Race To The # 1 Seed, Spurs Or Thunder?

[heyheymymy]

Best bet is the stretch of 4/3-4/9

Spurs, @ Rockets (B2B), @ Phoenix, @ Sacramento, @ Clippers

The Rockets will be without Beverly and D12 though.

They do play @ Indiana and 2 games against the Pelicans

They have 3 B2Bs in 11 days. Westbrook will sit out 3 of those 6 games.

love your breakdowns, thanks for the reply.

[SpurPadre]

Their next game is with US on Thursday. ing NBA.

True but we play the Dubs Wednesday who also play the Mavs the day before so there's a good chance we blow them out early with key players playing under 30 mins. each to gear up for OKC.

[cd021]

Spurs have a favorable chance of beating GSW back in San Antonio. Bogut will sit and Lee is questionable. GSW will also be playing on the 2nd half of a back to back (@ Dallas the night before).

[Mugen]

I'm usually always in favor of resting guys whenever Pop sees fit especially in nationally televised scheduled losses. But I want Pop to gun for the W against the Thunder. I'm talking a full lineup and playoff rotation. The players have earned a chance to compete against arguably their biggest rivals and they should get it.

I'd rest Duncan against the Warriors (where he really isn't needed) and limit TP/Manu's minutes. I want that OKC game bad tbh.

[Dex]

Magic Numbers after all games, 3/31/14, 8 games remaining:

Thunder - 6
Heat- 3
Rockets - 2
Clippers - 2
Pacers - 1

The Thunder still have matchups with the Rockets and Clippers, and the Heat still face the Pacers once more....meaning the Spurs are guaranteed 3 points on the board somewhere.

If the Spurs can pick up a win against the Thunder on Thursday, it's pretty much a wrap.

[Chinook]

Heat are 2 and Clips are 3.

[exstatic]

I'm usually always in favor of resting guys whenever Pop sees fit especially in nationally televised scheduled losses. But I want Pop to gun for the W against the Thunder. I'm talking a full lineup and playoff rotation. The players have earned a chance to compete against arguably their biggest rivals and they should get it.

I'd rest Duncan against the Warriors (where he really isn't needed) and limit TP/Manu's minutes. I want that OKC game bad tbh.

I'm not sure Pop is inclined to give TNT/NBA that kind of showdown with the schedule imbalance leading up to the game. Sean has hinted over the last two or three telecasts that if we take care of business against Indy(already done)/GS, certain players may not get on the plane afterwards.

[Mouth is Bleeding]

Spurs have a favorable chance of beating GSW back in San Antonio. Bogut will sit and Lee is questionable. GSW will also be playing on the 2nd half of a back to back (@ Dallas the night before).

Bogut out is good. Lee out helps GSW. They're better without him.

He could be the ultimate empty-stats player.

[SpursFan86]

Bogut out is good. Lee out helps GSW. They're better without him.

He could be the ultimate empty-stats player.

Not really. While I agree Lee isn't as good as his numbers might suggest, do you really think they're better having to start Speights and make their already shaky bench even worse?

Without Bogut AND Lee, their frontcourt will be pretty diminished. Festus Ezeli is still out. They'll have to start Speights and O'Neal, and then who are their other bench bigs? Hilton Armstrong? I guess Draymond Green could play a small-ball PF. We should be able to get a win @ home against them on Wednesday.

[Sean Cagney]

If Spurs win it with HCA throughout, they will get dissed with "Spurs can't win a championship with HCA"

Who cares? I will take the HC and let them say that rather than let OKC get it and then have to go through there to get to the finals. OKC will be tough, we need it.

[SpursFan86]

Also, one thing to watch regarding the OKC game on Thursday: there's a good chance Westbrook won't play. Brooks has been resting Westbrook on the front end of back-to-backs so far as opposed to the 2nd game. If he continues with that strategy that means Westbrook would be out on Thursday and playing against Houston on Friday, which is obviously good for us. Brooks isn't Pop though...I could see Westbrook telling Brooks he wants to play against the Spurs and Brooks giving in to him.

[timtonymanu]

Also, one thing to watch regarding the OKC game on Thursday: there's a good chance Westbrook won't play. Brooks has been resting Westbrook on the front end of back-to-backs so far as opposed to the 2nd game. If he continues with that strategy that means Westbrook would be out on Thursday and playing against Houston on Friday, which is obviously good for us. Brooks isn't Pop though...I could see Westbrook telling Brooks he wants to play against the Spurs and Brooks giving in to him.

OKC would be getting 4 days off before they face us. I'm sure Brooks will make this b2b an exception for Westbrook. I'm fairly certain he will play against us instead of Houston. It's a huge game for both our teams, standings-wise.

[Mouth is Bleeding]

Not really. While I agree Lee isn't as good as his numbers might suggest, do you really think they're better having to start Speights and make their already shaky bench even worse?

Without Bogut AND Lee, their frontcourt will be pretty diminished. Festus Ezeli is still out. They'll have to start Speights and O'Neal, and then who are their other bench bigs? Hilton Armstrong? I guess Draymond Green could play a small-ball PF. We should be able to get a win @ home against them on Wednesday.

Yeah it's the Draymond Green small ball lineups where they reach another level.

[Budkin]

Pretty telling that we've won 18 in a row and the Thunder are still nipping at our heels. It's going to be tough beating them *with* homecourt. We can't afford to lose it.

[Mugen]

Pretty telling that we've won 18 in a row and the Thunder are still nipping at our heels. It's going to be tough beating them *with* homecourt. We can't afford to lose it.

The Spurs were like 4 games back when the streak started. Three games up with 8 left games to play is a pretty decent lead heading into April. The Thunder have been very average since the All Star break tbh.

[spurraider21]

we have 8 games left, okc has 9, and the magic number is 6... its pretty good odds tbh.

i don't see the spurs doing worse than 5-3, so unless okc runs the table that would be good enough

[TheWriter]

Pretty telling that we've won 18 in a row and the Thunder are still nipping at our heels. It's going to be tough beating them *with* homecourt. We can't afford to lose it.

Considering the Spurs were multiple games behind when the streak started, there's nothing telling about that.

What's really telling is that Philly lost 26 straight and didn't have the worst record in the NBA when they finally won a game.

[spurs10]

Pretty telling that we've won 18 in a row and the Thunder are still nipping at our heels. It's going to be tough beating them *with* homecourt. We can't afford to lose it.

If we beat GS we are 4 games up on OKC, lose that game and we are still 3 games up.

[superbigtime]

The OKC game just might be irrelevant once the Spurs/Warriors game is over. Then Pop can rest the big 3 in OKC with BS injuries and piss off the OKCrack fans. . Go Spurs Go!

[mando6599]

Don't you all think Pop will play everyone at full strength on Thursday? I think so b/c we have got to show that we can compete with OKC since we've lost all 3 matches already this year. That being said, Pop may not want to show all his moves to Brooks prior to the playoffs, if indeed we end up facing OKC in the WCF.

[look_at_g_shred]

After last night's game, I still think Boris is going to be the key to us making it back to the finals and potentially winning it all. No one really game plans us going to Diaw in the low block for a few possessions. Man it was so sweet last night seeing Diaw dominate. His success makes our offense open up even more. It makes us pretty much un-guardable.

[Dex]

Heat are 2 and Clips are 3.

Spurs own the tie-breaker on the Clips, but haven't earned it against Miami yet. Am I missing something?

[Chinook]

Spurs own the tie-breaker on the Clips, but haven't earned it against Miami yet. Am I missing something?

Yes. The Spurs have clinched the tie-break with Miami. The Heat have eight losses to the West, while the Spurs have finished with six losses to the East. And until Houston can't win the division, the Spurs have not won the tie-break with the Clippers.

EDIT: Actually, the Clips also come out favorably in a three-way tie with the Spurs and either Houston or OKC. So the Spurs just have to put them away on their own.

[Mel_13]

Yes. The Spurs have clinched the tie-break with Miami. The Heat have eight losses to the West, while the Spurs have finished with six losses to the East.

The tie-break with Miami has yet to be determined. Record against the opposing conference is not the determining factor. It's actually:

"Better winning percentage against teams eligible for playoffs in opposite conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a playoff position)."

The Spurs have clinched that tie-break with Indiana regardless of how things finish, but Miami can finish with a better record than Spurs on that basis.

See the tie-break rules at the bottom of this page:

http://www.nba.com/standings/team_re...=iref:nba:gnav

[Dex]

Yes. The Spurs have clinched the tie-break with Miami. The Heat have eight losses to the West, while the Spurs have finished with six losses to the East. And until Houston can't win the division, the Spurs have not won the tie-break with the Clippers.

EDIT: Actually, the Clips also come out favorably in a three-way tie with the Spurs and either Houston or OKC. So the Spurs just have to put them away on their own.

Gotcha. I am admittedly basing my numbers on the assumption that Spurs are going to take the Division, which I know aren't TRUE magic numbers.