In one of the most fun NBA series I've watched since Michael Jordan retired,  the San Antonio Spurs advanced to the Western Conference Finals on Friday, dispatching of the Suns in six games. How did they do it? Let's take a look:

1. Physicality: Call them dirty or don't - the fact remains that the Spurs are the toughest team in the league to play. They grabbed and checked and shadowed the Suns all the way up and down the court. Phoenix's layups rarely went unchallenged, every time somebody (Nash or Barbosa, usually) entered the paint, there was always a big body (Tim Duncan, Francisco Elson, Robert Horry) there to meet them body-to-body. Kurt Thomas is a physical player, but he was overmatched all series because Duncan's superior size and strength. Each Spur perimeter player was stronger than the guy he was guarding. This was like watching the Mighty Ducks take on Iceland in D2. ... the Suns were physically outmanned every night.

2. Phoenix = one-dimensional: Just like when San Antonio and Phoenix met in the conference finals in 2005, the Spurs were able to beat Phoenix at their own game. Game 1 score: SA 111, PHX 106. Game 3: SA 108, PHX 101. Game 6: SA 114, PHX 106. The Suns can't win a slow-down game because Amare isn't a convential inside threat you can just throw the ball into and let him take over from there. Stoudemire does best when he's set up by Nash on the pick-and-roll, Duncan is better at creating his own shot from anywhere inside 15 feet. The Spurs can get out and run with Tony Parker charging up the middle of the court and dishing to shooters like Manu Ginobili, Bruce Bowen and Horry. Phoenix can't slow the game down and keep it in their favor.

3. Ginobili: In the Spurs' four wins, he average 22.8 PPG and 8 RPG, in their two losses he averaged 8.0 and 4.5. He's such a tough player to guard due to his athleticism. Since Marion was guarding Parker most of the time, Ginobili was able to create his own shot without much difficulty. When he's cold, it's a bad thing for the Spurs; when he's in the zone, they are near unbeatable.

4. Experience: This applies to both the players on the court and the head coaches. These same Spurs won an NBA title two years ago; they know how to win a game even when they aren't playing well (as in Game 5 of this series). The Suns have never won a series they weren't supposed to. And Gregg Popovich proved his he has a leg up on Mike D'Antoni. Mike's strangest choice to me came in Game 6. After his team played a bloodbath of a game without two of its best players just two days before, he had a dead team walking. In Game 6, he had two fresh reinforcements: Stoudemire and Boris Diaw. Amare played 41 minutes, and of course he would; he's a first-team All-NBA performer. But Diaw only played 14 minutes. Why? He presents the biggest challenge to the Spurs because of his size and quickness (as I referenced in a previous post), but in an elimination game in which he was the freshest player on the court, D'Antoni didn't feel the need to play him. Pops utilizes his bench as well as any coach in the league, he always used his timeouts at the appropriate times and he preached pounding the ball into the middle the entire series. As a result, the Spurs are moving on and the Suns aren't.

Looking ahead: Both the East and the West are set to kick off their conference finals this weekend. In the East, the seeds held up as No. 1 Detroit meets No. 2 Cleveland. LeBron James is the key to this series. If he can play like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson and every other Hall of Famer he's been compared to, then he can run the Cavs right past the Pistons. But Detroit is the more experienced squad, they will have 5 of the best 6 players on the court most of the time and they are one of the best road teams in the league. Make it Detroit over Cleveland in five.

San Antonio has proven themselves as the best team in the NBA up to this point, but that certainly doesn't make them invincible to defeat. Utah won't be pushed around by the Spurs. Carlos Boozer is just as much a force in the middle as Duncan, and Deron Williams could be ready to ascend to star status. With Andrei Kirilenko rescuing his career from the shambles it seemed to be in two weeks ago, Ginobili is going to have to work hard for every point. I see the Jazz stealing the first game from a recovering San Antonio squad, and also taking one on their home court, but in the end, the Spurs are just too good and too focused. Spurs over the Utah Jazz Musicians in six games.