When last seasons NBA Finals ended, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich was all smiles. For a few minutes, that is. Popovichs first order of business after the seasons final buzzer sounded in Miami was to go and embrace Erik Spoelstra, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, giving everyone hearty hugs and offering genuine words of congratulations after the Heat topped his Spurs in Game 7 of one of the most dramatic, thrilling championship series in league history. The pain of losing started setting in later, and lasted for months. But now, the dream scenario for San Antonio has arrived. Starting Thursday, the Spurs get a rematch in the NBA Finals against the only team to ever beat them in a championship series. San Antonio will be holding home-court advantage, so if another Game 7 awaits, the Spurs will have the decided edge this time around. If that wasnt enough, the Spurs even got basically five full days between games to get healthy and prepare. It is, without question, everything the Spurs could have wanted. "We know what were going against," said Spurs guard Tony Parker, who added that he has great respect for what the Heat have done in this four-year run. "Its a great challenge." There are so many things that would seem like a distinct San Antonio advantage right now. First, while everyones better at home, the Spurs dominate in San Antonio, winning 103 times in their last 123 games there. Over the past four seasons, the Spurs are also 25-5 when having three or more days between games. Maybe most importantly, having nearly a week between the end of the Western Conference finals and the start of the NBA Finals gives Parker plenty of time to get his ailing left ankle ready to go for Game 1. "Ill do my best," said Parker, who didnt practice Tuesday but is hoping to play in the series opener, as the Heat expect he will. This is San Antonios sixth trip to the NBA Finals. The Spurs won it all in 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007, the last title in that run coming when San Antonio swept a Cleveland team that featured a young LeBron James making his debut on the leagues biggest stage. James is no finals apprentice anymore. Hes been to the title round three times since, winning the last two. And James is quick to point out that the Spurs arent the only team fueled by hunger in this championship round. "Both teams have motivating factors," James said. "They have a motivating factor. We have our own." Losing the finals is one thing. Losing the way the Spurs did last June, thats something else. Forget Game 7 for a moment. Game 6 will be replayed for as long as there are replays, unforgettable for both how the Heat rallied and how the Spurs collapsed. A 10-point lead going into the fourth quarter was erased, in part because Mike Miller scored three points on one shot while wearing one shoe. And a five-point lead with 28.2 seconds left, well, you know the rest. Manu Ginobili misses a free throw. James makes a 3-pointer. Kawhi Leonard makes one of two free throws. James misses a 3-pointer. Chris Bosh out jumps Ginobili for the rebound. Ray Allen started backpedaling to the right corner, hoping for a chance. ABCs Mike Breen described what happened next like this: "Rebound Bosh ... back out to Allen ... his 3-pointer ... BANG!!! Tie game!" The Heat went on to win in overtime that night, then found a way to win Game 7 and the title, 95-88. When this season began, Popovich started camp by showing his team Games 6 and 7, painful as it was. "I try to learn something every game I watch," Popovich said. "Thats what we do." And while there were plenty of teams that looked like contenders this season, neither club was surprised that the end result is the first NBA Finals rematch since 1998. "We got wined and dined with some of the other teams that kind of popped up and showed greatness throughout the year," Allen said. "The Clippers looked great. OKC, they had their issues and then they popped up. Memphis looked good at the end of the year. Indiana was always hovering. But if you go back to the beginning of the year, most people said the same thing. Pop knew how to manage his team to get to this point. Same thing with us." In other words, maybe Spurs-Heat II was meant to be. "It was," Allen said. ___ Associated Press Writer Raul Dominguez in San Antonio contributed to this story Cheap Air Max China Wholesale . Kelli Stack and Alex Carpenter also scored for the Americans, who avoided a repeat of Finlands upset at the Four Nations Cup in Lake Placid, N.Y., in November. Finnish goalie Noora Raty made 58 saves in that one, but the three-time Olympian could stop just 40 of 43 U. Discount Air Max Shoes .com) - The surging Montreal Canadiens will try to match their longest winning streak of the season when they visit the Florida Panthers for Saturdays clash at BB&T Center. http://www.cheapairmaxfromchina.us/. 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Vettel, who is aiming for his fifth-straight drivers championship, was brought down to earth at a rainy Albert Park street circuit, finishing well off the pace of pole sitter Lewis Hamilton and his new Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo. The German described the handling of his car as "horrible" during pre-qualifying practice, and things only got worse in qualifying "Once it started to rain, I was struggling with drivability ... it made life pretty difficult," Vettel said. Though disappointed with his own poor grid position, Vettel was buoyeed by Ricciardos performance, which indicated Red Bull was not far off the pace of the front-running Mercedes despite a trouble-strewn preseason in which the team suffered an array of problems with the new V6 turbo hybrid engine.dddddddddddd "There is performance in the car and that is the important thing," Vettel said. "We have a quick car and we just need to make it robust and reliable, but thats better than having a robust and reliable car and trying to make that quick." Vettel was at a loss to explain why Ricciardos car was apparently so much easier to drive. "There was not supposed to be a difference between the cars so today was not too happy on my side and we need to understand that, but fortunately it worked for him, so at least we have one car where it belongs." ' ' '