto” championship (see Colin Cowherd). But I tend to agree with that now. I encourage you to go back and look at the distribution of minutes by Popovich over the 66-game schedule. In the nine games THIS postseason, he has at least 10 of his 12 guys playing 14 minutes per game. That is having trust in your team, and a ‘slam dunk’ confidence builder for each of those Spurs players. But the most important area, it keeps his guys from EVER using the word fatigue.     

Heat vs. Celtics?? Meh. Not overly thrilled with this matchup, but love to watch Rajon Rondo. All I continue to do is envision him in a Blazer uniform. Perhaps both of the Blazers lottery picks for Rondo? He has three years left on his deal with the C’s. The impending return of Chris Bosh does make this series more palatable.   

My new prediction for the Finals is this:  Spurs over Heat in six games.