Can someone post the spurs insider piece from today?

[Spur|n|Austin]

Thanks for posting, but we have better discussions here, and those are free.

No kidding, that was like reading a dialogue of George and Lennie.

[Spursfanfromafar]

Kevin Pelton comes across as more analytical and thorough than Haberstroh. THis is not 2012 as the Spurs' reliance on the big 3 has reduced and their "mid-3" - Kawhi, Green & Splitter - have become very good compared to 2012. Besides, their reserves with Diaw, Mills, and Marco has also been far far better than the situation in 2012 with more experience and corporate knowledge gained in the last two years.

It is true that the Thunder beat Spurs 3-0 early this season, but those were early season blues and the true test will be game No. 76 for the Spurs to be played in a week or so's time. Thunder have been slumping since the ASB while the Spurs have been the best team in the league.

Clippers on the other hand aren't quite a match for the Spurs for they play into the Spurs' strengths. Spurs shoot the three well (not often, but well when they do it), the Clips are a bad three point defending team. Spurs have strong defensive bigs in Duncan and Splitter to negate the Clips' bigs. And Spurs generally seem to get a hang of Chris Paul much better than most teams as they feature possibly the only guard who -when he is good - can be better than Paul in a matchup in Parker.

Houston are the wildcard. They feature a player - James Harden - who seems to get off against the Spurs everytime he plays them. Pop doesn't seem to have much of an answer against him as opposed to even Durant.

All that said, the Spurs' greatest challenge will be against the Heat. The combination of Wade, Bosh & James are a mountain that will take some perfection from the Spurs to overcome. James at his best might challenge the best ever player in the NBA ever and it will require utter perfection from the Spurs to win. It is strange that Pelton & Haberstroh didn't even discuss the potential rematch.

[bklynspursfan]

"The Fisher-Butler threat is real and terrifying"

He meant terrifying to Thunder fans not Thunder opponents. Read it in context.

Yes, glad someone else pointed this out lol. I thought it was obvious.

[Cowboys_Wear_Spurs]

Russell Westbrook. Don't make me laugh. The Spurs would have beaten OKC w/o Westbrook. Look at that playoff series, Westbrook only had 1 good game. All the others were like his performance last night of 6-18 shooting and 8 TOs.

It was Harden that was the X factor and Ibaka, Collinson and Fisher shooting like 80% from the field.

[UZER]

That effing roach Fisher was at it again last night hitting dagger 3's. I believe one reason OKC won in '12 was Fishers confidence he brought them against San Antonio in game and locker room.

[poeticism707]

though you could probably get as much insight by starting a thread with the same topic here...

lmao paying for some alleged "insider" opinion pieces

espn
"insider knowlwdge"
no knowledge at all is more like it

[poeticism707]

The Clippers

Any Spurfan would want to play the Clippers over Houston imo. Either team will lose to SAS but the Spurs own the Clippers.

I don't give a what any writer says. The ONLY team in the West that can beat SA in a 7 games series in OKC.

Wrong. The only team that can beat the Spurs in a 7 game series, is Stern, Silver, and their ref goons.

Per par.

[chazley]

Thunder are missing this guy named James Harden. I don't think Haberstoh knows who he is.

Tony or Kawhi is gonna have to shove it into a higher gear than what they are already showing. That is the biggest obstacle to a championship this year, not another team. We were something like a 99+% chance to win with the game conditions being what they were at the end of Game 6, and we lost. It is one of the luckiest wins on the biggest stage in the history of the NBA. Now, people wanna put LeBron on Mount Rushmore, when in reality he had about 7 things go his way in the final ~40 seconds of Game 6 that would have clinched a Spurs le if one thing goes our way. So, give our team some more credit Tom Haberstoh. In game 4 in the WCF in 2012 the Thunder had a historic game from midrange from their worst shooters (Ibaka/Perkins/Collison) shooting nearly 90%, and guys like Daequan Cook were suddenly hitting 3's while falling out of bounds. A little perspective is needed. And oh yeah, we lost Manu Ginobili for Game 1 in 2011 with a BROKEN ELBOW when he was arguably our best player the second half of that season and he was never nearly the same, not to mention Zach Randolph was UNCONSCIOUS from 20 feet down the stretch of a few games.

We will be there this year. Luck will have to be on our side, because you need luck to win championships. Hopefully things fall our way. I love our chances.

[lmbebo]

can we edit the topic to indicate "yesterday's espn's insider? " j/k :P