What Am I Wintessing?

What have we seen so far with the NBA Finals?

- Before the series started, we heard a lot of people say "Cleveland is an underrated defensive team." After two games, is San Antonio an underrated offensive team, or was Cleveland an accurately rated defensive team, i.e. they are good against weaker competition, but can't shut down superior competition? I'm leaning towards the latter.

- If Robert Horry and Drew Gooden played Game 2 in prison, Drew Gooden would have been forced to toss Robert Horry's salad right about now, the way Horry embarrassed him in that game with those blocked shots. Drew Gooden prefers syrup.

- San Antonio does not play a boring offensive style. They never walk the ball up - they start running after every rebound. People accuse them of being boring because they don't play with a lot of playground swagger (except for Robert Horry sometimes, see above.) They just execute efficiently, creating open shots for each other, and making those open shots. It's not as visceral a viewing experience, but it isn't as boring as the offense that Cleveland runs, that same one play where a big guy sets a pick for LeBron by the three point line. The Cleveland offense is predictable and unimaginative, the very definition of boring. San Antonio is at worst only mildly thrilling.

- That said, these games have been pretty boring. During the second quarter, I flipped to "Kill Bill 2" on the IFC channel, and watched the whole "Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei" scene. At the end of the third quarter, I flipped it to "Heat" on Encore and caught most of the scene with Pacino and DeNiro in the diner. I've seen both of those movies many times, and it was still way better than most of that game. And I like watching NBA basketball.

- I should probably get HBO already.

- LeBron won't be able to tarnish his legacy with this series. San Antonio is too good, and his Cleveland teammates are too mediocre. Ten years from now, I bet we'll have as hard a time remembering other guys off this Cleveland team as we have remembering more than Shaq off of the 1995 Magic. LeBron will be remembered for being the only reason this gang of mooks ever sniffed an NBA Finals. Not so bad a legacy.

- I'm not going to have to worry too much that I can't watch game 4 and 5 of the finals because I'll be at the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee. I'm pretty confident I won't miss much. Which is a shame, really.