Good article about why the path to the Finals has been easy for the Spurs

[boutons_]

Infamous: http://www.amazon.com/gp/music/wma-p...404172-8517632


From the bitter ankle-biters sitting remorsely in their fishing boats, "Al we hear is Radio GaGa ...."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/music/wma-p...404172-8517632

[td4mvp3]

i give them dallas and marginally the nash nose (still, if you have the 6MOY, you figure he can steady the ship for 90 seconds). the rest is garbage. williams' injury in particular ignores the beatdowns in games 1 and 2 and conveniently overlooks the victory in utah, where the jazz had been invincible, despite boozer and williams doing their thing. fischer was worthless all series so his loss was nonexistent, and the rockets split, as duly pointed out, mirrored the jazz split.

[Melmart1]

What the is up with these worthless playoff articles that don't have any ing fact checkers or proofreaders? I am damn tired of this lazy brand of "journalism." I gotta give ESPN and their ilk some credit -- even if the opinions of their "experts" suck, at least they know who played who in what round and use spellcheck!

[contentode]

The Cavs may have had the easiest trip to the Finals in history - with the first two opponents being teams that wouldn't be in the playoffs in a normal NBA season where the East isn't NBDL level.

Yeah right! What was the Cavs record vs the Spurs this year?
What was the Spurs record vs the NBDL East?
What was the Cavs record vs the (far superior ) West?

Don't bother looking up the answers:
2-0
20-10
19-11

Just be happy you avoided Dallas and were handed the Sun's series.

[SpurYank]

Look Kob...erh... Infamous. As I wrote to Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser, you guys have got to stop the whining. Everyone is getting a little tired of it. You don't win as many NBA les with luck. Count your blessings for Derek's shot and Manu's foul, or you guys would really see what a dynasty looks like.

[florige]

The path to the finals have been easy for San Antonio because they're the Spurs. Tim Duncan and the rest of the team make it looks easy.


How about the path to the finals for the Cavs?
Denver > Wizards
Suns > Nets
Utah > Detroit

How about the Cavs getting "lucky" as you call it and facing a Wizards team minus Arenas and Butler. The Cavs might not be here if those two are playing. Come with something better than that you bitter fans.

[SAGambler]

Yeah right! What was the Cavs record vs the Spurs this year?
What was the Spurs record vs the NBDL East?
What was the Cavs record vs the (far superior ) West?

Don't bother looking up the answers:
2-0
20-10
19-11

Just be happy you avoided Dallas and were handed the Sun's series.

But what was the Cavs record against the teams in the West that the Spurs have eliminated? 1 - 5.

The only reason they had a winning record in the West is because we still have some dogs in the West.

[Hook Dem]

Yeah right! What was the Cavs record vs the Spurs this year?
What was the Spurs record vs the NBDL East?
What was the Cavs record vs the (far superior ) West?

Don't bother looking up the answers:
2-0
20-10
19-11

Just be happy you avoided Dallas and were handed the Sun's series.

You can't blame Cavs fans for being arrogant and ignorant because winning has been a long time coming. Have your day in the sun and get back to us when this thing is over so you can let us know how it turned out for you!

[CosmicCowboy]

so what?

[ClingingMars]

Winners play the hand they are dealt. Losers blame the dealer.

That's gonna be a senior quote of mine for sure.

-Mars

[Loose Cannon]

Good article about why the path to the second round was hard for the Lakers:

Because they ing suck.

Good read.

[Ocotillo]

how did the Spurs even make it to the play offs?

How did Detroit manage to win two games against King James?

[wildbill2u]

In the first round with homecourt the Cavs played a Wizards team without it's best player (Arenas), and either its 2nd or 3rd best player (Butler). That team was 2-14 without those 2, with one win coming against Atlanta whom were also depleted and Indiana, who had given up on there season and also were without Jermaine O'Neal. The Spurs played a Denver team finding its peak, with 2 of the Top 5 scorers in the NBA including matchup nightmare in Carmelo, the DPOY in Camby and probably the 2nd most high octane offense in the league.

The Cavs then played the Nets who were without there best bigman (Krstic), a Richard Jefferson still fighting back from injury, a Jason Kidd playing with broken ribs and a declining Vince Carter who played like in the playoffs. Not to mention that the team was 41-41 playing in a terribly weak conference, and even if they were fully healthy, just aren't that good. Cavs also had homecourt. The Spurs played a 64 win team with a 2 time reigning MVP in Nash, an absolute beast in Stoudamire and another All-Star in Marion, not to mention the 6MOY, solid role players and the best offensive system in basketball. Also, Spurs didn't have home court.

The Cavs then got to Detroit, and beating them was an incredible effort for sure. Can't argue that, they were impressive. Spurs beat Utah as they should, but it has to be said that Utah finished with I think 2 less wins than Detroit, but played in a much tougher conference. Utah also got past Houston and Golden State, where as Detroit had only to beat a terrible Orlando side, and a very young Bulls squad. You could argue that the Jazz weren't that far off of Detroit in terms of being a tough opponent.

Who had the easy run again?

Excellent.

[Spurminator]

I have more to add:

- Luckily, stayed healthy throughout the Playoffs.
We've all seen what injuries can do to a Playoff run. The Spurs are fortunate that one or more of their big three didn't go down or catch some kind of disease like TB or HIV.

- Luckily, made shots when they needed to.
Statistically, you usually make less than half of your shots, so every time the Spurs shot the basketball, chances were that the ball would not go through the basket. Yet they managed to luck into enough instances where the ball happened to fall through the net that they were able to outscore their opponents. Pretty remarkable luck when you consider how similar the diameters of the ball and the basket are.

- Luckily, only faced three of the 30 teams in the NBA on their way to the Finals
The Spurs managed to luck into a pathway to the Finals that allowed them to avoid playing Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Washington, New Jersey, Indiana, Orlando, and many other teams as well... in fact, they were able to avoid playing Cleveland until the Finals. Who knows what would have happened against a team like Milwaukee, who defeated them twice in the regular season?

[spurastic]

Most of those excuses were self inducted by the "unlucky" teams. Dallas and Houston lost without any help from the Spurs. Nash's nose was busted after Nash butted his nose into Tony's forehead during his steal attempt. The suspensions were self inducted by the dimwitted. I'm not sure about Williams' illness and injury--there were some rumours about drinking, but it's only a rumour. Fisher's reason fro missing the game is legit. Jazz just has a too shallow of a bench.

[easjer]

Hey, we kept our end of the bargain with Dallas. We showed up for our WCF rematch. They are the ones who let us down. We're supposed to be penalized and astricized because they imploded?

Whatever. Anything that starts with that is utter bull and fabrication.

[td4mvp3]

Yeah right! What was the Cavs record vs the Spurs this year?
What was the Spurs record vs the NBDL East?
What was the Cavs record vs the (far superior ) West?

Don't bother looking up the answers:
2-0
20-10
19-11

Just be happy you avoided Dallas and were handed the Sun's series.

your post is kind of the point. where is the "cavs are lucky to be here" story, is what we're wondering. consider, you say the league handed the spurs the suns series, presumably because of the suspensions. yet, what if amare and nash had been out of the series completely? that's what the cavs got from the wizards. and as much as folks are saying we got lucky to avoid dallas, geez, wake up: if dallas were that good, then the cavs would be facing them in the finals right now. lucky they aren't, isn't it?

as you've just pointed out, their records against the other conference were comparable. great. why is no one comparing the luck of the cavs as they have the spurs? it's really annoying.

[ShoogarBear]

Spurs are lucky they're not facing the Bucks in the Finals.

[Texas_Ranger]

Cry me a river.

[judaspriestess]

thats the way the ball bounces..............

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

Every team that has ever won a le has had a couple of breaks go their way during the playoffs. Why people always try to put a * next to the Spurs' success is beyond me.

[BWJACKETS]

So basically, if we beat the Cavs that means Dallas, Houston, Phoenix and Utah would have as well.

Not even close, Dallas lost to an eight-seed, Houston hasn't made it past the first-round in years, Utah doesn't have a championship mindset, the only team that could maybe beat Cleveland is Phoenix. Lebron could beat any of the other three almost single-handedly, and the Suns could give alot of teams trouble with the pace that they set offensively.

[BWJACKETS]

Every team that has ever won a le has had a couple of breaks go their way during the playoffs. Why people always try to put a * next to the Spurs' success is beyond me.

I haven't in the past, however I personally thought that the Suns were going to win their series against you guys until the suspensions were handed down based on how the teams matched up on paper and the fact that Phoenix had so much of the momentum after their win in game 4. The suspensions just seemed like much too easy of an out for SA after they had just lost at home, and in hindsight I would think that the facts speak for themselves that the Suns still almost won Game 5 without Stoudemire. However, although I feel like maybe you guys got off way too easy in that particular series, that doesn't mean that you guys should have your whole run written off by critics because of one unfortunate incident. If the Spurs win, they are very deserving of it, as an organization they are what every other team in the NBA strives to be.

Guess it just depends on what perspective you look at it from. I never thought SA was in any danger of losing to Denver or Utah at any point in time, however I thought SA could have lost to Phoenix and I know that they could lose to Cleveland as well the way that the Cavs are playing right now.

[easjer]

I haven't in the past, however I personally thought that the Suns were going to win their series against you guys until the suspensions were handed down based on how the teams matched up on paper and the fact that Phoenix had so much of the momentum after their win in game 4. The suspensions just seemed like much too easy of an out for SA after they had just lost at home, and in hindsight I would think that the facts speak for themselves that the Suns still almost won Game 5 without Stoudemire. However, although I feel like maybe you guys got off way too easy in that particular series, that doesn't mean that you guys should have your whole run written off by critics because of one unfortunate incident. If the Spurs win, they are very deserving of it, as an organization they are what every other team in the NBA strives to be.

Guess it just depends on what perspective you look at it from. I never thought SA was in any danger of losing to Denver or Utah at any point in time, however I thought SA could have lost to Phoenix and I know that they could lose to Cleveland as well the way that the Cavs are playing right now.

Suns were never going to win that series. We will have to agree to disagree on that one I suppose.

I will only point out that the Suns had every opportunity to win game 1 and game 3 and played us down a man in game 6. If they were better, they would have won those games.

[judaspriestess]

I haven't in the past, however I personally thought that the Suns were going to win their series against you guys until the suspensions were handed down based on how the teams matched up on paper and the fact that Phoenix had so much of the momentum after their win in game 4. The suspensions just seemed like much too easy of an out for SA after they had just lost at home, and in hindsight I would think that the facts speak for themselves that the Suns still almost won Game 5 without Stoudemire. However, although I feel like maybe you guys got off way too easy in that particular series, that doesn't mean that you guys should have your whole run written off by critics because of one unfortunate incident. If the Spurs win, they are very deserving of it, as an organization they are what every other team in the NBA strives to be.

Guess it just depends on what perspective you look at it from. I never thought SA was in any danger of losing to Denver or Utah at any point in time, however I thought SA could have lost to Phoenix and I know that they could lose to Cleveland as well the way that the Cavs are playing right now.

ok lets rehash the past shall we, the suns L-O-S-T game one. There could be NO margin for error from the suns after that and sure enough their stupidity came shining through for all the world to see. And the only one who showed some kind of humility was amare stoudamire. He knew he effed up.