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Impressive AF. Hopefully we can get a series win this year too.
Barring injuries that streak should grow too. They are only going to get better next year.
22. Man what a ride.
Impressive AF. Hopefully we can get a series win this year too.
Barring injuries that streak should grow too. They are only going to get better next year.
Congrats to the Spurs. 22. wow.
Now, lets lock that 7 or better in the seedings.
Best case scenario is the 5th seed and Portland stays in the 4th seed due to Nurkic's injury. Worst case scenario is end up in the 8th seed or 6th seed and play Golden State or Houston. Staying in the 7th seed means playing Denver, which isn't all too bad, but going to be tough.
I'm a little late to my own party here, but...
THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS HAVE CLINCHED A PLAYOFF BERTH!!!
With some help from the Rockets, the Spurs have clinched the playoffs on their day off yesterday. Gotta love that Texas hospitality.
Their 22nd consecutive playoff appearance ties the record for most consecutive playoff trips in NBA history. However, their work is far from over.
I do think this team believes it can compete with anybody in the NBA in a seven-game series. I also think that they probably don't want to test that theory against Golden State in the first round for a third consecutive year.
The Spurs currently sit in 7th place (thanks to the tiebreaker against the Thunder) and would lineup against the Nuggets if the playoffs started today. However, it's possible Denver and Golden State flip-flop in the one-two spot over the next couple weeks...so the safe play would be to try to rise to 6th. San Antonio is only 1.5 games behind the Clippers, but there are also only a handful of games remaining...not impossible, but also definitely not the time to rest on your playoff laurels if you truly want to ensure a better first-round matchup.
Either way, much credit is deserved for Pop and this group for overcoming an injury riddled season and surviving the gauntlet that is the Western Conference. As we've seen (for better or worse)....anything can happen in the playoffs.
Last edited by Dex; 03-31-2019 at 12:57 PM.
Congrats to Spurs and Pop!!! I for one was for the tanking strategy at a certain point of the season...'cause it looked to me as the only possible outcome considering injuries and the poor game showed by the team...the point is that it looked to me (and a lot of other Spurs fans) like all signs were showing we had no play offs chances...So the goal we achieved is something worth any possible joy from a real Spur fan. Pop, the players and the organization have been constant and reliable to the end despite very very bad cir stances.
That's, at least, a winning colture we have to be proud of...difficult to ask for more in the situation we were in...
Lakers beating Clippers means the Spurs will be seeded ahead of LAC if they finish with the same record. They split season series but would have conference tiebreaker (both at 22 losses, but Clippers would have to lose at least one more with two conference games left). Those games are @GS and home against Utah. Neither will be easy.
In a three way tie between OKC-LAC-SA, it would go to H2H record. Spurs are 4-3, Clippers are 4-4 and Thunder are 3-4. That would mean the six seed.
Houston will be three seed if it wins out (PHX and OKC). But Portland has tiebreaker and is one back in loss column with DEN, @LAL and SAC left.
It looks like HOU@OKC will determine 6-7 and maybe 8th place, HOU will be probably able to choose its opponent for first round.
If Clips go 1-1 we may make 6th or 7h depending on HOU.
I suppose they will want to play LA in the first round so they might want to beat OKC and push them to 8th.
Provided we go 2-0.
Do it Doc! You know you want to play the Warriors!
Spurs better win out
Keep in mind HOU can still grab 2nd seed and then HCA in the second round, they have incentives to win. DO'nt know HOU-DEN tiebreaker but nougats are playing both in Utah and Portland in their last three (then Minny) the might finish tied with the rockettes at 28 losses.
That's what I mean. HOU may be in the position to choose weather be #2 or #3, and who will be #6 or #7 maybe even #8 if they can determine a three way-tie. It all pivots around HOU@OKC.
Houston won the season series against Denver. 3-1.
After getting beat down in an unsurprising loss in the Mile High City, the Spurs picked themselves off the mat and got back to their winning ways in Washington. Not only did San Antonio put up an impressive victory on the road (which has been hard to come by this season), they even played well enough to earn something that we have seen far too little of this year: garbage time. This allowed Lonnie to get a bit more run in an NBA arena, and gave Pop a chance to play with his new toy Montejiunas (who was finally able to suit up after dealing with visa issues). More importantly, though...I think it was good for this group's confidence that they can still go out and perform at a high level, especially on the road.
At this point, the Spurs are literally in do-or-die mode, with death looming at the hands of the Warriors. Frankly, any matchup they draw is going to be difficult for this team, but Golden State is by far the hardest and I think we can all agree that we've seen that movie enough already. It's 7th seed or bust.
Reading the tea leaves:
-As has already been said ad nauseum, the Spurs need to win their remaining two games to give themselves any reasonable chance of staying out of the 8th seed. The Warriors have not completely locked up the #1 spot, but it's hard to see them losing 2 of their last 4 which is the only way the door would even be remotely cracked for the Nuggets to rise.
-All H2H Tiebreakers have been decided except for the Blazers and the Clippers. The Blazers' doesn't matter because San Antonio can't reach them in the standings anyways. The Clippers, however, are making things a bit more interesting. The Spurs currently stand at 22 Conference Losses with 1 Conf. game remaining. The Clippers stand at 23 Conference Losses with 2 Conf. games remaining. That means that for them to fall down to the Spurs in the standings (which is the only way a Tiebreaker would even matter), they will have to lose at least 1 more Conference game, which would also give the Spurs the tiebreaker.
-Another distinct possibility is the Spurs, Thunder, and Clippers all ending with the same record. Since none of these teams are Division leaders, in the case of a 3-way tie, the Tiebreaker would fall to best winning percentage in all games among the tied teams (correct me if I'm wrong here Chinook). By my math, the Spurs lead this 3-way matchup with a percentage of 57%, compared to 50% for the Clippers and 43% for the Thunder. So in the unlikely case of this logjam, the Spurs would actually come out on top with the 6th seed.
Upcoming games this week:
April 7th - SAS @ CLE - The Spurs will close their road schedule at a Sunday matinee game in Cleveland. The Cavaliers are tied for the third worst record in the league, so on paper this should be an easy win. However, there is a lot of pressure on the Spurs to keep winning, so that fact coupled with the Spurs road woes and their tendency to sleepwalk through day-games could make this matchup more difficult than it needs to be. Spurs just need to stay focused and come out like they did against the Wizards, and they should be fine.
April 10th - DAL @ SAS - San Antonio's final game of the 2018-2019 season will come against perhaps their most familiar opponent. Pop and the Spurs have had countless battles against Carlisle and Dirk...and I expect this game to be no different. The Mavericks may sport the record of a lottery team, but you know that they would love to play spoiler against the Spurs and send Dirk off into the sunset with a victory in the last game of his dignified career. As much as I'm sure the Spurs would love to send Nowitzki out the right way, this is no time for nostalgia...the Spurs need this win.
Last edited by Dex; 04-06-2019 at 11:07 AM.
Thanks Dex! You are the real MVP!After getting beat down in an unsurprising loss in the Mile High City, the Spurs picked themselves off the mat and got back to their winning ways in Washington. Not only did San Antonio put up an impressive victory on the road (which has been hard to come by this season), they even played well enough to earn something that we have seen far too little of this year: garbage time. This allowed Lonnie to get a bit more run in an NBA arena, and gave Pop a chance to play with his new toy Montejiunas (who was finally able to suit up after dealing with visa issues). More importantly, though...I think it was good for this group's confidence that they can still go out and perform at a high level, especially on the road.
At this point, the Spurs are literally in do-or-die mode, with death looming at the hands of the Warriors. Frankly, any matchup they draw is going to be difficult for this team, but Golden State is by far the hardest and I think we can all agree that we've seen that movie enough already. It's 7th seed or bust.
Reading the tea leaves:
-As has already been said ad nauseum, the Spurs need to win their remaining two games to give themselves any reasonable chance of staying out of the 8th seed. The Warriors have not completely locked up the #1 spot, but it's hard to see them losing 2 of their last 4 which is the only way the door would even be remotely cracked for the Nuggets to rise.
-All H2H Tiebreakers have been decided except for the Blazers and the Clippers. The Blazers' doesn't matter because San Antonio can't reach them in the standings anyways. The Clippers, however, are making things a bit more interesting. The Spurs currently stand at 22 Conference Losses with 1 Conf. game remaining. The Clippers stand at 23 Conference Losses with Conf. 2 games remaining. That means that for them to fall down to the Spurs in the standings (which is the only way a Tiebreaker would even matter), they will have to lose at least 1 more Conference game, which would also give the Spurs the tiebreaker.
-Another distinct possibility is the Spurs, Thunder, and Clippers all ending with the same record. Since none of these teams are Division leaders, in the case of a 3-way tie, the Tiebreaker would fall to best winning percentage in all games among the tied teams (correct me if I'm wrong here Chinook). By my math, the Spurs lead this 3-way matchup with a percentage of 57%, compared to 50% for the Clippers and 43% for the Thunder. So in the unlikely case of this logjam, the Spurs would actually come out on top with the 6th seed.
Upcoming games this week:
April 7th - SAS @ CLE - The Spurs will close their road schedule at a Sunday matinee game in Cleveland. The Cavaliers are tied for the third worst record in the league, so on paper this should be an easy win. However, there is a lot of pressure on the Spurs to keep winning, so that fact coupled with the Spurs road woes and their tendency to sleepwalk through day-games could make this matchup more difficult than it needs to be. Spurs just need to stay focused and come out like they did against the Warriors, and they should be fine.
April 10th - DAL @ SAS - San Antonio's final game of the 2018-2019 season will come against perhaps their most familiar opponent. Pop and the Spurs have had countless battles against Carlisle and Dirk...and I expect this game to be no different. The Mavericks may sport the record of a lottery team, but you know that they would love to play spoiler against the Spurs and send Dirk off into the sunset with a victory in the last game of his dignified career. As much as I'm sure the Spurs would love to send Nowitzki out the right way, this is no time for nostalgia...the Spurs need this win.
Both of these games I think will difficult. The Cavs almost ruined Manu's night and now they'll be at home on an early game. They don't fear the Spurs and have nothing to lose. Mavs would love to screw over the Spurs and the rivalry always means it'll be tough game.
Still, somehow Spurs will win out.
+1 Dex puts a LOT of work into maintaining this, and saves us all a lot of work. Much appreciated.
It's always dangerous playing teams with nothing to lose. And, yeah, the chance to exact some payback on the Spurs, even a lesser version, is always there as motivation.
Thanks guys. It's been fun, especially considering how precarious things seemed at the start. The fact that we can still make the 6th seed in a couple scenarios boggles the mind...but still gotta take it one game at a time (and hope for some help).Thanks Dex! You are the real MVP!
Both of these games I think will difficult. The Cavs almost ruined Manu's night and now they'll be at home on an early game. They don't fear the Spurs and have nothing to lose. Mavs would love to screw over the Spurs and the rivalry always means it'll be tough game.
Still, somehow Spurs will win out.
Looking forward to next season where we hopefully won't be counting Magic Numbers just to make the playoffs.
That 5 game losing streak is obviously what prevented spurs to fight for HCA that (kind of surprisnigly) was up to grab... But they followed it up with a 9 game winning one, so that's pretty much your season summed up there... you can't really know what to expect.
Except that the 8th seed is a direct ticket to the Bahamas and that Denver seem to be the "best" 1st round foe... then you play HOU in the second with Paul pulling his hamstring and Haren chocking/quitting again, and next thing you know you're back in the WCF...
Right?
Flawless...
Dream scenario would be for Portland to win out and get the 3rd while Houston loses one game so they get the 4th seed. Then both the Clips and the Thunder drop a game and we sneak into the 6th seed.
What about beating CLE first, and then DAL?
Maybe Pop tanks the game against the Mavs:
1) Avoiding the Warriors wouldn't be fair to Steve Kerr
2) Giving Dirk the proper send off he deserves
I'm sure he prioritizes those things more than the ball club actually winning, after all it's just a game tbh....
please stop you're scaring me
Good work, thanks!
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