Bruno
12-23-2006, 08:14 AM
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/mfinger/stories/MYSA122306.01C.COL.BKNfinger.spurs.366c3a2.html
Web Posted: 12/23/2006 12:27 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News
Finger This was Yao Ming's first victory in San Antonio, but it won't be his last. There will be more nights when Fabricio Oberto won't have enough fouls and Francisco Elson won't have enough wingspan, and Yao will treat them and their teammates like a bunch of double-teaming, silver-and-black Lilliputians.
It doesn't mean that the Spurs are slipping, or that they aren't still the team to beat in the star-stacked West. But among the many reasons why they should be concerned about how difficult it will be to make another championship run next spring, few should induce more tossing, more turning or more cold sweats than the following four words:
Houston Rockets, seventh seed.
The Rockets didn't look anything like a lower-rung playoff team in their 97-78 whipping of the Spurs at the AT&T Center on Friday, but they might be one anyway. They entered the night as the No.7 team in the West, and in a conference that has now added Allen Iverson to its stable, Houston could very well end up in a position to play the Spurs in the first round of the postseason.
If it plays out that way, the Spurs may have to beat Yao, Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki in back-to-back-to-back seven-game series. In the history of the NBA, has any team ever overcome three more dominant forces just to get to the Finals?
Friday proved that just getting past the first step will be daunting enough by itself. Over and over again, the Spurs discovered that they — like every other team in the league — have no answer for Yao at either end of the floor.
Mike Finger
By the time the game was four minutes old, Yao already had 10 points, and he didn't have to work particularly hard for any of them. He blocked Tim Duncan's first shot attempt, forced him to shoot an airball on his second, then altered a Manu Ginobili drive a couple of possessions later.
Yao, who entered the game averaging almost 34 points in six games, finished with just 22, but only because he sat for most of the second half.
Afterward, he said his first career victory at the AT&T Center — and Duncan's first career loss to the Rockets in San Antonio — was "a big night for me." Yao also acknowledged it might end up having positive implications for the rest of his team as well.
"We may end up playing (the Spurs) in the playoffs," Yao said. "With their record, they'll probably get home-court advantage. So winning on the road is very important."
One of Yao's new teammates, Shane Battier, knows both sides of that argument. When Battier was with Memphis, the Grizzlies had a couple of their own impressive regular-season victories in San Antonio, and after those games, they too talked about making a statement.
But when the Spurs later faced Memphis in the first round of the 2004 playoffs? The Grizzlies were swept in four games.
Still, there are reasons to believe the Rockets won't go so quietly if they end up here in April or May. Yao is the biggest, both literally and figuratively, but Tracy McGrady and Bonzi Wells aren't far behind. Both are accomplished Spurs-killers — McGrady as a comeback artist and Wells as a postseason menace — and both would help provide Yao with room to operate.
Of course, the Rockets need McGrady — who didn't play Friday because of back spasms — to get healthy. And they need to make sure Yao doesn't endure another season-crippling injury of his own.
If everything works out, they might still be a seventh seed. But they'll be a seventh seed no one will have any interest in playing.
But Battier, perhaps reminded of his experiences in Memphis, wasn't ready to make that jump Friday night. He said the rout was a confidence-builder, to be sure, but not an indicator that the West's power structure was changing.
"We needed this game more than the Spurs did," Battier said. "Just to prove to ourselves that when we do the things we're capable of doing, we can compete with the Spurs. They're the best team in the NBA, no question about that."
For the Spurs, that should be a comforting thought. But after what they saw from a seventh seed?
Let the cold sweats begin.
Web Posted: 12/23/2006 12:27 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News
Finger This was Yao Ming's first victory in San Antonio, but it won't be his last. There will be more nights when Fabricio Oberto won't have enough fouls and Francisco Elson won't have enough wingspan, and Yao will treat them and their teammates like a bunch of double-teaming, silver-and-black Lilliputians.
It doesn't mean that the Spurs are slipping, or that they aren't still the team to beat in the star-stacked West. But among the many reasons why they should be concerned about how difficult it will be to make another championship run next spring, few should induce more tossing, more turning or more cold sweats than the following four words:
Houston Rockets, seventh seed.
The Rockets didn't look anything like a lower-rung playoff team in their 97-78 whipping of the Spurs at the AT&T Center on Friday, but they might be one anyway. They entered the night as the No.7 team in the West, and in a conference that has now added Allen Iverson to its stable, Houston could very well end up in a position to play the Spurs in the first round of the postseason.
If it plays out that way, the Spurs may have to beat Yao, Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki in back-to-back-to-back seven-game series. In the history of the NBA, has any team ever overcome three more dominant forces just to get to the Finals?
Friday proved that just getting past the first step will be daunting enough by itself. Over and over again, the Spurs discovered that they — like every other team in the league — have no answer for Yao at either end of the floor.
Mike Finger
By the time the game was four minutes old, Yao already had 10 points, and he didn't have to work particularly hard for any of them. He blocked Tim Duncan's first shot attempt, forced him to shoot an airball on his second, then altered a Manu Ginobili drive a couple of possessions later.
Yao, who entered the game averaging almost 34 points in six games, finished with just 22, but only because he sat for most of the second half.
Afterward, he said his first career victory at the AT&T Center — and Duncan's first career loss to the Rockets in San Antonio — was "a big night for me." Yao also acknowledged it might end up having positive implications for the rest of his team as well.
"We may end up playing (the Spurs) in the playoffs," Yao said. "With their record, they'll probably get home-court advantage. So winning on the road is very important."
One of Yao's new teammates, Shane Battier, knows both sides of that argument. When Battier was with Memphis, the Grizzlies had a couple of their own impressive regular-season victories in San Antonio, and after those games, they too talked about making a statement.
But when the Spurs later faced Memphis in the first round of the 2004 playoffs? The Grizzlies were swept in four games.
Still, there are reasons to believe the Rockets won't go so quietly if they end up here in April or May. Yao is the biggest, both literally and figuratively, but Tracy McGrady and Bonzi Wells aren't far behind. Both are accomplished Spurs-killers — McGrady as a comeback artist and Wells as a postseason menace — and both would help provide Yao with room to operate.
Of course, the Rockets need McGrady — who didn't play Friday because of back spasms — to get healthy. And they need to make sure Yao doesn't endure another season-crippling injury of his own.
If everything works out, they might still be a seventh seed. But they'll be a seventh seed no one will have any interest in playing.
But Battier, perhaps reminded of his experiences in Memphis, wasn't ready to make that jump Friday night. He said the rout was a confidence-builder, to be sure, but not an indicator that the West's power structure was changing.
"We needed this game more than the Spurs did," Battier said. "Just to prove to ourselves that when we do the things we're capable of doing, we can compete with the Spurs. They're the best team in the NBA, no question about that."
For the Spurs, that should be a comforting thought. But after what they saw from a seventh seed?
Let the cold sweats begin.