Really Jeff?I doubt LA gave a flying f*** about the Spurs sleeping on their plane only to play the following day, those are the breaks sometimes.
Root for Gasol to pull through, Spurs fans
By Jeff McDonald
Tim Duncan says he doesn't care whether Pau Gasol plays for the Lakers tonight. Maybe he's telling the truth.
If you're a Spurs fan, however, you should be rooting for Gasol, who is battling his second hamstring injury this season, to get off the treadmill and onto the court at the AT&T Center.
While you're at it, root for Kobe Bryant's fractured finger to miraculously heal, Terminator-style. Root for Ron Artest to show no ill-effects from his Christmas Day concussion (although, with Artest, how would you know?).
Root for the Lakers to be full strength tonight. It's the only way for the Spurs to accurately gauge where they stand in the Western Conference heirarchy. The Spurs underwent their offseason makeover with designs on catching the Lakers -- the real Lakers, not the walking wounded Lakers.
Gasol did not practice Monday and was limited in shootaround this morning. He is listed as doubtful for tonight's game, but is not expected to play. Bryant will play, but how well is anyone's guess -- experimenting with a splint on his hurt finger, Bryant is shooting 27.3 percent over the past three games.
A victory tonight over the Gasol-less Lakers would still count for a Spurs team that is 3-11 against teams .500 and above. A victory over the full strength Lakers would mean more.
It doesn't sound like that's an option, at this point. But it's something to root for.
Really Jeff?I doubt LA gave a flying f*** about the Spurs sleeping on their plane only to play the following day, those are the breaks sometimes.
I think maybe you misunderstood the article.
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No I got it, it's not a measuring game if they don't play a healthy Laker team. I don't know why but it just brought up that playoff series![]()
Why in the would I root for the Lakers to have perfect health after seeing how heavily they profited from the Spurs getting the injury bug in 08?
I'm sure LA was rooting for Manu to magically heal in '08 too
Stern did root for playing G7 of the Hornets series in NO, 48 hours before G1 of the WCF in LA.
Manu was in waaaaaaaaaay better shape than the TWO STARTERS the Lakers were missing that series.![]()
And waaaaaaaaaaaaay more important than your one starter and 5 minute per game bench player. Saying Bynum and Ariza were more important than Ginobili would be like Spurs fan saying Blair and Haislip were equal to Gasol.
You fool, he was playing injured!! from the Series before!!!
Which i thought was a wrong move from Pop. He was to loyal, i think if he inserted Brent Barry, they would of been more productive with him in their because he was healthy, and shooting three's and playing good D, oh and did not turn the ball over.
Remind me, but who else besides Bynum was missing? And Bynum was gone for months and hadn't done anything of note in the NBA. The Lakers didn't "miss" him.
The Spurs having a gimpy Manu in the 2008 WCF was a much bigger deal than Bynum not playing for the Lakers.
Oh, Ariza! LOL.
Ariza and Bynum in 2008 = garbage
At this point, I am rooting for the least amount of resistance possible.
And if we lose to a wounded Laker team? Does that signify the need for even more radical changes?
Ariza, the starter who started a whole 3 games out of 24 for LA in the regular season and 0/8 he played in the 2008 playoffs.![]()
Losing to the Lakers without Gasol wouldn't be surprising, but it would indeed by heartbreaking..
If we're looking for a positive in the result of a loss, it would be that the FO would probably realize we need to make some changes..I'd rather get the W and see that our current roster is enough to contend, but at least there could be a positive in case of a loss..
What does that have to do with the Lakers wishing ginobili was healthy
Whether we win tonight or not depends largely on Manu and how good a game he has. But it doesn't change the fact that a player who could really help us this year is probably going to be in a sport coat on the sidelines.
His name is Ian Mahinmi, and he now only has a bit more than half a season to get acclimated enough to help us in the playoffs. That's because our brilliant coach has buried him for the whole year excpet for the NJ game.
As much as we may want a trade deadline deal to happen for us, it won't. I think the Spurs will stay with what they have - Pop won't want to work even more new guys in than he already has.
Sorry, but I'm too busy rooting for the Spurs to show up to a big game to worry about what the Lakers are or are not doing.
The spurs were not beating the lakers in 2008. Give it up. That series was not even close.
That spurs team was not very good. Manu had a great game in that series then stunk, inconsistent as normal. sure he wasn't 100% but he was healthy enough to play. He played well in one game that series. how do you account for that?
I just want a W and I don't give a sh** about Laker's health.
Losing to the lakers tonight would turn into a big positive if the spurs realize that the frontline is not strong enough to get past a healthy Laker team and make a good move to add another big.
It would be a worst case scenario to have the spurs win a close game tonight, everyone get excited about it, with Gasol out then make no moves, then get crushed when it really counts in the playoffs.
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