Can Miami do it again?

Well OK. The San Antonio Spurs swooped into Miami and "stole" a game. This gives them home court advantage. Theoretically, given the 2-3-2 game format of the NBA Finals as to home courts, even assuming the Heat win Game 2, if San Antonio doesn't lose at home, this series will over in 5 games with the Spurs as the new champs.

But nobody really expects that to happen -- do they? After all, the Indiana Pacers "stole" an early game from the Heat in the semi-finals, and look how that worked out. There's little doubt Miami remains a formidable team. If they get it going......

Then again, the Spurs are a whole different animal than the Pacers were. The core of their team has a few championships under their belts in years past, so it's unlikely they'll wilt under pressure. To boot, most would agree the Spurs are fundamentally the soundest team in basketball. They're smart, disciplined, deep, and do everything well.  Magic Johnson probably said it best -- The Spurs aren't going to lose by themselves with mistakes. Another team has to BEAT them. Throw in the fact that most also consider Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich the wiliest coach in the game, and Miami definitely has their work cut out for them. It's not going to be easy.

Can Miami come back to beat them? It's certainly possible, and many likely think it's probable. But I wouldn't bet the farm on that. Miami has to win Game 2 first, and that's no given. If they go down 2-zip with the next 3 games in San Antonio, Lebron and Co. might be in a heap of trouble.

Some say Miami got tired in the fourth quarter of this recent loss to the Spurs. That led to the Heat uncharacteristically committing a slew of late turnovers that San Antonio capitalized on, and -- presto --  a 4 point victory. To be sure, Miami was coming off a brutal 7 game series with Indiana, while San Antonio had enjoyed a week off to rest after sweeping the Memphis Grizzlies in their own semis.

Yet there's two schools of thought on that. Some also maintain that playing games in a regular rhythm is beneficial, because it keeps the team sharp. A team having a long rest loses their edge. It all depends on how one wants to look at it. Glass half empty -- or half full?

In the end, yours truly still expects this series to go at least 6 games, if not 7.

The best thing about it? Though they have different styles of play -- most objective NBA fans would also agree the two best teams are slugging it out for the championship.

And that's the way it should be.

This is basketball at it's finest.