The San Antonio Spurs play the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday. Tipoff is at 7:00 p.m. ET. Watch the live stream or listen to the radio broadcast via the links provided below.
You could say San Antonio's defeat of the Miami Heat in the finals last season led to LeBron James's return to Cleveland. While James didn't admit that, he did concede they had a much better team that last year's Heat simply couldn't overcome when it mattered the most.
"That's what happens in a series sometimes," James said, via ESPN. "They were just playing at a much higher pace than we were at the time and they had everything clicking. They had the ball movement. They had guys that were making shots. They had the pace and the space and they had it going. And it resulted in them winning a championship."
James also expects San Antonio to embarrass the Cavaliers (5-4) at home if his team isn't ready.
"If we're not mentally focused, they're going to embarrass us right off the jump, it's just that simple," he said. "It's the Patriots of the NBA. They come into your building and they want to embarrass you. They're going to execute at a high level and they're not going to beat themselves."
One thing to watch Wednesday night is the number of minutes James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving play. James, who's averaged the third-most minutes on the court this season, told reporters earlier this week he would like to see his playing time decrease.
"That has to come down," he said. "For me, I don't want to do that all year. Obviously right now it's difficult because we're trying to find a groove and we're trying to find a rhythm and we're trying to find something that you can't really, you don't want to shortcut it but at the same time you gotta be smart about it."
San Antonio (6-4), though, isn't without their own problems. After losing Saturday at Sacramento, the Spurs bounced back Monday with a 100-75 win over the struggling Philadelphia 76ers.
Watch the live stream HERE, or listen to the radio broadcast HERE (SA) and HERE (CLE).
