Sports Cipher

Heat vs. Spurs: Who Will Take the Title?

A Sweep? No. Not even a possibility in this series between these two teams.

The San Antonio Spurs, the Western Conference Champions, have been waiting over a week to find out who they have to defeat for the title. Hope they’ve been eating their Wheaties because they will be facing the Miami Heat. Game 1 of the NBA Finals starts Thursday, June 6 at 9 p.m. on ABC.

The big debate is how long the series will go on for. The Spurs surprisingly swept the Memphis Grizzlies. After how well they played against the NBA Finals Finalists, Oklahoma City Thunder, nobody saw that coming. However, the Heat took their series to the opposite end of the spectrum. They defeated the resilient Indiana Pacers in a blowout Game 7, 99-76.

Now it’s picking time. The Spurs will be the 2013 World Champions beating the defending champs in six. Spurs will take Game 1. Heat will take Game 2 at home. Spurs will take Game 3 at home. Heat will take Game 4. Spurs will take Games 5 at home and 6 away.

There’s a lot of criticism against those who bet against best basketball player of this generation, PF Lebron James. He’s an absolute beast and he hasn’t even reached his peak in the game of basketball. James is officially on top of the world and a second ring would be a perfect ending to the year he has had.

One thing that isn’t up for debate is the performance of his co-stars of the Miami Heat’s Big Three Show: SG Dwayne Wade and C Chris Bosh.

The world saw uncharacteristic performances from Bosh and Wade throughout the entire series. So uncharacteristic, social media started nicknaming the team the “Miami Cavaliers” in reference to Lebron doing all the work. He even said so himself.

“Obviously, we’re a much better team when we have everyone clicking at the same time,” James said with the NY Times. “We’ve had more games where everyone was clicking than not so. It just happened that this series, guys were just not in a rhythm, not feeling like themselves.”

What James is alluding to is Wade’s knee issues and Bosh’s struggle. The Big Three isn’t in sync. Lebron could take on the Spurs by himself but that’s not ideal in the Heat’s mind.

“We wasn’t going to win this game with just LeBron being amazing tonight,” Wade said with the NY Times. “He’s been amazing, but we need timely scores, we needed everyone to be really involved.”

With all the talk of what the Heat has to do to win, we can’t forget the elephant in the room. There’s a possibility the Spurs won’t be the same team after this series. PF Tim Duncan could retire at the end of the season. Unlike this week’s retirees’ Jason Kidd and Grant Hill, Duncan hopes to get one last ring. To get his ring he’s going to have to leave it all on the floor alongside SG Manu Ginobili and PG Tony Parker.

Down to business, the San Antonio Spurs have lost both regular season games against the Miami Heat, making them 0-2. However, both super close games. The first in November away was a 105-100 loss. The second in March Spurs lost at home was 88-86. Unfortunately, these two games were unique. Not all of the super star power on each roster played.

On November 29, Spurs head coach Greg Popovich made an eye-opening decision to sit Parker, Ginobili, and Duncan. His guys had come off a whirlwind of a road trip winning 5-6 games away losing only to the Heat. You think, “That’s no excuse. The other guys could have handled it.” Wrong. At this point, Kawhi Leonard path to superstardom was interrupted by injury while Tiago Splitter was still developing his powerful game he plays with today. The Spurs managed not to struggle too much with their playmakers on the bench. PF Matt Bonner stepped up his game and Tony Parker’s backup Gary Neal scored a team-high of 20 points.

On March 31, James and Wade sat out due to sprains on their right sides; James in the hamstring and Wade in the ankle. For the Spurs, Ginobili was out on injury at this point.

Bad thing about the Spurs is their depth’s ability to play without their superstars. Its bench isn’t as good as the Heat’s is. It might pose a problem since the Heat are “White Hot” and hungry for the next title. There’s no way a Spurs bench can beat a Heat starting lineup. The good thing for the Spurs is there will be no sitting of its “Big Three.” Along with Leonard the Spurs get it done, consistently holding the leading record in the Western Conference all season. For the Spurs if everyone is healthy then they can take it. All of the pressure of playing their last games together with Duncan may be enough to push them past Tony Parker’s ball handling, Ginobili’s playmaking skills, and Leonard’s quickness.

Can Wade remain healthy? If not the Heat won’t will the title. Say Bosh continues to struggle; the load will fall heavily onto James. If James wanted to be a Cleveland Cavalier, I’m sure he would’ve never left. He choose the Heat because he wanted to be apart of the winning team not BE the winning team. There are so many questions but only one team will give the world an answer to who the 2013 NBA Champion will be.

Credit: NYTimes.com for Quotes Used
Photo credit: Sport24.com