Kent_in_Atlanta
01-27-2011, 10:08 AM
http://www.foxsportssouthwest.com/01/27/11/Unrivaled-Spurs-win-over-Jazz-the-latest/landing.html?blockID=398688&feedID=4519
By Mike Piellucci
FOXSportsSouthwest.com
Gregg Popovich has a bone to pick with anyone who calls his Spurs the best team in the NBA.
“We have the best record but no way does that mean we have the best team, especially halfway through the season,” Popovich grumbled on ESPN’s broadcast of Wednesday’s game at Utah.
Fair enough, and he more than anyone understands how little the games in January matter relative to the gut-check battles of April through June.
At the present moment, however, it’s impossible to conclude that anyone is better than San Antonio, now winners of 10 of their past 11 games thanks to a 112-105 road triumph over the Jazz.
There are a lot of factors that come into play when making such a proclamation but the simplest one is that the Spurs, more than any other team, win the games they should and tend to win them convincingly.
Consider the win over Utah Exhibit A.
Yes, the Jazz, now losers of six straight, are struggling.
No, they are not the same caliber of team they were last season after replacing Carlos Boozer and Kyle Korver with Al Jefferson and Raja Bell in addition to just now retaining the services of Mehmet Okur.
But this is a team that will comfortably make the playoffs in the West and fielded the best player on the floor in Deron Williams, who scorched San Antonio for a season-best 39 points on 16-of-24 shooting to go with nine assists, while playing in one of the league’s most notorious road environments.
Bottom line, they’re good.
Yet after the first quarter they were barely in the game, never making it closer than a two-possession ball game after the 10:08 mark in the second quarter. Even Williams, who scored 29 of his points in the second half including 17 in the fourth quarter, could only dent the Spurs lead, as San Antonio returned fire after every shot Utah’s flashy point guard fired across its bow.
It was supposed to be a challenge, and for long stretches — like a 17-0 run in the second quarter or the entire third quarter, in which Utah never trailed by fewer than nine and by as much as 19 — the Spurs seemingly toyed with the Jazz.
Ultimately, though, Utah was a team that San Antonio was expected to beat and the Spurs tend to handle those teams well. They average 7.3 more points per game than their opponents, the fourth-highest mark in the league and have lost just once to a sub-.500 team, which came on December 1st at the Clippers.
Their road record is the best in the league and they haven’t lost at home since November en route to what is not-so-coincidentally the best home mark as well.
They are, quite simply, better than everyone else.
What’s more impressive is that they do it by not really being the best at anything.
Apart from allowing the fewest opposing free throw attempts and makes, the Spurs don’t lead the league in any one category. There’s plenty that they don’t rank in the top five of, either.
That extends over into individual talent, as well. Nights like Wednesday, in which the best player on the floor is a guy not wearing black, silver and white aren’t that uncommon.
Among playoff teams, it’s downright commonplace. Some Spurs fans might be incredulous reading this but in the West alone the Lakers (Kobe Bryant), Mavericks (Dirk Nowitzki), Thunder (Kevin Durant), Hornets (Chris Paul), Nuggets (Carmelo Anthony), and Jazz (Williams) all have a star player that’s better than San Antonio’s roster.
Same story in the East with Miami (LeBron James and Dwyane Wade), Magic (Dwight Howard), Bulls (Derrick Rose), and quite possibly the Celtics (depending on how highly you rate Rajon Rondo or Kevin Garnett).
Yet they all are gazing up in the standings at San Antonio, primarily because the Spurs are more well-rounded.
San Antonio is in the top half, if not top third of the league in nearly every statistical category and with the exception of a particular vulnerability against the 3-pointer (where they rank second to last league-wide in opposing outside shooting percentage), they don’t have an exploitable weakness, and even that isn’t large enough to single-handedly bring San Antonio down in the face of all the other strengths the Spurs possess.
Similarly, San Antonio won’t have the single-best player against many contending teams but very few have a top three as strong as Many Ginobili, Tony Parker, or Tim Duncan, with even fewer rolling out a better starting five and practically no one capable of employing a better nine-man rotation, especially one that is versatile enough to create so many different lineups and mismatches.
The most convenient way to label the Spurs, then, would be to typecast them as a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none but that undersells just how significant their status as a complete and dynamic team truly is.
Simply put, other teams’ best quality might trump the Spurs’, but it’s just as likely that their worst quality is more pronounced as well. The difference between those two is that San Antonio is better equipped to exploit those shortcomings than other team in the league — and, in turn, wins more than any other as well.
So, sorry Pop. I know you don’t want to hear it but it’s time to face facts; the Spurs truly are the best team in the league.
If the first half of the season is any indication, you'll have to get used to hearing it.
.
By Mike Piellucci
FOXSportsSouthwest.com
Gregg Popovich has a bone to pick with anyone who calls his Spurs the best team in the NBA.
“We have the best record but no way does that mean we have the best team, especially halfway through the season,” Popovich grumbled on ESPN’s broadcast of Wednesday’s game at Utah.
Fair enough, and he more than anyone understands how little the games in January matter relative to the gut-check battles of April through June.
At the present moment, however, it’s impossible to conclude that anyone is better than San Antonio, now winners of 10 of their past 11 games thanks to a 112-105 road triumph over the Jazz.
There are a lot of factors that come into play when making such a proclamation but the simplest one is that the Spurs, more than any other team, win the games they should and tend to win them convincingly.
Consider the win over Utah Exhibit A.
Yes, the Jazz, now losers of six straight, are struggling.
No, they are not the same caliber of team they were last season after replacing Carlos Boozer and Kyle Korver with Al Jefferson and Raja Bell in addition to just now retaining the services of Mehmet Okur.
But this is a team that will comfortably make the playoffs in the West and fielded the best player on the floor in Deron Williams, who scorched San Antonio for a season-best 39 points on 16-of-24 shooting to go with nine assists, while playing in one of the league’s most notorious road environments.
Bottom line, they’re good.
Yet after the first quarter they were barely in the game, never making it closer than a two-possession ball game after the 10:08 mark in the second quarter. Even Williams, who scored 29 of his points in the second half including 17 in the fourth quarter, could only dent the Spurs lead, as San Antonio returned fire after every shot Utah’s flashy point guard fired across its bow.
It was supposed to be a challenge, and for long stretches — like a 17-0 run in the second quarter or the entire third quarter, in which Utah never trailed by fewer than nine and by as much as 19 — the Spurs seemingly toyed with the Jazz.
Ultimately, though, Utah was a team that San Antonio was expected to beat and the Spurs tend to handle those teams well. They average 7.3 more points per game than their opponents, the fourth-highest mark in the league and have lost just once to a sub-.500 team, which came on December 1st at the Clippers.
Their road record is the best in the league and they haven’t lost at home since November en route to what is not-so-coincidentally the best home mark as well.
They are, quite simply, better than everyone else.
What’s more impressive is that they do it by not really being the best at anything.
Apart from allowing the fewest opposing free throw attempts and makes, the Spurs don’t lead the league in any one category. There’s plenty that they don’t rank in the top five of, either.
That extends over into individual talent, as well. Nights like Wednesday, in which the best player on the floor is a guy not wearing black, silver and white aren’t that uncommon.
Among playoff teams, it’s downright commonplace. Some Spurs fans might be incredulous reading this but in the West alone the Lakers (Kobe Bryant), Mavericks (Dirk Nowitzki), Thunder (Kevin Durant), Hornets (Chris Paul), Nuggets (Carmelo Anthony), and Jazz (Williams) all have a star player that’s better than San Antonio’s roster.
Same story in the East with Miami (LeBron James and Dwyane Wade), Magic (Dwight Howard), Bulls (Derrick Rose), and quite possibly the Celtics (depending on how highly you rate Rajon Rondo or Kevin Garnett).
Yet they all are gazing up in the standings at San Antonio, primarily because the Spurs are more well-rounded.
San Antonio is in the top half, if not top third of the league in nearly every statistical category and with the exception of a particular vulnerability against the 3-pointer (where they rank second to last league-wide in opposing outside shooting percentage), they don’t have an exploitable weakness, and even that isn’t large enough to single-handedly bring San Antonio down in the face of all the other strengths the Spurs possess.
Similarly, San Antonio won’t have the single-best player against many contending teams but very few have a top three as strong as Many Ginobili, Tony Parker, or Tim Duncan, with even fewer rolling out a better starting five and practically no one capable of employing a better nine-man rotation, especially one that is versatile enough to create so many different lineups and mismatches.
The most convenient way to label the Spurs, then, would be to typecast them as a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none but that undersells just how significant their status as a complete and dynamic team truly is.
Simply put, other teams’ best quality might trump the Spurs’, but it’s just as likely that their worst quality is more pronounced as well. The difference between those two is that San Antonio is better equipped to exploit those shortcomings than other team in the league — and, in turn, wins more than any other as well.
So, sorry Pop. I know you don’t want to hear it but it’s time to face facts; the Spurs truly are the best team in the league.
If the first half of the season is any indication, you'll have to get used to hearing it.
.