I'm here at Camden Yards on the nicest day of the homestand, by far. O's are up 2-0 in the third. Next to me in the press box is Roch, who will be handling your Orioles blogging needs, freeing me up to break down the just-concluded NBA conference finals, and give a little background on why it brings no joy to see Pat Riley in the Finals.

To cover a Pat Riley-coached team, as I did when I covered the Knicks for three years (1992-95), is to see the sausage being made. You completely understand how he gets teams to follow him, to bind together and to win, but you also see how he presses buttons, how he manipulates and uses whatever he has at his disposal (including us in the media), and you see how he burns players out on him and, eventually, burns himself out. Now, players who do eventually burn out on him almost always put those feelings aside later and return to play for him - best example is Anthony Mason, with whom he fought almost every day as a Knick but who came back to play for him in Miami - and they swear by him, because he got them to win. At the end of the TNT broadcast of Dallas-Phoenix last night, Magic Johnson said he was picking Miami almost solely because of Riley.

At the same time, you can't ignore how he ended negotiations with the Knicks before the last season of his contract began, by getting total control in Miami and faxing his resignation to the Knicks. You can't ignore how he walked away from the Heat when it was hitting rock-bottom three years ago, then walked back in (over Stan Van Gundy) when he had a team worthy of his coaching.

Ugh. But we went through all of that this morning.

Meanwhile...

* One of these days, TNT will do the Finals, and it will be the best Finals coverage ever. Marv Albert was brilliant again, Kerr and Collins great next to him, the graphics were perfect, the sideline reports were timely and fitting, the sliding panoramic camera is a great addition, and nothing beats the studio crew. (Even Magic is getting better, but Reggie Miller has been a real find.) ABC is nothing special except for Hubie Brown, although Mike Wilbon (from another paper) and Mark Jackson have been good at halftime). ESPN is horrendous on games. Maybe the new CW network (part-owned by Time Warner, which owns TNT) will bid on future Finals. Of course, that means endless promos for "Girlfriends'' and "Gilmore Girls'' instead of endless promos for "The Closer'' and "Saved''.

* We don't have to wait for the Finals to decide whether Dirk Nowitzki has made The Leap. He made it in Game 5. Score 50 points in a game like that, the swing game of a series like that, after the horrible game he had played in Game 4, and save 22 of those points for the fourth quarter - to elevate yourself and everyone around you in the most dire of circumstances - how can anyone doubt him anymore? And if you were doubting him at halftime of last night's game, did he shut us all up or what with that third quarter? It's amazing to see the guys who have that kind of ability figure out what makes the difference between a great player and a special player. Dwyane Wade figured it out early, Steve Nash just figured it out, and between last year's playoffs (when he was ripping teammates, sulking and mentally taking himself out of games), Nowitzki figured it out. Some players haven't, and might never, figure it out (Vince Carter, for one, is hereby dropped from the "superstar'' category), and some never did (Karl Malone, sorry, bye-bye).

* Nash, by the way, carries himself on the court differently than he had throughout his career until, honestly, this season. Just something that became noticeable last night, just by the way he was walking, holding his head and shoulders up, sort of a confidence/cockiness/self-assuredness. Look at old tapes of him in Dallas: he was very, very good but had an air about him that was a little self-deprecating, or at least an air of not trying to draw attention to himself or of trying to be a quiet leader by example. Not any more. Either the MVP awards brought it out of him or adding that to his approach made him an MVP. Chicken or egg. The sad thing is that there will be talk that he didn't "get'' the Suns to the Finals, again, and that it detracts from his MVP credentials. Amare Stoudemire in street clothes is what detracted from all of that, and if the Suns don't make a move all summer and just add a healthy Stoudemire, I'll take the Suns right now to win the West in '07.

* It's hard to say that the Pistons, if they keep going down this path, will be back in the Finals again. That edge, wherever it came from, that got them to the Finals twice in a row, is gone. It shows how fragile chemistry can be, and it shows that they were a complete aberration in winning the way they did without a sure-fire superstar. So many people have said that the worst thing that could have happened to them - and the exact starting point of their backwards slide - was when they got four players into the All-Star game and bitched about not getting a fifth. So much for the salute to team play: getting recognition killed their title chances, because they got too impressed with themselves. Their 2 1/2-year run was the perfect blend of right players and right coach at the right time - against the right team, the fractured Lakers in '04.

One more thought on the ex-Eastern champs: in the '03 draft, they bet on Darko Milicic being a future star for them at a position where they would need one a few years down the road. They passed on Carmelo Anthony because they already had Tayshaun Prince, and they didn't need immediate help there or at any point in their rotation at the time. Three years later, with the team fallen off and Darko being a bust and then traded, with depth suddenly a big problem and a bench lacking offensive explosion, with the offense evaporating because they suddenly fell in love with perimeter shooting at the expense of post-up and mid-range scoring - do you think they might have made a terrible mistake in passing on Anthony?

One other reason the Pistons might not be back: the Cavaliers might be just one good trade or signing away from getting to the East finals.

* Dallas milked a lot from the limited big guys they have against San Antonio, then milked a lot from their small lineups against the Suns. Every move Avery Johnson has made in the playoffs has been right, and it goes without saying that this team barely resembles the outscore-you Don Nelson teams of the past. Him against Riley is going to be very interesting. Not that I'm showing love for Riley, but I'll never put down his coaching - and I still think that's only a slight edge in his favor in this series.

On those big guys, by the way: I saw Erick Dampier do a pretty decent job on Shaq one-on-one, with no help, when he was a Warrior and Shaq was a Laker, and DeSagana Diop guarded Tim Duncan almost perfectly in overtime in Game 7 of their series. Just something to think about, even though Dampier hardly played in the Suns series and Diop got spot duty. Something else to think about - DeSagana Diop? Between him and Kwame Brown, they might have more to do with the age limit than any other factor. Yet look at what he's been able to do, after Cleveland couldn't wait on him any longer.

* There will be nothing unsatisfying about Shaq and Wade getting rings, but them getting rings for Antoine Walker and Jason Williams is appalling. A year ago, J-Will was snatching pens from writers he didn't like in the locker room after his Grizzlies lost a playoff series. Now he's playing for a championship. Meanwhile, Walker ruined whatever good karma he had been collecting when he dropped in a three-pointer in the closing minutes of Game 6, when it was all but over, and did his stupid shimmy downcourt. Coat-tail riders are really annoying.

On the other hand, Alonzo Mourning could sit on the bench the entire Finals and still be a deserving champ. He's had his aggravating moments, with the flexes and fist-pumps and the way he weaseled his way out of New Jersey and Toronto - but the man has had a kidney transplant. He's playing for a title with someone else's kidney!

* With Dallas in the Finals, I will bet everything I own that Terrell Owens not only will attend a game and make sure he's seen at his seat, but that he'll do something to draw attention to himself during this series.

* If the Heat get to within one game of winning the championship, ABC absolutely should set up a camera wherever Kobe Bryant is watching the game and either go to it occasionally, or do a split-screen the entire night.

* The biggest impact Dallas's win last night made? Everyone can get a decent night's sleep from now until Thursday. I've been bleary-eyed and yawning for a month and a half, because something's happening every night until 1 or 2 in the morning (depending on overtimes, West Coast tipoffs and post-game press conferences on ESPN News or NBA TV). It wears you out.