NBA Finals: A.C. Green predicts Miami Heat wins in seven games

LeBron James #6 of the Miami Heat drives on Pau Gasol #16 of the Los Angeles Lakers during a game at American Airlines Arena on January 23, 2014 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

LeBron James #6 of the Miami Heat drives on Pau Gasol #16 of the Los Angeles Lakers during a game at American Airlines Arena on January 23, 2014 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

The man who still played through too cuts, bruises and sore body parts to count sees the Miami Heat showing similar resilience.

Former Lakers forward A.C. Green still holds the title as the NBA’s “Iron Man,” maintaining an all-time league record for 1,192 games played. So he can sympathize as Miami’s trying to ensure maximum health and energy as their embark on their fourth consecutive trip to the NBA Finals. It’s a series against San Antonio that Green believes will entail the Heat in seven games.

“I think this series is going to be a carbon copy of last year’s Finals,” Green wrote in a blog entry on SportsBlog.com. Miami is going to at least win one on the road and can easily steal Game 1…then turn the tide and have the home court advantage. I think it will be a hard-fought 6 games, but I could see it going 7. I think Miami will be the champion at the end, but I’m it sure won’t be an easy road.

That is because the Heat face the Spurs for the second consecutive year with plenty of motivation after squandering a late Game 6 lead. It also doesn’t help that San Antonio has survived a competitive Western Conference while Miami has tried fighting complacency through a relatively easier path through the Eastern Conference. Still, the Heat have managed to stay healthy among their core group in LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade.

“I reflect back to when I was playing with the Showtime Lakers and we beat the Boston Celtics in ’87…and then playing the next year to defend our crown and trying to find a way to beat the Detroit Pistons in 7 games,” Green wrote. “People say we lucked out because of the circumstances (Isiah Thomas getting hurt). And then we tried to repeat in a re-match with the Pistons. That’s how Miami is this year – an almost identical kind of situation.”

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