Results 1 to 15 of 15
  1. #1
    Spurs Sage Russ's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Post Count
    9,120
    Skip can still write (as well as verbally boost) when it comes to the Spurs.


    WHY THE BORING OLD SPURS WILL WIN IT ALL

    By Skip Bayless | ESPN.com

    The Thunder keep beating them with the crazed-kid fury of Oklahoma beating Texas in the Red River Rivalry. James Harden keeps making fourth-quarter shots against them as if he's a one-man army coming over the walls of the Alamo. Heck, Damian Lillard's new signature adidas shoes should be called the San Antonio Stompers.

    The Spurs had only one nonstarting All-Star -- Tony Parker, who made it more on reputation than performance. Their one cinch Hall of Famer, Tim Duncan, is almost 38. Heck, their coach, Gregg Popovich, is now best known for being a terse jerk during in-game TV interviews.

    Yet ... the San Antonio Spurs are about to ruin what shape up as all-time great, superstar-studded Western Conference playoffs by winning them, then wreaking revenge on the Miami Heat by beating them in six games in the NBA Finals in Miami, as they should have last June. The Spurs have waited for these playoffs since that nightmarish night of June 18, when they were up five, 28 seconds away from their fifth NBA championship, and blew it. Heat in seven.

    Now: Spurs in six.

    Tony Parker and his teammates don't exude excitement, but they play one-for-all basketball. Yes, the same Spurs who finished the regular season a combined 0-8 against the teams they'll probably have to deal with in Rounds 2 and 3 -- Harden's Houston, then Oklahoma City. As one of the few Spurs supporters in the national media -- if not the lone wolf -- I admit to some concern about the athleticism of the Rockets or Thunder eclipsing the beautiful basketball clinics conducted nightly by the one-for-all Spurs, the NBA's worst nightmare, the un-"SportsCenter" team that wins with emotionless will and subtle skill.

    Yet ... despite Spurs starters missing a combined 75 games ... despite having to use 30 different lineups featuring 17 different starters ... despite being the first team since the ABA-NBA merger not to have a single player average even 30 minutes a game ... despite all that, the San Antonio Spurs finished with the NBA's best record BY THREE GAMES. Even playing in the much tougher West, the Spurs finished six games better than East top seed Indiana and eight better than Miami. Even more incredible, the Spurs finished with the NBA's best road record BY FIVE GAMES at 30-11, coming within three of the 1995-96 Bulls' road-wins record.

    Yes, the old, slow, boring, unathletic, injury-prone San Antonio Spurs -- the Chuck Taylor All-Stars -- just pretty much toyed with the NBA's regular season. No MVP candidate. No sixth man or rookie of the year nominee. No GameFly or Kia commercials. How is this possible?

    Because they're a little better than they were last year and they're much better than two years ago, when they started the playoffs 10-0, including two home wins over OKC -- only to lose four straight to the came-of-age Thunder.

    Yet ... the biggest Spurs killer in that series was not Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook. In the turning-point Game 5 in San Antonio, the biggest fourth-quarter daggers were 3s shot by Harden, including the last one that gave OKC exactly what the Spurs would have in Miami -- a five-point lead with 28 seconds left. OKC did not blow it.

    But Thunder management did by trading Harden. I'd sooner have believed the OU Sooners would give up football. Durant/Westbrook/Harden would be too much for the Spurs. Now, these Spurs are fully capable of outthinking and out-executing a hot-handed Harden coupled with a low-savvy Dwight Howard -- of posing an unsolvable N.Y. Times crossword, even if it takes a Game 7 in San Antonio.

    Then, either the Spurs will decipher the Thunder or the Thunder will beat themselves. Two superstars with cracks in their psyches will find a way to lose a Game 7 in San Antonio.

    Durant, the runaway MVP, still battles an iden y crisis: He says he's trying to prove nice guys can finish first, yet he finished third in the NBA in technical fouls with 15. Without Westbrook last year, Durant flamed out late in four straight playoff losses to Memphis. He has much to prove in these playoffs, maybe too much.

    Westbrook, who often plays with unguardable rage, still has one rock rattling around in his head and remains highly capable of the kind of eight-turnover, 4-for-23 night that drives Durant to technicals. And, of course, to paraphrase Hamlet, the knee or not the knee, that is the question. Westbrook had three surgeries in nine months on the knee injured in the first round of last year's playoffs and the Thunder have continued resting him in the first or second games of back-to-backs. Will the knee hold up through seven-game battles against, say, the L.A. Clippers and Spurs?

    Advantage, San Antonio?

    Remember, in five of the eight losses to Houston/OKC, the Spurs were not at full strength and six of the losses came in November/December/January, when the Spurs clearly were saving themselves for a February/March/April playoff push. Since the All-Star break, the Spurs are an NBA-best 24-5.

    The Spurs led the NBA in assists and 3-point shooting and finished sixth in offensive efficiency and fourth in defensive efficiency -- a 62-win combination. But here's the stellar stat: The Spurs don't have a single star in the top 20 of player efficiency rating (led of course by Durant). Yet the Spurs have five in the top 50 (in order, Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard, Tony Parker and Patty Mills). That's three more than the Clippers and two more than the Heat.

    Duncan is still very much Duncan. Ginobili is playing five years younger than he looked in last year's playoffs, when he became such an overmatched liability in Games 6 and 7 in Miami that his career seemed over. Leonard has quietly grown into the Spurs' most valuable all-around player as a defender, rebounder, shooter and (shhh!) spectacular dunker. Parker drained himself by leading France to the EuroBasket championship too soon after a seven-game NBA Finals, but the offense actually has become harder to defend without Parker going dribble-dribble solo quite so often.

    If the NBA gave a Seventh Man of the Year award, Patty Mills would win it. Through injury-riddled stretches, he was the team MVP, especially in fourth quarters. From "Fatty" Mills last season, he morphed into a sleek, fearless Aussie shot-maker who surely has earned a key spot in Popovich's postseason rotation. Patty came flying off the bench with 32 at Charlotte, 29 at Portland, 25 at the Clippers, 21 at OKC ...

    And Marco Belinelli, who won the NBA's 3-point contest, brings from Chicago the clutch sniping he demonstrated in last year's playoffs against Brooklyn and Miami.

    These Spurs have the game-changing depth, the new/old blend and the out-of-character mission. Longtime "Pop" observers were stunned during training camp when he publicly acknowledged he thinks about the Game 6 loss in Miami every day, freeing the team to do the same. In the past, Popovich has forgotten about losses sometime during his second glass of postgame wine.

    Now, Game 6 is finally in sight, just over the hills that must be climbed against Dallas (Spurs in six), then maybe the Rockets and Thunder. Here they go again: Against the Spurs, Houston and OKC keep making shots with a vengeful arrogance that says, "Go home, old men."

    Says ESPN analyst Bruce Bowen, who won three rings with Duncan's Spurs: "It concerns you because the youth on these teams used to have the mindset, 'We don't know if we can beat the Spurs.' Now, they know.

    "But it's not about the regular season [for the Spurs]. Against these teams in these playoffs, I think you'll see the Spurs play almost perfect basketball games. Now the only thing that concerns me is the athleticism [of potentially the Rockets and Thunder]."

    Now, what concerns me more is what my "First Take" debate partner Stephen A. Smith often warns me about: Picking a team with such public conviction that I set off a Durant or Harden, both of whom have been known to watch our show. But I do believe in these fresh, healthy Spurs and their mission.

    Before the season, when I picked them to win the West, everyone chuckled. Now: Spurs in six over Heat. I apologize in advance, America.

    http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10...a-championship

  2. #2
    Less is More Darius Bieber's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Post Count
    6,559
    Back in the Bandwagon again I see.

  3. #3
    Believe. Malik Hairston's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Post Count
    11,370
    Decent article, but I like Bruce's point, tbh..

    Outside of officiating, the biggest concern for the Spurs against OKC and Houston is that their teams exude confidence against the Spurs..this is especially worrisome regarding their role players, they have absolutely no fear of the Spurs..

    Houston is less of a concern, because their role players aren't very good..even with their confidence against the Spurs, they shouldn't be a problem..

    OKC, OTOH, has Jackson, Fisher, Perkins and even dudes like Adams and Lamb that have no fear of the Spurs, whatsoever..

  4. #4
    Less is More
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Post Count
    2,103
    Terrence Jones turns into a prime Elton Brand when he plays the Spurs for some reason

  5. #5
    Your pain: it runs deep! Sybok's Avatar
    My Team
    Orlando Magic
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Post Count
    1,108
    ESPN is a piece of regardless who they support.

  6. #6
    I want some NASTY! SpurPadre's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Post Count
    14,293
    He still feels the need to use the stupid ''boring" label so him.

  7. #7
    Spurs Sage Russ's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Post Count
    9,120
    He still feels the need to use the stupid ''boring" label so him.
    That's a "brilliant" point.

  8. #8
    Believe. chrhawk's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Post Count
    243
    Decent article, but I like Bruce's point, tbh..

    Outside of officiating, the biggest concern for the Spurs against OKC and Houston is that their teams exude confidence against the Spurs..this is especially worrisome regarding their role players, they have absolutely no fear of the Spurs..

    Houston is less of a concern, because their role players aren't very good..even with their confidence against the Spurs, they shouldn't be a problem..

    OKC, OTOH, has Jackson, Fisher, Perkins and even dudes like Adams and Lamb that have no fear of the Spurs, whatsoever..
    Good to see you Harlem.

  9. #9
    Veteran hater's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Post Count
    70,737
    this teams have no fear of the Spurs is complete bull

    all it takes is 1 home loss (for example game 1 in Miami last playoffs) for a team to earn respect from another

    if Spurs are ty enough not to win 1 game in HOuston, or OKC then they don't deserve to win the series and deserve no respect

    in other words, the problem is not "teams don't respect spurs"

    spurs gotta earn the respect by winning a ing game on their court

  10. #10
    "We'll do it this time" Bartleby's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Post Count
    2,665

    all it takes is 1 home loss (for example game 1 in Miami last playoffs) for a team to earn respect from another . . . spurs gotta earn the respect by winning a ing game on their court
    This

  11. #11
    Spur Forever urunobili's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Post Count
    14,290
    Total jinx article tbh

  12. #12
    Veteran
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Post Count
    6,778
    I don't know whether the Spurs can beat the Thunder/Rockets but I think OKC might have got into Pop's head a little bit. The Thunder smell the fear and it allows them to play even harder.

  13. #13
    Veteran
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Post Count
    6,778
    Terrence Jones turns into a prime Elton Brand when he plays the Spurs for some reason
    That's why it's so importance to be able to rattle the other team's confidence by playing physical tough defense.

  14. #14
    Veteran HI-FI's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Post Count
    13,358
    this teams have no fear of the Spurs is complete bull

    all it takes is 1 home loss (for example game 1 in Miami last playoffs) for a team to earn respect from another

    if Spurs are ty enough not to win 1 game in HOuston, or OKC then they don't deserve to win the series and deserve no respect

    in other words, the problem is not "teams don't respect spurs"

    spurs gotta earn the respect by winning a ing game on their court
    this.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •