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CLEVELAND -- Time to bust out the hiking boots, grab some
sturdy ropes and maybe even hire a Sherpa. The Cleveland Cavaliers have some serious climbing to do. Right now, the San Antonio Spurs tower over them. Deep in the heart of the Texas, the Cavs dug themselves a
canyonesque hole. Looking like lost tourists in their first NBA
finals, they dropped Games 1 and 2 to the playoff-polished Spurs,
who with the exception of a fourth-quarter letdown on Sunday night,
have mastered Cleveland. The Cavs will host a finals game for the first time in their
37-year history on Tuesday night, and they're hoping to turn around
this lopsided series in boisterous Quicken Loans Arena, where the
ear-splitting crowd noise and fire-spewing swords on their
scoreboard will be a welcomed sight. "It's going to be electrifying," LeBron James said. Shocking the Spurs won't be so easy. Creeping toward their fourth title, and third championship in
five years, the league's best defensive team unleashed its
offensive fury on the Cavs in Game 2 as Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and
Manu Ginobili combined for 78 points. The awesome threesome helped the Spurs bolt to a 25-point lead
after two quarters -- the third-largest halftime lead in finals
history -- and by the end of the third it was: Big 3 68, Cavaliers
62. Pride kicked in and Cleveland frantically rallied in the fourth,
trimming a 29-point deficit to eight in the final minutes before
the Spurs stopped giggling, made a few more clutch plays, and
finally put the Cavs away. "It was irresponsible from us," Ginobili said of the Spurs'
near collapse. "We've got to learn from that and we've got to
finish games." The Spurs are mindful Cleveland can come back. They've seen it
before. In the 2005 finals, San Antonio destroyed Detroit in the first
two games, winning by a combined 46 points, but when the series
shifted to Auburn Hills, Mich., the Pistons won by 17 points in
Game 3 and 31 in Game 4. They remember more than the Alamo in San Antonio. While the Spurs are concerned about finishing games, starting
them has been Cleveland's problem. Despite having three days to prepare, the Cavs came out flatter
than a tortilla in the first half for the second straight game.
They failed to match the Spurs' intensity and were continually
outhustled to loose balls, something they've routinely done to
opponents. They also made mental errors early on and costly
turnovers, mistakes the experienced Spurs made them pay for each
time. There was a lack of championship-caliber effort, and following
the loss, coach Mike Brown and several of Cleveland's players
candidly assessed what has been a disappointing showing thus far by
the Eastern Conference's top team. "We've got to play harder than we're playing right now," Brown
said. "There's nothing magical that's going to help us. No magic
play, no magic defense. We've got to bring the juice, and right now
we're not." Instead of flying back immediately after the game, the Cavs
recharged in San Antonio overnight, hoping the added rest will give
them fresh legs for Game 3. The Spurs opted to stay home and awoke
in their own beds Monday morning before flying to Ohio. Though new to the finals, the Cavaliers are in a familiar place:
down 0-2 in a playoff series. They lost the first two games to
Detroit in the conference finals before winning four in a row over
the Pistons. The difference this time, however, is that the Spurs are
superior to the Pistons and while the Cavs could have easily won
both games in Detroit -- they lost by three each time -- they had
little chance in San Antonio. The comforts of home will help, but nothing's guaranteed. "We can not rely on because we're going home, that our games
are going to improve and our shots are going to fall," center
Zydrunas Ilgauskas said. "Yeah, we're going to have our crowd and
the energy and stuff. But we have to make some adjustments. They're
just playing harder than us -- simple as that." The Cavs have a been a different team at home, where the baskets
seem wider, the rims softer and the crowds have been crazed.
Cleveland went 30-11 at "The Q" during the regular season and are
7-1 in the playoffs. Still, the Spurs are good enough to overcome
any team and 20,000 towel-waving enemies. "We've been a good home team all season long," Ilgauskas said.
"But if we're going to think that way, before we know it it's
going to be 0-3, and then it's over. We have to bring the energy
right at the beginning." Especially James. As he promised, Cleveland's 22-year-old All-Star was in attack
mode at the outset of Game 2, but two quick fouls forced him to the
bench and doomed the Cavs, who were still within 16-13 without
James on the floor when the Spurs ripped off 12 consecutive points
to close the first quarter. Only three teams have overcome an 0-2 deficit in the finals to
win the title, but one of them was the 2006 Miami Heat, who looked
as bad as Cleveland did in Games 1 and 2 at Dallas before winning
four straight. Last year, the Heat jumped on the shoulders of their star,
James' good buddy, Dwyane Wade, in Games 3, 4 and 5, and stunned
the Mavericks. As James showed against the Pistons, he's capable of
a similar one-man spectacle. Before Game 3 of the Detroit series in Cleveland, James showed
up at his home arena three hours early to work on his game,
something he hadn't done all year. "It's the biggest game of my
life," he declared before scoring 32 points with nine rebounds and
nine assists to revive his team. The Cavaliers barely have a pulse now, and it's up to James to
get them beating again. "I've been in this situation before," he said while walking to
the team bus late Sunday night. "It's going to be tough, but we can still do it."
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