If Kawhi was injured

[testies]

Would his absence even be mentioned in national broadcast, nevermind mentioned 9.5 billion times? Or even at the courtside interviews? Lol, way to disrespect the 18 players involved in the series talking about some glorified above average role player in Ibaka all the time, broadcasters and interviewers...

[100%duncan]

Man who gives a fuck? Enjoy the 2-0

[Chinook]

Yes. The media loves Leonard (too much).

[therealtruth]

Ibaka makes a huge difference with all his shot blocks and goal tends. Players get scared to take it to the basket.

[Prose]

Would his absence even be mentioned in national broadcast, nevermind mentioned 9.5 billion times? Or even at the courtside interviews? Lol, way to disrespect the 18 players involved in the series talking about some glorified above average role player in Ibaka all the time, broadcasters and interviewers...


this is true....NOBODY in the media talked about Manus broken elbow in 2011, or Tonys hamstring injury in 2013

[rascal]

this is true....NOBODY in the media talked about Manus broken elbow in 2011, or Tonys hamstring injury in 2013

Those injuries didn't slow those guys down at all.

[Prose]

Those injuries didn't slow those guys down at all.

We lost both of those series. Manu and tony became shells of them selfs after the injuries. Both players were our best players in the respect series/years

[spurraider21]

Those injuries didn't slow those guys down at all.
Manu didn't play in game 1, which became a close loss. Try again

[Fireball]

did the announcers really see that pass from Tony in the first minute of the game which led to a pass from Tiago to Timmy for a dunk? I mean if CP3 had done that pass, they would have talked about it for the next 10 minutes ... but for TP it obviously was nothing special ...

[romain.star]

Would his absence even be mentioned in national broadcast, nevermind mentioned 9.5 billion times? Or even at the courtside interviews? Lol, way to disrespect the 18 players involved in the series talking about some glorified above average role player in Ibaka all the time, broadcasters and interviewers...

At the end of the day, that's 2-0 for the Spurs

[Rito3d30]

Don't
Don't even think about it:bang

[mudyez]

I don't care!

Its all about #5 and we play whoever is in front of us. I don't want Blake Griffin kind of love. I don't want big city treatment. The best part of our Dynasty (yes I called it "Dynasty"...as it is the greatest 15 year and counting Dynasty any sport other than german soccer has wittnessed) is the hate from everybody.

I love my Spurs and outside from my hot teacher banging me there couldn't have been anything better happening to me 20 years ago.

[mudyez]

btw.: Isn't it kind of OKC's fault creating a team that goes from top3 in the league to not playoff worthy when it looses its 3rd best player?

I mean, if we lost our best player (Head of the Snake Parker), we still would put a competetive team on the floor. If we lost Duncan, we would be better defensively. If we lost Kawhi, we would have lineups to make up for a lot of it (see last night).

I get, that loosing Ibaka hurts more then loosing Westbrook...but there just shouldn't be a none-superstar thats that important.

[testies]

btw.: Isn't it kind of OKC's fault creating a team that goes from top3 in the league to not playoff worthy when it looses its 3rd best player?

I mean, if we lost our best player (Head of the Snake Parker), we still would put a competetive team on the floor. If we lost Duncan, we would be better defensively. If we lost Kawhi, we would have lineups to make up for a lot of it (see last night).

I get, that loosing Ibaka hurts more then loosing Westbrook...but there just shouldn't be a none-superstar thats that important.

Their D was still awful in the Clippers series, with Ibaka. We would still be 2-0

I don't care about regular season sweep, we don't play defense in regular season. When we turn it up, we are top3 defense in the league, as Portland knows by now

[rascal]

Manu didn't play in game 1, which became a close loss. Try again

Manu averaged 20 points a game the rest of that series. Nothing like a player out for an entire series. Pop made the mistake of benching Manu in game 1 playing it cautious thinking the spurs still could win without Manu but he wasn't injured that badly if he could return and average more than his regular seaon average and play 35 min a game.

[Cowboys_Wear_Spurs]

Their D was still awful in the Clippers series, with Ibaka. We would still be 2-0

I don't care about regular season sweep, we don't play defense in regular season. When we turn it up, we are top3 defense in the league, as Portland knows by now

Yes the Spurs do, that is why their were 4th this year in D efficiency. The thing is, and so many people bitch about on here over the course of the season, Pop will play an assortment of lineups against possible Playoff teams early and mid season. Most of the times, it results in a loss.

But Pop is preparing for the playoffs for these games. He is just testing which lineups and matchups work against opposing teams starters. Come playoff time, Pop doesn't need to experiment, he already knows what works and doesn't work. This is why I don't care so much about the regular season losses to playoff teams. So many threads how the Spurs had losing records against them. Well, your starting to see why.

[Kidd K]

Ibaka makes a huge difference with all his shot blocks and goal tends. Players get scared to take it to the basket.

Like Bruce Bowen said: Ibaka makes a difference, but he doesn't make a 52 point difference.

The Thunder got blown out once and massively blown out once. Ibaka isn't turning that shit around by that much.

[spurraider21]

Manu averaged 20 points a game the rest of that series. Nothing like a player out for an entire series. Pop made the mistake of benching Manu in game 1 playing it cautious thinking the spurs still could win without Manu but he wasn't injured that badly if he could return and average more than his regular seaon average and play 35 min a game.
If he wasn't injured, he wouldn't have missed game 1. Period

[Shaolin-Style]

They wouldn't overblow it like they do Ibaka. It would just be like "Durant would have gotten his anyway. Westbrook would have gotten his anyway."

[ducks]

kawhi spurs were .500 enough said