Video: Jackson picks Spurs over Heat in Finals

Written by Jose Grijalva on .

Phil Jackson's been a thorn in the San Antonio Spurs' side when he was the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, but it seems this year he's picking the Spurs to win it all.

In a recent book signing, a fan asked Jackson who he thought was going to win the NBA championship in the Finals stage and Phil gave his quick pick.

Check out the video below.

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Top storylines heading into NBA Finals

Written by Quixem Ramirez on .

The San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat kick off the NBA Finals tomorrow and it is shaping up to a doozy. There are a bunch of relevant angles to explore -- so many in fact that I scrapped a few just to save you, the precious reader, some time. Here are the seven story lines that made the cut:
 
Miami is mortal
 
Miami punctuated a physically exhausting seven-game series with a 99-76 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Monday. Indiana, specifically the duo of David West and Roy Hibbert, decimated the limited Heat frontline, grabbing more than a third of their own misses (34.3 percent), during the series per NBA.com. The Pacers played inspired, gritty basketball and nearly upended the defending champions. This, of course, is a team that only dropped four games since February 1 prior to the Eastern Conference finals. In a span of 12 days, they lost three games and were one LeBron James buzzer-beating layup from coughing up another. Yep, Miami is mortal.
 
Rest vs. rust
 
The good news for Miami? Regardless of how bad they looked in their Finals tune up -- and, for many stretches, the Pacers could have been mistaken for the favorite -- they have achieved their primary objective. Getting to the Finals.
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Ginobili: Not impossible to beat the Heat

Written by Jeff Garcia on .

The Miami Heat ran off 27 games in a row in the regular season, made short work of the Bucks and Bulls in their first two rounds in the postseason but against the Pacers, they looked mortal until Game 7 of the East Finals where they reminded the NBA they still are the defending champs.

And now the San Antonio Spurs will get their shot at dethroning the champs.

Heading into the Finals, the Spurs are not the favorites but if San Antonio wants to extinguish the Heat, they will have to play a perfect series and keep in mind, Miami is mortal according to Manu Ginobili.

In his column for Argentine site Canchellena.com Manu notes the Spurs are not the favorites but sees the Heat as beatable.

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Spurscast #297: Spurs vs. Heat NBA Finals preview show

Written by Kyle Boenitz on .

The NBA Finals are finally here!

This week's podcast is all about the San Antonio Spurs' matchup with the Miami Heat for the 2013 NBA title. Trevor Zickgraf (@yowhatupt) and Project Spurs' newest member Aaron Preine (@DukeOfBexar) join me for previews, analysis and predictions. 

We also talk about the legacy of the "Big 3" and much more.

The Spurscast. The first and original Spurs podcast.

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Music: Modest Mouse - Float On

Send me your Finals predictions or anything else you want us to talk about during the rest of the postseason on Twitter (@KyleBoenitz) or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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Spurs vs. Heat: A Quantitative and Qualitative Finals Preview

Written by Paul Garcia on .

The NBA Finals match is finally set between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat. Much has already been hyped for the matchup: The Spurs returning to the finals in six years, the Heat playing in their third straight finals.

Pushing out all the dramatic storylines, it’s time to see what the numbers tell us about these two teams and how things could play out on the basketball floor both from a quantitative and qualitative perspective.

Without further ado, here is your Spurs vs. Heat mega NBA Finals preview. All stats used courtesy of NBA.com/Stats.

Offense and Defense

Points Per Game – Spurs 101.6, Heat 97.2  

Points allowed – Spurs 91.5, Heat 87.6

Offensive rating – Spurs 106.5, Heat 108.4

Defensive rating – Spurs 95.4, Heat 97

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Diaw: Experience lifted Spurs to Finals

Written by Jeff Garcia on .

The stage is set and the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat will meet in the 2013 NBA Finals. Miami has a young core with LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade which got them to the Finals for a third straight time while San Antonio relies on their veteran core of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili which battled their way in the West playoffs for a shot at title No. 5.

Of course the running question for the Spurs since their last title in 2007 is whether thier aged "Big 3" were past their primes and their title hopes all but dashed. Fast forward to today and the Spurs are once again in the NBA Finals.

But do not discount age. It is the Spurs' experience that makes them such a perennial contender.

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Why the Spurs defensive plan should be 'Kawhi Island'

Written by John Karalis on .

During the NBA Finals, John Karalis of Red's Army will be contributing to Project Spurs during the San Antonio Spurs' chase for title number five.

Congratulations, Kawhi Leonard. 
 
In two days, you get the honor of single-covering LeBron James.
 
As the San Antonio Spurs' get ready to come out of playoff hibernation and face the Miami Heat, they have some tough choices to make.  Miami’s offense can hang a 30+ point quarter on you in a blink if you’re not careful.  And when you see a tight end-sized scientific phenomenon coming at you in that 6 jersey, there is a very easily understandable temptation to help on him with everyone on the court, half of the folks in the loge, and the Texas National Guard. 
 
But the Spurs shouldn’t.  Kawhi should spend these finals on a defensive island. 
 
No help. 
No doubling. 
No nothing.  And there are a few reasons why.
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Bayless: 'First Take' producers discouraged me from talking Spurs

Written by Quixem Ramirez on .

With the San Antonio Spurs ready to face the defending champion Miami Heat in the 2013 NBA Finals, it's time for the trope that just never gets old: America hates the Spurs.
 
Everyone's favorite contrarian analyst (troll?), ESPN's Skip Bayless, admitted in his recent column that even ESPN's First Take producers are weary of referencing San Antonio because, well, they decimate ratings just as much as they decimate opposing defenses.
 
"Heck, over the years, I've even had "First Take" producers discourage me from talking about the Spurs on air because they're such ratings killers."
 
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More than a decade later, Duncan's decision still paying off

Written by Philip Rossman-Reich on .

During the NBA Finals, Philip Rossman-Reich of Orlando Magic Daily will be contributing to Project Spurs during the San Antonio Spurs' chase for title number five.

In Orlando, Grant Hill’s retirement this weekend served as a major reminder of what could have been. And that would have been the Miami Heat before the Miami Heat.

In July of 2000, Hill and Tracy McGrady stepped off a plane in Orlando and were greeted as heroes, signing multi-million dollar deals that would almost assuredly make the Magic the East’s elite team for the better part of the next decade. There was not a giant stadium celebration or promises of “not three, not four . . .”

Hill, of course, found it difficult to shake an ankle injury and five surgeries later he was not the same player and rarely contributed to the Magic. McGrady became a superstar, but disgruntled quickly with the Magic’s inability to build a strong team around him.

And then there was the player that was not there. The player who decided not to join this endeavor and shift the balance of power in the NBA (with or without Hill).

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Audio: Sports Reporters Radio Show talks to Project Spurs about impending Finals

Written by Michael A. De Leon on .

WBNYI joined A.J. Speier and Aubrey Gilbert on the Sports Reporters Radio Show (WBNY) on Friday afternoon to talk about the Spurs and the NBA Finals, which will be starting later this week.

The guys asked me about the biggest difference between this team and the team that lost four straight to the Oklahoma City Thunder in last year's Western Conference Finals. We also talked about the loss of coach Mike Budenholzer, the Heat-Pacers series, who I thought would meet the San Antonio Spurs in the Finals and my prediction.

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