every year americas national basketball association nba which showcases young superstars with gravitydefying athletic abilities and promotes itself as an exciting youthful brand throws up an antithesis if you will for each season deep into may and early june teams of veteran stars the walking dead of the league will invariably be left standingthis time around at the business end of the playoffs the san antonio spurs and the boston celtics are those teams the spurs four time winners in the last 13 years still have 36yearold tim duncan leading the way with 30yearold tony parker and 34yearold manu ginobili being the fulcrum of their offencefor the celtics the original big three of paul pierce kevin garnett and ray allen all aged 3437 are still around even if they have increasingly become all star rajon rondos team of late and facing them in the western and eastern conference finals respectively are two sides who are looking to start dynasties of their ownwhile the miami heat have won a title in the near past when shaquille oneal teamed with dwayne wade in 2006 they are aiming for their first title since adding lebron james and chris bosh to the roster at the start of the previous season making up their own version of the big three they came close last year getting past the celtics in the eastern conference semis before eventually falling to the wests dallas mavericks in the finalsmeanwhile in the west the young oklahoma city thunder are looking for their first ever trip to the finalsriding on the back of threetime league leading points scorer kevin durant and all star pointguard russell westbrook and backed up by the leagues best sixth man in james harden the thunder very much resemble the spurs championship winning teams of 2003 and 2005 and if they are to thrive they will need all three of their stars to fire at the same timethe beauty of it is that all four of these sides have a real shot at progressing to the championship seriesthe spurs finished the regular season with the best record in the west and have now gone more than a month without losing a match a winning streak of 18 games having won their last title in 2007 gregg poppovich and the spurs have adapted their game to suit their ageing starswith more dependence on parkers mastery of the pick and roll they have freed up duncan for better looks around the rim if ginobili can start firing and the rest of the bench keep contributing the way they have in the postseason then they are almost unstoppablethe celtics have struggled with injuries right through the season but their defensive stability has been a constant for years ever since garnett and allen joined the squad in 2008 with the ultimate fighter in pierce the wily tactician in doc rivers and the surreal vision of rondo they are masters of grinding out results if allen can shake off his niggles and