Finals preview, of sorts

So, it's the day of Game 1. You (and i) have read everything that there is to be said about the impending matchup between the Spurs and the Cavs. So, why do i feel compelled to put in my two cents? Well, because that's what i do. Now, my understanding of this year's playoffs is a little skewed because i missed all of the conference finals while i was in Ecuador. Let it suffice to say that i was both shocked and disappointed at the way the EC Finals went. i, unlike probably everyone else outside of Detroit, was really looking forward to another San Antonio - Detroit matchup. Detroit matches up way better than Cleveland does. Now, a lot of people will be saying that in this Finals we have the opportunity to see LeBron do something entirely unique and player-defining (indeed, potentially even generation-defining). If he can ride off the momentum lingering from his other-worldly (i hear) Conference Finals performance, then we could be witnessing something that will indeed be held up with Jordan's flu game and Magic's stint at center as a rookie. And it's true, that we weren't likely to see anything of that nature from anyone on the Pistons. However - if LeBron looks human against the defensive-oriented Spurs, then we're much more likely to see a washout than we would with Detroit matching up.
There is hope - Cleveland has turned themselves into an excellent defensive team in the playoffs, indeed in the Spurs mold, as you've undoubtedly read about the connections between Mike Brown and Gregg Popovich. In that sense, we could see a good old grind-it-out series like we saw in 05 (apologies for continually bringing up the Pistons). In which case, the series could actually be decided by one factor - the superstar. Now, Tim Duncan is a rock and a superstar in his own right, but my guess is that if one player were able to swing the series in one direction, it's going to be LBJ. Purely on paper, the match-ups don't look good. Tony Parker has an obvious edge over either Larry Hughes or Eric Snow, and although Michael Finley is starting at SG, we know that Manu Ginobili is going to get the lion's share of the minutes. i'll take Ginobili over Sasha Pavlovic, but Pav is a bigger player and very talented in his own right, so he could make it interesting. The place that i think could be an X-factor is at center, where i would take Zydrunas Ilgauskas over Francisco Elson or Fabricio Oberto any day (let it stand that i'm a big Elson fan - he's the player i think the Pistons should have grabbed last summer insted of Nazr). And lets not forget Anderson Varejao, the energy/glue guy. And yeah, people say he's a flopper, but now he gets to go against the biggest flopping team in the league! Should be fun/agonizing. Overall, i would say the Cavs actually have a better corps of big men than the Spurs. Yes, the Spurs have Duncan. And that should win them a championship, again. And i'm not saying it won't. But get past Duncan/Gooden, and i'll take the Cavs' next 3 bigs over the Spurs'. And Gooden isn't a bad player, either. Am i trying to hard to give the Cavs a chance? Maybe. Am i supplying any statistical evidence to back it up? No. i'm just calling it how i see it. The bottom line is, it would be drastically shortsighted to call this series over now. And it's even harder because we don't quite know what these Cavs are capable of. Prediction: Spurs in 7. But let's be honest. We all (well, all of us outside of San Antonio) want Cleveland to win this series. So this is one time where i won't mind being wrong.