West swaps sizzle for a pair of teams that excel at basics

Welcome to the Western Conference finals, the San Antonio Spurs against the Utah Jazz, the series nobody seems to want.

Except the host cities.

It could have been the dream matchup, the fiery, undisciplined Golden State Warriors, epitomized by volatile Stephen Jackson, against the slick, explosive Phoenix Suns, led by wheeling and dealing Steve Nash.

Think of the possibilities, every game a potential 127-125 thriller.

Instead, it’s back to basics, fundamentals, banging bodies and suffocating defense.

The Spurs and Jazz split their four regular-season meetings, each winning the two on its home court. San Antonio averaged 94 points in the four games, the Jazz 89.

“As you get older, you realize you don’t have to constantly reinvent the light bulb,” said San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich, finishing his 11th season on the job.

“When you are younger, you think you can come up with a magical play.”

But methodical rather than magical doesn’t automatically rule out the spectacular. There are attractive stars and intriguing story lines on both sides of this series.

The Spurs are led by forward Tim Duncan, whose prodigious accomplishments on the court sometimes seem downsized by his quiet demeanor. All he has done is win three NBA Finals most-valuable-player awards, two in the regular season and, with a fourth league title, would equal Shaquille O’Neal’s total.

Hard to downsize that.

Two other key Spurs are guard Tony Parker, who outplayed Nash in Friday’s semifinals series clincher, and reserve Manu Ginobili, who outperformed Leandro Barbosa, winner of this season’s sixth-man award, throughout the series.

And then there’s San Antonio’s Bruce Bowen, who made the key three-point shot at the end of Game 5 but would be invaluable if he didn’t make any shots at all because of his talent as a defender, one of the best in the league in the estimation of almost every opponent who finds Bowen blocking his path.

And don’t forget Robert Horry is returning. Known as “Big Shot Rob” for his game-deciding baskets, including his memorable years in Lakers purple and gold, Horry is now being referred to as “Cheap Shot Rob” for his flagrant foul on Nash in Game 4 that proved to be a series turning point.

But that out-of-character moment aside, Horry, having served a two-game suspension for the Nash incident, is back on the Spurs’ bench, available if San Antonio needs him for clutch shots.

While the Spurs are trying to cement their designation as a dynasty, the Jazz is just happy to be back in contention for an NBA title after failing to even reach the conference finals for a decade.

Back in those days, Utah had forward Karl Malone and guard John Stockton, two of the best ever at their positions, but always came up empty-handed when the Larry O’Brien championship trophy was handed out.

Now, led by power forward Carlos Boozer (24.4 points and 12.3 rebounds in the postseason) and ably assisted by Deron Williams and Derek Fisher in the backcourt and Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko in the frontcourt, the Jazz is hoping to scale new heights for the franchise.

And get a little overdue credit.

“It wasn’t like a plate of cheese,” Kirilenko told the San Antonio Express-News in discussing his team’s success. “Nobody gave it to us.”

Not a plate of cheese, perhaps, but also not the sizzling dish many had envisioned for the conference finals.

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steve.springer@latimes.com