my bible study leader's a sellout... she's from the bay area, likes the kings, doesn't like the warriors...
you do the math.

but anyways, i like this matchup... too bad i won't be watching too much of it; we have things called "finals" too.

of course, you know who i'll be rooting for...

i'll concede though that spurs have the edge, but it's not a HUGE edge... 6-4 in spurs' favor

both teams play hard on both ends, and both teams have very good balance.

both teams also have truly great coaches.

semi-short rundown:

spurs:
advantages:
+arguably the best power forward in the league; don't even question tim duncan; i love kg, but in the timmy vs kg debate, i stand on the side of timmy.
+two great slashers in the backcourt
+defensively, spurs have one of the best perimeter defenders in the league; bruce bowen is EVERYWHERE, and they have tim duncan
+a stronger, deeper bench
+overall, no "weak player" on this team; i think this is THE deepest team in the league
+a coach w/more championship wins
disadvantages:
-lack of good 3 pt shooters; manu and tony have improved, and to be fair, spurs are good at shooting threes. but they don't seem to be able to be a team that can rain them down at will when they need to; this MIGHT be key to how detroit wins over them, if they get their 4th ring
-main shot creators on this team are duncan, parker, and maybe manu
-gregg poppavich looks like his face had a pimple invasion

main key for spurs to win: superb performance from duncan and parker(i love manu, but i think the offense runs a lot more thru parker than manu)
main x-factor: brent barry

pistons:
advantages:
+arguably the best starting 5 in the league on both ends of the court
+two great shooters in the backcourt
+two of the starting 5 can actually light it up beyond the arc consistently, and i'll give you a hint; one of them is NOT rip
+defensively, pistons have ALSO, one of the best perimeter defenders; tayshaun prince just does NOT let you get by him, and wallace times two are a definite help threat
+slightly more athletic starting 5 than the spurs; i think a lotta ppl take the athleticism of the pistons a bit for granted, thinking they use it all on the defensive end, but it's true, these guys can RUN the fastbreak. in fact, i enjoy watching their offense as much as their d. i could be stretching it by saying this as a pistons fan, but i think i've seen more alley-oops done by the pistons in a game than by any other team. pistons, in a lotta ways, end up looking like the kings with hardcore d.
+a coach w/more experience
disadvantages:
-bench... that's not to say detroit's bench isn't bad. but it certainly isn't the deep bench they had last year. they still kept some key pieces, such as lindsey and campbell, and picked up some nice additions like arroyo and mcdice. they just have no overall complete package in one single bench player that shows up every single night. the two they kept from last year are flat-out better defenders and their d always shows up every night, but they can't shoot well. i guess the main key is whether arroyo can play d.
-main shot creators on this team are billups and rip
-larry brown never ever shows any emotion other than "monotonous gameface"

main key for detroit to win: backcourt has to be on FIRE
main x-factor: rasheed

of course, in the keys to win, i didn't say defense, for both teams, but you know it's true. pistons vs spurs w/o d would be like um, kings vs, um, kings. i just highlighted the main offensive key.

this has the potential to turn into an ugly matchup, due to the hardcore d, but i think defensive bball is just as beautiful as well-executed offense. winning bball is always beautiful to me. maybe it's just cause i love the shot block and the hustle play, but i think these things are so underrated and underappreciated by the average fan.

feel free to tell me how far off wrong i am with my rundown...

btw, is it true that tony parker's girlfriend is eva longoria? and i thought she was only rooting for the spurs b/c she was a texas native!