SPURS ARE IN THE FINALS

 

 

In the West , the Spurs were generally taking care of business. Games 1 and 2 in San Antonio had been pretty smooth. Straightforward wins with the Jazz looking like they were going nowhere fast. The scene switched to Utah and the Jazz came alive to storm Game 3 and make a series of things. However the Spurs replied with a third win in Game 4 to take the series back to San Antonio for Game 5 with all the signs saying that the Jazz were toast!

The Jazz certainly look like toast in the first quarter. The Jazz tied the game at 4 a couple of minutes in but then the Spurs just exploded again and it was all the Jazz could to to keep the deficit in single digits as long as they did! Even that was a lost cause with over four minutes to go and Tony Parker taking individual bites out of the visitors at will. One quarter gone and the game was already over. The Spurs led by an amazing scoreline of 34-15.

The Spurs were soon up by over twenty in the second quarter but after that, the Jazz at least tried to make a game of things. They did enough to keep their siide of the scoreboard ticking over but really needed a hot run to reawaken the game and that just didn't happen. Their progress amounted to cutting the deficit to sixteen on two occasions, the second with 40 seconds left in the half. Big wow. Manu Ginobli just kept the Spurs cruising and they led 55-39 at the half.

The extent of the Jazz's ambitions early in the third seemed to be to keep the gap at sixteen. The Spurs had other ideas. Tim Duncan put the boot into the visitors and mid quarter, Utah were scrabbling to maintain a 20 point deficit. The bottom line was though that the Jazz were trying to go one up on King Canute and it wasn't going to work. Twenty points became 25 points. The Spurs were wrapping up this win and leading by 83-56 and this was turning into a demo session.

In the words of the NBA TV commentators "the fourth quarter did not matter at all". OK, the Jazz outscored the Spurs within the actual quarter and went on to maintain a gap of 25 points but Brent Barry led the Spurs bench in making sure that the Spurs did not completly collapse! The home side won the game 109-84, the series 4-1 and after missing out last year, the Spurs are back in the NBA Finals and there is little to stop Tim Duncan from picking up another ring!

In the East, the action moved back to Detroit for Game 5. The Pistons ran the first quarter and built up a solid lead, with Richard Hamilton leading the way. The Cavs took a large bite of that lead in the second quarter, but the Pistons were still leading 52-51 at half time. The Cavs weren't going to let up though, and a Daniel Gibson three pointer tied the game with a quarter to go! The Cavs even led 81-78 in the middle of the 4th quarter only for first the Pistons to turn it round and build what looked like a more secure led and then the Cavs to reply and tie the game at 91 to force overtime!

Both sides took turns in the lead in overtime, the Pistons led before the Cavs replied to take a more solid lead only for the Pistons to come back down the stretch to tie the game at 100 and force a second overtime period! The second overtime period was always in a state of flux, Cavs opened the scoring, only for the Pistons to get the first solid lead of 107-104 before LeBron James hit a thre pointer to tie the game and then, just as the game looked to be going to tripple overtime, with two seconds on the clock, James drives it in! The Pistons could not reply! The Cavs won 109-107. This is the closest they have ever been to the NBA Finals and the second of the two regular season form teams look to be gonnas. Game 6 in Cleveland.

It could be awesome!

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