My Favorites Having Trouble Advancing in NBA Playoffs

A few days ago, when I previewed this year's National Basketball Association championship playoffs, I acknowledged that Cleveland and Golden State were the most likely teams to face off (again), as conference champions, in the league title series.  But I also held out hope that my favorites in each conference, namely Miami in the East and San Antonio in the West, could at least give the Cavaliers and Warriors a run for their money, if not actually upset them.  Sadly, the Spurs couldn't even get to the conference championship round to play Golden State: Oklahoma City blew past them in six games.  The consolation here is that Thunder head coach Billy Donovan, still very popular here in Gainesville for bringing two NCAA championships to the University of Florida, is going to rise in esteem as an NBA coach...although I have yet to hear anyone on the sports talk shows give him any credit for his team's phenomenal playoff success so far.  In the East, the Heat are behind Toronto three games to two and face elimination if they can't pull off a home victory in tonight's game (8:00 on ESPN).  Even if Miami does win this one, they'll still have to go back to Canada to play the seventh game on the road. At this point I'm not holding out much hope, but the Heat, with Dwyane Wade and supporting cast, do have the playoff experience, over the course of many years, to come back and win this series.  But then again, I could have said the same about San Antonio...