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Tonight's NBA Finals Game One (6 pm Mountain, ABC) promises to be an exciting matchup of-

I'm sorry.

It turns out the Finals don't start until Thursday. I can see why the NBA would want to delay the series and maximize potential weekend games. However, the only weekend contests will be Games 2 and probably 5, which land on Sundays. There aren't even any Friday night games. So that's not it.

Instead of building on their momentum and leaping headfirst into an intriguing Finals, the NBA bizarrely elected to cede control of the airwaves to Albert Pujols' injury.

And instead of trying to predict what will happen four days from now when I don't even know what I'm doing for lunch in forty-five minutes, I just want to talk about the closeout games.

East Finals: The Heat cruised to a surprisingly easy 95-78 win over the Pistons. Every time the Pistons went on a run in the second half, the Heat matched it with scoring of their own.

Friday's game showed how awesome Miami can be when the supporting cast is hitting shots. Jason Williams got off to an obscene 10-for-10 start before missing his last two shots (loser), and James Posey grabbed eleven boards. That easily made up for a just-okay night by Dwyane Wade, who was suffering from the flu.(Is it okay with everyone if I call it the flu and not flu or flu-like symptoms, even though I'm not his doctor?)

I was impressed with how thoroughly Miami outplayed Detroit. Basically none of the Pistons played well-even Richard Hamilton, who scored 33, was noticeably less efficient than usual.

I wonder how we'll think about the Pistons ten years from now, or if we'll be thinking at all. By that I mean: will anyone look at them critically?

What am I trying to say here...look at the Packers of the late nineties. They won Super Bowl XXXI, then lost the next year to the Broncos, and lost in the first round the next season to Terrell Owens' famous touchdown grab.

Yet we still revere Brett Favre as one of the game's greatest quarterbacks (and rightfully so), and think of those Packers as a more dangerous team than they probably were.

Last week I said one title in the NFL means more than it does in the NBA, or at least it should. I still stand by that, I just don't know if other people recognize it. If the Pistons' run is over, they accomplished more than a lot of other teams ever will-but they also fell far short of historic greatness.

Let's not forget how the Pistons managed to end up a mere footnote to that players-in-the-stands brawl with the Pacers a few years ago. That might have been their most impressive feat yet.

West Finals: The Mavericks played some defense in mounting a nice comeback to finish off the Suns. At least I think so. I have to take the Associated Press' word for it, because I could not have found that series any less appealing and didn't watch it.

Tall goofy white guy with bad hair versus short goofy white guy with bad hair...you know, it's really shocking those two bonded back when they were on the same team.

I am glad I won't be watching the Suns anymore. No, nothing about dunks offends me. It's their coach. I've noticed in the playoffs that Mike D'Antoni likes to wear a tie in his team's colors. Does he always do that?

Is this high school? I think it's pretty weak but sort of understandable when college coaches sport team colors during March Madness, for example, but for an NBA coach to try to match his team's uniform is miles past your ordinary brand of lame.