Everybody should stop freaking out...

[Jimcs50]

That being said, SA can get better, so no panic here.

[Extra Stout]

The Spurs have some real problems matching up against Detroit this year.

In two games, they have been outrebounded 113-62. That makes winning impossible.

Outside of Duncan, the Spurs' frontline is doing absolutely nothing on either end of the floor against Detroit and it is killing them.

Defeating Detroit will take Tim Duncan somehow finding a way to ignore the pain in his feet, and Ginobili going out of his mind. Manu is the only wild card the Pistons can't answer when he plays well. He will have to play heavy minutes because the Finleys and Barrys of the world can't get in any kind of rhythm against Detroit's defense.

If Finley isn't scoring, he's of little use.

And no matter how great Rasho's intangibles or whatever are, he is a terrible rebounder. If he gets heavy minutes against Detroit, the Spurs cannot win because he simply cannot contain Ben Wallace, or anyone else on the Pistons' frontline. The Spurs can defend Detroit effectively for 24 seconds, but when the Pistons get 72 or 96 seconds to score because of offensive rebounding, that neutralizes the Spurs' defense. Then on the other end, the Spurs only get one chance. Against other teams, a Parker layup attempt that scoots off the rim may still result in a basket because he has forced an interior defender to commit. Not so against Detroit.

Even if Rasho is the better option against 28 teams in the league, that doesn't matter because Detroit is the brick wall between the Spurs and repeating as champions. Not Dallas. Not Phoenix. Nazr sucks at other things, but he can rebound. And he has to be in the flow of what the team is doing all year along if Pop expects him to be effective at all against Detroit.

If the Spurs keep doing what they're doing now, a lopsided Finals loss to Detroit is the only likely outcome.

[boutons_]

"SA can get better, so no panic here."

Why do they need to get better?
Weren't they the best just last June?

WTF happened to the very same team and coach and system in just a few months? That group has totallly disappeared.

Why do the Spurs need to react to their playing like absolute , get their asses kicked by Pop like HS or college kids (Pop said they were pros and adults a few weeks back. GMAFB), before they start playing anywhere near their potential? Where's the self-motivation? The pride? The joy of playing basketball well?

Why can't the Spurs play solid, respectable basketball all season, like a Suns or a Pistons, then step it up in the playoffs? EVERY team steps it up in the playoffs. That's nothing uniquely, SPAM-ishly Spurs.

Before somebody props up the straw man of "you want playoff intensity for 82 games?" Just solid basketball, something that has been extremely rare through 38 Spurs games).

Bad losses to Bucks, Hawks, Hornets.

Several ugly wins/escapes against mediocre teams, even @att.

A couple of solid, convincing wins (@DAL, Suns).

Embarrassing, pitiful, -stinkin losses to main rivals and playoff opponents Pistons x 2, Mavs, and Amare-less Suns.

Is this unquestionable dysfunctionality of the beloved SPAM (which is just a homeristic euphemism for "Spurs play like before March") a Popovich creation? A Duncan creation? Where does it come from? Can it be cured?

It's ing perverse and sick to be behave badly (play like ) over and over, when you know it's bad, you can stop when you want, but you keep doing it. The team really needs professional help.

Is Spurs' defense, rebounding, shooting, FTs, and playing Pop's system so ing excruciatingly complicated, difficult, unpleasant, and toxic that the Spurs can only face up to it after mid-April?

oh, four-down still sucks. Giving Tim so many touches when he's being pistol-whipped into being a bricking jumpshooter isn't smart basketball. Tim needs to stop feeling he has to be a black-hole and try to score every time he touches the ball.

Against the best teams (Mavs, Suns, Pistons), the Spurs are 2 - 4, where all 4 losses were depressing, embarrassing, un-compe ive, give-the-game-away "efforts" by the Spurs. 3 were numerical blowouts.

ok, ok, STFU, it's January, "get over it" (it's just the Spurs ing up in that very special, sicko Spurs way)

We have home/away Sat/Mon with Grizz who are only 2 Ls behind the cratering Spurs, and Jan road games @MIA, @NO/OKC, @UTA. Only 3-2 now, will the Spurs have a 0.500 record for Jan 06?

Forget about Finals HCA. Now 4 Ls behind the Pistons, the only way the Spurs get a better overall record than the Pistons will be if the Pistons will have much worse injury problems than the Spurs will have. The Pistons aren't gonna get bored playing great basketball (I bet they are even having fun winning in a spectacular season. The Spurs should try it sometime), while the "Champs" haven't even found their asses, yet.

[101A]

All year we are the ones with the Bullseye on our chests! For two games out of the entire year we can put that Bullseye on another team ...

Or we could give them the bullseye.