this nba finals is truly a bizarre thing, and i don't think the full impact of 4-7 spurs-cavs games has fully impacted me yet. regardless, i have a few posts lined up, so let's get started.

cleveland cavaliers
regular season: 50-32 (2nd in the east)
second season: 12-4

the cavs are dominated by one player unlike any other team right now. they are lebron james's team, we all know this. the other primary strength of this team is its fantastic defense and fantastically inconsistent non-lbj players.

guards: hughes, gibson, pavlovic, snow - snow is an incredibly effective one on one defender, but brings little else to the table. sasha pavlovic has basically disappeared since showing signs of life in april. gibson is the big story, as mike brown has been forced to play him with hughes's injury and sasha's ineffectiveness and, lo-and-behold, gibson has turned out to be very effective. hughes has impressed in the playoffs, first for showing the heart to play on the injured foot, and then for being somewhat effective in spurts against the pistons. his defense is underrated, i think, though he does take unfortunate risks at times. if hughes decides to attack the rim more and also gets the cavs offense started faster, the cavs could be very dangerous offensively.

forwards: james, gooden, varejao, marshall - let's start with the absolute crap: donyell marshall should stop shooting until he figures out what happened after the nets series. he has been pretty worthless offensively, but what he symbolizes is a small, fast, shooting lineup that has been effective for the cavs. replace him with gooden and see how the offense runs (gibson, hughes, lebron, gooden, AV). varejao (whose name i might be misspelling) has been pretty stellar in the 'big guy who gets under everyone's skin on the other team and also fights harder for rebounds than most.' unfortunately, he makes bad decisions and considers himself slightly better on offense than he actually is, which causes wasted possessions from time to time. when he doesn't try to create but instead feeds off of lbj, he is very effective. gooden needs to try harder on defense and generally needs to focus a little bit more. when he is focused, he is very dangerous, and much like AV he thrives off of chances created by lbj. there is nothing i can really say about lebron. in the last 4 games he has been something very close to unstoppable in either scoring or creating for his teammates.

center: ilgauskas - dude only plays in the first half anyway. i know he slows down the offense, but he's a force on the offensive glass and a major defensive presence, so he might get more minutes against the spurs, since a fast lineup may not be as effective against san antonio compared to how effective it was against detroit basketball.

how did they get here - trounced the hapless wizards, beat up on the nets once vince carter realized he sucks, beat the pistons 6-0 but unfortunately only got credit for a 4-2 series win. playing their best basketball of the season at the exact right time.


san antonio spurs
regular season: 58-24 (3rd in the west)
second season: 12-3

the spurs played the best team basketball post-ASB of any team in the nba. primary scorers are duncan, parker, ginobili, with michael finley also playing a large role. they are solid in every aspect of the game, but there are weaknesses to be exploited.

guards: parker, finley, ginobili, vaughn - i guess you can include brent barry in this list, and beno udrih if you feel very frisky, but neither of them get significant minutes. vaughn is good for nothing more than running the offense somewhat efficiently, missing open jumpers, and fouling the crap out of people on the defensive end. ginobili is impressive offensively where he will beat you with jumpers or by driving to the rim, but plays defense with his hands a little too much, which leads to silly fouls from time to time (a theme!). finley is not a strong individual defender either, but when his shot is on he is good for a quick offensive burst - especially working off of what duncan creates for him (another theme!). tony parker seems to relax on the defensive end too much, but he's opportunistic and a giant pain on offense where at times he can get to the rim at will. he will miss open jumpers more than he should.

forwards: duncan, bowen, horry - horry moves like an old man from time to time, but he is more than willing to jack up a three or two with more success than donyell marshall (otherwise, pretty similar players, but give me horry). bowen is the 'defensive master' and will be expected to shut down lebron james - i'm not holding my breath, because lebron is much, much stronger than any of the players that bowen does affect. tim duncan is playing some of the best basketball of his life on both ends of the floor, and it will take a herculean effort from the cavs big men to contain him without fouling out. if attacked enough on the defensive end, duncan will get in to foul trouble, which is the most effective way to take him out of a game. enter lbj.

centers: oberto, elson - elson is good for a few big dunks and 4 terrible fouls. oberto has become much more effective - he backtips loose balls (something AV is also very good at doing) and feeds off of duncan both directly and indirectly on the offensive end. on defense, he is a good rebounder but not much of a shot blocker. like everyone else on the spurs though, he is a good team defender.

how did they get here - lost game 1 to the nuggets, then reeled off 4 straight in impressive fashion. beat phoenix in 6 and were clearly the better team (i don't care what you say about game 5). destroyed the jazz in 5, clearly taking the one game they lost off.

i'll write more about how the cavs and spurs match up in my next post.

UPDATE: i understated Z's playing time - geoff points out to me that it correlates pretty strongly to how well he's shooting, and he (Z, not geoff) played more in the detroit series than i realized. geoff also thinks i overstate how good hughes is, which is probably true.