Sam Smith

SAN ANTONIO - Got 'em right where we want them?

"You're coming into Game 1, you don't know what to expect," LeBron James was saying late Thursday night after the San Antonio Spurs dominated James and his Cavs 85-76 in a gruesome (for James and TV viewers) Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

(Writer's side note: You haven't seen the Spurs before? Drop to Tim Duncan, Tony Parker flashing in the lane, Manu Ginobili in a driving full body heave, Brice Bowen shadowing, the defense rotating and collapsing.)

"We don't know what they're going to run against us offensively," said James.

Huh?

"We've got to make adjustments for Game 2," said James. "I went by one guy, another guy stepped up. I'll definitely be ready. My teammates know I'm going to bring my better effort for Game 2."

Heck, if the Spurs had stayed home on Daniel Gibson, the Cavs might not have scored 50 points.

Gibson led the Cavs with 16 points as James, in his coming out as the next Michael Jordan, came up a little short. OK, a lot, as James had 14 points on 4-of-16 shooting and six turnovers in one of the one of the most-anticipated Finals' debuts in years. Maybe not worse than the movie Ishtar. Actually the word "gross" comes to mind.

Look it does happen, and just giving someone that much attention is impressive.

"Allen Iverson is the only other guy I can remember doing something like that for," said Robert Horry of the Spurs all-LeBron, all-the-time defense. "LeBron is the head of the snake and we need to cut that head off."

I preferred that imagery when it was used against the Pistons, who were somewhat more reptilian.

"LeBron didn't have a great night," acknowledged Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. "Sometimes shots don't fall for people. Next night he might shoot 60 percent."

Or not.

The Spurs took this one seriously.

Perhaps the way the Cavs probably shouldn't have lost one game to the Detroit Pistons, who play good defense — or did — and gave the Spurs all they could handle in the 2005 Finals in a terrific seven gamer, or at least a great last three.

Also, there was the Spurs East contingent of coaches and staff who run the Cavs, and you like to make a good impression on those you know. Popovich also knows Cavs coach Mike Brown, who coached on Popovich's staff for three years, considers the fast break an alien concept. Brown likes to slow the game, retreat on defense and keep the game close and perhaps LeBron will do something.

"He didn't have a 48-point game and I'm happy with that," said Bowen.

James did on the Pistons in spectacular fashion in that double overtime classic, and the Spurs took notice.

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So they trotted out their version of the James rules, jumping him on the pick and roll, showing with two and three defenders when James retreated to the wing for an attack, hustling back in case James got the crazy idea to try to run out and dunk.

Which he didn't do once.

"He struggled mightily," said Brown of James. "They did a great job. They closed down the paint. The bigs did a good job jumping out and containing him and blitzing him so he wasn't able to get to the paint and the couple of times he did get to the paint he wasn't able to finish because they're bringing bodies, not just one, two, three bodies.

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"There were times when he (James) would just pound, pound, pound, dribble, dribble, dribble and then shoot a three or shoot a leaning shot," added Brown in a rare bit of a challenge to James. "We have to do a better job as a staff and as a team and he's got to do a better job of us making sure we move the ball and get good shots because they're sitting back and waiting for him."

LeBron James? Yeah, yeah, we've got Tim Duncan.

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Which is the other part of the story that was easy to forget in the week-long coronation of James in his first ever NBA Finals.

The Spurs seem on the way to a fourth title in nine years and Duncan probably is the best ever at his position and Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are All Stars.

"You've got to give them credit," said Brown. "Especially with Manu, Tony and Tim, their big three, scoring the basketball the way they did."

Parker led with 27 points, Duncan had 24 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks and Ginobili added 16 off the bench.

It's what they do. But it's also how they do it.

Parker is a jet, and with Larry Hughes hobbled with a bad foot, Parker blew by him constantly to open the game.

"Tony gets to the rim all the time," said Duncan. "No knocking anyone, the Cavs or anyone else. His quickness, his ability to finish in the lane. He gets in there almost at will."