Um Spurs beat the Cavs in SA......remember.....you remember?......You remember right?
Wasn't that more than a week ago? He probably doesn't remember, then.
Except the Spurs have beaten the Cavs and Clips already, only played Thunder/Warriors once, and Bulls are not relevant in the discussion anyway. Fail post
Think Memphis is going to drop a bit due to Gasol's season ending injury imo. Hopefully Mavs drop some games so they hang around the 7th seed though.
Pop would do everything he can to Not win 70 games.
agreeJesus christ..This is a basketball forum where fans are allowed to talk about possibilities. Stop acting like coaches.
Cliche wannabe part of the team mentalitiy..
Anyone outside the team pushing/rooting for 70 wins it's just for bragging rights tbh.
It will all depend on the Cavs or OKC. If they're close the Spurs might push for it. If they aren't, no way.
Pop will rest Timmy/Manu/Tony for the post season.
I still wish Curry would get in a slump and the Warriors dropped games.
Keep drumming on this silliness.
Health, focus, playoffs... Fah get about it.
Nobody is beating the Cavs in the finals so all this is moot
"Why can't I be the all-time leading playoff-scoring PG in the history of the NBA?"
"Why can't I be the all-time winningest player through 1,000 games in the history of the NBA?"
"Why can't I be a FMVP?"
"Why can't I lead a team in scoring and assists throughout the regular season and playoffs to win a championship?"
Yah, we all think those things.
The terrible part about the end of the schedule is if the Spurs/Warriors/OkC are already locked into their respective playoff positions, the NBA schedule makers and the fans may be watching so-called big games with second and third stringers.
The last 5 games for the Spurs are:
4/7 Warriors
4/8 Nuggets
4/10 Warriors
4/12 Thunder
4/13 Mavs
Can you imagine if the Warriors are playing on National TV for win 73 against Boban, McCallum, Bonner, Simmons, Anderson?
Yeah... the Spurs just got blown out by the Clippers and barely squeaked by two high lottery teams. Spurs also have multiple games remaining vs OKC and the Warriors (2-3 apiece IIRC). Not going to hit 70 wins. And why even go for 70 wins? That's not even the record.
Also, Warriors have a good chance of beating the 72-win record this season. They only need to go 24-4. They have 5 games left vs OKC and the Spurs, and they should be able to win at least 3, maybe even 4 of them (especially since 2 of the Spurs games are at the end of the season where Pop will rest players). That leaves the Warriors two losses. They definitely have a lot more games vs playoff teams but they can set a new record if Kerr is willing to go all out. It's not like this record is some stupid trivial record like "most wins in a season in a year that ends in the number 6." This is the record for the best of all time in the history of the NBA. You have to think the Warriors will go for that record.
The Spurs are one GSW loss from controlling their own destiny. Not that they will win out, but pretty remarkable considering what a run the Warriors are on. Basketball-Reference gives the Spurs slightly greater than a 11% chance of catching them. Note that the two GSW @ SAS games are on back to backs for GSW, so that could factor into it.
The Thunder falling seven back in the loss column, and even if they were to go 23-3, the Spurs would have to go 16-10 to be caught. Not happening, considering the Thunder have six more road B2B - GSW (3/3), SAS (3/12), IND (3/19), DET (3/29), POR (4/6) and SAS (4/12).
Spurs also have six road B2B starting next week with UTA (2/25), NOP (3/3), MIN (3/8), OKC (3/26), DEN (4/8, sandwiched between GSW games) and DAL (4/13). Doubt they keep their undefeated mark in second night of B2B going. Amazing that neither the Spurs nor OKC have any home B2B left.
GSW also have six B2B left, though two at home and the ORL/PHX games are much easier than any the Spurs or Thunder have. @ ORL, vs. ORL, vs. PHX, @ SAS, @ UTA, @ SAS.
Spurs will know by the last night of the season whether or not OKC can catch them. If they can't catch GSW, and CLE can't catch them, then everyone will rest.
Irrelevant. Just gotta get Gino and Kawhi back at 100%. A healthy TP and TD going in to the playoffs. Boris to stop coasting. DWest with hunger and the playoff intensity he'll bring. Danny and LMA to be aggressive and play good D. I like our chances, can't wait for the playoffs to start...
I don't think 70 wins is feasible and I don't think there's any chance that Pop would go for it unless there was a realistic chance to track down GST. As it stands, the Spurs magic number to clinch a playoff birth is only 7 and the magic number to clinch a top-4 seed (i.e., HCA in Round 1) is only 12. Barring some utter collapse, those will basically be done in mid-March. Even the magic number to clinch the 2 seed is relatively low at 19 with 26 games to go.
The point of all of that is that as the Spurs pass certain clinching milestones, the need to continue winning will diminish, particularly if the distance to GST doesn't start to close soon.
At 47-9, there are only 6 teams in NBA history that have won more of their first 56 games (roughly 2/3 of the way through the season) than this year's Spurs:
50 -- 1995-96 Bulls
49 -- 1971-72 Lakers, 1982-83 Sixers, 1996-97 Bulls, 2015-16 Warriors (have only played 54 games)
48 -- 1966-67 Sixers
Only 2 other teams have started at least 47-9: 2005-06 Pistons and 2006-07 Mavericks
Unfortunately, it does seem like this year's Spurs are on course to end up more like the Pistons and Mavericks teams (each of which failed to reach the Finals) than like the Bulls, Lakers, and Sixers teams in this category (all of which won les and are considered to be among the elite of the elite, historically).
The only thing that derails GSW is injuries to their key guys, which require rest, not a shin bump. And with their blowouts they can limit minutes and their key guys are young.
For us, we can't afford to be after records. POP rests guys and he doesn't take unnecessary risks--see the Kawhi sore calf injury. Also we have an old team...
I actually am more inclined to see difficulties ahead for us than a cakewalk.
I don't see us getting to 70. We've been playing like with these injuries...
I'm actually starting to root for the Thunder a bit so LAC won't catch them..They are only 3 games ahead of the Clippers but have a brutal ending schedule with only 9 home games left vs 17 on the road..thy have no chance of at 2nd seed unless, heaven forbid, Kawhi is out for the rest of season..
Either way I would rather play clippers then OKC. If u guys look at standings the clippers are almost catching thunder for the 3seed. If thunder get 4 seed would be nice for Spurs fans. Warriors vs thunder in 2nd rd wouldn't be a gimme for warriors. What u guys think?
Amazing informative post. Better than the majority cliche "just stay healthy who cares post".
The dubs are on a road trip right now so if they slip a little bit, the spurs should gun for first seed imo...if the finish their road trip with 7 loses, we have oursleves a race, Imo.
Thanks. Given how many people have won in each GS and SA over the past year, it would be stupid not to gun for the one seed. As someone else mentioned, Clippers are a bad matchup - I think Re is what makes that machine tick as much as anything with his constant movement.
Stating the obvious, but home court not only guarantees you can advance by holding serve at home, but should you drop one at home, you only need to win 1 of 3 instead of 2 of 4 on the road. Huge difference.
Red is part of the team but its really a combination of personel. The Clippers murdered the spurs with their 45 set. That set is so deadly, specially against the spurs because it utilizes everyones strong point. Red serves as the gravity of ball and the threat of a simple flair screen for red makes it hard for players to help. Jordan's air gravity provides paul space and the top all for Blake.
That set essentially beat the spurs. They couldnt stop it. They didnt have the personel with tony being terrible and Splitter being injured.
Spurs problem is that there are very few (if any) killer offensive sets. Clippers can keep doing what they do and we have less than 50% chance of stopping it. The only way that Spurs seem to score is when the defense makes a mental mistake.
Aldridge and Kawhi aren't good enough offensively to be unstoppable individually.
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