duncan228
01-20-2010, 12:38 AM
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Gregg Popovich wants Tim Duncan healthy for the playoffs, but they can't sacrifice too many wins.
Resting your stars can be risky in West (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Resting_your_stars_can_be_risky_in_West.html)
Mike Monroe
When Utah Jazz players stepped off their plane in San Antonio late Monday afternoon, they were in seventh place in the Western Conference.
By the time they had collected their bags and checked into their hotel on the River Walk, they had fallen to ninth, out of the playoff picture.
While the idle Jazz were in the air and on a bus, afternoon victories had enabled the Thunder and the Rockets to jump over them in the standings.
Such is life these days in the Western Conference, where on Tuesday morning, just 11/2 games separated the second-place Mavericks and the fourth-place Spurs, with the Nuggets sandwiched in between. Only two games separated the fifth-place Trail Blazers from the 10th-place Grizzlies.
Or, as Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer put it: “How crazy is that?”
You want crazy? Check out the Southwest Division, where Tuesday morning's standings showed the Hornets in fifth but two games over .500.
No division has been so strong since David Stern decided that six five-team divisions made the most sense when the NBA added a 30th team. Yet, the Southwest champion won't get anything but style points for winning the league's toughest division.
Meanwhile, in the Eastern Conference, the Knicks are in ninth place, just two games out of the playoffs.
Their record: 17-24.
Eleven Western teams are over .500, a fact that should frighten fans of a Spurs team that wants to husband the playing time of key veterans who are aging (Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili) and injured (Tony Parker).
The Spurs are 8-9 against winning teams after their victory in New Orleans on Monday. They have 20 left against the other 10 Western teams with winning records.
“Every game we play out here (in the West) is that much more monumental,” said Boozer, “because other teams are in the same position.”
In seasons past, the presumption that saving regular-season wear and tear on Duncan might pay off in the playoffs made sense.
Since 2000-01, they've finished no worse than third in the conference.
In this air-tight Western race, though, such conjecture is risky.
Duncan swears he understands the logic and won't fight Gregg Popovich's plan to rest him “more than ever before,” but here's the problem: Of the remaining eight sets of back-to-back games, five of the opponents in the second game of those sets are Western playoff contenders.
Can you risk holding Duncan out of a second-straight game in Portland in February? In Memphis and Oklahoma City in March? In Phoenix and Denver in April?
One or two wins foregone for future gain has potential for disaster, and not just in playoff positioning.
At least two Western teams with winning records won't even make the postseason. The Spurs don't want to be one of those outraged that their winning record failed to put them in the playoffs, while a sub-.500 Eastern Conference team made it.
Of course, there's a solution to an East-West power disparity that seems to get more pronounced, year to year: a 16-team tournament that includes the teams with the best records, regardless of conference.
Even an old-school guy like Jazz coach Jerry Sloan sees merit in the notion.
“It certainly would keep things more alive and make some of the teams that are down there have to compete harder to get in the playoffs,” Sloan said. “In the long run, I think you'd end up having better basketball.”
Better basketball?
What a concept.
Gregg Popovich wants Tim Duncan healthy for the playoffs, but they can't sacrifice too many wins.
Resting your stars can be risky in West (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Resting_your_stars_can_be_risky_in_West.html)
Mike Monroe
When Utah Jazz players stepped off their plane in San Antonio late Monday afternoon, they were in seventh place in the Western Conference.
By the time they had collected their bags and checked into their hotel on the River Walk, they had fallen to ninth, out of the playoff picture.
While the idle Jazz were in the air and on a bus, afternoon victories had enabled the Thunder and the Rockets to jump over them in the standings.
Such is life these days in the Western Conference, where on Tuesday morning, just 11/2 games separated the second-place Mavericks and the fourth-place Spurs, with the Nuggets sandwiched in between. Only two games separated the fifth-place Trail Blazers from the 10th-place Grizzlies.
Or, as Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer put it: “How crazy is that?”
You want crazy? Check out the Southwest Division, where Tuesday morning's standings showed the Hornets in fifth but two games over .500.
No division has been so strong since David Stern decided that six five-team divisions made the most sense when the NBA added a 30th team. Yet, the Southwest champion won't get anything but style points for winning the league's toughest division.
Meanwhile, in the Eastern Conference, the Knicks are in ninth place, just two games out of the playoffs.
Their record: 17-24.
Eleven Western teams are over .500, a fact that should frighten fans of a Spurs team that wants to husband the playing time of key veterans who are aging (Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili) and injured (Tony Parker).
The Spurs are 8-9 against winning teams after their victory in New Orleans on Monday. They have 20 left against the other 10 Western teams with winning records.
“Every game we play out here (in the West) is that much more monumental,” said Boozer, “because other teams are in the same position.”
In seasons past, the presumption that saving regular-season wear and tear on Duncan might pay off in the playoffs made sense.
Since 2000-01, they've finished no worse than third in the conference.
In this air-tight Western race, though, such conjecture is risky.
Duncan swears he understands the logic and won't fight Gregg Popovich's plan to rest him “more than ever before,” but here's the problem: Of the remaining eight sets of back-to-back games, five of the opponents in the second game of those sets are Western playoff contenders.
Can you risk holding Duncan out of a second-straight game in Portland in February? In Memphis and Oklahoma City in March? In Phoenix and Denver in April?
One or two wins foregone for future gain has potential for disaster, and not just in playoff positioning.
At least two Western teams with winning records won't even make the postseason. The Spurs don't want to be one of those outraged that their winning record failed to put them in the playoffs, while a sub-.500 Eastern Conference team made it.
Of course, there's a solution to an East-West power disparity that seems to get more pronounced, year to year: a 16-team tournament that includes the teams with the best records, regardless of conference.
Even an old-school guy like Jazz coach Jerry Sloan sees merit in the notion.
“It certainly would keep things more alive and make some of the teams that are down there have to compete harder to get in the playoffs,” Sloan said. “In the long run, I think you'd end up having better basketball.”
Better basketball?
What a concept.