The last time a truly magical rivalry happened in the NBA, Magic's L.A. Lakers were competing with Larry Bird's Boston Celtics seemingly every other late spring in the Finals during the 1980s. And, admit it, hoops fans have been dying to see a rivalry of that magnitude again.

Enter the two best teams in the NBA right now: the hyper-efficient, well-oiled machine that are the San Antonio Spurs and the dominating, star-studded defending world champion Miami Heat.

Right now, there are two teams that are looking like the odds-on favorites to emerge as the combatants in the 2014 NBA Finals in June. And, no, one of those teams is NOT the Indiana Pacers. After stumbling through a forgettable March in which they finished with an 8-10 record and have started to show signs of vulnerability, the Pacers are looking less like the young lions waiting to take down the old lions like they nearly did during last year's Eastern Conference Finals, and more like pretenders to the throne. And NBA analysts are starting to take notice, such as former Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy, when he called the Pacers an "emotionally fragile" team recently. Likely league MVP Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder are a promising team, but without James Harden there, like he was during their 2011-12 NBA Finals run, they seem to lack a certain edge that could put them over the top.

Meanwhile, LeBron James and the Heat are playing like...well, like they're LeBron James and the Heat. And Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and the Spurs have been playing lights-out basketball, going on an amazing 19-game winning streak that lasted until about a week ago, playing that signature unselfish, precision-based, ball-in-perpetual-motion offense that has made them a four-time NBA world champion and one of the most dangerous teams in the NBA in the last few years. These two teams put on an NBA Finals for the ages last year in a breath-taking, nail-biting seven-game series that went down to the last minute in Miami and saw James and the Heat raise the NBA championship over their heads.

This year, the two seem fated to meet again...only this time, the results will be switched, as Duncan and the Spurs will be the ones to walk off with the rings.

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Yeah, it seems like a tough sell to bet against any team with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh still front and center and in their prime, let alone a potential dynasty like Miami. However, as the Spurs showed last year, they have the depth, the talent and the veteran savvy necessary to compete with, and even beat the Heat. Over the course of this season, the Heat and Spurs have faced off twice and split the season series at 1-apiece. In their first game, Miami managed a respectable 12-point win. In the second game, however, it was a different story, with San Antonio shooting an effective 50.6 percent from the floor while Miami struggled to get shots to fall at 43 percent (James blamed the new jerseys they were wearing that night) as the Spurs blew out the Heat 111-87. For San Antonio, message sent: Miami, we're coming for what you've got.

And they have an even better shot of doing that this year. While the Spurs have certainly got some miles on them, Duncan looks as dangerous as ever, Tony Parker - at age 31 - has a few more prime years as one of the best point guards in the NBA while Manu Ginobili remains a deadly threat off the bench. And most importantly, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich knows how to rest his team by now to get them ready for the playoffs with as much rest and pop as possible. The result is that the Spurs have a chance to come in with more stars at the ready than the Heat, whose title hopes may only go as far as Wade's aging knees can carry them. LeBron can't do it all himself, otherwise he never would have left Cleveland four summers ago.

In addition, while both the Spurs and Heat are ranked sixth and seventh, respectively, in fewest points allowed in the NBA, only the Spurs are ranked in the top ten in offense, as well. San Antonio ranked No.7, scoring 105.4 points per game, while Miami is scoring only 102.8 points, ranked 12th in the league.

But more dangerously for Miami, San Antonio is motivated. The Spurs have been stewing for a year since that heartbreaking Game 7 loss in Miami. They're a proud franchise, have been since 1999 when Duncan and David Robinson helped them hoist their first title. And while Miami is driven by the need to be mentioned in the same breath as Michael Jordan's Bulls or Kobe Bryant's Lakers team of the early 2000s, the Spurs still have plenty left in the tank, and they're salivating at the idea of knocking King James and his friends off their throne. And the last thing you want to do to a team as deadly as the Spurs is give them a reason to fight.

Miami rules the NBA world for now, but, to steal a quote from "Game of Thrones", brace yourselves, Heat Nation: the Spurs are coming.