They were not healthy. Nash was not a smart move getting him at his age. Nash has been banged up all year and not healthy, Howard and Gasol missed lots of games early on, they had a coaching change, lots of upheaval this year. Got off to a bad start and turned it on down the stretch as they got healthier. With health they challenge for top seed.they had a horrible point differential during the last month, during their "hot streak", barely beating mediocre teams, despite historic FT advantages..
The Lakers were horrible this year when Nash-Kobe-Gasol-Howard played together..
There's absolutely no reason to believe they would have challenged a top seed if they were healthy, the numbers don't translate at all..they had literally 2 or 3 impressive wins all year, and virtually all of their wins against decent teams were by 1 or 2 possessions..
The spurs are going to be in a fight guarding Gasol and Howard. The Spurs are small, soft and weak on the frontline, don't count on Splitter. Splitter will get destroyed, early foul trouble and on the bench. it is going to fall all on Duncan again. The lakers don't have enough fire power in the backcourt now without Kobe and that is the reason why the Spurs can escape this series.
Those powerful Lakers with KOBE who lost to good teams all year long were really on a roll to beat us easily huh? They were 9th a few games later this year for Gods sakes, lol at beating the Spurs easily with Kobe. They were not beating anyone good for a long time this year, won a few late but mostly without Kobe. When he was healthy they lost to all the good teams, period.
Are they better without him in the playoffs? Probably not, but they were not juggarnauts with him a tall this year by any means. They are playing better as a team right now than all of this year! No coincidence there.
Spurs haven't won a road game since February so they'd better not slip up at home.
I sort of agree I guess, although I don't like the thought of playing LAL in the first round. The main thing is that we avoid OKC until the WCF (if we get that far; however, this was never a question since we were gonna be the #1 or #2 seed). Another thing is that we don't have to play the winner of the Memphis/Clippers series.
LA has talent & hunger & that's not good. Spur fan better brace themselves mentally for what could transpire. Not a good first round match up.
Keep believing the Spurs are some sort of playoff powerhouse. This spurs team has proven to be soft when challenged in the playoffs the last couple of years and I don't expect anything different from them this year.
The lakers have been playing better since Howard and Gasol got back on the court together, most of the year those two were not playing together because of injuries.
Pau Gasol can play like an MVP when he wants to. Pau will now have all the freedom to be team leader and lead shot taker this series. Can anyone imagine Gasol taking the lead role? Not me. Dwight Howard has the ability to be a lockdown paint defender but continues to show hes very vulnerable in that area. The Spurs will purposely attack Dwight Howard all series. They will try to get him in foul trouble and piss him off. Past has shown that he gets distracted easily and tends to play sloppy when upset.
The guy that really worries me is Ron Artest. I feel as though Kobe and Fisher were the guys who kept that animal in his cage for 3 years. Now theres no one there to stop him or hold him back. Spurs have no one who can stop Artest. The guy can post, shoot 3's and play shutdown defense. Dude is probably also the craziest toughest SOB in the game. Sadly, we just sent our resident "psycho" out the door. If Ron Artest gets hot and plays loose, Spurs will have a tougher than expected series.
All in all, Spurs just have too much talent, leadership, and experience to lose to the Lakers. Sure were not playing great but the playoffs are a different animal. Another gear is set and its time to go. Not to mention Pop continues to own Dantoni and teach him basketball lessons.
Yeah, I'm still thinking the 1 seed would have been the much easier path.
No way
1.rockets
2.clippers
3.home court vs thunder
Yes way.
Clippers over Nuggs without Gallo?
W.Chandler always plays well against us, not having Gallo could be good for the Nuggets.
Rockets > Lakers
Clippers >> Nuggets
Home court court would have been nice though.
I wouldn't want to play Memphis or LAC, especially with a healthy CP3 and Tony not himself right now, I definitely think we could beat them but the Nuggets will definitely be better. Games so down in the playoffs and all the Nuggets do is run run run, their half court offense is not the best.
i think the Spurs have proven enough times they match up great against the Clippers.
the Nuggets athleticism concerns me.
Yeah, the first and second round are ours easily. The Thunder though, are what I am scared of like every other Spurs fan
LA has been garbage all season long, even with a stupid amount of help from the refs.
This team with Kobe needed huge bailouts against the Grizz, Kings, Warriors, Blazers, Hornets, Minnesota, practically every single game down the stretch. Without the refs all of those games are most likely losses.
During Kobe's last 10 games the guy shot 67 FT's to Utah's 63 FT's as a TEAM
I'd still take this path.
Yep.
Lakers then warriors without David Lee would be a hilariously easy path to WCF
Lots of hoops to be played. BIRDMAN BIRDMAN!
Nightmares of Pop playing Neal vs Curry in crunch time
no David Lee. there will not be a crunchtime if they actually upset Denver. denver likes to run run run and that plays into the warriors hand
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