-     MIAMI TIE SERIES 3-3 IN OT GAME - MIAMI 103 SA 100 - MANU FOUL CALL WHISTLES ??

-      SA NEEDS TONY PARKER TO GET HIS MID-RANGE JUMPER BACK FOR GAME 7 THURS.

-     SPURS GO UP 3-2 IN SERIES - SA 114 HEAT 104 - TP 26 PT - MANU 24 PT - DUNKS

-    NATIONAL MEDIA BACKLASH TO SPURS TOO BORING OR TOO EUROLEAGUE BASED - MIX

-      NBA FINALS PREVIEW - SERIES COULD COME DOWN TO D. WADE VS MANU G. HELP

-  PARKER & GINOBILI HELP SPURS GO UP 3-2 WITH 50 PTS & 15 A   FROM EURO L. GUARDS

The NBA finals were tied up 2-2 with a chance for the best player on the planet, LeBron James to take control of the series, but the Spurs did a fine defensive job on him, limiting his easy baskets at the rim and holding him to 8-22 on FG's for 25 points in the 114-104 loss to the European league based Spurs. Former Italian league take over top of the key guard Manu Ginobili was in a funk in the first four games of these finals, as he was coming off the bench playing mostly back-up PG when French lead guard Tony Parker came out of the games. The back-up PG role took the Manu Ginobili attacking style away from the soon to be 36 year old, but playing more with the Spurs reserves, instead of being on the court early in the games with Tim Duncan and off the ball with Tony Parker, made Ginobili look more tenative on the perimeter, as he looked to get others involved in his time on the court in the first four games.  In game five, Ginobili got the start to match the Miami Heat small ball and the attacking Ginobili game returned, with a vintage Manu game, going for 24 points and 10 assists, on 8-14 FG, 1-4(3PT), 7-8 FT and his fellow former European league pro Tony Parker went for 26 points, 5 assists, on 10-14 FG, 0-1(3PT), 6-8 FT, to help the R.C Buford Euro based San Antonio Spurs grab a 3-2 lead in the finals, as they go to Miami for game six on Tuesday.  Those type of stats in crucial NBA games for the Spurs Euroleague based backcourt have been a regular thing in past NBA finals and big playoff games, but for one reason or another most of the NBA beat writers, national Sports talk show hosts and NBA television commentators in the U.S.A have not glorified the magical run of the Euro guards, as even this season, with Tony Parker and Chris Paul having pretty much the same stats and Tony Parker having already won an NBA finals MVP in 2007, the vote for 1st team All-NBA went to the more flashy Chis Paul, who has never even been to a Conference finals before in a playoff situation, is this just a coincidence, or is it Chris Paul who played college ball in the U.S.A, compared to Tony Parker who did not, get those swing votes over Tony Parker, who grabbed the All-NBA 2nd team PG award for only the second time in his Spurs career.  EUROJOHNBBALL wonders how Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili would have been covered by the U.S.A media, if they played college ball at Syracuse or Duke University, instead of coming straight from Europe.  The NBA media has never showcased the athletic ability of Manu Ginobili, as at age 36, he can still take it to the hole for dunks over guys, but the lack of coverage of his early dunks by U.S.A media, other than Charles Barkley, added to the notion that the Spurs were just fundametal or boring.  During game four coverage of these 2013 NBA finals by ABC, Jeff Van Gundy kept bringing up the competitor that Manu is, but his athletic ability was not that of other great NBA players, Jeff needs to look at the early facial dunks of Manu and compare them to the other so called more athletic NBA players and he will find that his left handed throw down dunks are also very special. Also during ABC game four coverage of the 24 point 10 assist game by Manu, Jalen Rose called Manu CLEVER two times, Manu is clever, but the code word clever means a fudamental player, which keeps making the average NBA finals casual fan think he has little athletic ability to throw down in the face of a 7 footer. EUROJOHNBBALL also wonders if the 2005 NBA finals MVP versus the Detroit Pistons would have gone to Manu Ginobili over Tim Duncan, who played college ball in the U.S.A if Manu had played U.S.A college ball, as Manu took over game 7 late in the game with vintage drives to the bucket to help the Spurs win the title. Manu Ginobili scored 20.8 points per game in the 2005 Spurs playoff title run, shooting 51 percent on FG attempts, but the former Euroleague title winner, who just months earlier at the 2004 Athens Olympics led Argentina to a Gold medal, helping defeat the NBA led U.S.A squad with 29 points and then Italy in the Gold medal game, could not get enough votes to grab the MVP award.  Manu Ginobili is such a team player, that he just wanted the NBA title and could care less that the Spurs inside threat Tim Duncan grabbed the award, but when EUROJOHNBBALL brought up that Manu Ginobili was the best player in all of basketball in his Olympics 2004 summer run and 2004-05 Spurs title run, EUROJOHNBBALL was dismissed on the NBA radio channel, that Ginobili could be mentioned as the best, even in just a one year run.  Manu Ginobili took over the Olympic games and took over late in vintage Manu form in the NBA finals of 2005, but was dismissed as just a very good player, not the clutch guy that had the best year in basketball, could it have been that foreign accent and could it be the foreign French accent that held Tony Parker out of the All-NBA 1st team this year.   How glorified by American media outlets would Manu and Tony Parker be, if they were American players.  EUROJOHNBBALL said that the trio of Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili should be given their due as maybe the best ever trio, if they beat LeBron, Wade and Bosh, with an aging 37 year old Duncan and a maybe soon retiring 36 year old Manu Ginobili in July, but knowing what the national media have said in the past about the great trio, they will probably never get the proper respect they deserve.  Tim Duncan has gotten the most respect by the U.S.A media, as he has ten All-NBA first team selections, while the take over abilities from the top of the key of Manu Ginobili are called CLEVER or a COMPETITOR by the media and the dominant play of Tony Parker from the PG spot is looked at as All-NBA 2nd team by the NBA voters.  Could it be that Duncan played college U.S.A ball and Ginobili and Parker did not and speak with foreign accents to the media, EUROJOHNBBALL is just wondering.

-                         ITALIAN LEGA LEAGUE FINALS GAME 4

-         MONTEPASCHI GO UP 3-1 DANIEL HACKETT LEADS WITH 16 PTS IN WIN

1. Montepaschi 81 Virtus Roma 71 - Daniel Hackett (16 PT) Luigi Datome (17 PT)

-                               SPANISH ACB FINALS GAME 4

-   FC BARCELONA TIE SERIES 2-2 TO FORCE GAME 5 - ANTE TOMIC 18 PTS 11 REB LEADS

1. FC Barcelona 73 Real Madrid 62 -Ante Tomic (18 PT, 11 R) Felipe Reyes (10 PT)

-                               GERMAN BBL FINALS GAME 3

-     BROSE BASKETS SWEEP FINALS 3-0 BOSTJAN NACHBAR LEADS WITH 20 PTS

1. Brose Baskets 91 EWE Baskets 88 - Bostjan Nachbar (20 PT) A Chubb, D Joyce, C Kramer (16 PT)

-      NBA GLOBAL TOP SCORERS 2012-13 REGULAR SEASON -  2013 EUROLEAGUE FINAL