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Wouldn't shock me if they go 3-0 or 0-3 tbh. Its hard to get a read on this team so far.
Stuck in a pack of teams at 4-4 and with legitimate hopes of making the postseason, even if it's likely as part of the 7-10 play-in group, the Spurs hit an easy patch in the schedule with road games against the two worst teams in the league by SRS: at Minnesota tomorrow and Sunday night, then at the Thunder on Tuesday. Every game counts here, especially considering the shorter season; I have found myself watching other middle-of-the-pack West teams hoping they lose; games like Charlotte beating New Orleans tonight help the Spurs' postseason chances.
The Wolves won their first two games, including an impressive win over the Jazz. Since then, though, they have dropped six straight and the numbers are ugly. Disclaimer: I didn't watch any of the six games other than a few minutes of the 4th in the road loss to Denver, though I did watch a decent amount of their win over Utah. Blowout road losses to the Lakers and Clippers are understandable, even though the Spurs just swept that same set, and two losses to Denver are also not surprising. Being utterly uncompe ive against the Blazers (MIN was down 31 at the end of the 3rd) is pretty bad, and getting blown out at home by Washington is just plain turrbl. It's probably not realistic to expect theSpurs to win both matchups this weekend, but these are the kinds of games the Spurs need to win if they are going to make a serious push for a playoff spot.
The same is true of the Thunder, albeit to a lesser extent. They are also 4-4 and will play at Brooklyn between now and their date with the Spurs on Tuesday. OC's SRS is -8.6, which is only ahead of the Wolves' -12.8 out of all NBA teams. Their 4 wins have all come on the road: by 2 at CHA, 9 at ORL, 1 at NO, and 12 at NY. At home they are 0-3, with a 1-point loss to UTA, 11 points to ORL, and 33 points to NO; a road blowout against MIA accounts for their other loss. The Thunder will likely suffer many blowout losses as their young players grow and they work their way towards the top of the ping-pong ball chart; this is another game in which the Spurs will be favored.
Of course, no team will win every game. Obviously 3-0 over this stretch is ideal, and 2-1 is probably good enough. Anything worse would be very disappointing. With homecourt being less of a factor than in most seasons, and with all three games in the Spurs' normal timezone, the fact that these are road games shouldn't be much of an issue. The Spurs have played better on the road than at home in this young season anyway.
Wouldn't shock me if they go 3-0 or 0-3 tbh. Its hard to get a read on this team so far.
Minnesota's just a crap franchise with crap players.
OKC plays hard and has a good coach.
Really sad Minnesota is still struggling and looks to have a bleak future even after having drafted first overall.
KAT has been out, but is likely to return sometime this weekend. Lucky us.
3-0 This team is clicking.
Great. Why was he out? What's the injury?
That's certainly a factor in their recent poor showings. I feel dumb for not having checked for that. Conversely, the Thunder don't have any players key enough to have wild swings based on that player's availability.
when a three game stretch really early in the season is important to possibly making it to the play in
that is exactly why the spurs should blow it up.
So we can discuss this very moment in 5 years time?
The Spurs are overachieving right now without Derrick. Sure they beat Lakers, but with banged-up Lebron, Davis and without Pope. The Clippers didn’t have PG13 and almost overcame a 24 deficit and beat us. They’re good when they’re kicking but they rely heavily on so much high, Keldon, Lonnie. But there are games like the Jazz lost that they will come out flat, albeit after playing high against the two Lakers matches. And on those games when they find themselves with less energy, the Vets would need to bail them out. The question is how much can Demar, Aldridge, Gay and Patty carry them during those games without getting blown away? Until this team is skilled enough, at least Tier 2, it’s difficult to say. They could win big games, and loss to mediocre teams.
Lebron and AD sure looked fine to me. Maybe they have a little nagging thing but who doesn’t. I agree on PG, but the Spurs have a deep roster with a good blend of kids and vets. Pop is playing the kids about as much as we could dream. If they play good enough to make some noise that is great it means the young kids have grown and we are close to competing big time. If they play inconsistent and miss the playoffs it’s good as the kids have still shown some growth + good chance some vets are moved for future pieces and we get a high’ish pick to help us out. Win-win imo
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