Denver will win 1 more game.

[Nikos]

I agree, the Spurs folded like a cheap suit.

Nuggets are not impressive to me at all either on offense.

But they may beat the Spurs and Sonics because its a weak bracket if Duncan is not healthy.

Actually if Seattle is healthy they can beat Denver.

[unnosy]

you all sound pretty pissed and i guess you have a reason [if not more] to be.
but i live in nigeria [a 6 hour diference]
you cant imagine how pissed i am having to stay up at 1.30am to watch the spurs lose and still report for work for 7am.
i am so angry.
but i am happy for one thing though.
the spurs have played their worst, it can only get better.
short of locking the spurs and swallowing the keys, i do not see how the spurs will not bring their A game for the remaining 5 games.
i say 5 because the nuggs are good enough for one more.

[GrandeDavid]

LakerGod, you are an absolute IDIOT, the Spurs lost several road games while Duncan was out. Also, the Spurs have a winning road record. That is good. This is also the playoffs, where the Spurs win wherever they just. You are really a moron, you know that? I'm blocking your sig, I just cannot stand your wasteful posts. You are a complete waste of space. No go job yourself, loser.

[ladiesman]

shouldn't lakergod be fishin by now?

[boutons]

"the Spurs have a winning road record."

This is meaningless, for playoff purposes.

In the NBA, the Spurs, with 21-20, are lowest-ranked team in the group of teams with overall winning road records. yeah, yeah, "Duncan was hurt", but all other WC playoff teams have had starters hurt, too, like Steve, Erick, Dirk, Brad, Stromile, Pau, etc, etc.
So injuries to Tim, Rasho, Manu can explain a few road losses, but the same can be said for all WC teams, so the injuries don't explain totally why the Spurs have the worst road record among le contenders.

But the Spurs aren't playing just anybody "overall" in the playoffs. Go check the road record for the Spurs vs WC playoff teams, then all WC/EC playoff teams. The Spurs are well below .500. In 03 Spurs, after 1 Jan, we like .600 on the road against WC playoff teams.

I got trashed when pointing this out 3 or 4 months ago (I was told "Spurs are so good at home, the road doesn't matter", blah, blah), but I think it's a season statistic that indicates how soft these Spurs are.

So now, the Spurs-so-dominant-at-home, where they will WIN IT ALL, have lost the first playoff game @SBC, a ing disaster, giving HCA to Denver, and will be to trying to win the series @DEN against the Karl Nuggets who are 19-1 @DEN.

[Jimcs50]

We take the next two, Denver will win another, and Spurs take two after that.

Believe!

No way, Denver will not win another game.

[TwoHandJam]

Tell me one time you have seen the Spurs bounce back from shattered confidence like this...

Never.

And don't give me the le team from 03...that team knew it could beat anyone and was the best road team in the NBA...

This team choked down the stretch...Our starters choked down the stretch...not just a momentary choke...but a 3 minute long choke to give this game away.

This team has no chemistry.

I have never seen Pop fix a Spur team that lacked confidence...in fact it usually gets worse.

I don't see this team winning a le...there, I said it...

Prove me ing wrong Pop...you son of a ...you alway do it every other time...

Prove me ing wrong...I don't think you can pull this team out of it's tailspin...I don't think you can coach this team to a le. I don't think you can rebuild it's confidence...you couldn't do it in 01...you couldn't do it after .04...

You know Whottt, I agree with a lot of the things you say here but somewhere deep inside, the optimist in me doesn't believe the Spurs can choke away an entire series against a team like Denver. They are just not that good a team. Certainly nowhere near the Laker teams we've choked against before.

If they are going to dig themselves out of this one, they need to do 3 things.

1) Pop needs to trust his bench. You can't have a guy like Robinson languish on the bench for 3 goddamn quarters while Bowen clearly isn't helping and you're desperate for offense. You also can't force the offense through Tim when he clearly isn't himself.

2) Parker needs to pull his head out of his ass and perform. Miller abusing him for the first half is the main reason the Nuggets hung around and had a chance to win. I guarantee you that if he does not perform in this series his days in SA are numbered.

3) This team needs to find it's balls and fast. Pop needs to nominate Manu as their unquestioned leader at least until Tim is more healthy. He is the most mentally tough player we have on a team sorely lacking in mental toughness.

Man I feel for this guy. He is a never-say-die winner trying not to be dragged down by the sinking confidence of the rest of the team right now. You could hear the frustration in his voice when Cheryl Miller was asking him about that blown lead before halftime.

He needs to rip into this team as a peer player, not like Pop does all the time. The team responded to him when he called them out after the two road losses when Duncan went down in Detroit. With Duncan hurting right now and Pop looking like a confused schoolgirl, he is our only hope for righting this ship.

[td4mvp21]

That's not entirely true...yeah that team looked shakey blowing leads...but the flipside is that team had so many leads to look shakey as they lost them...that team was often up by 20-25 points on teams...

It was a dominating team that blew leads when it got conservative on offense...

That team actually played better from behind...they would whip the crap out of teams that had the lead late in the third...that team was a dominating team.

In case you missed it...this team didn't have any 20 point leads tonight.

Actually that is very entirely true......

Game 1 vs. Phoenix
Game 4 vs. Phoenix
Games 2 and 3 vs. Lakers
Games 1 and 5 vs. Mavericks
Games 2 and 4 vs. Nets

They looked very shaky in those games, not to mention every game 6 of each series where they went on a huge run to win the game after looking pathetic for three quarters.(not counting Laker game) What a lot of people think and want is for us to gracefully sweep through the playoffs with majestic wins and all this other crap. Well it doesn't go like this. If that was a regular season game, we would have won. Simple as that. The Spurs got a wake up call. Maybe they were too y I really don't know. All I know is Duncan and Parker need to step it up for us to be able to win. Duncan most of all. I'm glad he looked mad last night. I feel bad for him because as dissappointed as we are, imagine how dissapointed a superstar like him is on his birthday after going 7-22 in the first playoff game and losing. The point is, every team will be tested in the playoffs, thats just how it goes. Even the best will look shaky.