Mark Cuban has watched the NBA Finals unfold and come to the realization that now, more than ever, who you play is every bit as important as how you play.
The Finals resume Sunday night with the Los Angeles Lakers on the verge of the title, up 3-1 against Orlando.
Cuban today is taking part in the eighth annual Reebok Heroes Celebrity Baseball Game at Frisco's Dr Pepper Ballpark. He took some time to go over the NBA Finals and believes the Orlando Magic has outplayed the Lakers.
"They just haven't closed it out,'' Cuban said. "I really do think it should be 3-1, Orlando. But that doesn't count. You got to finish out games and Orlando hasn't been able to do that. But for all but two minutes of every game, they've outplayed them and should have beat them.''
Throughout this year's playoffs, Cuban said, the value of playing the right team has shown through.
"The interesting thing is that it shows the importance of matchups,'' he said. "If you play the team you match up well against, you advance. If you happen to have a bad matchup ... we're a bad matchup for the Spurs. Always have been. Then you have Orlando, they struggled with Boston. LA struggled with an undermanned Houston team. I think LA's a good matchup for Orlando. They just haven't been able to get it done.''
And then there was Denver. "It wasn't good for us,'' he said. "But it was easy for LA.''
--Eddie Sefko