McDonald: The Western Conference parity problem

[Spurs Brazil]

The Western Conference parity problem
By Jeff McDonald on Jan 26, 10 05:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) Save & Share Yahoo! BuzzYahoo! Newsvine del.icio.us Facebook Google Reddit Fark
The Spurs' problems of late have been well-do ented. They have lost five of their last six games, including three in a row at home. They have slid from the doorstep of second in the Western Conference two weeks ago to sixth today.

In any other season, it would be easy to chalk the Spurs' struggles up to the annual January swoon that seems to strike just before they right the ship on the annual rodeo road trip. But this isn't any other season.

For one, the Spurs' schedule over the second half is not conducive to making up ground. Too many road games against too many good teams. That problem, too, has been well-do ented.

We'd prefer to focus on another cause for concern. Let's call it The Western Conference Parity Problem. Simply, the West is vastly improved this season, especially in the mid-bottom. Last season, six teams finished with fewer than 30 wins -- Golden State, Memphis, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, the L.A. Clippers and Sacramento.

This season, that number of bottom-feeding cupcakes has been sliced in half. Memphis and Oklahoma City are above. 500. The Clippers are 20-24. In all, 11 Western Conference teams have winning records. Only the Warriors, Timberwolves and Kings are true cupcakes.

What does this mean? It means substantially fewer "easy" wins for a team, like the Spurs, looking to get well.

Last season, the Spurs finished 17 games above .500 against conference foes. So far this season, they are 13-13.

All of this suggests it is going to be more difficult to make up ground after the January swoon than in seasons past.

http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblog...stern-con.html

[SCdac]

With the composition of our team, it feels like "pressure" to win games is doing more harm than good. Weird rotations, players who were settling getting pulled, ultra small lineups trying to compensate for poor defense, off-games from whoever drawing extra criticism, players getting frustrated, etc. One thing is for sure, like Pop said in today's interview, it's going to take WORK, plain and simple. Nothing will be handed to us, as we've seen this season.

[crc21209]

The Spurs arent the only team whos losing game in and game out though. Besides the Lakers, everybody in the West is only seperated by a game or 2 or at most 4 games. The Spurs, Jazz, Thunder, Blazers, Suns, Grizzlies, Rockets, and Hornets are all in a log jam from spots 4 thru 11.