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Who: Spurs, Heat and a special guest
What: Game Two of the NBA Finals, Spurs lead series 1-0.
Where: Miami, FL
When: 5PM on ABC
Why: Because no NBA Finals in recent memory has ended after the first game.
Despite ratings being down 10% from last year's game one of the NBA Finals, the first game between the Spurs and Heat was a great game. How could it not be a great game? We had the best team of the last fifteen years going for their fifth championship, Tim Duncan trying to cement his place as one of the five greatest players ever, Tony Parker taking over as the league's best point guards (this is a different Parker of year's past. He's doing everything), Manu Ginobili working on becoming the most decorated international player in NBA history and Greg Popovich putting himself as the third greatest coach in NBA history.
Phil Jackson and Red Aurbach will probably always be considered the two best coaches in league history -- unless Pop wins seven more titles before he retires.
Just down the sideline is the Miami Heat. LeBron James looking to get his second ring, Dwyane Wade looking to get his third ring.
James is not only looking to get his second ring, but to also try and start a dynasty with the Heat and replace the Spurs at the top of the NBA heap. He has said that the Heat need to be more aggressive, while Chris Bosh says the Heat need to play with more fear.
He's right. The Heat don't want to be down 0-2 heading back to San Antonio. Teams that lose game one of the NBA Finals go on to lose the series 71.2% of the time, Heat did just that last year when they lost game one to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Teams that go down 0-2 in the NBA Finals end up losing the series 90.3% of the time. Last team to go down 0-2 and win four straight were the Heat in 2006 when they defeated Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks.
No team has ever dropped the first two games at home and gone on to win the series.
This is a must win game for the Heat, but they do tend to be the team that bucks the trends of history.
There is a wild, wild card in tonight's game though. In his mind he's the biggest star and he's not going to let James, Duncan, Wade, Parker, Erik Spoelstra or Pop show him up tonight. He's the greatest referee in the history of the NBA, he's calling an amazing 4.22 technical per game this post season (probably a record). Ladies and gentlemen, I am talking about the one-and-only, Joey Crawford.
On the plus side with Crawford, he doesn't care who you are and will not provide you any special treatment. He treats every NBA player like they were the last pick in the draft.
Do you remember the first time that Joey Crawford became a household name? You remember this incident that happened with Tim Duncan at the end of the regular season back in 2007?
I have no idea what is going to happen tonight. I think we'll get another good game, but I have no idea who to pick. I am going to set the over/under on technical fouls called tonight at 3.5. I am going to take the over and predict a very disjointed game two.