Who Will Emerge as Champion?

i'm rooting for the cavs, but even if cavs have lebron, they don't have an answer to parker, ginoblie, and duncan. imo, its gonna be an exicting match between a team that has lots of passing and teamwork against a one man show. hopefully, gibson, shows up again.

 

Depends on who the refs choose.

 

no way in hell the cavs win, no way at all, cavs are the worst team to ever make it to the finals, just no way i see it ever happening as much as i would like it to, kinda

 

I think the strike out season knicks are actually the worst team to ever make the finals.

But yeah, Spurs have an easy task ahead of them. Although you can never count out the impact of a player like Lebron.

 

i actually think those knicks are easily superior to these cavs and possibly around the level of the iverson 76ers or those 2 nets' finals teams. wow the east has been bad for a while huh.

spurs in 5.

 

We do realize the East have won 2 of the last 3 titles and their loss in this period was a fierce 7 game war.

Since the middle buzzsaw Lakers champion team the East teams at the top can play competitive (and beat) the West top teams, the difference is the West has a bigger 2nd tier and the East a bigger scrub tier.

The same was said for Wade vs Dirk/Howard/Terry.

Cleveland is an outstanding defensive team. If Lebron can generate points for his team--and their is good reason to suggest he can based on the last 2 years of the playoffs, they are totally in this series.

I break it down as Lebron vs Duncan + Manu--I think both defenses take out role players. I really think Parker will be less of a factor this series than others this year--Cleve is big and athletic on the perimeter. I am almost inclined to say Lebron vs Duncan, but I think this undervalues Manu's playmaking ability and clutchness. If Lebron and Duncan nuetrelize each other, Manu will make the difference, they needed his key play to survive the Suns this year as well as to win the Det series 2 years ago, both of which the Spurs very fragilely kept hold of. Lebron needs to solidly be the best and most relentless guy on the floor. Tall order, but he very well might be.

 

Wade had Shaq and a better supporting cast. Who's Lebron got? the mighty illgauskas and pavolic? (spelling etc)?

Then if you couple that with the fact that Dallas 60 win seasons, trips to the playoffs, etc mean virtually nothing since they lose every time.... then the comparison isn't a good one to the spurs by any stretch. The Spurs are a veteran team that doesn't choke every time they enter the playoffs.

 

the cavs defense and lebrons offense wil keep them in the game.

i think the cavs big perimeter players will make it tough for guys like manu and finley to score.

the problem with really big perimeter players is that no one can guard tony P. he's too quick for anyone on the team. he'll get into the paint at will and probably be the downfall of the cavs.

 

Then the Cavs win.

 

I'd rather the cavs win but it's tough to argue against the spurs execution and experience.

If duncan doesn't get you then parker or ginobili will. And if they don't Bowen will just knee you in the nuts.

I'd really like to see how bowen guards lebron. He's just too small. James should post his sorry ass up every time. Who else can they put on James? From what I remember James has gone off on the spurs each time they've played.

 

Wade had a sucky supporting cast in the finals. In fact Wade accounting for the highest % of his teams offense in a finals in quite some time. Shaq was hurting them mightly. The rest of the Heat included two decent role players (Zo--who actually played a lot better than Shaq versus Dallas, Haslem) and cast offs with major flaws, Payton, Williams, Posey, Walker.

Cleveland is deeper and more athletic than that overachieving Heat team. More shooters, more size, more athleticism. Only Wade and Shaq would start on that Cleveland team and Z is not a bad center as an alternative.

Finally, that Dallas team beat basically the same Spurs team last year. Dallas and Cleveland with their size and athleticism are the kinds of teams that give the Spurs the most trouble.

The Spurs are a better team than Cleveland, but Cleveland does matchup with them really well and Lebron as an X factor gives them a chance. This was basically JVG's take this morning on ESPN.

 

booby

 

Voted Cavs just to try to f*ck with the poll.

 

Spurs are going to win this. Even though James will have refs with him the spurs will win it all.

 

I voted for the Cavs, but more because I want them to win than because I really think they will. However, unlike many, I do truly believe they CAN win this series. I'm just not sure they have the experience to pull it out.

 

how many people believe in 'if youre from texas, you should root for all texas teams'? like now that houston's out, we should be rooting for SA for solidarity reasons? my coworker from SA is shocked that i would root for the cavs, i was just wondering how many other people actually feel like they should root for the remaining texas team.

 

I actually don't think the Spurs are all that strong. In fact, I don't know if any team really is that strong compared to any other team in the league.

Yeah, the Spurs are better then Denver or Utah - that's all I know for sure.

Phoenix may actually be the better team. And Dallas beat them last year. And we all know how well Dallas played against Miami and Golden State.

Miami was out early as well. Detroit lost to the Cavs.

Frankly, I'm not convinced there is a super strong team in the NBA. It may be because Dallas, Detroit, Miami, Phonix, San Antonio are just really awesome teams and we're in an age of great teams.

Or it could be that we're in an era of mediocrity....which is what I think.

THen again, gone are the age when adding Magic and Bird made for instant rings. Gone is the age when you could take Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen and throw a bunch of players who have never done much and win 3 rings in a row.

I mean...maybe the lesson here is that having one or two amazing players is enough. Maybe Lebron can do it all.