If there's any team that can beat the Heat in Game 7, it's the San Antonio Spurs. (Credits: BasketballWallpapers.com) |
Just think of what the San Antonio Spurs have meant to the basketball world over the past decade. For some of us they've represented a sensational, well-oiled machine that plays better team basketball than Princeton did in the 50s. Their combined basketball IQ could eventually re-shape the sport and their led by one of the greatest coaches of all-time. The San Antonio Spurs are everything right with the NBA.
For the other half of NBA fans the Spurs have represented a boring, monotonus, unappealing style of basketball that coincided perfectly with the dark ages of the NBA. They thrived when "clowns" like Corey Maggette, Steve Francis, Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury were the league's "best." They didn't ever beat an "elite team" or a "true superstar" in the Finals. Once the Celtics Big Three was formed and the Lakers re-emerged with Pau and Kobe teaming up, the Spurs faded into second-round oblivion. The San Antonio Spurs are everything wrong with the NBA.
No matter how you view the Spurs, you cannot take away from the four titles hanging from the rafters in the AT&T Center. You cannot take away their stats. Tim Duncan's MVPs. The fact they have won more than 50 games each season since '99-'00. You cannot take away the greatness associated around these Spurs, no matter how hard you try. And you cannot, as much as you want, abandon them just because they choked away a heartbreaking Game 6. If there is any team in the last decade that can defy odds and beat the surging Heat on their home floor in Game 7 it's absolutely the San Antonio Spurs.
Duncan, Tony Parker and the shell of Manu Ginobili are beyond battle tested, they wrote the damn book. They're like your dad when you were seven, just hitting shots off the backboard until you were either bored or you tried to fight him. They don't think about context, they don't imagine beating LeBron and shredding his legacy to pieces. They don't care about the slimy Pat Riley. They haven't thought about that Heat pep rally that enraged the country three years ago. They don't care about #TeamHateLeBron. They don't think about anyone but themselves and how they are going to win Game 7; they're simply thinking about winning the next game. It's just about winning the next one and the next one and the next one until the job is finished. That's the San Antonio Way. That's the Popovich Way.
This team has four titles. One sweep. One win in five. One win in six. One win in seven. They've seen it all and then some and they have one of the geniuses of the game roaming their bench. Oh and they've traded wins with the Heat all series. They've already won a game in Miami. They know exactly where they are and haven't broken a sweat.
If the Spurs do end up losing this series it won't be a result of the same mistakes that occurred Tuesday night. There will be no lapses in judgement by Popovich, leaving in Manu for much longer than he should have or leaving Duncan and Parker on the bench for extended (and strange) sequences. Kawhi Leonard and Ginobili won't choke from the free throw line. If the Spurs lose on Thursday night it'll be because LeBron finally asserted himself in the way we demand of him. Or maybe they'll lose because Dwyane Wade, much like Game 4, will re-discover his younger days when he could pour in thirty with a blink of an eye.
The Spurs will not lose Game 7, the Heat will just have to win it from them.
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