Tim Duncan (photo. Mannion)

It’s down to this. It has come to this. This series is gonna go one of two ways. Either Memphis comes out, pissed at the world, frustrated at those old guys for stealing something right out from under them, following the lead of one crazy guy (Tony Allen) who’s following another crazy guy (Zach Randolph) who’s following the lead of the craziest guy of all (Michael Heisley) and goes about running over, demolishing, disintegrating, slapping – whatever verb you want to use – the Spurs tonight, to beat them to end the series, or San Antonio is going to rise again like Blackwood.

Gary Neal and Manu Ginobili. God, I can’t stand them. Respect ‘em yes. But I can’t stand them. I can’t stand that I love them. You ever listen to those songs, or watch those movies, that you know you shouldn’t enjoy, but you can’t get away from? That’s San Antonio for you: they’re the Chardonnay of the NBA. At first, you might find yourself grimacing, slumping your shoulders saying, “Ehhh.” Then after a little while, that becomes “More? Yes please.”

This Grizzlies team is fun. They’re young. They’re unknowns. They’re crazy. Like crazy crazy. America is always searching for something new. This team is it. That’s what makes this Spurs/Grizzlies series so fun. It’s quite literally polar opposites coming together to show all the haters and the doubters just how good the NBA can be. If you have a friend who hates on the NBA because it’s “boring,” “no one plays hard” and “it’s all one-on-one with no defense” then you need to sit them down and have an intervention. This series, Game 6, needs to be that intervention.

Memphis has controlled pretty much this entire series. The Spurs had moments of control in Games 2, 4 and 5. But every time, the Grizzlies came right back.

What Memphis has right now is hard to replicate. Who knows, by next year, this team might look drastically different. O.J. Mayo might be gone. Zach Randolph will have his money. Marc Gasol might be playing for his money. Rudy Gay might revert to his pre-World Championship days. Bad karma always lasts, but good karma? That’s like spitting the weakest game and nabbing the fine chick all four years in high school because you have a father who has a collection of Renaissance-era lutes and she has a weird thing for old-school strings. If you have it, you’ll do whatever you can to keep it. Just know that there’s almost no chance it sticks around. We can’t let this good karma end. The sooner it ends, the sooner it might die. We need to live it out for as long as it can go.

San Antonio knows good karma. Somehow they’ve captured it and encased it. If they lose this series, or even if they win it, it’s not leaving. It didn’t leave in 2000 or 2001 or 2006. It’s not leaving in 2011 or 2012. But some of the names might leave. Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili might leave, or at least physically check out. And we don’t want that, even if some of you find the Spurs boring. You can’t have a great NBA, an exciting playoff run, without San Antonio.

Is this the end or is this the beginning?

I have no clue what will happen in Game 6. I didn’t think Memphis had the heart and the toughness to push the Spurs like they have. Even in the games they’ve lost, games that they had no business being in if you go by playoff history, the Grizzlies nearly trampled the Spurs. A part of me thinks Memphis is going to come out and run all over San Antonio, finally put a close to an era and show themselves for who they are: the better team right now. But there’s the other side of me that figured the Spurs would win this series all along. Even last night, when all looked lost, I just knew Manu would do something and I just knew the hosts would find a way to survive. Like I said, it’s either going to be a Grizzly coronation from start-to-finish or the Spurs are going to push Memphis all the way to the end, and steal yet another golden opportunity.

Either way, all of me is just hoping for another classic. And wishing David Stern would make this a 15-game series.

Which team will win Game 6?

Follow Sean on Twitter at @SEANesweeney.

Follow Dime on Twitter at @DimeMag.

Become a fan of Dime Magazine on Facebook HERE.