Why It's Not Over
The series resumes Tuesday night in Cleveland, the same place where just two weeks ago we saw the Cavs enter a Game 3 down 2-0.
They didn't look quite anywhere near as dead at that point against the Pistons as they do right now, but the important thing to remember is this:
They weren't dead then, and they're not dead now. They may be on life support with a pulse rate of 30 and a respirator hooked up to their lungs, but they ain't dead.
And the coroner really can't be put on full alert until Tuesday night has come and gone and we know whether this thing stands 3-0 or 2-1.
"It's hard to eliminate anybody in any round of the playoffs, and I think as each round continues it's progressively tougher," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said afterward. "We don't think about sweeps or anything like that. We always plan for a long, drawn-out seven-game series. If a series ends up not being that, that's great. But we plan for seven all the time."
Not to rain on the Spurs' parade (has it been tentatively scheduled for Friday yet?) too much, but a little history lesson is in order here.
It was only two years ago that the NBA Finals were this much of a mismatch after only two games, San Antonio having beaten the Detroit Pistons by 15 points in Game 1 and 21 points in Game 2. But when the series shifted to Detroit and the Pistons were surrounded by the comforts of home, they rallied in a huge way, winning Game 3 by 17 and Game 4 by 31, and it finally became a compelling series in Games 5, 6 and 7.
So although it seems like this series is done -- and boy did it look done after LeBron James went to the bench less than 3 minutes in Sunday and Tony Parker kept getting into the lane and converting (30 points on 13-for-20 shooting) _ no series is ever done after just two games.
You probably missed it if you turned this one off before the fourth quarter began, but Cleveland outscored San Antonio 30-14 over the final 12 minutes, cutting a deficit that was as large as 29 all the way down to eight behind nine points from Daniel Gibson and eight from James.
So there was a pulse beating there, no matter how faint it seemed in the first three quarters. And there was a surge by the Cavs, never mind it was the textbook definition of too little, too late.
So there may just be some life left in the team from Cleveland, and again, one game is only one game, which is why the NBA does not have a mercy rule. They're going to keep playing this thing until it's done.
"The bottom line," Cavs coach Mike Brown said, "is one game and one day at a time."
Nothing absurd about that. But let's wait and see if the Cavs are mentally tough enough to realize that a title is still within their reach, no matter how unlikely that prospect seemed Sunday night. This version of the NBA Finals will not be a laughing matter if Cleveland can do in 2007 what Detroit did in 2005.
-- Chris Sheridan in San Antonio
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