We were off by a few points, but we had the right idea. The Spurs wouldn't play up to their usual standard, Duncan would be saddled with foul trouble, Tony Parker's penetration wouldn't be as much of an issue...and the Cavs would still find a way to blow it. But did anyone really think the final score would be 75-72? Or that the biggest shot in the game would be a spin-o-rama by Anderson Varejao?
This game looked awful at first glance (and we suppose it was), but it had just enough "did that just happen?" moments to rate it a solid seven on the unintentional comedy scale. Is this what the NBA has come to? The marquee event of their season is now a joke? We're probably not the first ones to come out and say it, yet we feel as if we must:
The NBA has become a running punchline. Last year's playoffs - capped by a Jordanesque performance by Dwyane Wade - brought many disenfranchised fans back to the sport, only to be met with one of the worst regular seasons/playoffs of the modern era.
The MSG "punch" incident, the All-Star Weekend violence, the Eastern Conference's continued slide into irrelevance, the Suns-Spurs suspensions, and the Cav's inability to make the NBA Finals watchable have all combined to leave a sizable black mark on the game. Of course, there's still the draft, and two superstars-in-waiting about to descend on the league.
We'll be waiting, but maybe not watching.
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