The 8 day layoff between the Spurs series clincher versus Utah and the start of the NBA Finals is finally at an end. I swear, they need to shorten the NBA playoffs again. Make the first round a best of 5. Trust me, you'll have all of Houston's support.

But to the matter at hand, I'm not quite sure what to make of this NBA Finals matchup. On the one hand, I feel pretty safe in saying that as long as the same Spurs that ousted Denver, Phoenix, and Utah shows up to this Finals, this series could be one of those sweeps/done-in-five/maybe-push-it-to-six series. But truth be told, two factors keep me from feeling confident in that prediction a) the Spurs have had EIGHT days off and b) LeBron James is finally playing like the heir to Michael Jordan that we all knew he'd become.

No team is out of contention as long as it has LeBron James playing at his best. The Pistons series proved that. But it's hard to gauge the Pistons series. On one hand, you saw the Pistons implode right before your very eyes. But on the other hand, that implosion was (at least partly) caused by a giant earthquake, also known as LeBron James.

But having watched the Spurs for the better part of the past decade, which is about the amount of time that Anya's Lysistrata'd me into liking the Spurs, I know two things for sure a) this current squad is the best squad they've ever had and b) the path the Spurs took to get to the Finals was a truer test, in the Frodo going into Mordor sense of the word, than the path the Cavs took.

The Cavs faced a Wizards team devoid of their star player due to injury, an old and decrepit Nets team, and a Pistons team on the verge of collapse, whereas the Spurs faced one of the NBA's hottest teams in Denver, the greatest show on hardwood in Phoenix, and one of the brightest up and coming teams of the past few years in Utah. If the same Spurs that have only lost FOUR times in the past three rounds shows up, I think this series could be over quickly.

But LeBron makes it hard to flat out predict an easy series win for the Spurs. But if this Playoffs has taught me anything, it's that the Spurs can survive by letting one person score anywhere from 25 to 40 points. Carmelo, Nash/Stoudemire, and Boozer/Williams all put up HUGE numbers against the Spurs. But the Spurs more or less handled business because they required the rest of the team to beat them. And in the case of the Cavs, I don't think the Cavs match up all that well. Even if this becomes a downright ugly slugfest, do you think that the rest of the Cavs can match the output of Parker, Ginobili, Bowen, Finley, Barry, and Horry?

The thing that worries me is that if the Cavs can take away Duncan's game, I think that the Spurs could have a difficult time running their offense. But the thing with Duncan, is that you can't double-team him. He's too good at finding the open man and breaking down your double team. Plus, do you want to leave ANY of the other Spurs open to drill 3-pointers or tear drops in the paint?

I just hope the Spurs don't start out having to shake a thick layer of rust off their joints before turning it on. These long layoffs sometimes have an equalizing effect by bringing a hot team back down to earth. But then again, it's not like the Cavs didn't have a nice little break too. They won their game on Saturday, so while it's not quite 8 days like the Spurs had, 4 days is nothing to sneeze at.

So I guess, what this boils down to is my finals prediction. I think the Spurs have this in 6. But something about this series makes me incredibly nervous. Let's hope this is the same nervousness that caused me to take Phoenix over SA in round two.

-Matt