This is the match-up everyone hoped for. It took a full regular season and playoffs to get to the expected, and hotly anticipated, rematch — the San Antonio Spurs versus the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.
The manner in which this year’s post-season played out simply added to the realization that these two NBA titans would clash in the finals for the second straight year.
The best team in the league — San Antonio — will take on the best player in the league, the Heat’s LeBron James, and for the top-seeded Spurs, their bruised egos simply will not let them forget a seven-game loss to the Heat last season.
Photo: EPA
“They wanted this, they wanted us and we will be ready for the challenge,” James said on Monday.
San Antonio and two-time defending champion Miami are set for the first rematch series since the 1997 and 1998 Finals between the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz.
The Spurs will today host the first game of the annual showcase that pits the top teams from the Eastern and Western Conferences.
“It is unbelievable to have regained our focus after that devastating loss last year,” Spurs forward Tim Duncan said. “We’ve got that bad taste in our mouth from last time. We got four more to win. We will do it this time.”
“There is a reason why they are back there and are two-time champs. We have our work cut out for us, but we are happy with going back, just not satisfied,” Spurs guard Danny Green added.
Injuries could be a factor in the Finals as Spurs star Tony Parker did not play in the second half of San Antonio’s series-clincher over Oklahoma City because of a sore left ankle.
Parker on Tuesday said he plans to try to play in Game 1.
Miami opened the playoffs with a four-game sweep of the Charlotte Bobcats and then polished off the pesky Brooklyn Nets in the second round in five games. In the final step before the Finals, the inconsistent Indiana Pacers pushed the Heat to six games, but eventually succumbed.
The Spurs traveled a more difficult road. They needed seven games to get past the eighth-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round, and then ousted the Portland Trail Blazers in five games. The Oklahoma City Thunder gave the Spurs trouble in the semi-finals, but San Antonio eventually advanced in six games.
The Spurs have been looking for redemption ever since Miami’s Ray Allen drained a clutch three-pointer in Game 6 of the Finals last year that capped a frenzied Heat comeback from a five-point deficit in the final 28 seconds of the fourth quarter. Two days later, Miami won Game 7 and all the Spurs could do was lick their wounds.
At the beginning of training camp this year, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich replayed those moments to remind the players that they have some unfinished business.
“We just had a weird year this year,” Duncan said. “We were pressing hard early on and grinding on each other, just because of what happened last year. We were able to settle ourselves down. We played with a bunch of different line-ups all year. We had guys ready to play and it has shown throughout the playoffs, where guys step up and step in and are ready to play. I am proud of the team for just being ready, just not letting that weigh on us and using it as an excuse for anything. We are back here now and we want to get it done this time.”
James, of course, has other plans, but he is more concerned with how his team performs that what the Spurs are saying about them.
“[Duncan’s] comments don’t bother me,” said James, who is trying to lead the Heat to the first NBA three-peat since the Los Angeles Lakers between 2000 and 2002. “We are confident. We are not shying away from them. We want them too.”
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe
RSS