The San Antonio Spurs have had plenty of time to prepare for the NBA Finals, now the time is here as they hit the road for Game 1 against the Miami Heat Thursday night at 9 p.m. ET.
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Via ESPN:
The Spurs swept James' Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2007 NBA Finals, so long ago that the winning game plan focused on exploiting James' weaknesses. Those are nearly impossible to find now, and James essentially warned the Spurs that they shouldn't bother looking.
The Spurs already know.
"He'll be a lot more of a problem than he was in '07, that's for sure," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Wednesday.
Tim Duncan told the beaten James minutes after that series that the league would someday belong to him, and he was right. The NBA's MVP guided Miami to last year's championship and the league's best record this season.
Now the Spurs will try to take it back.
But James is now the best player in the game, is surrounded by more talent in Miami than he ever had in Cleveland, and still carries the memory of the beating the Spurs laid on him six years ago.
"I have something in me that they took in '07. Beat us on our home floor, celebrated on our home floor. I won't forget that. You shouldn't as a competitor. You should never forget that," James said.
He joined the Heat in 2010, experienced more finals failure a year later, then was finals MVP last year when Miami beat Oklahoma City in five games. Another title now would put him halfway to the four that Duncan and Popovich have won together.
"That's what I'm here for," James said. "I'm here to win championships, and you're not always going to be on the successful side. I've seen it twice, not being on the successful side."
