I don't know if the Spurs are going to win the Larry O'Brien this year. (In fact, if either Andrew Bynum or Erik Spoelstra ever gets a clue for four games out of seven, the odds are probably still against that.) But now is the perfect time for Spur fans to, for just a moment, stop worrying about the championship (and the last six minutes of game 4) and appreciate what's going on in front of their eyes.
There's still a tough road ahead: maybe they can sustain it, maybe they can't. But no matter what happens in the weeks to come, the last 25+ games we have been witnessing probably the best the San Antonio Spurs have ever been. Ever. Not only have they been dominating, they've been beautiful, playing the best team ball of the last 30 years of the NBA. (The last non-bad team that distributed minutes like this was probably the 1982 Hawks. The last championship team that went this deep was the 1975 Warriors.)
Yeah, two of the Big Three are no longer in their primes. But the minutes they are on the court together is still like watching three mindreaders at work. And every other member of the team absolutely takes their cues from them.
The Spurs bench is a Swiss Army Knife, a collection of multifunctional tools able to adapt to any situation. Or they're a chef's e rack, with Chef Pop mixing up the nightly bouillabaisse . . . okay, done with the metaphors.
It doesn't seem to matter who they throw out there, as long as they're in the Silver and Black. (I think I saw Sequ hit a three against the Warriors.) That's a testament to Pop, who obviously gets his share of credit, and R.C., who really doesn't. In fact, I'd argue R.C. deserves Executive of the Year more than Pop deserves Coach.
This obviously isn't going to last forever, but hopefully will make it another twelve wins. And even if it doesn't, I wanted to be on record as saying, damn this is fun no matter what.