Losing to Eight Seeds

[KaiRMD1]

Ginobili missed one game and after that, Memphis just outplayed us. The Bulls just couldn't put it together because Rose & Noah were their offense and everything. The Bulls tried but in the end, the Sixers were just too much. Now Spurs have home court throughout

[Jimcs50]

So, the Bulls just finished losing to an eighth seed. Obviously their injuries played a major role in their downfall.

My questions:

Does this Bulls loss help erase the memory of what happened last year?

History will remember Rose's injury but will history remember Ginobili's injury?

Should history remember Ginobili's injury or did the Spurs simply lose to a better team?

The Spurs were not the number 1 seed the last 3 weeks of the season, they were playing horrible bball. The Manu injury just made them even worse. Any of the 7 other teams in the playoffs last year could have beaten the Spurs in 7 games.

[flipspursfan]

Timvp, as much as I love my Spurs and deflect any argument that comes my way with Gino's injury, Duncan hobbling, I gotta say we lost to a better team. No excuses.

[sehui]

they were a better team than us - last year we couldn't have beaten OKC, LA, or Dallas.

[Dex]

Either way, the Mavericks were the only healthy team to lose a 7-game series in the first round to an 8-seed.

[clambake]

Either way, the Mavericks were the only healthy team to lose a 7-game series in the first round to an 8-seed.

the only difference was that memphis took the glove and slapped the spurs across the face, telling the spurs before game 1 how they were gonna abuse them.

and abuse them they did!!!!

[Budkin]

Worst possible matchup for us last year much like Dallas against Warriors.

[Budkin]

the only difference was that memphis took the glove and slapped the spurs across the face, telling the spurs before game 1 how they were gonna abuse them.

and abuse them they did!!!!

Can't really argue that... they wanted us, got us, and bent us over.

[Horse]

I realize maybe history doesn't always remember the details but this and last year is nothing like denver beating seattle or the mavs losing to golden state. It makes a difference a hugh difference if your best player does not play and it's not an excuse it's a fact! No way the bulls lose this series with rose. And no way we lose last year. I would bet my life we win game 1 last year if Manu plays, and if he was healthy no doubt we win the series. If we end up with memphis you will all see.

[Horse]

they were a better team than us - last year we couldn't have beaten OKC, LA, or Dallas.

Horse and theres no way we wouldn't have beat dallas also.

[clambake]

not only that, at lunch period the grizz told the spurs they'd be waiting for them after school.......just to give'm a couple more hours to their pants!!

[DPG21920]

GS did the same to Dallas. They celebrated publicly when they got Dallas.

[clambake]

but we were injured!

[cheguevara]

Spurs were a fluke team last year. Were not going anywhere with a healthy manu or not.

on the other hand, Bulls with a healthy Rose are my favorites to come out of the east.

I think this is why these 2 1-8 losses will be treated completely different.

[Seventyniner]

Aside: were the 2011 Grizzlies the best 8 seed ever? If not, who's ahead of them? Probably the 1999 Knicks, but I can't think of any others.

[spurspokesman]

Memphis was easily a 6th seed but tanked to get us. And they were a better team than philly. Still is.

[Sleepy_Floyd]

iirc the 94 nuggets took a pretty good Jazz team to 7 games after their first round win over the Sonics, much like the Grizz did to OKC in the second round last year. Granted if that 94 first round had been a best of 7 instead of 5 Seattle probably wins the series but that Nuggets team was pretty damn good though. They had Dan Issel as a head coach, Dikembe in his prime and pretty good supporting cast espeically Abudul-Rauf at point, tourettes syndrome and all that year he was a of a 3 point shooter and near perfect from the line. They had S h, Rodney Rogers fat ass and LaPhonso Ellis from what I remember too, not too shabby for an 8th seed.

[cheguevara]

yeah and that sonics team came in as favorites of west winning 60+ I think

[Sleepy_Floyd]

I just remember it was funny because I didn't care much for the sonics, and watching dikembe's obnoxious ass holding up the game ball while rolling around on the ground like they just won the championship was entertaining as well. I don't remember too much of that year but I'm sure the infamous rigged Jazz refs of the 90's probably helped them best that nuggets team. I'm all with Timvp celebrating another year where the Jazz don't win , God I hated that team so much growning up watching the spurs

[Beaverfuzz]

Beating the slippers this year will help erase last years memory

Fixed

[G-Nob]

Either way, the Mavericks were the only healthy team to lose a 7-game series in the first round to an 8-seed.

This. History will not be cruel to the Bulls this season just it hasn't been cruel the Spurs for last year. Everyone knows Mem, given more time, would've not been an 8th seed. Also, with G-Nob's injury.

History knows that Dallas' collapse was a thorough choke job. Nellie v. Cuban along with dominate regular season the mavericks had.

[tesseractive]

Spurs were a fluke team last year. Were not going anywhere with a healthy manu or not.

on the other hand, Bulls with a healthy Rose are my favorites to come out of the east.

I think this is why these 2 1-8 losses will be treated completely different.

This. All you have to do is take one look at how much better the current Spurs team is with our roster shakeup and Tony's major improvement to realize how basically broken last year's team was. It was great that we won a ton of regular season games, but even completely healthy, that team was way, way weaker than any of our le teams.

[TD 21]

Does this Bulls loss help erase the memory of what happened last year?

No, because even though the scenario is the same, it still has nothing to do with the Spurs.

History will remember Rose's injury but will history remember Ginobili's injury?

Of course not. It didn't even remember Duncan's missing the '00 playoffs and he was only one of the two best players in the world at the time and the best player on the defending champions. Even Simmons, who seemingly fancies himself a league historian, failed to mention this in a recent article centered around this sort of thing. So if something that gargantuan is mostly forgotten, then what chance does Ginobili's injury have at being remembered (particularly when you remember that he actually played)? Sure they do now, because it's still relatively fresh, but give it a few years.

Should history remember Ginobili's injury or did the Spurs simply lose to a better team?

They absolutely should. Despite the fact that he played very well all things considered, he was still a top fifteen player in the league and the consensus best player on his team, playing with what essentially amounted to a broken arm.

Given that, Duncan's ankle not being 100% (Gay being out is different, because it wasn't sprung on them literally just before the playoffs; they had plenty of time to mentally come to terms with him being out for the season and to adapt accordingly) and the way the two teams were trending going into it, they lost to a better team at that time. But as you've said and I agree with, the Spurs were vulnerable to damn near every playoff team at that time. In the grand scheme of things, the Spurs were the better team though.