SAN ANTONIO, June 8, 2007 -- The questions the Cavaliers faced on Friday changed significantly from the happy-to-be-there fodder they were fed all week. Facing a 1-0 deficit after Thursday's 85-76 loss to San Antonio, a game that Cleveland forward Drew Gooden called their "worst game of the season," the questions became more specific and the lobs were now split-finger fastballs.

What happened in the third quarter?

What happened on the glass?

What's up with LeBron?

For the answers to those and other happenings we open up the first Cavs Notebook of The Finals...

After being second in the NBA in rebounding during the regular season by hauling in 43.5 boards per contest, and staying pretty consistent to that number by averaging 43.9 in the playoffs up to last night, the Cavs got bum-rushed on the boards by the Spurs who outrebounded them 43-32.

"We cannot afford to -- 13 offensive rebounds, that's not a huge number, but more -- the 19 second chance points in a game like 85 76, you know, it was probably -- that's a huge number," said Cleveland coach Mike Brown. "So we do have to do a better job of boxing out. And it was just their bigs were a little bit more physical than us and they went and got it. Not only that, they took some long shots that bounced long and their guards ended up getting, where our guards have to get those."

"There were a lot of long rebounds, I think that was the problem for us," echoed Anderson Varejao who pulled in four boards after averaging six rebounds per game over the first three rounds. "It's everybody. Everybody has to box out and everybody has to go to the ball better."

Take out the Spurs' 24-14 dominance in the third quarter and the Cavs actually won Game 1 by one point. (Then again, take out the fact that the George Costanza was short, stocky and lived with his parents and he was actually an eligible bachelor.)

Coming out of the locker room has been a problem for Cleveland all season, and it's not going to get any easier playing a team in the Spurs who relish going for the jugular after halftime.

"That's been our Achilles heel all year, that third quarter," said Drew Gooden who was the lone bright spot for Cleveland in the third as he scored 10 of his 14 points in the period.

"We've tried everything else; maybe we should go see a witch doctor or something. We've tried everything: coming out early, doing layups, anything we can do to get everybody focused on having a good third quarter. But I don't know what it is.

"When we do win that third-quarter battle, I think we're more successful in those games. We talked about it in the locker room, the third quarter for the Spurs, that's their quarter. So out of anybody, out of any team we played, this is a team that we don't want to slack in the third quarter because they'll take advantage of it."

It seemed like Cleveland had finally shaken out of its third-quarter slump at the end of the Pistons series. The Cavs were outscored by 53 points over six third quarters spanning from the middle of the Nets series to Game 4 vs. Detroit. Then LeBron had his magical Game 5 and the Cavaliers took care of business in Game 6, outscoring the Pistons 20-19 in the third quarter of both games.

This is Eric Snow's third NBA Finals. He was a member of the '96 Sonics and starting point guard on the '01 Sixers so he has seen the league's championship series grow over the years to include Larry O'Brien trophies popping up all over the place from being sewn into the players' jerseys to being a big sticker decal at center court.

"It's for the fans, I don't have a problem with it," Snow said.

Another Finals vet, Robert Horry of the Spurs, is aiming for his seventh ring and not only does he not have a problem with how The Finals have grown, but he appreciates it like a father who keeps his children's school portraits throughout the years in his wallet.

"It made me feel old and it makes you feel how times have changed," Horry said.

"You might have had a star or two come in and sing the national anthem, but now you have people stepping on trophies, smoke going up and then I think it was in 2000 when they started giving you trophies for winning the East and the West and I remembered it came out and I was like, 'What the hell is that?'

"I mean, you should get a trophy for winning the East and the West, because it's a hard task coming out of there. But it's just different.

"Now the international media has grown and the local media has shrunken because the international media is coming and they can only give out so many passes. But we have so many international players now and it's fun just to hear all the different questions come from the international people just because of their accents and they're asking you, 'OK, where are you from?' You don't get those type of questions anymore because everybody knows where you're from."

What about The Finals logo being etched into the basketballs that they play with?

"It's been on there before, but it hasn't been as big. It's getting bigger and bigger. It's fun. The trophy wasn't on the floor before when you had the NBA Finals, but it's changed. It's a great change and I love everything that they're doing. It lets you know how the league is growing and expanding and people are coming out from miles around, countries around, and saying, 'Hey, this is a great game so let's expand it and make it even better than what it is.'"

For players who are playing in their first Finals, such as the Cavs' Damon Jones, all of the little Larry O'Brien accents don't go unnoticed.

"Everybody, we were looking at the jerseys and the sweats and everything," Jones said. "It's just an exciting feeling. Being in The Finals, the Mecca of basketball. This thing right here is bigger than the All-Star game. I thought the All-Star game was hype, but this here is whoo! I love it."

Back-up center Dwayne Jones isn't on the active roster for the Spurs series, but that isn't stopping him from making the most of this experience.

"I'm definitely just looking at this and trying to take what I can for the future because I hope to be a part of this team in the near future, and I think we have a championship team," Jones said after saying that fellow St. Joseph's Hawk Jameer Nelson called him to congratulate him on making The Finals while his season in Orlando ended with the a first-round sweep by Detroit.

"Just seeing what it takes just to get here, I mean, we've been playing basketball basically for an extra two months and that's a lot of practice and a lot of preparation and you have to be more focused then because every game is so contested and so back-and-forth.

"We try to be as supportive as we can for the guys. We just try to cheer and talk to them when they come out and do things like that. For me and Shannon [Brown], especially, what we have to do is when we get our practice time is get the best we can out of practice and get the best out of the guys that we can because, you know, we are the opposing team during practice."

Read this quote by Drew Gooden and tell me if you think the Cavs aren't confident going into Game 2:

"I just think LeBron James has had success against Bruce Bowen in the past. Bruce Bowen is a great defender, but still, we shouldn't let that get in our head because there are other great defenders that I've seen LeBron James have 40 or 50 points on. I don't even want to get into that subject about Bruce Bowen and LeBron James' matchup because I feel like LeBron James can score on anybody."