LeBron vs. Duncan

2007 NBA FINALS

This time seven years ago a 22 year-old LeBron James surprised everyone by leading a less than talented Cleveland Cavaliers team to the NBA Finals. The only thing that stood in King James way was arguably the best Power Forward ever in Tim Duncan, and the San Antonio Spurs. As much as people wanted to witness King James win his 1st ring it was obvious that LeBron, and his Cavaliers were no match versus the Spurs. The Cavs were swept 4-0 and LeBron struggled tremendously averaging 22ppg shooting 35% from the field. This looked to be the first in what many thought would be multiple trips to the NBA Finals for LBJ and the Cavs.

Now let me fast forward to 2013. LeBron never reached the Finals again in a Cavs uniform. Lack of help to go along with a small market that couldn't surround the right pieces with LBJ, he decided to take his talents to South Beach in 2010. Since then LeBron has been back to the promise land three years in a row including this 2013 NBA Finals.

After the 2007 NBA Finals Duncan expressed to LeBron, "This gonna be your league in a little while, but uh...I appreciate you giving us this year." Now these two superstars meet up again, Duncan still with the Spurs and James now with the Heat. What a difference six years make! James now undeniably the best player on this planet Earth, and with one championship under his belt King James now looks to seek revenge against a well coached and dangerous Spurs team. At the age of 37, Duncan is playing five years younger, Tony Parker looks as good as he's ever looked, and not to mention one of the greatest coaches of all time in Greg Popovich.

This years NBA Finals has the makings to be a great one, but contrary to many experts and analysts I don't believe that this series will go as long as many predict. The areas that kill the Heat don't favor the Spurs too well. As we all saw in the Heat/Pacers series Miami struggles with bigger teams, and rebounding has proven to be their biggest achilles heel. The Heat have played many teams with great point guards like a Tony Parker, but that isn't what is going to beat them in a seven game series. You need the advantage down low, and to my knowledge the Spurs tallest player is Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter standing at 6'10. With that being around the same height range as Bosh (6'11) and Birdman (6'10), there's no real dominant advantage to exploit Miami's front line.

The Spurs are a similar to the Heat in the way they like to push the tempo and score in transition. With both teams not being extremely tall, you can expect a lot of small ball to be played in this series and that advantage goes to Miami. Also, the Spurs have a smaller backcourt than the Pacers so expect for Wade to be much more aggressive in posting up and getting to the paint. Oh yea, not to forgot Wade won't have to guard a Paul George type player this series as he did for six games in the ECF. The Spurs "Big 3" will all need to be clicking in a major way if the Spurs want to hoist the Larry O' Brien trophy at the end of this series. I'm not saying it can't be done, but I just believe the Pacers may have presented the biggest challenge that the Heat will see in this years Playoffs.

The X-factors in this series will be the play of Manu Ginobili for the Spurs, and Dwyane Wade for the Heat. Ginobili is going to have to be effective on the offensive end for the Spurs to have a shot at winning this series, while Wade needs to get back to that aggressive play he showed in Game 7 of the ECF. Both of these guys are game changers, and I believe that they will have a huge impact on which team will win it all.

My NBA Finals prediction goes as follows, Miami's "Big 3" will get back on the same page with King James leading the way at both ends of the court. Heat finish the Spurs off 4-1 winning back-to-back titles with LeBron winning his 2nd NBA Finals MVP averaging 29ppg, 9rpg, & 7apg.