NOTEBOOK NBA finals

Ratings take hit: Game 2 of the NBA finals took a hit in the TV ratings, and the series finale of “The Sopranos” was the prime suspect. San Antonio’s victory over Cleveland Sunday night drew a 6.9 overnight rating on ABC, down 24 percent from last year’s 9.1 for Game 2 between the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat. Ratings for “The Sopranos” finale on HBO were not immediately available. National ratings were expected today.

Cavs won’t commit: The Spurs had only the third-best record in their own conference, but would have won the other one with room to spare. So is the lack of competitiveness in the NBA finals a simple matter of East vs. West? Cleveland stormed back from a 2-0 deficit in the Eastern Conference finals to knock off top-seeded Detroit in six games. The Cavs are right back in the same hole after two games this time, but against an opponent that seems a whole lot tougher than the Pistons were. The Cavs think there’s more to it than that. “People talk about East and West and it’s neither here nor there,” Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said.

LeBron far and wide: LeBron James expects the city of Cleveland to be excited when the finals come to town after a 37-year wait tonight. “It’s definitely going to be a great experience,” he said. But James didn’t want to leave anyone out who might be a Cavaliers fan, so he quickly added that it will be great “for northeast Ohio.” And then — perhaps fearing he’d alienated other Cavs fans, who this year are seeing the team go to the finals for the first time since the team was born in 1970 — he self-edited again: “For the whole state of Ohio.”

Associated Press