Why The Spurs Win the '07 Ring: 101 (Class Begins Now)

[ponky]

Spurs are just toying with the rest of the NBA now. They play bonner and beno and other crazy line ups just to get players rest and more experience for the playoffs. If not they win most games by 20 or more. Spurs are the only team that plays all 12 guys consistently.

might be time for me to once again post the minutes of spurs/mavs players. i've done this twice already when some spurs fan incorrectly assumes that the spurs are resting their guys and the mavs aren't (suns certainly aren't, i'll give you that!)...maybe you could save me the trouble and look up those stats for me again, it's tiresome to argue the same point with somebody who doesn't check the facts to back up his statements

[Amuseddaysleeper]

might be time for me to once again post the minutes of spurs/mavs players. i've done this twice already when some spurs fan incorrectly assumes that the spurs are resting their guys and the mavs aren't (suns certainly aren't, i'll give you that!)...maybe you could save me the trouble and look up those stats for me again, it's tiresome to argue the same point with somebody who doesn't check the facts to back up his statements

agreed, the mavs starters really aren't playing THAT many minutes, especially in comparison to the Spurs starters. This isn't like Phoenix's starters last season.

[FromWayDowntown]

wha? i didn't know that, that's hilarious.

Okay. Some Mavs fans. I shouldn't generalize.

I suspect that Mavs fans would prefer that they didn't see Danny Crawford ever during the playoffs, since they're something like 1-10 all-time in playoff games that Dan Crawford officiates.

[ponky]

Okay. Some Mavs fans. I shouldn't generalize.

I suspect that Mavs fans would prefer that they didn't see Danny Crawford ever during the playoffs, since they're something like 1-10 all-time in playoff games that Dan Crawford officiates.

lol, i generally don't like danny crawford and i used to really dislike joey crawford because of all the crude things he's said about cuban and his wife...and just his napoleon complex in general but i've gotten over it, we have to deal with who we have officiating in any particular game, i don't pay much attention anymore, it doesn't make or break a game

[traitoravery]

With much respect to the Mavericks for their win in the series against us last year, it is extremely absurd to say that the rest of the Spurs didn't help out in that series. Yes, Tim Duncan was phenomenal given that he was playing with plantar fasciitis. However, Basketball History will forever remember that series because BOTH teams played their hearts out. In each of the seven games, key players on each team played crucial roles. The Spurs can defeat the Mavericks without complete dominance from Duncan, however, knowing Duncan, he won't allow himself to do anything but dominate in the playoffs, especially in close game situations and in potential elimination games if it comes to that. But you cannot rule out that now and in last season's playoffs that we would not have pushed the Mavericks to seven games without the play of role players on this team, especially Ginobili, Finley and Parker.

We would have been eliminated in Game 6 if not for Ginobili and Finley. Parker damn near disappeared in that game and Duncan for damn sure couldn't have picked up all of his slack. We have plenty of people on this team willing and able to play a role. I don't need to remind any of you that the Spurs were a foul away from turning the last 30 seconds of Game 7 into a free throw contest, in which Pop would have definitely put Barry, Finley, Ginobili and Parker into the game with probably Duncan inbounding. In that scenario, the ball gets into the hands of someone who shoots at least 70% or above from the line and god forbid any of them are fouled in the act of shooting and get a continuation. But I'm not here to talk about what should've happen. Manu ed up on the hugest possible scale, he knows it, and I know he is going to do everything in his power to nullify that mistake in the playoffs this year.

I like our chances to win this year. Yes, we will more than likely have to go through Phoenix and Dallas if we get to the Finals again. And yes, we can beat them. We have players on this team dying to win a ring. We have players on this team dying to get back for what happened last year. Too many people on this board are looking at the current W-L column and writing off the Spurs because we're so damn far behind the top two teams. The Spurs have played very impressively as of late, but they've dropped some games they should have won. News flash: every good team loses games they should win sometimes. Look at the Mavericks, losing to GS twice this year. Look at the Pistons last year, getting swept by a Jazz team playing nowhere near full capacity in that season series. Good teams lose games sometimes. Seriously people, were you honestly expecting the Spurs to go 64-18 or better this season? Winning 50+ or possibily even 60 at this point is an extremely stellar accomplishment, one you all, as fans, should be damn proud of. We're going to lose games every season, get used to that. We're going to lose games we should win. happens, get over it. For every game we've let get away from us, we've probably won two by playing kick ass basketball.

The Spurs are flying under the radar right now, but we're not flying stealth. People know we are dangerous. They've seen what we can do. I hate small ball just as much as the next guy, but just because the Mavs are nine games ahead of us and are playing damn good ball right now does not discount anything as far as what the Spurs are capable of. A couple plays either way in any game of that Dallas series and we win in 5-6 games, or they win. We nearly won that series with small ball, and given the personnel we had at the time I completely back Pop's decision. Keep lying to yourselves and think that Nesterovic or Mohammed would've prevented the Mavericks from pulling a 5 game sweep of us.

I'm tired of all the kool aid sipping going on around here. It makes me not want to post when I log on and on the first page I see threads like "Trade Ginobili" and "2008 Master Plan" and "Fire Pop". Have some faith in your team for Christ's sake. There are moments in every season when the Spurs play like crap, we've all seen it. There may be 95685987 posters on this board who think they can do a better job than Pop, but I bet only 200 of them know enough about the game to be able to even say that without looking like a total assclown. You try coaching a basketball team and then see how much of a mother ing critic you are. This team was not playing its best basketball from late December until the tail end of the rodeo trip. After that, something started clicking and the Spurs are playing at a much higher caliber. Get past the idea that nine games behind Dallas equals a season. The Spurs can, and will, win playoff series as the underdog. Phoenix was the hot team in 2005, and they were lucky they weren't swept. I read the papers and watched SportsCenter prior to that series and people liked Phoenix to win or at least thought it'd go farther than 5 games. No one expected us to beat Phoenix at their own game. But we found a way, we beat them, and we won the le. There is no doubt in my mind that we can beat the Mavericks in the playoffs. This team won't let them take our heart away again. Some of you people need to get your heads out of the sand.

I am very optimistic about our chances. I know that there are holes that can be exploited in this team, and we've had some problems this season. But every teams has holes. However, don't deny that we've been peaking ever so slightly since the last two games of the rodeo trip. We're pretty hot right now. But anyone who can look me in the eye and say the Spurs are a definite out against Phoenix or Dallas in this season's playoffs is a hypocrite and doesn't deserve to call themselves a fan. We can beat them. It will take some damn good basketball to beat those teams, but it will take the same damn good basketball to beat us. Get over the fact that we have a worse record that last year and the Mavs are doing better than us right now. We can go far in these playoffs. Go Spurs Go. Believe.

Amen, thank you for the breath of positive air on this negative board.

[ShoogarBear]

I think you mean Joey Crawford. Mavs fans hate -- loathe -- Danny Crawford, who is famous to them, among other things, for his "We're going to play playground rules, call your own fouls" to the captains before Game 3 of the 2003 WCF. I'll never forget the look on Finley's face when he said that.

Was that game 3 or game 2?

Game 1 we all know was the Bennett Salvatore 50 FT special.

[Amarelooms]

lol, i generally don't like danny crawford and i used to really dislike joey crawford because of all the crude things he's said about cuban and his wife...and just his napoleon complex in general but i've gotten over it, we have to deal with who we have officiating in any particular game, i don't pay much attention anymore, it doesn't make or break a game

Please get rid of that annoying picture..it;s too big and no point to have it in every one of your replies. Thanks

[miss paxton]

might be time for me to once again post the minutes of spurs/mavs players. i've done this twice already when some spurs fan incorrectly assumes that the spurs are resting their guys and the mavs aren't (suns certainly aren't, i'll give you that!)...maybe you could save me the trouble and look up those stats for me again, it's tiresome to argue the same point with somebody who doesn't check the facts to back up his statements

Ok, you got me curious about the minutes, so I went and looked at espn.com. I don't actually understand your position that the Mavs are playing fewer minutes--if you're taking the position that the differential is not significant, I can understand that better and I don't necessarily disagree, although I don't really have any way of gauging whether an average of 2 minutes per game more is important or not. But here's what ESPN had, with 100 players listed (criteria being that they be on pace to play 70 games or 2000 minutes):

# 14 Dirk Nowitzi played 67 games average 36.9 minutes
# 20 Josh Howard 58 games 35.7
# 24 Jason Terry 68 games 35.6
# 31 Tim Duncan 68 games 34.5
# 37 Tony Parker 65 33
# 43 Bruce Bowen 68 30.7
# 54 Manu Ginobili 63 27.7
# 63 Devin Harris 67 26.1
# 65 Erick Dampier 65 25.6

ETA--I accidentally submitted the post without finishing, so sorry about that. After Dampier come Finley, Buckner, Oberto, Diop and Horry, at 21.2 minutes, 18.1 minutes, 17.7 minutes, 16.9 minutes, and 16.9 minutes, respectively. It's interesting to me that both teams have players who've played most of the games on the schedule so far.

Now that I re-read your original comment, perhaps you're not contending that the Mavs are actually playing fewer minutes, only that the minutes are similar--maybe I'm arguing (with myself) about angels on the head of a pin at this point. . . .

[BUMP]

SA could go 81-1, but if Dallas finishes 82-0, it's still not good enough for you all.

it wouldnt be good enough, cause you'd be one game short

[J.T.]

Better to be one game short in the regular season than one game short in the playoffs. That's what all these ship jumpers here need to get their heads around.

[1Parker1]

Spurs are good, but their road to the Finals is probably the toughest it's ever been:

If the current seeds remain, they'd have to go from playing a tough Suns team...whom by the way I still think could probably beat the Spurs this season in the playoffs and go immediately to a tough Mavs series. This is why I think the Mavs locking in the #1 seed is probably the thing that's going to end up giving them the edge in the playoffs. It's a much easier road for them to get to the Finals. While the Spurs/Suns will beat eachother up in the second round, Mavs may face a lagging Rockets team or a Utah Jazz team that really hasn't been playing good basketball for over a month now.

Either way, as Shoogarbear mentioned, Spurs lack of rebounding, an atheletic swingman, and a Center who can consistently play decent defense will probably end up being their demise. The problem isn't the Spurs Big Three and Bowen, it's the rest of the supporting cast which is suspect.

[mabber]

I agree with you 100% on the Spurs winning it in '07, but on here, its pointless. There's some underlying theme on this board that the Spurs won't win the championship this year and that Dallas is the team to bow down to, no matter what we say and how it turns out. For example, I said that starting on February 7th through the end of the season, the Spurs would coast through and rack up a lot of wins. People told me I was wrong on here. The Spurs are 16-4 since I said that, and people still find a way to tell me that everything I say is BS.

I just hope I don't get banned here, so that way in June (when the Spurs hold the trophy) I can come on here and rub it in. That'll be fun.

I think most Spur's fans on here think the Spurs have a good chance to win the le but they are intelligent enough to realize that Dallas will be very difficult to beat. It's called being realistic. Obviously, it's your choice but If you would bring some of that to your posts it might help give more weight to some of the decent points that you make. It's the same with some Mav posters. The ones that don't think the Spurs or Suns won't be a serious challenge are not being realistic and/or watching many Spurs/Suns games.

[Clutch20]

might be time for me to once again post the minutes of spurs/mavs players. i've done this twice already when some spurs fan incorrectly assumes that the spurs are resting their guys and the mavs aren't (suns certainly aren't, i'll give you that!)...maybe you could save me the trouble and look up those stats for me again, it's tiresome to argue the same point with somebody who doesn't check the facts to back up his statements

This also touches on the subject of players-minutes-teams.
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62865

[FromWayDowntown]

Was that game 3 or game 2?

Game 1 we all know was the Bennett Salvatore 50 FT special.

It was Game 3: http://www.nba.com/games/20030523/SASDAL/boxscore.html

[Kori Ellis]

So did freemeat really give someone 50:1 odds and how much was the bet?