Spurs-Lakers: Winner take all

If it feels like a generation ago, there's a reason. It's because the NBA Finals ostensibly begin today in San Antonio. Back in 1980, when the NBA wasn't a total lackey to television, the NBA Finals actually were a May event. The Lakers and 76ers opened the series May 4. It ended 12 days later, May 16, which, if we're lucky, will come before Game 7 of this year's Heat-Hornets series.

It may be too early to declare a champion -- and there will be a lot of hooting and hollering in places such as Indiana -- but how can you not make the case that the 2004 titlist will come out of the Spurs-Lakers grind-a-thon? Between these two, they have shared the last five championships. They've met in the playoffs four of the last five years, with each team posting two wins.

If there is such a thing as a dream matchup for television in the NBA, then this series is surely it. (Unless, as David Stern joked recently, it's Lakers-Lakers.) That's one reason why ABC and the NBA will look to extend this thing as long as possible, getting the Lakers on as much as possible. The schedule is beyond ridiculous. We have a Sunday-Wednesday-Sunday opener for Games 1-3.

That's bad enough. The real jaw dropper is that the league and its TV conspirators have somehow concluded that it's a real good idea to have Game 6 on Saturday, May 15, and Game 7 on the following Wednesday. That could extend the series to 18 days. Who thought up that? Billy Pilgrim? Can you imagine a big win in Game 6 to even the series -- and then having to wait three days before Game 7?

You have to go back 25 years, to the 1979 Western Conference finals between Phoenix and Seattle, to find a three-day gap between a Game 6 and a Game 7. Including that year, there have since been 44 best-of-seven series in the playoffs. In 37 of them, there was one day between Games 6 and 7, which is how it should be.

But back to Spurs-Lakers. San Antonio has not played since a week ago, when it eliminated the Grizzlies in four games. The Spurs have not lost in more than a month, their last defeat coming March 23 to the Timberwolves. They finished the season with 11 straight victories, and now the streak is at 15.

If this sounds eerily familiar to previous San Antonio championship runs, well, it is. Last season, it won 12 of its last 14, and one of those losses was a meaningless regular-season finale to Dallas. The Spurs also won 18 of their last 20 road games last season. In their 1999 title run -- the Asterisk Year, according to professional pot stirrer Phil Jackson -- the Spurs finished with 31 wins in their last 37 games and then swept both the Lakers and Trail Blazers en route to the title.

These Spurs also are not intimidated by the Lakers, even though LA won three of the four regular-season meetings. Many of the fellows who were on last year's title team -- a team that beat the Lakers in the conference semis -- are back, including most of the important ones. And one of the guys from the dark side last year, Robert Horry, has crossed over.

But if there's a team that can beat the Spurs, it is, the NBA and its TV coconspirators hope, the Lakers. LA closed the season by winning 14 of 17, including an 11-game winning streak ended by, yup, the Spurs. (And in LA, no less.) And Jackson already has started the verbal sparring by announcing that he saw no reason for his team to stay in San Antonio between Games 1 and 2. (He's right, by the way.)

When asked for an explanation, Jackson said, "I don't think I have to explain that. You've been to San Antonio. Once you've been there, you've been there enough. And there's nothing wrong with San Antonio, but it's a convention city and it's a tourist town. And where the hotels are located in that town, that's not the place you really want to spend any time."

Hey, at least he didn't call the fans "semi-civilized."

Yes, there's another semifinal between the Western Conference's top seed, Minnesota, and the team that should have been the No. 2 seed, the Sacramento Kings. One of those will get the winner of the Lakers-Spurs contest, and the winner of that will get the survivor out of the East.

And the winner of that series will be the NBA champ. Anyone want to bet that that winner -- and the winner of the series that opens today at the SBC Center -- won't be one and the same?

Perfectly content Danny Ainge is well aware that he hasn't hired the perfect coach in Doc Rivers. "There's no such thing," said Ainge. "Doc has had his great moments and his not-so-great moments. I don't think Doc is a finished product. Bill Belichick wasn't Bill Belichick at first. I think Doc is a champion as a person and a coach. With Jim O'Brien and his staff, I had a great deal of respect for them and what they accomplished, and I wanted to make that work. But I feel a great deal of relief and satisfaction and excitement in this circumstance because it has been such a long year." . . . Actress and big-time Kentucky basketball fan Ashley Judd wrote a piece for this week's Sports Illustrated on her love for Wildcats hoops. "I have had the pleasure of getting to know many UK players and coaches over the years," she wrote. "I get to go backstage, if you will, and enjoy time with the young men, appreciate their basketball IQs and develop friendships. Tony Delk is still my favorite. He was the MVP of the 1996 Final Four and watching him taught me to look past the flash of offense and to value tremendous defense." Guess Tony won't have to worry about getting tickets for the premiere of "De-Lovely" when the movie opens next month . . . The Nets and Pistons open their series tomorrow night. Jersey will have been idle since its April 25 demolition of the Knicks, and there is potential for bad blood and pointed barbs. You may recall that the last time these teams met, March 18, the Nets committed a deliberate and meaningless foul to get the ball back and thus a final basket to avoid being the sixth straight team to be held to fewer than 70 points by the suffocating Pistons defense. Ben Wallace called the Nets "petty," and Jersey coach Lawrence Frank later offered a mea culpa. By the way, the last team to score 100 against the Pistons was the Mavericks back on Feb. 7, or before the Pistons' New Extreme Makeover with the additions of Mike James and Rasheed Wallace. Both teams are hot. The Pistons have won 12 of 14, including the last three in their 4-1 victory over the Bucks, while the Nets are coming off their broom job of the Knicks, stretching their streak of playoff wins over conference opponents to 14. While the Nets won the division, the Pistons will hold home-court because of the better record. The same holds true for the Lakers and Spurs; LA is the divisional winner, but the Spurs had a better record.

Misguided comment Ainge made a bit of a boo-boo when talking about Rivers's ability to handled so-called difficult players. He mentioned that Rivers deftly handled Armon Gilliam and Chris Gatling in Orlando and that both players were known to be high-maintenance. That may have been true with Gatling, who played 45 games for Rivers in 1999-2000 before being shipped to Denver. But unless the Magic's media guide and the NBA media guide are incorrect, Gilliam not only never played for Rivers, he never played for Orlando, either. He was with Utah in the 1999-2000 season. But either one of those could be benign compared with what Rivers has waiting for him in Ricky Davis. You may recall that Davis deliberately skipped a mandatory team dinner in Miami the night before a big game against the Heat during the Celtics' weeklong road trip in early April. He told interim coach John Carroll that he needed to see his financial adviser, but, instead, Davis went out on a boat for the night and was fined $2,500 the next day. Carroll kept that indiscretion under wraps at the time, as well as the fine, and took no further action. You sort of wonder how many bullet holes he has in his body from protecting Davis. And it went right to the bitter end. On the day before the Celtics' last game of the season, the team finished its workout and did what it usually does -- shoot free throws. With reporters watching, Davis decided to do his free throw shooting from about 3 feet beyond the free throw line. When asked to take the issue a little more seriously, Davis proceeded to walk off the court. He then returned to gripe about the way he was used in the offense and the fact that his number wasn't called often enough. Davis is just one of many reasons Rivers can use your hopes and prayers. Davis has never gotten it and you have to wonder if he ever will.

Taking a look General manager Chris Wallace and director of basketball operations Leo Papile represented the Celtics at the just-concluded European Final Four in Tel Aviv. Wallace said the crowd (cheering mightily for hometown Maccabi) was the loudest and most passionate he has ever witnessed, with one exception: the crowd in Barcelona at last year's European Final Four. "These things transcend sports, they really do," Wallace said. "The whole country gets wrapped up in it. There's nothing quite like it in the United States." The Israeli hosts went to extraordinary measures to ensure that teams and spectators would be safe. As Wallace, a world traveler, put it, "It's not like anything I've ever experienced." He and Papile (and everyone else) had to go through two checkpoints to get into the arena. No vehicles were allowed anywhere near the venue. "At the host hotel, where the teams stayed, there were 10-12 armed guys patrolling in the lobby and out front all the time," Wallace said. "There were armed people in front of every hotel." Security issues may well have been what scared a lot of NBA teams away from the event, normally a must-see for league scouts. Wallace said he counted only a handful of teams in attendance for the three-day event, which included games on Thursday and Saturday with a youth exhibition in between. At least two players in the youth tournament are likely to be NBA players, Wallace said. Although he could not name them, someone with a voice very similar to his said the two future studs are a Lithuanian center and a Serbian power forward with names that would make the late Johnny Most cringe . . . Of the eight first-round playoff series, only one -- the Heat-Hornets epic -- went beyond five games . . . Give props to Antoine Walker, who admitted after the Mavs' disappointing playoff exit that he might be with his third team in three years come October. And it's not because of his skills, but because he has an expiring contract (albeit a big one at more than $14 million) that makes him attractive. "I've become very valuable," Walker told the Dallas Morning News. "I know that. I'm not going to lie. My first preference or choice will be to stay here with the Mavericks. But I know a lot of teams are going to call, and not necessarily to sign me, but because I will come off the cap at a high number. I'm very aware of the business and what comes along with it." Meanwhile, Mavs owner Mark Cuban, with one hand on the detonator, told the newspaper that he expects Don Nelson to be back next season as coach. He also shot down speculation concerning Pat Riley coming to the Big D. "I will absolutely, positively guarantee you, without any question, I'll put any amount of money on it, that Pat Riley is not going to be the coach of the Dallas Mavericks next year," said Cuban. "I fully expect Nellie to be the coach next year. I don't see any reason to change that." If Nellie does return, it would be for his seventh full season (he took over early in 1997-98). The only coaches to be in the same place longer than Nellie are Jerry Sloan in Utah, Flip Saunders in Minnesota, and Gregg Popovich in San Antonio.

Material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.