Man In Black
03-26-2010, 11:41 PM
There are many fans & haters, new, old, & in-between who say the Spurs are done.
Why the negativity? Is it because of their record? Let's see, a myriad of injuries to members of the REAL BIG 3. New players. Youthful exuberance coupled with bone-headed mistakes that cost the Spurs some close games. Despite that, people look at that Conference record standing and see 7th or 8 place. What you should really be looking at is how many losses each team has. That's it.
So if you look at it like this:
Lakers 19 Losses
Denver & Dallas 25 Losses
Utah & Phoenix 26 Losses
OK City 27 Losses
San Antonio 28 Losses
Portland 29 Losses
The Lakers, had a 7 game winning streak of which the only win that was newsworthy, was the one against the tired Spurs. Truthfully, they have been going through a malaise for the last month or so. Having said that, Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook proving once again that Derek Fisher and his backups still have issues with SPEED and AGGRESSIVENESS which resulted in a 91-75 win. A game that was literally decided by halftime.
Should TP be healthy, then the Spurs have that type of weapon again. Let's hope he is healthy and that George can keep up his intensity in the playoffs.
Denver had just lost to the Bucks, Knicks and Celts and just squeaked by Toronto. There are other prevalent issues, like Coach Karl's availability due to his courageous battle with Cancer and Kenyon Martin's knee issues look like they will be an issue for the rest of the season.
Dallas is Dallas, after the long winning streak, they've played some inconsistent ball losing 4 out of their last 6 including a blowout loss to the Knicks, the Hornets, and a double-digit loss to the Blazers. They remain an enigma.
Utah isn't quite the dominant team that swept the Spurs 4-0 this season. They are 6-4 in the last 10 and got blown out this evening by the Pacers. They're the team that has potential to be upper echelon but they haven't done it for a long enough period of any time to qualify.
Phoenix is playing solid ball. They've strung together some scores reminiscent of a time when The Iceman, George Gervin ruled the scoring titles. Having said that, they will have to be able to play defense and garner rebounds when the slower, more physical playoffs starts. Can they just outscore everyone to a title? Remains to be seen, but in today's NBA, that hasn't been done. Even the Showtime Lakers played D when it counted. Phoenix doesn't have that much quality size after Stoudamire, even though they have 2 7-footers in Robin Lopez & long-range shooting big, Channing Frye. I will say Louis Amundson is a gamer in the mold of Eddie Najera but again, for him to be on the court means that PHX has to slow down their game.
Oklahoma City is showing the NBA that Clay Bennett was smart to pry Sam Presti away from the Spurs. He's put together a team with a strong mix of speed & youth who are growing right before our eyes. Whoever has to play them in the 1st round will find the road to the semi's difficult. They have a scorer who can score in a variety of ways, whose gangly long arms remind some peeps of the aformentioned Iceman, and has a solid young PG in Westbrook, a good perimeter defender in Sefalosha, and some solid role players in Collison, Green, & Kristic. They ain't deep, but it's amazing what young legs can do.
Portland is a team in transition...Screw you TLong, your team has some serious issues and looks to be in a transitory state with all of their front office firings. They will only go as far as Brandon Roy can take them and with their lack of familiarity due to all the trades from all the injuries, just how fast can Nate McMillan integrate these guys into the cohesive unit that the Lakers fear? It's going to be a tough road and has been since Oden & Pryziballa went down. They do have a lot of heart and they're winning the games against the lower tiered teams they've faced, but against the top 8? Since the beginning of February, the Blazers are 2-6 against current Western Conference Playoff team.
So again, why all the hate and disgust? The main differences here is that the Spurs aren't looked upon as as upper-tiered because of their EARLY inconsistencies. Big Fucking Deal, they weren't looked upon as upper-tiered in 2003 either. That doesn't mean I think that they should be looked at as favorites to win one for the thumb, but at the same time...WHY NOT THE SPURS?
They are playing a better brand of basketball and looking at how hard they played against both the East & West's current best teams to a hotly contested 1-1, they are capable of playing upper-echelon teams when rested and focused.
Positivity, it's a good thing. Come to the Nexus! :lobt2::lobt2::lobt2::lobt2:
Why the negativity? Is it because of their record? Let's see, a myriad of injuries to members of the REAL BIG 3. New players. Youthful exuberance coupled with bone-headed mistakes that cost the Spurs some close games. Despite that, people look at that Conference record standing and see 7th or 8 place. What you should really be looking at is how many losses each team has. That's it.
So if you look at it like this:
Lakers 19 Losses
Denver & Dallas 25 Losses
Utah & Phoenix 26 Losses
OK City 27 Losses
San Antonio 28 Losses
Portland 29 Losses
The Lakers, had a 7 game winning streak of which the only win that was newsworthy, was the one against the tired Spurs. Truthfully, they have been going through a malaise for the last month or so. Having said that, Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook proving once again that Derek Fisher and his backups still have issues with SPEED and AGGRESSIVENESS which resulted in a 91-75 win. A game that was literally decided by halftime.
Should TP be healthy, then the Spurs have that type of weapon again. Let's hope he is healthy and that George can keep up his intensity in the playoffs.
Denver had just lost to the Bucks, Knicks and Celts and just squeaked by Toronto. There are other prevalent issues, like Coach Karl's availability due to his courageous battle with Cancer and Kenyon Martin's knee issues look like they will be an issue for the rest of the season.
Dallas is Dallas, after the long winning streak, they've played some inconsistent ball losing 4 out of their last 6 including a blowout loss to the Knicks, the Hornets, and a double-digit loss to the Blazers. They remain an enigma.
Utah isn't quite the dominant team that swept the Spurs 4-0 this season. They are 6-4 in the last 10 and got blown out this evening by the Pacers. They're the team that has potential to be upper echelon but they haven't done it for a long enough period of any time to qualify.
Phoenix is playing solid ball. They've strung together some scores reminiscent of a time when The Iceman, George Gervin ruled the scoring titles. Having said that, they will have to be able to play defense and garner rebounds when the slower, more physical playoffs starts. Can they just outscore everyone to a title? Remains to be seen, but in today's NBA, that hasn't been done. Even the Showtime Lakers played D when it counted. Phoenix doesn't have that much quality size after Stoudamire, even though they have 2 7-footers in Robin Lopez & long-range shooting big, Channing Frye. I will say Louis Amundson is a gamer in the mold of Eddie Najera but again, for him to be on the court means that PHX has to slow down their game.
Oklahoma City is showing the NBA that Clay Bennett was smart to pry Sam Presti away from the Spurs. He's put together a team with a strong mix of speed & youth who are growing right before our eyes. Whoever has to play them in the 1st round will find the road to the semi's difficult. They have a scorer who can score in a variety of ways, whose gangly long arms remind some peeps of the aformentioned Iceman, and has a solid young PG in Westbrook, a good perimeter defender in Sefalosha, and some solid role players in Collison, Green, & Kristic. They ain't deep, but it's amazing what young legs can do.
Portland is a team in transition...Screw you TLong, your team has some serious issues and looks to be in a transitory state with all of their front office firings. They will only go as far as Brandon Roy can take them and with their lack of familiarity due to all the trades from all the injuries, just how fast can Nate McMillan integrate these guys into the cohesive unit that the Lakers fear? It's going to be a tough road and has been since Oden & Pryziballa went down. They do have a lot of heart and they're winning the games against the lower tiered teams they've faced, but against the top 8? Since the beginning of February, the Blazers are 2-6 against current Western Conference Playoff team.
So again, why all the hate and disgust? The main differences here is that the Spurs aren't looked upon as as upper-tiered because of their EARLY inconsistencies. Big Fucking Deal, they weren't looked upon as upper-tiered in 2003 either. That doesn't mean I think that they should be looked at as favorites to win one for the thumb, but at the same time...WHY NOT THE SPURS?
They are playing a better brand of basketball and looking at how hard they played against both the East & West's current best teams to a hotly contested 1-1, they are capable of playing upper-echelon teams when rested and focused.
Positivity, it's a good thing. Come to the Nexus! :lobt2::lobt2::lobt2::lobt2: