Interesting ESPN stat

[LakerGod]

ESPN was showing today an interesting stat.

The team with the best record at the all-star break NEVER wins the championship that season They show the Standings with the Spurs on top with a measly 1/2 game lead over Phoenix.

[RobinsontoDuncan]

link?

[RobinsontoDuncan]

the bulls had the best record at the all-star break



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[indianspur]

From the same article you read.......

Who will claim the No. 8 spot in the West? Wolves, Nuggets or Lakers? For the record: Boston remains our Titanic pick -- we picked the Celtics before the season and see no reason to audible -- and the feeling here is that No. 8 in the West comes down to Minnesota and Denver. We picked the Lakers to miss the playoffs when the season started ... and see no reason to audible after seeing their road-heavy remaining schedule. :lmao

You should try to read the entire article sometimes you nitwit.......

[indianspur]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/allstar2005/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&id=1996494

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Guys, don't feed the troll. :nope

[LakerGod]

link?It was shown on TV

I think they said the Bulls is the only team to win the title after having the best record at the break.

But...

The Spurs are not Michael Jordan's Bulls

[san antonio spurs]

It was shown on TV

I think they said the Bulls is the only team to win the title after having the best record at the break.

But...

The Spurs are not Michael Jordan's Bulls
then edit ur first post please.
u said none.
re-write correct stat sir
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[LakerGod]

Well, when I heard it on TV they made it sound like the Spurs are not going to win it all, it sounded more like a diss to the Spurs.

[Bandit2981]

The team with the best record at the all-star break NEVER wins the championship that season They show the Standings with the Spurs on top with a measly 1/2 game lead over Phoenix.
then i guess that proves the spurs arent winning it all this year, oh well

[LakerGod]

then i guess that proves the spurs arent winning it all this year, oh well
Stats are there for a reason, just like when the Spurs score over 100 points in a game they are something like 23-0

[Bandit2981]

word has it that when the spurs outscore their opponent they are undefeated as well

[LakerGod]

word has it that when the spurs outscore their opponent they are undefeated as well
There you go!

Where would we be without stats! :lol

[san antonio spurs]

Well, when I heard it on TV they made it sound like the Spurs are not going to win it all, it sounded more like a diss to the Spurs.
so u want us to debate on what u think u heard on TV (that none team have won the title when leading through the ASB), or on the real stat???(that actually one team has done it) and why not the spurs???
then please,edit ur first post.
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BustyCOED18 cam (http://camslivesexy.com/cam/BustyCOED18)

[LakerGod]

so u want us to debate on what u think u heard on TV (that none team have won the title when leading through the ASB), or on the real stat???(that actually one team has done it) and why not the spurs???
then please,edit ur first post.
No need to edit my post, The Bulls with Jordan are not comparable to any team in the league.

[TPCris09]

Well screw that stat. Yeah we're not Jordan's Bulls, but were Duncan's Spurs. Thats good enough.

[LakerGod]

Well screw that stat. Yeah we're not Jordan's Bulls, but were Duncan's Spurs. Thats good enough.
Big consolation! :rolleyes

[RobinsontoDuncan]

LakerGod, the Red Sox didn't win a world series for 86 years, stats and trends are made to be broken.

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[LakerGod]

LakerGod, the Red Sox didn't win a world series for 86 years, stats and trends are made to be broken.

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49 posts to 1000 career posts
Sure!

You can only hope :rolleyes

[TDfan2007]

Problem with your theory

Spurs usually peak after the All Star break. So this team is gonna be scary come the next few weeks. The Spurs were .4 away from a visit to the finals last year (probably would have beaten the pistons too). They have an even better team this year.

BTW LakerGod, shouldn't you be worried about your precious lakers making the playoffs?

They are down to the Celts and your savior has only 13 points on 4-11 shooting in the 4th. :flipoff

[LakerGod]

Problem with your theory

Spurs usually peak after the All Star break. So this team is gonna be scary come the next few weeks. The Spurs were .4 away from a visit to the finals last year (probably would have beaten the pistons too). They have an even better team this year.

BTW LakerGod, shouldn't you be worried about your precious lakers making the playoffs?

They are down to the Celts and your savior has only 13 points on 4-11 shooting in the 4th. :flipoff
I think the spurs already peaked.

They usually do it after slow starting the season right?

Well, this is not the case this year, I expect the opposite.

Still hurt about .4 ?

Last time I checked you still had the chance to take game 6 and play a 7th game in SA.

You make it look easy!

[Jimcs50]

Spurs usually peak after the All Star break. So this team is gonna be scary come the next few weeks. The Spurs were .4 away from a visit to the finals last year (probably would have beaten the pistons too). They have an even better team this year.


Hold on there Skippy, they were .4 secs away from going back to LA, up 3-2, and then they would have still had to beat Minn in WCFs before even getting to Finals.

[LakerGod]

They are down to the Celts and your savior has only 13 points on 4-11 shooting in the 4th. :flipoff
Really?

Final Score:

Celtics 95
LA Lakers 104

:elephant

[milkyway21]

Well, when I heard it on TV they made it sound like the Spurs are not going to win it all, it sounded more like a diss to the Spurs. :wtf

well, i read an article on foxsports that the SPURS IS A LOCK.

AND, the Lakers as the 1st-round fodder... :lol

Separating the West's contenders from pretenders
Kevin Hench / FOXSports.com
Posted: 5 hours ago

In the five years after Michael Jordan left the Bulls for retirement and ill-fated Wizardry, the Eastern Conference won a total of six games in the NBA Finals.

The league became so tilted to the West that the championship series was a mere formality, a leisurely ride down the Champs-Elysees for the Spurs or Lakers.
Also...

Eastern Conference playoff race

Thankfully, that has changed. Though everyone assumed form would hold last June, the Pistons ended the West's reign by pounding the Lakers. The arrival of Shaquille O'Neal in Miami has further balanced the conferences. So picking a Western Conference champion is once again just that and not a presumptive title pick as well.

That said, six of the eight teams in the league playing over .600 ball reside in the West. If the Eastern Conference champ wins it all again, it may well be because the Western champ simply has nothing left after dispatching its conference foes.

As the season moves into its final third, let's separate the pretenders and contenders in the wild West.

First-round fodder

Memphis Grizzlies
Give Mike Fratello the Coach of the Year Award if the Grizz make the playoffs, but don't be surprised when they get swept in the first round.

Memphis has ridiculous depth and plays great D, but the Grizzlies lack those go-to types that are critical in the playoffs when so many possessions come down to the final five seconds on the shot clock.

Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers have Kobe Bryant back, but will it be enough? (Danny Moloshok / AP)

While the Lakers may have the best player in the NBA with the shot clock winding down in Kobe Bryant, they have little else that would indicate anything but a quick exit should they hang onto the No. 8 spot, which I doubt they will.

Pretenders

Minnesota Timberwolves
Expect the T-wolves to make a successful push to the playoffs under Kevin McHale and expect tongues to start wagging about how last year's conference runners-up could easily pull an upset in the first round. And then watch as Minnesota gets pounded by San Antonio and begins a new streak of getting bounced in the first round.

Kevin Garnett is still the best player in the game, but the members of his supporting cast have gotten old, hurt or downright ineffective in a hurry.

This whole lost season may be karmic payback for Latrell Sprewell's ridiculous comments about feeding his family.

Seattle SuperSonics
How can a team playing .700 ball at the All-Star break be a pretender, you ask? Easy. They have no post presence.

Jump-shooting teams like the Sonics have the greatest disparity between regular-season success and playoff failure. The reason is simple: open shots are just harder to come by in the postseason. And when Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis and Vladimir Radmanovic find everything contested on the perimeter, the down-low options of Danny Fortson, Jerome James, Reggie Evans and Nick Collison just won't be enough to avoid a first-round flameout.

If the season ended today, the Sonics would draw the Rockets in the opening round and probably be underdogs.


Phoenix Suns
Cheer up, Suns fans. Of the pretenders, your team is the best.

Though Amare Stoudemire gives Phoenix a more complete inside-outside attack than Seattle, the Suns are also overly reliant on long jump shots from Quentin Richardson, Steve Nash, Joe Johnson and corner sniper Shawn Marion to seriously challenge a team like San Antonio.

The Suns are also just a little too small. They've got a power forward playing center, a small forward playing power forward and a wee Canadian playing point guard. I know those three players — Stoudemire, Marion and Nash — are All-Stars, but size does matter in the NBA playoffs and Phoenix just doesn't have enough beef.

I'd love to be wrong about this and see the Suns playing in June because no team is more fun to watch.

Contenders

Houston Rockets

Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady are finally getting things figured out in Houston. And that make the Rockets extremely dangerous. (Pat Sullivan / AP)

If there's one team San Antonio would like to avoid in the Western Conference playoffs, it's Houston. After stumbling out of the gate to a 6-11 start, the Rockets have gone 26-10, including two wins over the Spurs, and are riding high on an eight-game winning streak.

While All-Stars Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming are now becoming the dominant inside-outside combo coach Jeff Van Gundy has been dreaming of, the key to the Rockets resurgence has been do-everything grinder Bob Sura.

Sura is averaging 10.8 points per game, 6.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists. In the last five wins of the Rockets' current streak, Sura has pulled down 50 rebounds. In the first win of the streak, he dished out 10 assists in a win over the Celtics, two off his season high. In mid-January, he poured in 35 points in a 94-85 victory over the Nets. Sura is in his 10th NBA season, and he has appeared in just six postseason games. He deserves another shot at the playoffs.

Dallas Mavericks
For the first couple months of the Erick Dampier era in Dallas, the big fella did all he could to confirm suspicions that he would only play in a contract year. He was either on the bench in foul trouble or flexing his powers of invisibility on the court. I should know, I made the mistake of drafting him as the starting center on my roto team.

But shortly after I released him — natch — Dampier became the man in the middle the Mavs have been missing. In one recent 11-game stretch, he averaged 13.5 rebounds a game. He also scored in double figures in eight straight before hurting his foot in a win at Golden State last week. If Dampier can contribute in the pivot, the Mavericks could be very tough in the playoffs.

Dirk Nowitzki remains a matchup nightmare at the four, stretching defenses with his unblockable jumper and killing smaller guys on the block. The rotation of Josh Howard, Michael Finley and Jerry Stackhouse at the 2-3 spots has been outstanding, and Jason Terry has stabilized the point since taking over for rookie Devin Harris.

Dallas looked for real last week when it went into Phoenix and beat the Suns, 119-113, behind 33 from Finley and 30 from Howard.

Sacramento Kings
Yep, you heard it here first. The Kings, losers of six of seven, will make some noise in the Western Conference playoffs.

The consensus seems to be that the Kings blew their chance at a title when Peja Stojakovic missed a wide-open 3-pointer and Sacramento lost Game 7 of the 2002 Western Conference finals to the Lakers in overtime. But don't heap the dirt on them just yet.

I know health is an ongoing issue, but on paper this team would appear to be even better than the near-miss editions of recent seasons. Brad Miller is a better player than Vlade Divac, and Cuttino Mobley is much more explosive than Doug Christie. Mike Bibby is still cold-blooded. And had Stojakovic participated, do you really think Quentin Richardson would have won the 3-point shooting contest on Saturday?

The biggest question mark, of course, is Chris Webber. And yet all he's been doing is hanging triple-doubles on teams night after night. Even if he is playing on one leg, the guy is a monster.

They may not have the most depth in the conference, but their starting five may be the best in the NBA. If they are even reasonably healthy come playoff time, look out.

The Lock

San Antonio Spurs
All of this conjecture — can Webber's knee last, will Dampier disappear again — is irrelevant, of course, if the Spurs are healthy. No one in either conference will beat them.

They are just too experienced, too deep and too good to be beaten four times in seven games.

If not for Derek Fisher's miracle catch-and-shoot with four-tenths of a second left in Game 5 of last year's Western Conference semifinals, the Spurs might be gunning for their third straight title this spring.

This is probably coach Gregg Popovich's best team yet and a strong argument for the melting pot. San Antonio is a 41-12 Benetton ad with players from France, Argentina, New Zealand, the Central African Republic (Romain Sato is on the injured list) and two from Slovenia.

Tim Duncan has been struggling with ankle, knee and hip injuries and still the Spurs roll on, thanks largely to their incredible backcourt.

The spectacular Manu Ginobli has become a star. Tony Parker is the most battle-tested 22-year-old point guard in league history. And neither figures to wear down in the playoffs because A.) they are both crazily fit and B.) the Spurs have the deepest backcourt in the NBA. Brent Barry, Devin Brown and Beno Udrih are all snipers who will punish teams for doubling Duncan.

Joining that five-headed backcourt on the perimeter is small forward Bruce Bowen, the NBA's premier lockdown defender who has rediscovered his 3-point stroke.

Complementing Duncan up front are 7-footer Rasho Nesterovic, big-game Bob Horry and the relentless Malik Rose.

All of this will add up to a Western Conference championship and NBA title No. 3 for San Antonio.


...hmmnn, INTERESTING, isn't it? :rolleyes

[ShoogarBear]

TP the most "battle-tested 22 year-old point guard in league history"?

Guess this guy never heard of Magic Johnson.

[GrandeDavid]

I love how LakerIdiot refers to the Spurs' half game lead over Phoenix as "measly". lol

[dcole50]

The team with the best record at the all-star break NEVER wins the championship that season

I think they said the Bulls is the only team to win the title after having the best record at the break.

get your story straight, idiot.

[FromWayDowntown]

I saw the same stat, and LakerFraud has the story wrong. The stat was that no team since the 1998 Bulls has won the title after having the best record at the all-star break. It's not that no team other than the Bulls has accomplished that feat.

That stat is about as meaningful now as the stat that between 1999 and 2004 no team other than the Spurs or Lakers has won the West. Hey, LakerFraud, if we're relying on stats to tell the future, shouldn't that make the Spurs a mortal lock to win the West, since the Lakers aren't likely to even breathe playoff air this year?

[Man In Black]

Well, when I heard it on TV they made it sound like the Spurs are not going to win it all, it sounded more like a diss to the Spurs.

ESPN disses the Spurs daily and their winning team game. They prefer 1 on 4 fast breaks and thundering dunks over efficient low block play and crisp team passing that leads to easy baskets.

Even when the Lakers are getting their asses kicked, they love showing that 1 Kobe highlight move. It's all they know how to do...just like all you know how to do is post infantile crap all over this fine board.

[SequSpur]

Isn't it safe to say that Duncan and the gang, with the exception of Manu have zero marketing value to any tv station?

So what do you expect?

Shaq was hurt last night and it was the lead story on CNN. Duncan has 2 MVPs and his injury made a 5 second spot in the middle of Sportscenter only to be overshadowed by another Kobe dunk.

Go figure.... Blame the Spurs.... not the people on the forum.

[Man In Black]

Isn't it safe to say that Duncan and the gang, with the exception of Manu have zero marketing value to any tv station?

So what do you expect?

Shaq was hurt last night and it was the lead story on CNN. Duncan has 2 MVPs and his injury made a 5 second spot in the middle of Sportscenter only to be overshadowed by another Kobe dunk.

Go figure.... Blame the Spurs.... not the people on the forum.

I BLAME ESPN. It's because of their "brand" of basketball that the casual fan doesn't truly know how well the Spurs play basketball. Fraud is one of the many casuals who couldn't tell us what the difference in footage is from the pinch post to the FT line extended. If he really cared about the game, he'd do his research and then actually contribute something tangible.

[SequSpur]

Don't forget about the Duncan media rules either.

Dude refuses to do any interviews at halftime or post game on national tv.

Parker and Manu are the spurs representatives.......

Neither one is from America.

I don't want to bag on the Spurs regarding there public perception, but they are known to be a boring team. Not because our star player is not from the hood or a rapist, because he has nothing to say. Ground Hog Day. Thats what he is.

I would like to see some basketball commercials like the ones that featured Parker and Nike, those were cool.... This new one with Duncan in it is decent but he really doesn't do anything in it...... maybe there will be a part 2, who knows....

The Spurs are not charismatic at all from their Coach to their allstar. Why should they be on TV?

[dcole50]

i live near atlanta and they have "interesting" figures. josh smith with his dunks .. walker with his constant bitching. it makes the news. ...but no one gives a rat's ass about them. i'd prefer a talented team with no "charisma" in your eyes.

or we could trade our guys for wife beaters, rapists, and assholes who train dogs to fight. that'll make us interesting. brilliant!


Dude refuses to do any interviews at halftime or post game on national tv.

Parker and Manu are the spurs representatives.......

Neither one is from America.

that's funny since td has done halftime and postgame interviews.

also, people love dirk, nash, peja, etc. not exactly american either.

[Man In Black]

Don't forget about the Duncan media rules either.

Dude refuses to do any interviews at halftime or post game on national tv.

Tim just did one with John Thompson on TNT during halftime of the MIA vs CLE game.



Parker and Manu are the spurs representatives.......

Neither one is from America.


Both Bowen & Barry have done interviews on Jim Rome and Tim did an extended interview session on ESPNRADIO during the All-Star break in their "Meet the All-Stars" segment. Get your story straight little man.



I don't want to bag on the Spurs regarding there public perception, but they are known to be a boring team.

It's not known value. It's an OVERLY DONE, especially on ESPN TV, misperception. If winning is boring, I'll take it but this ain't the same Spurs team that showed over-reliance on the 4-down set. This team is able to run, able to play half-court, and able to play inside or out. Plus their ability to defend makes them the popular choice, misperceived boring or not, to win it all.



Not because our star player is not from the hood or a rapist, because he has nothing to say. Ground Hog Day. Thats what he is.


It's because his private life is that important to him. He re-affirmed as much during the John Thompson interview which you obviously missed.



I would like to see some basketball commercials like the ones that featured Parker and Nike, those were cool.... This new one with Duncan in it is decent but he really doesn't do anything in it...... maybe there will be a part 2, who knows....
Part 2 exists but it's animated.
http://www.adidas.com/sports/basketball/content/21121/country/us/site.asp



The Spurs are not charismatic at all from their Coach to their allstar. Why should they be on TV?
The same reason that the Duke Blue Devils or the New England Patriots get coverage, because the Spurs are winners. They shouldn't have to puff up their chest or be charged with sexual assualt. It's just that people are too easily herded like Sheep to go find out for themselves. The problem with ESPN is that they won't go out of their way to talk about the Spurs the way that they do about the Patriots or the Blue Devils. In fact, they'll go out of their way to cover the Spurs LESS.

[td4mvp21]

It was shown on TV

I think they said the Bulls is the only team to win the title after having the best record at the break.

But...

The Spurs are not Michael Jordan's Bulls

I saw it on tv too. But actually we are more like the 1996-1997 Bulls than you think. We have about the same point differential as they did, etc. But I still dont like that stat.

[td4mvp21]

Bump


Sorry to bring this back up, but I remember this bugging me when it was first posted. Now it means nothing. :lol