King Kaufman's Sports Daily
NBA Finals: It's all over but the Cavs deciding how they want to lose a fourth game to the Spurs.
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June 13, 2007 | Sorry, San Antonio, the NBA Finals aren't coming back to town.
Not this year anyway. They might be back next year. And the year after that. Right now it's hard to imagine too many years in a row going by without the NBA Finals touching down in San Antone, although once upon a time that was true about Boston. And Los Angeles.
Remember all those Finals series between the Celtics and Lakers? Good times. What's your era? Magic vs. Bird? Wilt vs. Russell? Have you noticed I'm trying to avoid talking about Game 3 of the '07 Finals? Is that bad? What's your favorite color? You like burritos? Hey, there's a spider on my desk.
The Spurs beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 75-72 Tuesday night in Game 3, a game that featured one minute of excitement packed into 48 minutes of low-scoring, ugly torpor. The Spurs now lead the series 3-0, an advantage from which no NBA team has ever stumbled. And if ever a team is going to lose a 3-0 lead in a playoff series, it's probably not going to be these Spurs against these Cavaliers.
And yes I know I said that about the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in 2004. I stand before you -- actually, I'm sitting, but the spider's standing -- unafraid. Never mind coming back to take the series, I don't think the Cavs have it in them to put together the two-game winning streak it would take to force a trip back to Texas for Game 6.
The Cavaliers are just being outclassed by a team that can beat you any way you want to be beaten. Want to lose by playing fast or slow? Want to lose ugly? OK. Want to outplay them and still lose? Gotcha covered.
That's what happened Tuesday. The Cavaliers could have won Game 3. Not only did they have their chances at the end, they outplayed the Spurs in just about every way except the often-crucial practice of putting the ball through that metal hoop. The Spurs outshot the Cavs 41-37 percent, but the big difference came from beyond the arc. Both teams shot 19 3-pointers. The Spurs made 10, the Cavaliers three.
See ya. Thanks for playing. Would you like to see something in a double-overtime heartbreaker for Game 4? We have a lovely score-103-and-still-lose if you'd like to try that on. Perhaps a blown double-digit lead? Have it your way!
Cleveland did have a good chance at the end of this one when the game finally got exciting and a nation of dozens roused itself from puddles of drool. The Spurs' lead had accordioned between four and 10 points in the middle of the fourth quarter, and it was four when LeBron James hit a free throw with 5:28 to go to make it 67-63. Three minutes, 34 seconds later, the lead was still four.
The score: 67-63.
Next page: An astonishing display of bad ball. But it got better in the last minute