The 2014 NBA playoffs are officially underway. In this year’s playoffs, there have been a lot of underdogs who have made some noise early on through the first wave of games. A few of those teams include the Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzles and the Washington Wizards. In today’s society, rooting for the underdog has become the American story. However, that will not be the case in this year’s playoffs.
This year, I predict the NBA Finals will be the same matchup as last year, the Miami Heat vs. the San Antonio Spurs. Although I have the same teams from last year, I have a different outcome, with the Spurs winning the championship.
No one seems to like the Spurs because everyone thinks they are boring, slow, unathletic and boring to watch. Everyone likes to continuously count the Spurs out due to their age every year, but those “old guys” just keep on winning. This past season, they had the league’s best record, 62-20. They led the league in assists and 3-point shooting and were fourth in defensive efficiency.
Despite losing to the Heat a year ago, the Spurs will be out for revenge this time around. They are much better than they were a year ago. They have acquired sharp-shooting Marco Belinelli and have been delivering great play from its bench all season long.
In last year’s finals, their point guard and leading scorer Tony Parker was not100 percent healthy He was still plagued by an injury he suffered in the previous round prior to the finals. Although he still managed to play at a high level, being plagued with that injury limited him, and was not able to be as explosive and drive around the bigs of Miami to get into the paint, which is his forte.
Also, Manu Ginobli was a no-show in last year’s finals. In last year’s finals, Ginobli averaged a low 11 points per game, which is well below his average. After the loss in Game 7 last year, Ginobli told the press that his bad performances were the key reasons the Spurs were not able to win it all. This year Ginobli has bounced back and looks like the Ginobli of old. In the one playoff game the Spurs have played so far, he scored 17 points, which is a great sign for all Spurs fans, especially if he is able to keep it up.
Some analysts predict teams like the Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets and younger teams will use their athleticism to beat the Spurs. Even though it is true, the Spurs cannot run-and-gun with these teams, they can out-think and out-execute those teams. The Spurs also have the Coach of the Year in Gregg Popovich on their sideline as well, which gives them an edge over most of those teams.
With a bitter taste still in their mouths from last year’s finals, the Spurs are on a mission this year. Their aging superstar and best power forward of all time, Tim Duncan, only has a few more years left in his tank. Many of the players, including Parker and Ginobli, said this year’s Spurs team is on a quest to win one more for Duncan and to get rid of the horrible memory from losing in last year’s finals.
