This was to be a night for joy for the San Antonio Spurs, perhaps a fourth NBA championship in the last decade, a chance to begin the walk with giants.
There wouldn’t be a wild celebration, not with this Spurs team that responds to questions about its success by requesting people to look at its effort.
But Thursday night was special as the Spurs held on to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 83-82 to win the 2007 NBA Finals, San Antonio’s fourth championship since 1999 and third in the last five years.
Manu Ginobili led all scorers with 27 points, 13 in the fourth, for the Spurs while Finals MVP Tony Parker added 24 on 10-of-14 shooting and Tim Duncan chipped in with 12 points and 15 rebounds.
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LeBron James led the Cavs with 24 but had another poor shooting night, going 10 of 30.
The Spurs’ performance opens the way for the Spurs joining the basketball immortals — the Celtics, Lakers and Bulls dynasties. But given this Spurs team and its humility — as well as humanity — perhaps its greatest reward will be the opportunity to do more.
That sounds quite plausible now with a core of success and ability that has been measured against the best for an era and still stands tall.
Thursday was the famed closeout game, the Spurs went into it with four chances to win one game, and they had to like those chances. The Spurs came in 21-7 in games that could end a playoff series since Duncan came to the Spurs.
“It goes through your head,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “If we were to win, you know it’s over. But the focus is on one game.”
That isn’t difficult for the relentless Spurs, who shook off the expected home-court emotion to open the game trailing just 20-19 after one quarter. James was looking for his shot early, though the Spurs continued to put up their wall of defense and even broke into a brief zone defense.
And while Duncan was cold, going without a field goal in the first half, it was Parker who again drove it right at the Cavs for 10 first-quarter points, twice scoring on quick outlets from Duncan.
“Tim is the common denominator,” Popovich said. “It doesn’t matter what year he has been in or what championship year. He has had a different cast around him from ’99, ’03 and ’05. He has welcomed them all.
He has found a way to help them all fit, feel comfortable in their roles, and not many players can do that.”
Certainly aware of his team’s fragile situation, Cavs coach Mike Brown went with varied lineups quickly, putting three shooters with James early in the second quarter and then going extensively to Eric Snow, who had one point in the first three games, at point guard for much of the second quarter.
“The game again began to turn into a torpid affair as the NBA’s new TV contract continued to hover over the series. The way it was going, the Finals could be on public access cable by next season.
It didn’t help that the second quarter found Jacque Vaughn and Snow in a shootout. The Cavs went into another of their scoring droughts with their one-play offense and were below 40 percent shooting again at halftime.
The Spurs, with Ginobili and Parker hitting three-pointers and driving by stunned Cavs defenders, went ahead 39-31 before the Cavs closed the restful half trailing 39-34.
The Spurs aren’t supposed to have the big shots. They just make them.
And James was missing them. He missed 14 of his first 18 shots, falling to about 30 percent shooting for the series, by the time the Spurs inched ahead 51-42 in the third.
“I think it follows if a player or team has a core of players that has been together for awhile, that execution is probably a bit easier for that group under pressure because they’ve done it before,” Popovich said.
In this game, if the Spurs were converting their free throws, it might have been over after three quarters as they were just 12 of 24.
But the Spurs didn’t seem to need them as Parker hit still another three-pointer, despite his season-long orders not to shoot them, and a jumper to put his team ahead 56-47.
They went into the fourth quarter leading 60-52 in another gruesome celebration of defense and deliberate play.
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