Cavs originally set to host Spurs Wednesday evokes memories of LeBron James carrying club to Finals

After a 2015-2018 NBA Finals rematch with the Golden State Warriors out in the Bay area on Monday, which was a disappointing loss, the Cleveland Cavaliers were originally set to play host to the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday. Due to four positive COVID-19 tests within the Spurs, though, the Spurs’ next three games were set to be postponed, which includes Wednesday’s game at Cleveland; you can view the reported/further details involving that here.

Now, the last time the Spurs visited Cleveland, the Cavaliers won in overtime by a score of 132-129, in what was a balanced effort from the Wine and Gold.

And similar to how the matchup with GSW was an NBA Finals rematch, when San Antonio comes to town it will be an NBA Finals rematch, albeit from a while back and we’ll have to see when they ultimately will eventally.

With how this matchup was set to originally play out, though, that brought on some nostalgic feelings, really.

This Cavs-Spurs game originally scheduled evokes memories of LeBron James’ greatness carrying the squad to a Finals appearance.

Back in 2007, the Cavs and Spurs were the final two combatants battling it out for the Larry O’Brien trophy. Cleveland captured the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference thanks to a 50-32 record, whereas San Antonio was able to lock up the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference due to a  58-24 record.

Although the Cavs were the higher seed, the Spurs had the better record and were a far better club, realistically. Thus, the series began at AT&T Center in San Antonio, as opposed to “The Q” then in Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

Since they’re in opposing conferences, the two teams only met twice during the regular season. Somewhat surprisingly, the Cavaliers were able to get a victory in both games. The Cavs won 88-81 in SA on Nov. 3. Then on Jan. 2 in Cleveland, the Cavs won by a score of 92-78.

In order to advance to the NBA Finals, Cleveland first had to get through a scrappy Washington Wizards team. Washington was without two of their primary weapons in Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas, however, they still had Antawn Jamison (who would become a Cavalier later in his career). The Cavs were able to sweep the Wizards, but all four games were close and hard-fought.

Then New Jersey Nets were up next in the second round. Featuring the likes of Vince Carter, Richard Jefferson (who would later win a championship with the Cavs) and Jason Kidd, the Nets were able to provide a bit of a challenge for Cleveland. New Jersey almost pushed the series to a full seven games, instead, they bowed out in six. By the way, the Nets should still be in New Jersey and not Brooklyn.

The top-seeded Detroit Pistons were up next in the Eastern Conference Finals. That Detroit team featured the likes of Rasheed Wallace, Chris Webber, Tayshaun Prince, Richard “Rip” Hamilton, and “Mr. Big Shot,” Chauncey Billups.

Detroit was the veteran team and they had just recently won the NBA title in 2004 against the heavily favored Los Angeles Lakers (who featured Shaq and Kobe Bryant). Detroit then pushed the Spurs to a Game 7 in 2005. Then in 2006, Detroit was eliminated in the ECF by D-Wade, Shaq, and the eventual NBA champion Miami Heat.

Thus, Detroit should’ve been heavily favored going into that series against the young Cavaliers. In fact, there were most likely a lot of media members and fans alike who felt as if the Pistons would sweep Cleveland or possibly win the series in five games.

Yet somehow, some way, the Cavs were able to pull off the upset. There are two primary reasons as to why Cleveland was able to get the victory.

The first is because of LeBron James‘ amazing performance in Game 5 at the Palace of Auburn Hills, in which he had 48 points in that overtime W, and actually came up with the Cavs’ last 25 points in that game. That’s right, LeBron was a one-man band in Game 5 of the ECF!

The secondary reason is that Daniel Gibson had an unreal performance in the clinching Game 6 at the Q (Quicken Loans Arena). He had 31 points in that game and was 12-of-15 on free throws, seven-of-nine on field goal attempts, and a perfect five-for-five from three-point range!

But who else did the Cavs have in 2007 besides a young LeBron James who was only in his fourth year in the league? Gibson had a great shooting showcase coming off the bench in the Eastern Conference Finals against the top-seeded Detroit Pistons, but it’s not like he was an All-Star or anything like that.

Cleveland’s starting lineup was Larry Hughes at point guard, Sasha Pavlović at shooting guard, LeBron James at small forward, Drew Gooden at power forward, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas at the center (though he did get his jersey retired).

San Antonio countered with Tony Parker at PG (most likely will get inducted into the Hall of Fame, got his jersey retired), Michael Finley at SG, Bruce Bowen (got his jersey retired) at SF, Tim Duncan at PF (inducted into the Hall of Fame, got his jersey retired), and Fabricio Oberto at C. Plus, San Antonio had Manu Ginóbili coming off the bench. Ginóbili has his jersey retired and will most likely be a Hall of Famer someday.

On paper, this series looked like a total mismatch that leaned heavily towards the Spurs. Three out of the four games were close and low-scoring affairs. Game 1 was 85-76, Game 3 was 75-72 and Game 4 was 83-82.

The only exception was Game 2 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio where the Spurs won 103-92. Despite the young keeping the games close, the veteran Spurs were able to come away victorious in a four-game sweep.

At the time it was the Spurs’ fourth championship. They would return to the NBA Finals in 2013 against James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat. Miami won that series in an epic seven-game series. But the two teams quickly turned around and played each other in the 2014 NBA Finals where the Spurs dismantled the Heat in five games.

Cleveland on the other hand wouldn’t return to the NBA Finals until 2015 where they lost to Golden State in six games. Granted, things could’ve been different if the injury gods didn’t take away LeBron’s help in Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving (who didn’t play in the last five games).

The Cavs got their revenge the next season in an epic seven-game series against the 73-win Warriors, though, as we all remember so vividly.

Anyway, with the Spurs originally set to come to The Land again on Wednesday, as a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, it definitely evokes memories of LeBron carrying the squad to their first NBA Finals appearance against those Spurs.

As a side note, Darius Garland, Cavs leading scorer Collin Sexton (22.8 points per outing) and the Wine and Gold will end up playing the Denver Nuggets after a league rescheduling note on Friday.

Denver was initially set to play on Friday at the Charlotte Hornets, but due to Charlotte having their next two games postponed because of them having played San Antonio on Sunday/contract tracing, Denver was rescheduled to play Cleveland on Friday instead. And you can again view the reported/further details at the link above about postponements.