San Antonio wins!

Something extraordinary just happened. San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich actually laughed. That's like Halley's Comet making a surprise appearance or the Democrats and Republicans putting petty partisanship aside and doing what's best for the people. In other words -- a very rare occasion indeed.

Coach Pop had good reason to yuk it up. His Spurs had finally dispatched the Okla City Thunder to move on to the NBA Finals where the Miami Heat await. It was the first time the Spurs had beat the Thunder in OKC in 10 tries. And it almost didn't happen. Because of the refs. It was incredible how many missed or totally blown calls occurred in this game -- and they pretty much all went against the Spurs. To boot, their all-world point guard, Tony Parker, went out in the first half with a leg injury and couldn't play the entire second half.

Given all that, one would have thought the Thunder would have romped at home -- again. After all, the first 5 games of the series were all blow-outs, with the home team winning. Most everybody expected the series would go back to San Antonio for a game 7.

Yet in overtime, the Thunder finally blinked and the Spurs prevailed. Then again, it should come as no surprise. Okla City has two fantastic players, a couple really good ones, and that's it. No depth on their bench. San Antonio will routinely rotate 9 or 10 men deep and not miss a beat. Sometimes "system" eventually trumps a couple phenomenal talents over the course of a 7 game series.

There's likely not much joy for sports fans in Oklahoma right about now. Their only professional big league franchise was eliminated from the playoffs, and the Oklahoma Sooners girls softball team just got kicked to the curb of the ladies College World Series by Oregon.

Idle thought: I've watched a lot of the ladies softball action. So why is it every single one of them on every single team has really long hair? Is it mandatory to make the team? Nary an Ellen, Whoopie, or Jamie Lee Curtis in the bunch. Seems weird.

Now the Spurs get 5 days off before the NBA Finals start. No doubt a good thing for some of their aging bodies to rest up. And they'll have home court advantage over the Miami Heat.

But as admirable as the Spurs program is under Pop's tutelage -- and as rare as his mirth is (it's kind of like Lurch of the Addams Family trying to smile) -- their chances against Miami probably aren't so good.

Besides their obvious front-line talent, the Heat have a lot of other things in their repertoir. They'll play 9 or 10 deep as well and have size, speed, and 3 point snipers. They can run with the best of them in a slamma-jamma contest, play the half-court slow-down game if necessary, and their team defense can be suffocating when they really want to crank it up.

I suspect it will indeed be cranked up in the Finals.

It would have been nice to see Gregg Popovich smile again -- and even see Tim Duncan, one of the classiest guys to ever play professional sports win another championship, but I don't think it's going to happen.

Miami's just too much.....