NBA Finals

Bulls.com

Michael Jordan came sprinting and bouncing through the door first, pumping his fist. His smile seemed to me more about satisfaction than accomplishment.

Magic was in the Air, but Michael Jordan had taken the air out of Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers. No one realized quite yet, but the tectonic plates of NBA distinction had shifted irrevocably. Their joy was unrestrained, which is predictable at such moments as many in sports have experienced. Yet, it also seemed as much therapeutic for all the hurt and pain it seemed to erase.

A gleeful Jerry Krause even hugged me. That's the definition of euphoria.

That was the night in Los Angeles thirty years ago Saturday—June 12—when the Bulls won their first NBA championship.

Not that anyone really expected much more than one. And certainly not the dynasty the Bulls became.

That's where it began, and I was happy to be there. The NBA a few years before had started to invite the traveling beat reporters and some local and national media into the locker room as time expired in the closing Finals game so we could witness that tsunami of emption and celebration. And get our clothes wet from Champagne spray. I probably should have saved that vest sweater for auction.

No, that's not Champagne, that's a Michael Jordan tear drop.

Michael Jordan, surrounded by his family and the media, is interviewed by Bob Costas after the Chicago Bulls secured their first NBA title in 1991.

We've seen the picture many times of Jordan, his then wife Juanita to his left, cradling the championship trophy in his right hand while being interviewed by Bob Costas for NBC, his parents in the foreground. I was standing just to Jordan's left behind Juanita, leaning down mostly out of camera view to hear the historic comments we know always come from locker room celebrations. The reporter in the middle of it directly behind Jordan literally standing in Jordan's locker was Mike Downey, then a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and later the Chicago Tribune. He was also known as the husband Dean Martin's daughter, so he understood better than the rest of us where the camera would be for posterity.

Jordan was telling Costas he always competed for and sought this title, but if he never achieved his goal he would not be disappointed with his career. I'm glad I wasn't on camera to be seen rolling my eyes.

Jordan had just played all 48 minutes of the Game 5 clincher after 52 minutes in the pivotal Game 3 overtime win during which Jordan suffered a toe injury and then 44 minutes in Game 4. Players apparently didn't get as fatigued back then.

I never get tired thinking about that night and that week and that season.

Front row (left to right): Craig Hodges, John Paxson, Horace Grant, Bill Cartwright, Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan, B. J. Armstrong. Second row: Chip Schaefer (Trainer), Cliff Levingston, Scott Williams, Will Perdue , Stacey King, Dennis Hopson, Jerry Krause (Vice President of Basketball Operations). Back Row: Jim Cleamons (Asst. Coach, Tex Winter (Asst. Coach), Phil Jackson (Head Coach), John Bach (Asst. Coach), Jim Stack (Scout) and Clarence Gaines Jr. (Scout)

Fans often ask me which championship season was my favorite. There's never hesitation about it being 1991, and not only because it was the first. I also believed it was the Bulls best team among the six championships because of the youth, athletic abilities and tenacity of the Big Three of Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant. But also because of the depth of the reserves that was so crucial in the victory over the Lakers when even as Jordan, Pippen and Grant played so much, reserves like Cliff Levingston, Scott Williams and Craig Hodges repeatedly made big plays and outperformed the Lakers bench. Their bandwidth seemed so much greater than the Lakers, at least to me. And to many around that team. Were we just Homers? Or seeing that they were ready to cross home plate?

It would be the wellspring of athletic brilliance and legacy.

Everyone generally remembers their firsts. But as consequential as this was, it was equally unexpected. Especially to the Bulls.

It seems so unlikely now because the Bulls did win six championships in the 1990s, every year Jordan played a full season. People and especially sports fans and media tend to maintain this ordained belief, that if something occurred it also was destined, a basketball tautology. They won because they were the best and the best wins.

Even the Bulls didn't believe they were the best that season. They believed they were better than the Detroit Pistons, who'd knocked them out of the playoffs the last three years, and often embarrassingly so. But they still had to prove it. To everyone else. And really to themselves, as well.

The accepted formula for ultimate NBA success back then was experiencing defeat, learning from it, as the tired cliche went, and then winning. It was the league's ascendancy labyrinth. Like the Celtics performed in 1980 to the Lakers, the 76ers for six years until 1983, the Pistons to the Celtics in 1989. And now it was the Portland Trailblazers' turn. Portland lost to the Pistons in the 1990 Finals and then began the 1990-91 season with 11 straight wins and a 19-1 first six weeks.

The Bulls, as we saw reiterated in the Last Dance documentary last year, were obsessed with the Pistons. I remember when the team went into Detroit for the first time that 1990-91 season just before Christmas. They were much more feckless than fearless in a double digit loss. It did seem like they'd be broken up after that season. Jordan was growing more frustrated with Pippen and Grant and their apparently inability to match Detroit's tenacious tactics. They seemed not to be growing as much as melting in that competitive incubator. Jordan was discussing replacements. When the team just before the All-Star break returned to the Palace at Auburn Hills and won, they talked about it being a breakthrough with their first road win against those Pistons. I didn't see it that way since Isiah Thomas was out injured. But if it's your story, you can tell it your way.

It seemed more like an ember; it became a flash point.

Scottie Pippen being defended by Pistons forward Dennis Rodman, who would later be an integral piece of the Bulls dynasty.

But when the Bulls returned from that All-Star break still with just one All-Star while the Celtics had three and the Pistons, 76ers and Bucks two each, it was the Bulls who seemed like a different team. That win in Detroit somehow did appear profound. They played with a purpose and poise I hadn't really seen before.

Because of Pippen and Grant, they were the least experienced among the East's best. But they were the most athletic, and that threesome flying around the court, trapping, pressuring and running was exhausting the other teams.

The Bulls won nine straight and 17 of 18, and hiding in plain sight they had become the second half Trailblazers team that began the season 19-1. But images and ideas often are fixed on first glance. And so the NBA had made up its mind even as the Bulls were 29-7 after the All-Star break.

Then the Bulls opened the playoffs beating the Knicks by 41 points to start the three-game sweep, took Charles Barkley and the 76ers in five games and famously and infamously swept the Pistons into their elaborate and premature perambulation. That made it 41-8. To me, that was magic. Not Magic.

The ritualistic media exercise before any of these series, especially back then, was to analyze position by position and predict a winner. I knew even living so sheltered in Chicago, as the West Coast glitterati saw it, that the Lakers had a lot of championships and Magic Johnson and James Worthy and famous fans. But I really did believe the Bulls were better. Not just because of Jordan as most media focused on the Jordan/Johnson confluence.

Jordan and Johnson really weren't great friends yet as much as they would become because Johnson was so often featured favorably in comparison to the high scoring, frequent shooting Jordan as the model basketball player. Sure, the narrative went, you can score and beat him one-on-one. But Magic checked all the banal boxes, played the right way, made teammates better. It just made Jordan so mad! Plus, if that wasn't bad enough, Johnson was buddies with Isiah Thomas, though that relationship was fracturing with their Finals opposition. Still, Isiah! And they called Rodman the Worm?

The Lakers were broken down, though no one realized how much at the time. They weren't supposed to be there, actually, but pulled a surprise upset of the Trailblazers in the conference finals. The next three seasons they would not finish higher than eighth. Of course, that became without Johnson.

But I believed that Bulls secret weapon of defense—which wasn't secret to those of us around the team all season—would be too much for the slower, aged Lakers. Those Bulls might have been the best defensive team in the history of the NBA, though no one ever mentioned it. Jordan was a former Defensive Player of the Year and regarded as the league's best defensive guard. Pippen was soon to be recognized as the league's best defensive wing player and may be the best defensive perimeter player in league history. Without advance notice, you're always a year late for recognition. No one said it then. They did by the close of the 1992 Olympics. Grant was probably the most athletic defensive power forward in the game. Coach Phil Jackson had those three trapping and sprinting and pressuring. And for all the attention on Jordan's ubiquitous scoring, the Bulls were dominating teams with defense.

So I picked Pippen over Worthy and Grant over Sam Perkins to make a point and selected Bulls in 5.

This is not to say I know how these things, often so quixotic, will conclude. I get as many wrong as I do correct. Like everyone else. We're around the game all the time. But it doesn't mean we know what will happen. If we did, the betting sites would make me a billionaire. I always would say if I knew what was going to happen, I'd just live in Vegas. When that was where you had to go if you were a wiser guy.

I merely wanted to make a point about how good I thought those Bulls were.

Though in a series one or two plays can change everything.

I remember running into some Bulls staffers after Game 3 in the parking lot outside the Forum. They were giddy and celebrating. Great overtime win, I agreed. Sure, they said, but now this meant the series would return to Chicago. Yes, they were just hoping not to be swept in LA.

And suddenly my five-game Bulls win prediction was a story.

How dare I! After all, this was the mighty Lakers!

The Los Angeles media, often adopting a Hollywood tone, tends to be dismissive in a condescending way. Like life in LA. They often seemed to prefer to treat newspaper stories like motion picture treatments. You know, I could be writing Citizen Kane if I wanted to. They go to the beach while the rest of us are cowering in our offices, reluctant to face the biting elements to fight our way home. They wake late and party late, and invent everything. And then they tend to be especially disdainful of the Midwest. I recall reading Mayberry often instead of Chicago.

There also was an egotistical national sports media experiment at the time led by Frank Deford from Sports Illustrated fame. He was hired to lead an all sports daily superstar newspaper of supposed superior quality with only the best writers. Of course, the rest of us who weren't included were resentful, especially with the new paper's similar patronizing tone. And so as the Finals series began, both the LA Times and the National were writing stories about how ill-informed, dysfunctional and chauvinistic the Chicago media was by thinking the Bulls could win. And especially me. And in five games!

One National column was about how I needed to be fired if that was my knowledge of the NBA. You always hate to see colleagues lose their jobs, though I have to admit I wasn't that depressed when the National went out of business on the day the Bulls won Game 5. I know, but I couldn't ignore the coincidence.

Hey, I was just making a guess and a point. Who takes this so seriously?

So back to Game 1, Perkins in his attempt to make a shot to tie the score got confused and stepped behind the three-point line. He converted what became the winning points when Jordan's fatal final attempt bounced in and out.

The local Chicago media worked in the hockey press box in the old Chicago Stadium, which was an overhang at the East Side of the arena. Brian McIntyre, the NBA's chief pr executive and former lead Bulls media staffer, was walking out of the Stadium just below where I was working. "You're right on target for five," he said with a hearty laugh.

Earlier I had been down to the locker rooms, which were a floor below the basketball court in that old building. Later after the interviews, I found Jackson in one of the corner rabbit warrens in the basement maze of the old building. Jackson always would retreat to one of those spots after a game to drink a beer and smoke a cigarette. "Tough one," I said. Jackson smiled. "It was a great game," he said.

He didn't elaborate much, but it seemed like the loss gave him confidence. That's it? That's all they've got? The great Lakers?

His eyes seemed to say it. Or was it the haze and rat poison left in the wall cracks?

Michael Jordan looks up at head coach Phil Jackson during the 1991 NBA Finals.

Game 2 became a rout for the Bulls, completed with Jordan's famous switch hand layup after the Bulls had long broken open the game with 12 straight field goals in a game Jordan made 13 consecutive shots. You still can't watch an NBA commercial without hearing Marv Albert's famous call, a spectacular shot by Michael Jordan! It was that 13th straight field goal.

That also was the game that began Johnson's decline. His exhaustion seemed to grow game to game as we attributed it to Jackson's strategy after Game 1 to alternate Pippen defending Johnson with Jordan. Jordan defended Johnson in Game 1, but Jackson went to the taller and longer Pippen in Game 2, and then toggled between the two as the games progressed. Johnson attempted to rest on defense by playing against John Paxson. But Paxson had the series of his career, shooting 65 percent with all the open space as Johnson often attempted to help on Jordan. Paxson in the series attempted just four three pointers and the Bulls attempted just 21 in the five games combined.

Johnson had this hollow look of fatigue and defeat as the series continued. No one ever speculated just a few months later he'd be announcing his retirement because of HIV.

Jordan made another Shot in the Game 3 crucible which set the Bulls on course to the title.

The Lakers, back home for Game 3, hit the Bulls with an 18-2 run after halftime and a 13-point lead before the Bulls crawled back into the game. But Vlade Divac, stumbling with a loose ball, gathered it and scored for a three-point play and 92-90 lead with 10.9 seconds left. It seemed like a 2-1 Lakers lead to come and maybe the start of a sweep.

Jackson chose after a timeout to allow Jordan to dribble up full court. Jordan dashed to the right elbow before the Lakers could set and made a jumper with 3.4 seconds left to tie the game. Then the Lakers didn't get off a shot. Though Jordan played 52 minutes and scored 29 points, he was just 11 of 28 and scoreless most of the second half until that last shot. He made The Shot. Not many others. Cliff Levingston had a big game with Pippen in foul trouble and Grant scored the last two baskets of overtime and had 22 points and 11 rebounds.

The home court guard rail was becoming a third rail for the Lakers.

The story coming into Game 4 was Jordan's jammed toe from Game 3. But it was mostly the Bulls jamming up Johnson with the Pippen/Jordan tag team. Indicative was one possession when the Lakers tried to post Johnson and Jordan and Pippen squeezed him into a 24-second clock violation. It got to a point that the Lakers had to have Worthy in the backcourt to set screens so Johnson could dribble into the front court. Yes, that Magic Johnson. The Lakers bench was invisible and with a few minutes left in the game, once self-assured fans were heading for the beach; it was garbage time with bench players in the last three minutes of a Finals game. Jordan still played 44 minutes with continued acceleration.

Jordan and Pippen took turns being the primary defender against Magic Johnson in the 1991 Finals.

It was 3-1 Bulls and it now seemed there was no way the Lakers could recover with both Worthy and Byron Scott out injured for Game 5.

The Lakers never seemed to play with much energy or panache most of the series. But the suddenly patchwork Lakers gave it more of a try. The usually late arriving fans were involved from the start, chanting defense from the first possession. They seemed somewhat less contemptuous of Chicago. Lakers rookies Tony Smith and Elden Campbell played most of the game on a two-player bench. Terry Teagle started for the Lakers. Magic did get 20 assists, and the Lakers were tied with six minutes left. Could it be? Suspense? Nah.

Jackson told me later that summer about that famous timeout with about six minutes left when he asked a jittery Jordan who was open. Paxson then closed out the first championship in the Bulls 25th anniversary season with a shooting performance that should endear him to Chicago forever. Few in the history of the city's sports have done more at a more significant time.

With seconds left in the game and the result effectively determined, Johnson eased up court and attempted a last long shot. Jordan blocked it. Take that!

Pippen picked up the loose ball and bounced out the last few seconds with his right hand raised in triumph in the closing scene we often see. There were no post game congratulations in court among the opponents. It wasn't done much in that era, and fans spilled onto the court and circled the Bulls triumphant players like one of those scenes from the end of the British Open golf tournaments. Fans could be trusted a bit more back then. Jack Nicholson shook Jackson's hand as he left the court. Phil didn't seem impressed. Johnson did shake hands with some Bulls players and coaches in the narrow hallway the two teams shared in the Forum on the way to the locker rooms.

Albert and Mike Fratello as the game ended were discussing the national surprise of the Bulls win and Jordan finally answering those questions about whether a team ever could win with a player who scored so much. No one asked that question again.

Magic Johnson embraces Michael Jordan in the locker room following the 1991 Finals

Jordan immediately sunk to the floor upon entering the locker room, seemingly to hide some emotions. The burden of expectations and ambition had been weighing on Jordan for many years like the Bulls Atlas he was. He carried the cargo of a franchise. Now his celestial presence would be earned. The players quickly gathered in a circle for a prayer, one of their regular post game customs. Though there was some Champagne spraying around this time. Another was to cross off the number left to a title.

Starting in Game 1 back against New York, the Bulls had a row of numbers in a countdown on the locker room chalkboard. It was usually Craig Hodges crossing a line through a number after each win. "Hodgy," Jerry Krause was shouting. Hodges crossed off the last number 1. Krause gave Hodges a long embrace.

Johnson came to the locker room door, where he congratulated Jordan. There didn't appear to be a torch in his hand.

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Sam Smith reflects on 30-year anniversary of the Bulls' first NBA title

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The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Chicago Bulls. All opinions expressed by Sam Smith are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Chicago Bulls or its Basketball Operations staff, parent company, partners, or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Bulls and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.

That was too easy, but will it be worth the wait?

It really should be as the Cleveland Cavaliers with the generally recognized best player in the game in LeBron James face the league’s winningest team with the MVP, Stephen Curry. It’s as classic as you can get for an NBA championship. It starts 8 p.m. Thursday on ABC.

The two teams have been so dominant in the playoffs that it’s resulted in the longest ever break for two teams between the end of the conference finals and the start of the NBA Finals, seven days off. The NBA establishes a Finals date and given travel and housing arrangements for the thousands of media and fans coming from around the world it’s too difficult to change dates, much like a Super Bowl. Though it hasn’t been uncommon for teams in the last decade to have five off days before the start of the Finals. The champion Bulls once had eight off days when in 1996 they swept the Magic and made Shaq scared to play while Seattle went seven games with Utah. The Bulls closed on May 27 and the Finals began June 5.

The Bulls then won the first three games of the Finals, the narrative then being rest is good. Rest, however, is bad when you lose.

No excuses this time as both teams pretty much got the same time off with Golden State closing out Houston May 27, a day after the Cavs sweep. It’s given Klay Thompson enough time to recover from a concussion in the last game while the Cavs got additional rest for Kyrie Irving, though Irving said he’s still not near recovered from lower extremity ills.

Though none of that should take away from the dominant theme which seems to favor the Warriors: Is it better to have the best player or the best team?

History generally favors the best team theory, like last season when the San Antonio Spurs smothered James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat. When Miami beat the Spurs in 2013, the Heat also were the winningest team with the best player.

The Warriors come in with the league’s best regular season record of 67-15 and 12-3 in the playoffs for a remarkable 79-18. The Cavs were 53-29 in the regular season and 12-2 in the playoffs with sweeps over Boston and Atlanta. LeBron James is giving Oscar Robertson’s marks a run, averaging 27.6 points, 10.4 rebounds and 8.3 assists in the playoffs in one dominant performance after another. And that’s with shooting under 20 percent on threes. Imagine if he could make shots.

The history of these sorts of matchups greatly favors the more well balanced team, which suggests Golden State.

In 1964, Wilt Chamberlain was the dominant player of the era, but his then San Francisco Warriors lost to the Hall of Fame laden Boston Celtics. Boston was just a 48-win team in 1969, however, so not the best in Bill Russell’s last season when they defeated Wilt and the Lakers by a basket in Game 7.

In 1970, it was the quintessential team as the New York Knicks with their balanced attack defeated the Lakers with Wilt and Jerry West. The Knicks also did in 1973, but it was the Lakers with more wins. And Wilt wasn’t the dominant scorer any longer.

The 1974 Boston Celtics with Dave Cowens were a vintage team to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks with the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, though the Bucks also had a better record. There was no true one dominant player above the others in the 1980s with Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Julius Erving and Moses Malone.

Then the Bulls dynasty teams of the 1990s generally had the better record along with having the dominant player in Michael Jordan. In 1993, the Phoenix Suns had the best record. But it would be difficult to suggest the Suns were a better overall team given Dan Majerle was their second leading scorer.

Then it was on to 2007 with James the league’s best player and the Spurs team dominating in the Finals.

In 2008, the more versatile Boston Celtics team defeated the Lakers with the best player in Kobe Bryant. In 2010 when the Lakers defeated the Celtics, the Lakers also were the better all around team.

The best team generally beats the best player.

Unless the best player’s team has been the more dominant team that season.

This Finals also is the return to the 2-2-1-1-1 format.

The Finals schedule is Thursday-Sunday-Tuesday. There are two-day breaks between—if necessary, of course, and we hope—Game 4 and Game 5 and Game 6 and Game 7. Those are both travel periods, so the change of cities at the end should not become an issue.

The teams met twice in the regular season with little to be gleaned at this time, the last meeting Feb. 26. Though it was a James statement of sorts with Curry the frontrunner for MVP. James scored a season high 42 points in a 110-99 Cavs runaway that even had Brendan Haywood and Joe Harris playing. Curry and Klay Thompson combined for 31 points on 10 of 30 shooting while Irving had 24. A month before on Jan. 9 in Oakland, Curry and Thompson combined for 47 points in a 112-94 Golden State victory. James, however, didn’t play as he was on his two-week mid season hiatus in Florida. J.R. Smith led the Cavs that game with 27.

The Cavs have morphed a few times this season, first with major trades for Timofey Mozgov, Iman Shumpert and Smith and then with Kevin Love being injured in the first round series against Boston. After a brain cramp of starting James Jones against the Bulls in Game 1 of the conference semifinals, the Cavs went with Tristan Thompson, an impressive offensive rebounder. It’s made the Cavs a much better defensive team, though everything revolves around James on the offensive end. Many view the health of Irving as a deciding factor given his ability to be a high level scorer who can make his own plays.

The Warriors bring the essence of the game with the spectacular shooting backcourt, though Thompson has been inconsistent in the playoffs. They’re the new fun-to-watch version of last season’s Spurs with active ball movement, player movement, unselfish play and hustling defense. Their home court advantage, where they are 46-3 this season, has been the best in the game. They have the home court advantage to start the series by virtue of the better regular season record.

It’s also the Warriors with their 40-year championship drought and the Cavs without a title and Cleveland not celebrating since the Browns in 1964. There’s James playing in his fifth consecutive Finals and every Warriors player in his first. And the rookie coaches, though Cleveland’s David Blatt pretty much bristles about that with his international coaching resume.

The matchups with be evolving and changing like most in these playoffs and the NBA these days. Both teams like to go to small lineups, the Warriors especially to enhance their shooting and switching defenses. And James will pretty much move around and play different players. Though the Cavs do like to “rest” him on a weak offensive player at times, that will be difficult with the Warriors varied offense.

It finally begins Thursday, and it should be worth the wait.

Cleveland Cavaliers 53-29 (12-2) vs Golden State Warriors 67-15 (12-3)

Point Guard: Kyrie Irving vs Stephen Curry

It’s going to be difficult for Irving to chase around Curry with Irving’s knee problems, which flared up during the Bulls series. Irving still is the Cavs second leading scorer at 18.7 per game and shooting 48 percent on threes. So he can make a difference. But it’s tough to find a weak offensive player for him to defend. Draymond Green, for example, would just bull him into the post. Shooting guard Iman Shumpert probably will defend Curry often, though Thompson is too physical for Irving. Curry is averaging 29.2 in the playoffs and is likely voted the player most want to watch with his trick dribbling and quick draw shooting. And then bringing his daughter to the post game interviews. But look out Curry? Matthew “the battering ram” Dellavedova is in reserve and he’s already taken a few guys out of these playoffs.

Shooting Guard: Iman Shumpert vs Klay Thompson

Though Thompson hasn’t been spectacular, like his 37-point quarter this season, he’s averaging 19.7 in the playoffs. There are few backcourts that matchup with them, anyway. Shumpert is probably the Cavs best perimeter defender unless LeBron wants to try, though with Irving ailing they need his offense too much to ask him to constantly defend one of the “Splash Brothers” guards. Shumpert has come from Knicks purgatory with Smith to average 10.1 points in the playoffs and make some timely threes against the Bulls in the only series the Cavs were challenged.

Small Forward: LeBron James vs Harrison Barnes

James played Mike Dunleavy extensively against the Bulls and probably will remain on Barnes. Barnes probably will start on James, but James will see different defenders, like Andre Iguodala and Draymond Green. Though Jimmy Butler did as good as he could against James, it’s more advisable to show him different looks. Also, you don’t want to double team James as his court vision and sense is as good as anyone’s in the game. The Cavs are at their best when they can get scoring elsewhere. You almost want to ask James to get 40. Of course, when he did in February the Cavs beat up the Warriors. As there are no ready solutions for Curry and Thompson, there are none for James. The Cavs need his three-point shot to return. The Cavs could try to put their weakest defender in Irving on Barnes to try to force the Warriors to adjust and go to Barnes with the mismatch, which isn’t their philosophy. It’s unlikely they’d fall for that sort of trap.

Kidding, LeBron. Wanted to make sure you still were playing attention.

Power Forward: Tristan Thompson vs Draymond Green

The Cavs have become a tougher team with Thompson at power forward, but he has basically no offensive game other than the offensive boards. He goes hard and is effective, but the Warriors will come flying out with rebounds with almost anyone dribbling out and passing ahead and it’s trouble if Thompson is caught back. The Cavs will go with James often at power forward to open the court and provide more speed. Green has been the Warriors’ Swiss Army knife from Saginaw, able to switch and defend just about every position. His three-point shooting has been down in the playoffs. But he’s second to Curry in assists and keeps the ball moving in the pivotal move coach Steve Kerr made in starting him over David Lee, who rarely plays anymore. He could take Thompson away from the basket, changing the Cavs’ front court and maybe with LeBron then defending him.

Bogut doesn’t even look to score with all the acts going on in the Warriors offense. But he will be a good counter for the physical Mozgov. It’s probably as motivated about basketball the indifferent Bogut ever has been. He’s a good shot blocker and adequate passer and should be able to offset some of the pick and roll James likes to run with Mozgov. Mozgov was an emergency addition when Anderson Varejao was injured, but Mozgov fits better with his more physical style and ability to make a short jumper.

Matthew Dellavedova, J.R. Smith and James Jones against Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, Leandro Barbosa, Festus Ezeli and perhaps a return of Marreese Speights. This is a tough one for the Cavs and where the loss of Love hurts so much as their veteran backups like Shawn Marion and Mike Miller have pretty much dried up. Their X-factor is Smith and his threes, which are going up guarded or not, needed or not. The Warriors go deep into their bench for a playoff team with players flying into the game and pushing the ball, which has to be wearing for the Cavs. Ezeli is an underrated big man with skill and Iguodala would start for most NBA teams, including the Cavs.

Blatt was moments from infamy with the famed Game 4 timeout the refs didn’t see against the Bulls that could have made that series 3-1 Bulls and saved the job of Tom Thibodeau. That’s how little difference there can be between greatness and bitterness. Blatt has been under scrutiny and condemnation, as coaches often are with James around since he gets a lot of credit. But Blatt has basically handled himself well and proved to be a good NBA coach. He’s not quite the offensive genius as advertised, but who is besides guys like Curry? Kerr has been the new coaching rage of the NBA, the model for the Bulls’ hiring of Fred Hoiberg, a young, personable and innovative alchemist who has been able to turn the steel of a strong team into the gold of a true title contender.

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Sam Smith's NBA Finals Preview

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The NBA is the league of dynasties. In the 1960’s, it was the Boston Celtics; there was none in the 1970’s. In the 1980’s it was the Celtics/Los Angeles Lakers; in the 1990’s, it was the Bulls. And in the last decade it’s been the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat, who have been the teams of the 21st century.

Ok, along with the early 2000's Lakers. But the Spurs and Heat are now. They have combined for six titles in the last 11 seasons, making them the elite teams of the new millennium. And they’ll add yet another title in the next two weeks as the Spurs and Heat open the NBA Finals Thursday (8:00 p.m. CT | ABC) and will make it a combined seven championships in the last 12 years.

For this era, and just about any other, that’s dominance.

It’s not quite as celebrated as it was previously.

No team ever has been quite as supreme as Bill Russell’s Celtics, who won 11 titles between 1957 and 1969. In the 1970’s, the Knicks and Celtics each won a pair of championships, but no true rivalries emerged like it did in the 1980’s with the Celtics and Lakers splitting eight titles between 1980 and 1988. Then it was Michael Jordan’s Bulls with six titles in eight years in the 1990’s.

There are not supposed to be dynasties and rivalries any longer. But this Finals is the first back to back since the Bulls and Jazz in 1997 and 1998. And even though the Spurs and Heat have not met previously in the Finals, they have emerged as the predominant teams in their conference for the last decade.

It’s with grudging respect for the Spurs, often accused of being uninteresting. Though that’s more a product of their laconic star, Tim Duncan, who has been something of an efficient machine under coach Gregg Popovich with five Finals appearances and four wins since 1999. The Heat have been the stars of every Finals they’ve been in with LeBron James, now their fourth consecutive and the first time a team has done that since Boston from 1984 through 1987. Only those 1960’s Celtics previously had accomplished that. Though the 1960’s Lakers were in eight Finals in 11 years into the early 1970’s, losing all but one.

Are the Spurs a dynasty? They have never won consecutive titles.

Is the Heat a dynasty? This would be three straight if they win, though the Bulls weren’t a dynasty until they won three straight twice.

But this is as close to basketball royalty as the NBA has to offer anymore, the stubborn Spurs and the smokin’ Heat. The irony is the supposedly dull Spurs play at a much more wide open, faster pace with higher scoring than Miami. But the Heat has the ultimate star of the game, LeBron James, who is the elite player of the era and the biggest star.

It makes this series a tough one to call.

The conventional wisdom is you cannot beat the No. 1 star of the game four times in two weeks. No one ever could against the Bulls with Jordan, and there seem some similarities to the Bulls and Jazz series when Utah got close in 1997, only to be turned away by the illness-ravaged Jordan in his memorable food poisoning/flu game and then again in 1998 with Jordan’s farewell shot in Salt Lake City to avoid a Game 7.

Of course, that wasn’t the situation in the 1980’s as Larry Bird and Magic Johnson traded series losses almost every other year.

It just takes someone better, and the Spurs have their stars, if aging a bit, in Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, though the latter is coming off an ankle sprain in the conference finals. That complicates things as Parker was the Finals’ MVP the last time the Spurs won a title. Both James and Dwyane Wade have been Finals MVPs for Miami.

Miami comes in off the easier road in the Eastern Conference with a 12-3 record. The Spurs with a seven-game first round are 12-6. But the Spurs are the far deeper team with a roster that employed 12 even in the playoffs. And we may see that again with two coaches in the Spurs’ Popovich and Miami’s Erik Spoelstra who both have used multiple lineups and starters all season and during the playoffs.

In fact, the conference finals concluded with the Spurs’ Matt Bonner and the Heat’s Rashard Lewis getting their first starts of the playoffs. During the regular season as the Spurs regularly rested their top players and the Heat did likewise with Wade, the Spurs used 31 different lineups and Miami used 21, the latter with 14 different starters.

The series also will lend itself to multiple adjustment and matchup changes as the teams will both work to impose their styles on the other.

The Spurs have a size advantage as their main starting lineup this season included Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter. But the Spurs ended up downsizing with Bonner and Boris Diaw to open the court and bring the Thunder’s Serge Ibaka away from the basket to inhibit Oklahoma City’s defense.

The Spurs, though, prefer to use their two big men. But the Heat play small, emphasizing perimeter shooting with Chris Bosh starting at center, though he mostly shoots three pointers and brings the opposing big man away from the basket. That could change the Spurs thinking and have them back to a smaller lineup again, but this time to defend the perimeter better rather than, like against the Thunder, when they went small on offense.

In last season’s Finals, the Spurs started with the Duncan/Splitter front line duo along with their regulars Parker, Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard. The Heat went with Bosh and Udonis Haslem along with their regulars of James, Wade and Mario Chalmers. But after a bad loss and going down 2-1, the Heat switched to start Mike Miller for Haslem. The Spurs stayed with Splitter and lost Game 4. The Spurs then moved Ginobili into the starting lineup and both teams remained smaller through the seventh game, which went to Miami after the Spurs were that infamous five seconds away from a win in Game 6.

So perhaps the question becomes who blinks first and goes small, though the Heat opened Game 1 against the taller Pacers in the conference finals with Shane Battier at power forward. After losing Game 1, Miami changed to Haslem and finished the series going back with a shooter in Lewis. Which could make this the most unconventional matchup series with each coach experienced in numerous changes. It’s also a 2-2-1-1-1 format for the first time since 1984 when the Celtics and Lakers were going coast to coast and the league decided on a 2-3-2 Finals format. Now it’s back to the same for all post season rounds. The Spurs have the extra home game if it goes seven by finishing 62-20 in the much tougher Western Conference compared to 54-28 for Miami, which made them No. 2 seed in the East. The Spurs had the league’s best record. But did Miami just cruise knowing the strain of going for a third consecutive title and the lack of serious competition in the East?

Can the Spurs exorcise the demons of perhaps the most excruciating loss in Finals history and make their claim with their fifth title since 1999? Can the Heat win three straight joining only the Celtics, Bulls and Lakers? Can anyone figure out who’ll be starting?

Point Guard: Tony Parker vs Mario Chalmers

This has been the big question mark coming in, though Popovich said Parker will start. Parker sat out the second half of the clinching game against the Thunder, which was impressive enough for the Spurs in winning despite that. The Spurs have adequate backups, but Parker has been, when healthy, their best player the last few seasons and crucial to breaking down defenses with his drive and mid range game. Chalmers is the Heat guy who gets yelled at if Wade doesn’t get back on defense. He’ll make some threes and throw balls away with his hustle.

Shooting Guard: Danny Green vs Dwyane Wade

The story of the Heat’s demise was to have been the decline of Wade. But Wade is averaging 18.7 points and shooting 39 percent on threes, of all things, for a generally poor three-point shooter. Wade isn’t as explosive as he was, but he’s been able to work in and get position for his mid range shots. Green was a revelation early in last year’s Finals with his three-point shooting, though he cooled later in the series and made perhaps the blunder of Game 6. Most point to Popovich taking out Duncan and Bosh getting key late rebounds. But Green leaked out when the Spurs didn’t need any more points, leaving James open for that late crucial three.

Small Forward: Kawhi Leonard vs LeBron James

It’s the highlight matchup, which basically is anywhere James goes. Leonard is an excellent defender who can stay with James and limit the necessity to double team. James hasn’t gone into the post much, anyway, and the question is whether you can beat the Spurs defense playing from on top as much. Leonard will try to make James work on defense as much as possible to try to tire him and hope Ed Malloy is there to get James in foul trouble as he was in Game 5 in Indianapolis. James is playing at a very high level and sees the finish line after the long season and appears highly motivated. Can you beat a great player four times when he is like that? No one ever could with Michael Jordan.

Really, I have no idea. No one does. I assume the Spurs start Splitter, who generally has been their center with Duncan a titular power forward, though the positions are interchangeable depending on matchups. After all, Bosh is the center and plays the farthest from the basket of all the Heat players. What the heck has happened to basketball? Though Bonner started late in the Thunder series, I wouldn’t expect to see him for defensive reasons. The Spurs will use Diaw, but they prefer to bring him off the bench. Thus starters will matter less in this series with starters at some positions just being auditioned. Battier about to retire has regressed. The Heat appeared to find Lewis after all season to fill that Mike Miller role, though they could go with Haslem figuring the Spurs go with Splitter. But then if they think the Spurs will go with the low scoring Splitter, they may just start with perimeter shooting to open the court immediately. Similarly, they like to bring Chris Andersen off the bench. The guess is they start Lewis.

Duncan generally breaks out in hives if you call him a center. And as stated if you are by the basket you generally can’t hear Bosh unless he’s screaming. The edge for just about everyone against Miami is rebounding. You have to beat them by at least 10. If they stay close in rebounding they’ll beat you with accurate shooting and fast breaks from turnovers. And with Parker and Ginobili, the Spurs will commit turnovers. Duncan continues to amaze with his efficient play, but he won’t chase Bosh. And neither will Splitter. Then who?

The Spurs reserves are quasi starters with as much as they have this season among Diaw, Patty Mills, Cory Joseph, Bonner, Ginobili and Marco Belinelli. While Wade is the unexpected, in a sense for Miami, it’s Ginobili for the Spurs. He looked done last season, but has been a star in the playoffs. Miami still has Ray Allen hitting big shots and Norris Cole timely shots. Plus Andersen can be distracting with all those tattoos.

Coaching: Gregg Popovich vs Erik Spoelstra

Popovich is becoming a perennial coach of the year and star of the end of quarter interviews. It’s tough to compete against him, though Spoelstra has shown a willingness to take chances and make changes. But he still revolves mostly around LeBron.

sam-smith-previews-the-nba-finals

Sam Smith previews the NBA Finals

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