IT'S A SPURS SWEEP!

 

(Image taken from NBA.com)

 

So far, the sailing for the Spurs had gone from the insane(needing seven games to win the title in '05) to the tame. First two games in San Antonio, Game 1 was a straightforward win and most of Game 2 was a demo session. The series switched to Cleveland for Game 3 but the Cavs didn't get much respite on their home court! Despite a good start to Game 3, they still got beat, and now the Cavs face a Game 4 and an unlikely early last chance saloon!

The home side opened the scoring and after the first couple of minutes were the side to pull away, roared on by their desperate fans! A 90 second drought followed with the Spurs never looking like getting the edge for a while, the Cavs maintaining a solid lead. Eventually the Spurs turned it round and led 19-16 with less than three mins on the clock only for Le Bron to drive inside late on for a class dunk which gave the Cavs a 20-19 lead at the buzzer.

A one point lead isn't the most secure around but the Spurs only took the lead briefly before the Cavs replied to lead 25-21 a couple of minutes into the 2nd. The Spurs replied by going on another surge and by mid quarter had pretty much taken over. The Cavs came close on a couple of occassions late on but the Spurs kept hitting killer three pointers. Manu Ginobli did a lot of the later damage, the Cavs rallied before the buzzer but the Spurs still led 39-34 at the half.

The limited Cavs rally ended early on in the third after the deficit was cut to three points, with the home side only able to perform damage limitation with the home crowd gaining a slight sense of doom. In the latter stages of the quarter the Spurs lead hit double digits and though that proved an impossible margin to maintain, Tim Duncan looked to be putting the boot into the Cavs with the Spurs leading 6052 with just a quarter remaining, possibly in the entire season!

The Cavs response? Rock solid defence early on in the 4th. This lead to a Spurs shutout for the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, leading to the Cavs taking a 63-60 lead, definately the sort of "Rise up" the fans had in mind. Then the Spurs reacted and turned things round only for the Cavs to tie the game with less than five mins on the clock. However when Fabricio Oberto joined the party late on, the Cavs were pretty much toast and though they had one last attempt at a comeback, a late three pointer was to little too late. Spurs won the game 83-82 and the series 4-0.

So, the first sweep in the NBA Finals since the Shaq and Kobe Lakers swept the Nets in '02! Tony Parker picked up the Finals MVP award, the first European player to get that honour which isn't a bad result for this side of the Atlantic but there's another guy who's on my mind. The year was 1997, I'd been an NBA fan for two seasons and I was looking over the profies of draft candidates that year on NBA.com. One guy stood out like a sore thumb. So when the website invited us fans to advise the teams which players they should pick, this unsubtle Brit told the number 1 picking Spurs "pick Tim Duncan or wake up"...and NBA.com actually published the comment!

It turned out to be a very smart move. Pre '97, the Spurs were led by David Robinson and when he was fit(the disasterous '96-'97 seasonwas an example of what happened when he wasn't fit) the Spurs were favourites to top their division but they choked in the playoffs. After Duncan got added to the mix, the Spurs were sniffing championships and have since picked up four in ten seasons, Robinson having stuck around for the first two! '99, '03, '05, '07! You do not argue with that kind of record!

The next basketball action will not be NBA related though! The Great Britain national team is ready to take some names on the way to the London Olympics!

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