duncan228
03-16-2009, 03:41 PM
The quest for the second seed (http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/courtside/2009/03/the-quest-for-t.html)
By Jeff McDonald
OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Spurs have given up hope at catching the Lakers in the Western Conference. Considering L.A. is approximately a billion games ahead of the field with less than a month to play, this is probably a wise move.
Instead, the Spurs find themselves at the center of the real drama in the West right now: The quest for second place.
After Saturday's victory in Houston, the Spurs are 2 1/2 games up on the Rockets for second-place in the West. Denver, New Orleans, Portland and Utah are all within conceivable striking distance as well.
"We're battling to keep that second place," Tony Parker said after this morning's shootaround at the Ford Center. "I think it's huge for us to have that home-court advantage, at least until the conference finals."
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has long said inconvienences like playoff seedings and home-court advantage mean little to him, and he was back on that soap box again last week.
However ...
"One would never turn down a higher seed," Popovich said. "Any coach who tells you that is lying to you."
That Game 7, last year in New Orleans?
"If you'd asked me before the game, I would have rather played that at home," Popovich said.
That Game 7 in the 2005 NBA Finals against Detroit?
"I wouldn't have said, 'Yeah, I'd rather play that in Detroit,' " Popovich said.
The second seed could be important this season. It would guarantee home-court advantage over every team but the Lakers and would ensure that a meeting with Kobe's bunch wouldn't come until the conference finals. In a hypothetical series against teams like Portland and Utah -- who look like the '90s Bulls at home and the '90s Clippers on the road -- home-court advantage could be key.
"You'd take it," Popovich said. "But the best team really does win, in seven games. I can't think of a time when the best team did not win a series. Every time we won a championship, we won one or two games in every series on the road, because we were the better team."
By Jeff McDonald
OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Spurs have given up hope at catching the Lakers in the Western Conference. Considering L.A. is approximately a billion games ahead of the field with less than a month to play, this is probably a wise move.
Instead, the Spurs find themselves at the center of the real drama in the West right now: The quest for second place.
After Saturday's victory in Houston, the Spurs are 2 1/2 games up on the Rockets for second-place in the West. Denver, New Orleans, Portland and Utah are all within conceivable striking distance as well.
"We're battling to keep that second place," Tony Parker said after this morning's shootaround at the Ford Center. "I think it's huge for us to have that home-court advantage, at least until the conference finals."
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has long said inconvienences like playoff seedings and home-court advantage mean little to him, and he was back on that soap box again last week.
However ...
"One would never turn down a higher seed," Popovich said. "Any coach who tells you that is lying to you."
That Game 7, last year in New Orleans?
"If you'd asked me before the game, I would have rather played that at home," Popovich said.
That Game 7 in the 2005 NBA Finals against Detroit?
"I wouldn't have said, 'Yeah, I'd rather play that in Detroit,' " Popovich said.
The second seed could be important this season. It would guarantee home-court advantage over every team but the Lakers and would ensure that a meeting with Kobe's bunch wouldn't come until the conference finals. In a hypothetical series against teams like Portland and Utah -- who look like the '90s Bulls at home and the '90s Clippers on the road -- home-court advantage could be key.
"You'd take it," Popovich said. "But the best team really does win, in seven games. I can't think of a time when the best team did not win a series. Every time we won a championship, we won one or two games in every series on the road, because we were the better team."