The San Antonio Spurs have booked their place in the NBA Finals. Now they get to sit back and watch the Pacers and Heat slug it out to see who will join them. The Five-Man Weave crew, including new addition Meghan McPeak, takes a look at the Eastern Conference Finals and how this years Spurs compare with their championship teams of the past. 1. The Heat-Pacers series has been _____? Meghan McPeak: Intense, and exciting. Neither team has won back-to-back games, and each has won on the others home floor. The Heat havent been able to find an answer in the post for Roy Hibbert, although Chris Andersen has been the only player (when on the floor) to match his physicality. If the Heat want to contend on the block, Andersen needs to be in the game more often. Both teams have bounced back after tough losses - Pacers in Game 2, Heat in Game 3. For either team to win, its going to come down to the role players and supporting cast. Josh Lewenberg: Captivating. Entertaining. Enthralling. Magnificent. How many words am I allowed to use? (I have a different set of adjectives for the officiating). The Pacers have played fearlessly and as a result they are rising to the occasion, particularly offensively where they have been uncharacteristically efficient (scoring 111.3 points per 100 possessions, up from 104.3 during the season). Miami has thrown its share of punches – as you would expect from the defending champs – but the Pacers, to their credit, have responded by playing to their strengths in the trenches and on the glass. Will Strickland: What its supposed to be: Competitive and Rugged. The Road to Riches and Diamond Rings still goes through South Beach and the Pacers didnt make the Eastern Conference Finals by accident. Its a three game series to decide who dances with the Spurs in the 2013 NBA Finals. Its gonna be great! Duane Watson: Surprisingly close. Not taking anything away from this Pacers team and their stingy defence, but this isnt the same squad that challenged the Heat last year in the Playoffs. Without Danny Granger and Paul Georges reluctance to take over this team, I didnt see it as nearly this competitive. Yet, Roy Hibbert, David West and Lance Stephenson have said otherwise, clearly Dwyane Wades knee has been an issue and this series will go longer than the five-game cruise for Miami that I originally predicted. Mitch Ward: Everything you want from playoff basketball. The series has been physical, highly competitive and has featured plenty of drama with more than a few hero moments. The Heat are probably the best team in the NBA and feature the best player in the world, but the Pacers have risen to the occasion and are going toe-to-toe with the Champs. 2. Which player has most impressed in this series? McPeak: The Birdman - Chris Andersen. He is shooting 13-13 from the floor and 6-7 from the line with 19 rebounds and 6 blocked shots. Hes been the only player to give Roy Hibbert a tough time in the post - when hes been able to stay on the floor and out of foul trouble. Outside of James/ Wade/ Bosh he has been the Heats most consistent player. He knows his role and does it well. When he gets on the floor he knows he has one, maybe two jobs: Disrupt Hibbert, and rebound. The man has been BALLIN OUT! Lewenberg: Roy Hibbert has been the best, most consistent player in a series that features LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and an emerging Paul George. Just let that marinate for a moment. Miami has no answer for Indianas seven-footer in the post or on the boards and the Pacers have been at their best when theyve exploited the Heats lone major weakness. Known as one of the best interior defenders in the association, Hibbert has impressed with his offence, taking advantage of the smaller Heat frontcourt with an array of imposing post moves. If he was deployed to do what he does best – protect the rim – in the dying seconds of Game 1, Indiana could conceivably have a 3-1 advantage in this series (Frank Vogel… Great coach, poor decision). Strickland: Roy Hibbert. Its one thing to be just big. Its another to be big, awkwardly skilled and possessing enough of a motor to drive Miami banoodles in the middle. Watson: Roy Hibbert. Based on his pedestrian performance in the regular season (11.9 ppg and 8.6 rpg), he has been playing like a monster in the middle in this series averaging over 20 points and 10 rebounds a game. The Heat have no answer for him and hes out to prove that the center position isnt dead. The points notwithstanding, theres a fire in Hibbert that I havent seen before and hes confident enough to want to put this team on his back, if he could pass some of that on to Paul George... Ward: Through two games it was LeBron with a triple-double and a 36 point effort. But through four, its Roy Hibbert who has been an absolute beast for Indiana in the middle. More than the big numbers in the series (23 points and 12 rebounds) what has been most impressive is Hibberts drive to win. You can see how much he wants to beat Miami. I also give him a ton of credit for the way he handled being left on the bench at the end of Game 1. Rather than sulking and letting it affect his play, he has taken it as his mission to expose the Heat, and their lack of a true big man, inside. 3. Which team will advance to the NBA Finals? McPeak: Heat in 7. YES, I think this series is going the distance. Based on the first four games, both teams have had a horrible game, and both teams have had a great game and bounced back. The Pacers have been good defensively, however Paul George needs help outside of Hibbert. He cant be left to guard LBJ, and still be the leading scorer. The Heat have so much fire power that when they are hitting on all cylinders they are virtually unstoppable. James is, well, he needs no explanation. Wade, if he can just get around the corner with his knee, he can be great - and weve seen glimpses of it through the first four games. Chris Bosh has been holding his own down low and from the outside. Ray Allen has been in a shooting slump, but slowly seems to be shooting his way out of it. Mario Chalmers has been quiet throughout the series, but is contributing when needed. Lewenberg: My prediction has not changed; Heat in six. Miami has not lost back-to-back games since early January. Coming off a disappointing loss I expect LeBron and company to be out for blood in Game 5 (see: Game 3). After that, I wouldnt be surprised to see them put the nail in Indys coffin (theyre 6-1 in elimination games over the last two postseasons). The Pacers have fought admirably but the fact remains, their best is good enough to stay neck and neck with the more talented Heat. When Miami is at its best… (see: Game 3). Strickland: The Heat. Watson: The Miami Heat. Despite the absence of impact from Shane Battier, Norris Cole and until last night Ray Allen, the Heat havent been able to put it together completely. Kudos to the Pacers defence, they have neutralized the Heats 3-point shooting and floor spacing. But when you have the defending champions and the best player in the universe in LeBron James, you will always come out on top. Reggie Miller is not walking through that door. Ward: My head says Miami (LeBron) is just too good, but my gut tells me the Pacers can pull this off. The Heat have no real answer for Hibbert inside and I think the physicality of this series is starting to wear on them a bit. Wades knee is holding him back and now Bosh is banged up too with a sore ankle. As for Indiana, a lesser team might have crumbled after being routed in Game 3. They didnt, they pulled themselves off the mat and came back swinging to even the series. Call me crazy, but I think Indiana has the moxie to win this thing. 4. Will the long layoff help or hurt the Spurs? McPeak: Most would say the time off will help the Spurs given their age, however, the time off can also backfire for the same reason. Yes, Tim Duncan is in probably the best shape of his life, but Ginobili and Parker have been playing through injuries. In the first two series the Spurs were able to finish the series off and move on to the next with minimal time off. Their bodies are in a groove right now, and they are used to playing. The longer the Spurs have off, the more it can hurt them going into the NBA Finals, especially if the Heat/ Pacers go seven games. Lewenberg: Im not sure it helps but I dont foresee it hurting them either. Sure some extra rest could benefit the teams older nucleus but their core is actually in good health for a change. You can argue that the time off may kill their momentum but this isnt their first rodeo, they know how to pace themselves. Overall, its mostly a non-factor for a veteran Spurs team that is sure to be prepared for the Finals regardless of the layoff/opponent. Strickland: Help. This break, along with the one Pop gave Danny Green, Ginobili, Parker and the great Tim Duncan vs. Miami in November will pay dividends as the NBA Finals look to be far more competitive than the Western Conference Finals. Watson: This is the San Antonio Spurs were talking about. Gregg Popovich will have his team prepared, rested and ready for war in the NBA Finals. Of course the older guys can rest up, but you wont find the Spurs complaining about rust after Game 1. This is a team that plays regular season games with an eye on the playoffs, so you know the break will definitely be to their advantage. Ward: Help. The Spurs dont need to worry about losing focus or rhythm - they have too much veteran leadership for that. The extra rest however will do them alot of good. Tim Duncan is the soul of this team and, at 37, a few extra days off are always welcome. Tony Parker meanwhile is the teams MVP but is nursing a bruised calf. The extra time should help him heal up, and the Spurs will need Parker at his best if they hope to win their fifth ring of the Duncan era. 5. How do this years Spurs compare with their championship teams? McPeak: Outside of "The Big Three" its hard to compare this team to the previous Championship teams. That being said, this team is probably peaking at the right time in the playoffs moving forward. Coach Popovich is getting production not only from Duncan, Ginobili and Parker, but also from the supporting cast in Bonner, Splitter, Leonard, Diaw and Joseph to name a few. This team probably has most experience going into the Finals as a whole team. I think this is probably a top-5 San Antonio Spurs team. Lewenberg: Like any great, well-coached team they have evolved and adapted to the changing NBA landscape. They are versatile in their approach, with the ability to match-up with any opponent while dictating their own tempo. Although their defence is not nearly as suffocating as it was back in 2007, their offence is more sophisticated and efficient than ever. Now, they feature a more Tony Parker-centric, faster paced offence predicated on spacing and ball movement. The one thing that hasnt changed is their knack of surrounding Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili with a terrific supporting cast. Strickland: Each one is different because of the key bit players. Avery Johnson, Stephen Jackson and Big Shot Bob Horry all have their places in the lore of the only former ABA team to win an NBA title. It will be the fourth Finals appearance together for the Spurs Big 3, but common denominators, Coach Gregg Popovich and The Metronome, Timothy Theodore Duncan, will have been there for all of them as the drive for five begins June 6th. Watson: Tim Duncan is currently playing at a comparable level to that of a decade ago, where the Spurs won the Championship and he was named Finals MVP. Tony Parker is unstoppable and attacking from the point at an elite level. Only Manu Ginobili has slowed a bit, but this Spurs team is deeper than it has been in some time. The Spurs are good as they will ever be with their big three, playing defence and offence equally as efficiently. Last season, I had the Spurs set to reach the NBA Finals until they were spanked by OKC, but this team is better than last years squad. While of course Coach Pop has mellowed with age ...ehhh maybe not, but he always has his team, 1-12 ready to compete. Ward: Its tough to compare across the years, but this might be the best Spurs team since their 2002-03 run to the title in David Robinsons last season. While Manu Ginobili isnt as good as he was, Tony Parker is better than ever and Tim Duncan is playing like hes 10 years younger during the playoffs. What separates this Spurs team from previous iterartions is the ability to win playing any style. Thats thanks in large part to the strength of this years supporting cast including the dynamic wing duo of Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green. The Five-Man Weave regular contributors are TSN Radio 1050 Raptors reporter Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050), Duane Watson (@sweetswatson) and Will Strickland (@WallStrizzle1) from TSN Radio 1050s 1-on-1 with Will and Duane, TSN.ca NBA Editor Mitch Ward (@jmitchw). Joining them this week is North Pole Hoops writer, McMaster Sports play-by-play announcer and occasional 1-on-1 guest host Meghan McPeak (@meghanmcpeak) China Jerseys Wholesale . -- Anaheim Ducks captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf has been scratched from Sunday nights game against the Vancouver Canucks because of an upper-body injury. Cheap NBA Jerseys Authentic .J. -- Pitcher Carl Pavano is retiring after 14 major league seasons. http://www.cheapjerseysroom.com/ . He just needed to be his best twisting, turning acrobatic self. "I didnt need to be anybody else, I just needed to be myself and be aggressive," said Burks, who scored a career-high 34 points to spark the Utah Jazz to a 118-103 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Monday night. Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys . The Dutchmans tenure got off to a poor start when referee Guido Winkmann awarded a penalty within two minutes for Niklas Starks clumsy challenge on Alexandru Maxim. Wholesale NFL Jerseys China . Fred Couples, captain of the U.S. side, put it all into perspective. "We know whos in charge," he said. Editors note: The 2016-17 college basketball season will be the Year of the Freshmen,?featuring what could be the best class weve ever seen. Over the next two weeks, we will get familiar with the best of the best, examining who they are and where each of the top 10 prospects in the 2016 ESPN 100 came from.Read more: No. 10 Dukes Frank Jackson | No. 9 Kentuckys Malik Monk No. 8 Michigan States Miles Bridges | No. 7 Washingtons Markelle Fultz No. 6 Kentuckys DeAaron Fox | No. 5 Kentuckys Bam Adebayo No. 4 UCLAs Lonzo Ball | No. 3 Dukes Jayson Tatum No. 2 Kansas Josh Jackson | No. 1 Dukes Harry GilesLAWRENCE, Kan. -- A hard foul, the kind that sends previously functional pickup runs into a shouty standoff death spiral. A 5-foot cushion on the perimeter, with overt disrespect masked as pity. Taunts of the printable -- Hes soft, let him shoot?-- and unprintable variety. An edict delivered as a matter of fact: Freshmen --?all freshman -- are required to carry the upperclassmens bags.This is The Test. Or parts of it, anyway. Probably.Its a tricky, shifty thing, this test -- tough to define in concrete terms. Its not, technically speaking, an exam -- though it also kind of is. There are no guaranteed questions and no sure answers. Even the name is informal. You can be tested, but you can also be challenged. You dont necessarily pass the test so much as react correctly, as Kansas senior?Landen Lucas?said, with some care. Correct reaction requires fluency in a social language only elite athletes speak.All?Josh Jackson?could be sure of when he arrived at the Kansas campus in June was that a test of some kind -- administered by veterans of a top-five team with deadly serious national title ambitions and taken by a hyper-talented freshman with a potential No. 1 NBA draft pick awaiting him 12 months later -- was going to happen.I knew it was coming, Jackson said. Immediately.Fight back. Dont waver. Dont complain. Get angry but not too angry. Hide weakness at all cost. Forget your recruiting ranking; no one cares. Expect equal treatment. Take everything in stride. Absorb the larger stakes. Buy in.Above all, understand that the whole point of all of this, at the end of the day, is to see if you can stand out and?fit in -- at the same time.And?I think I passed, Jackson said.IT IS THERE, in that seemingly contradictory dichotomy between blending in and showing out, that the central promise of Jacksons sure-to-be-short tenure at Kansas lies.In the 13-year Bill Self era -- the past 12 years of which have ended with a regular-season conference title, a rare statistic that cant possibly be over-repeated -- no player this talented has ever joined a team this experienced. Self has had his fair share of elite freshmen, of course; one doesnt win 12 straight Big 12 titles in the one-and-done era without them. Still, the only player with as much or more hype than Jackson upon his arrival at KU was Andrew Wiggins on the 2013-14 team, which started three freshmen (Wiggins, Joel The Process Embiid?and Wayne Selden) and one sophomore (Perry Ellis), with just two seniors (graduate transfer Tarik Black and reserve Justin Wesley) in the rotation.This team is different. Or rather, that team was different -- the youthful outlier in Selfs otherwise balanced personnel portfolio. For most of Selfs tenure, KUs success has been built not merely on talent acquisition but on player development, that gradual, old-fashioned process of incremental, collective improvement. Despite significant year-over-year personnel losses -- Ellis graduated after a sterling, four-year career, and a host of others, including Selden, Cheick Diallo, Jamari Traylor, Brannen Greene and Hunter Mickelson, are gone too -- the 2016-17 edition is still very much that kind of team, led by seniors (Frank Mason III, Lucas) and juniors (Devonte Graham) at its core.Where the massively hyped Wiggins (and Embiid) needed to dominate from the outset, Jackson has the luxury of integrating with a group of players who have already pretty much seen it all. That is, fittingly enough, a perfect forum for his game -- itself a combination of star-level athletic prowess and the kinds of contributions that dont make YouTube mixtapes.The thing about him is -- and I think this is a good thing -- sometimes you go watch somebody play, and right away after 10 minutes, theyre making every shot, and you just go, Wow, Self said of Jackson. Josh is a guy that the more you watch him, you go, Wow.Its not like it just jumps off the page to me when I watch him. Because he can go through phases of time when he blends in. But then you look at it and say, wait, he just blocked three shots, he just got two offensive rebounds, he just led the break, got us a layup -- he can do a lot, this guy. He can do a little bit of everything.Save for a minor hitch in his shooting mechanic, per Self, Jacksons game has no glaring holes. He can do all the mixtape things: He is 6-foot-7 and superathletic, he has a ball handlers touch, he is an excellent passer, and he has an innate ability to create angles and make tough shots in traffic. But he might be even better at cutting off the ball and better still as a defender, particularly on the perimeter. Jackson could end up being KUs best perimeter defender, which is no small feat for a guy playing next to Mason and Graham, two of the nations best.That is why Self, whose teams have typically featured two traditionally big forwards, iis figuring out how to play four guards at any given time.dddddddddddd Its a stylistically on-trend move, as the game gets smaller and smaller from the NBA on down, and its one Jackson -- the tallest guard in that four-guard lineup -- seems entirely capable of taking on. If he scores 30, great. But he might score 12 and be every bit as crucial.You cant label him as any one thing, Self said. Hes just a basketball player.HE IS ALSO, it turns out, a totally nice, seemingly normal dude.Jackson can play the saxophone -- well enough that if he had practiced and hadnt been so nervous, he could have gotten through the solo performance his teammates wanted him to put on at Kansas Late Night in the Phog event in October. (I was not comfortable playing in front of 16,000 people, he said.) Hes into chess, and he started a chess club at Prolific Prep in Napa, California, where he spent his senior year of high school and was a member of the National Honor Society. Ask him to describe himself, and the first thing he will say is that hes kind of an introvert.He is also, it turns out, a next-level competitive freak.This is the second bit of that self-description: a competitor at everything. Chess gets heated. Checkers gets heated. Connect Four -- Connect Four! -- gets heated. Video games arent merely a relaxing diversion; theyre another avenue in which to compete. (His top choice is Mortal Kombat XL. His main character? Raiden. I dont think anyone can beat me, he said.)Indeed, these are the two things other people say about Jackson: that he is a really nice guy and crazy competitive, and that the difference is never more noticeable than when he steps on and off the court.Hes very easy to get along with, Lucas said. I dont think Ive ever seen a person, or a personality type, not fit with him.This is the same person who, earlier this year, blocked a shot from NBA legend Gary Paytons son in a high school game -- and then started talking trash to Gary Payton.Self picked up on all of this quickly enough. Sometimes, all he has to do is praise a teammate for playing hard and intentionally omit Jackson, and then watch as Jackson mutters at himself under his breath.As far as Jackson can tell, that innate drive was honed early in childhood, when his mother, Apples Jones, a former player at UTEP, took her son out back for games of one-on-one -- and never, ever let him win.(Ahem: The similarities to Duke guard Frank Jacksons one-on-one matches against his father are uncanny, and the only conclusion worth drawing is that parents of prodigal hoopsters should start ruthlessly dominating their children at a tender age. It seems to work.)The mental image of a little kid crying and storming off because his mom beat him at basketball -- again -- is a vivid one, but that cant be how it went down.Thats pretty much exactly how it went down, Jackson said with a laugh.Starting at 8 years old, Jackson played his mom, and she wouldnt give an inch, would not take it easy on me at all. It took all of five years, until Jackson was 13 and had grown a few inches and gotten a bit stronger, for him to get his first win.Of course, I started prancing around and dancing and all of that stuff, he said. She didnt seem mad, though. She had a smile on her face. She was happy.Lesson learned: Basketball is more fun when its competitive, when both people know they are getting the others best.And we, after that, we never played again, Jackson said.NO WONDER JACKSON WAS READY for his test. For some players, even great ones, threading the needle between uber-competitive jerk and over-passive nice guy is a career-long struggle. For KUs freshman star, it is the baseline sum of his personality.Josh is great at it, Lucas said. Because of the demeanor he brings with him. Speaking for me, personally, I love it when guys, young guys, come back at it. Because Im competitive too.I will tell you this: If anybody in his camp, primarily his mom, thought he would back down because somebody came at him, I mean, Self said before pausing, that would ... be something that was discussed for a long time. Thats not in their DNA.That doesnt mean there wont be more tests. As comfortable as Jackson is with the attention he is receiving -- and as much as he was introduced to it as early as eighth grade, when the recruiting rankings started rolling in -- theres something different about feeling it on a nightly basis or after a tough loss or when the shots dont fall for a week or a month or all season. The lights can get bright.Those summer tests, preemptively designed to ward off trouble later in the season, cant always account for the frustrations that can accrue in the cold winter Big 12 play -- or the pressures associated with KUs attempt to tie the longest conference-title streak of all time, currently held by UCLA.In the meantime, though, Jackson has, to use Selfs phrase, unpacked his bags. He has integrated himself fully in the team, on the court and off. He has done everything he can to earn the respect of the veteran teammates whose goals he will play such a large role in achieving and who hate to lose every bit as much as he does. The goal: Fit in and stand out.Rest assured of one thing: Even if you dont see Jackson, youll hear him.Oh, definitely, [I talk back], Jackson said. Thats part of passing the test. ' ' '