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SAN ANTONIO (Ticker) -- The San Antonio Spurs earned the best record in the NBA. The Los Angeles Lakers are the defending NBA champions. Let the games begin. The Spurs host the Lakers on Saturday in Game One of the Western Conference finals in a series that many "experts" believe will produce the next NBA champion. San Antonio finished with 58 victories while Los Angeles had the second-best record in the West with 56 wins. The series has a number of interesting subplots. San Antonio has won six consecutive playoff series with Tim Duncan in the lineup, while Lakers coach Phil Jackson referred to the Spurs' 1999 title as an "asterisk" championship due to the lockout-shortened season. Los Angeles has won 15 straight games since April 1 and became the first team since the 1999 Indiana Pacers to sweep through the first two rounds. The Lakers were dominant in dispatching Portland in three games and Sacramento in four. "We got hot at the right time and went through the first round and the second round," Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal said. "The next round is going to be very challenging for us." The Spurs will attempt to do something that no team has been able to accomplish thus far -- contain O'Neal. The 7-1, 315-pound All-Star is averaging 30.6 points and 16.6 rebounds per game in the postseason. "They're playing great right now," Duncan said. "Shaq is dominating. Kobe (Bryant) is really fitting in well. A lot of role players are doing a great job finding ways to score. All in all, they are playing great basketball right now." If containing O'Neal is not enough of a challenge, San Antonio also will have to deal with Kobe Bryant, who leads Los Angeles in scoring in the playoffs. The Spurs would have liked to use Derek Anderson on Bryant but Anderson is expected to miss the series with a separated shoulder suffered May 7 against Dallas. Instead, the Spurs likely will use Antonio Daniels to neutralize Bryant. Daniels, who is San Antonio's third-leading scorer, has the size and quickness to cause problems for Bryant. "We pride ourselves on the defensive end and it will be a defensive series," Daniels said. "We'll try to funnel everything to the baseline and that's no secret. We have two 'Twin Towers' in there to lead them to." Los Angeles should have just as tough a time with Duncan and David Robinson as the Spurs will have with O'Neal and Bryant. Duncan is averaging 25.0 points and 15.4 rebounds while Robinson chips in 17.7 and 12.2. But it is at the defensive end where Duncan and Robinson truly stand out. The duo has combined for 38 blocks in the Spurs' nine playoff games. The teams split their four meetings in the regular season, with each winning once and losing once at home. The last time they met in the playoffs, San Antonio swept Los Angeles in the conference semifinals in 1999. |
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