During the NBA’s indefinite hiatus, I will be rewatching every game of LeBron’s NBA Finals career. Every Finals game from the last 20 years is available to NBA League Pass subscribers on the NBA app or through apps like YouTube TV. We will be going chronologically through LeBron’s Finals career.
Previous Games
The Cavs are down 3-0 and the crowd is once again hyped as they are searching for their first-ever NBA Finals franchise victory. Ilgauskas is called for a violation on the tip-off, giving the ball to Spurs. What would the Uncut Gems folks do with that one? The broadcast then shows that the Cavs have only been swept once before in the playoffs, back in 1993 against the Chicago Bulls. It would happen again in 2018. Gotta give it to the Cavs franchise though, they only get swept by champions.
I know that a lot of folks like to break awards down to Heisman-type moments, like Paolo Uggetti at The Ringer. Parker just had one. He went end to end, blowing by the Cavs defense and got the ball off the glass JUST before LeBron missed the chase down. If only Andre Iguodala had studied the Tony Parker game film. And now a driving Ginobili lay-up, that tandem was underrated, gives the Spurs a 17-16 lead. So once again, the Cavs play high-energy ball on both ends but are trailing. Maybe my Parker hatred is just jealousy that he was married to Eva Longoria?
The Cavs finally get LeBron into a set with some movement. Eric Snow screens for Varejao, who sets a screen for LeBron (screening the screener!), coming off of an initial screen from Marshall. It leads to a foul for Bowen, but this is the kind of stuff that the Cavs didn’t bring out enough in Games 1, 2 or 3. It was all too simple, but simple adjustments could have made things more interesting for the Cavs offense. See, Mike Brown is good, he just didn’t know what was good until it was too late.
A Ginobili 3-pointer makes it 30-25 and also, LeBron is being attended to on the bench. He has a cut on his knee and it’s getting taped up. LeBron gets back in shortly and the offensive rebounds for the Cavs keep coming. They were first in the league in offensive rebounds, no wonder they brought in JJ Hickson so soon after! Eric Snow dimes up Big Z and it’s a 32-31 game. But Tony Parker hits another uncharacteristic 3-pointer, this time from the corner. He has 13 in the first half, those are the kind of Heisman moments that get you the Finals MVP, even if Duncan was the best player on the floor every game.
After a Drew Gooden basket, the ABC broadcast lets us know that LeBron James just had a child, his second, Bryce Maximus. Now Stuart Scott tells us that LeBron originally wanted to name him Maximus, because of the movie Gladiator with Russell Crowe that won the 2001 Oscar for Best Picture, but he allowed it to be a middle name because his future wife Savannah liked the name Bryce. He also got the first choice on naming their first child, LeBron James Jr, who you know today as Bronny James.
The Cavs have clawed back into this game and made it a 44-40 score. ABC is now showing a bunch of the players Bruce Bowen has guarded in the playoffs. Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Steve Nash, Deron Williams and now LeBron James. Honestly, a pretty cool montage if you loved basketball in the mid-2000s.
Duncan and Oberto just worked the two-man game to get Duncan free-throws and honestly, now I know why Duncan did a Motorcycle Diaries tour through South America with Oberto. This guy rules. He probably knows all the best churrasco spots in the Argentine countryside.
Also, the Spurs continue to be perfect on defense. No matter who does anything on the Cavs, they are covered completely. The Spurs defense is just suffocating and inspiring in the way that they never give up on perfecting their scheme. Also, another one of my favorite subplots of the series is Robert Horry physically harming LeBron James before checking on him. Horry hits LeBron across the face, a foul is called and Horry is very worried for LeBron’s well-being. This is how you know he’s an elite role guy.
A Boobie Gibson 3-pointer cracks the 50-point mark for the Cavs just before the 4th quarter, making it 60-52 Spurs to go into the 4th quarter. The Cavs have 12 minutes. Now Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy, both EMPLOYEES OF ABC, are saying Tony Parker should be the MVP as the best player in the series. I mean, maybe?
In the fourth quarter, I notice there is a woman yelling near the microphone on every Spurs offensive possession. She keeps yelping and making weird noises. Did this lady show up during the other Cavs Finals? I feel like I heard her during those Golden State series. Anyway, feel free to mute gameplay during this time.
Varejao ties it with a layup at 66-66 and LeBron gets his 9th assist. The Cavs were a scrappy bunch, even if they weren’t a fun offensive team. They were grinders. But Ginobili helps slow down the bootstraps story by making a 3-pointer to make it 69-66 and LeBron can’t answer.
A possession that starts with a Parker-Duncan pick and roll goes into a Duncan-Ginobili DHO and Ginobili scores on the drive. It’s 76-69 and the game is over. Fans are leaving in Cleveland. The Cavs were a squad, but the Spurs were too stacked. No shame in the loss, but it will be a few years before LeBron gets to taste this stage of basketball again.
Damon Jones hits a garbage 3-pointer to help the Cavs cover a 2.5-point spread, but they lost and LeBron will have to wait four years before he’s here again. We will see you next week to see how LeBron learns from this first NBA Finals experience, four years later, as a member of the Miami Heat.
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