Bill Simmons: The NBA's Award-Winning Playoffs

[tesseractive]

Money quote:

Thank God for the Spurs, an offensive powerhouse that has single-handedly saved the playoffs from turning into a rockfight. They're headed for a second sweep while pacing the league in points per game (103.7), shooting (49.1 percent) and 3-point shooting (42.7 percent). It's the best version of international basketball we've ever seen — the Spurs might as well be Argentina or Spain, only with superior players. Everything revolves around their slash-and-kick guys (Parker and Ginobili), their 3-point shooters (too many to count) and their versatile big men (Duncan, Diaw and Splitter, all of whom know where to go and what to do). And unlike Nash's high-scoring Suns teams from back in the day, San Antonio can also rebound and protect the rim, which makes them our single most dangerous playoff favorite since the 2001 Lakers. They aren't just beating teams, they're eviscerating them.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...nning-playoffs

[DMC]

Well enjoy all the media hype while you can.

[SA210]

I love it. Let's hope the beatings continue in the Spurs favor. would be nice to sweep, but they gotta come out and weather the storm in LA, get past the loud fans and close out good.

They can do it

[Solid D]

I don't even like to think about the point diff. right now. The farther the Spurs progress in the playoffs, the number is bound to decrease. It just hasn't yet....

[therealtruth]

I don't even like to think about the point diff. right now. The farther the Spurs progress in the playoffs, the number is bound to decrease. It just hasn't yet....

The point differential is a function of the offensive and defensive efficiency. The Spurs offense has been clicking meanwhile the defense has been getting better. In the past like last year, the point differential was mainly due to the Spurs outscoring the opponent. Now the Spurs are continuing to outscore opponents and not allowing anything easy. It gives you a much larger margin of error when it comes to winning and losing and is the sign of a championship team.

[Splits]

It is only a matter of time, if the Spurs sweep this weekend and have another break of 4+ days, that someone is going to do the research and figure out any comparable situation that the Spurs find themselves in: winning your final 10 plus 8 straight in the playoffs by an average margin of 17+ points. I mean these numbers make no sense, at least not historically. I can't think of another team in the past two decades that have obliterated their compe ion. This is historic. What's the best ever playoff winning percentage on the road to a trophy? The 99 Spurs were 15-2 en route to chip number one. Is there a better number than that?

[Spurtacus]

Money quote indeed.

Check out the league's playoff averages for points per game in the past decade.

2003: 96.0
2004: 88.0
2005: 97.1
2006: 97.8
2007: 94.2
2008: 94.9
2009: 96.7
2010: 97.5
2011: 94.0
2012: 90.5

Yikes. I knew scoring was low but the average is about to fall out of the 90's.

[ambchang]

Even BS is on board? This is just getting bad.

BS is one of the more Spurs hating columnist there is (Behind that flaming Miami fanboi and SAS. And now 2/3 is on board).

This is just getting very very disturbing.

[tediousj]

What's the best ever playoff winning percentage on the road to a trophy? The 99 Spurs were 15-2 en route to chip number one. Is there a better number than that?

2001 Lakers went 15-1

[ambchang]

After I read the article, I don't believe the NBA's defense is getting better, I think the offense is getting worse.

The entire issue are concepts of these so-called super teams, in which teams are trying hard to put together individual parts and think they have created a good team, much like the USA dream teams of the last little while. There are clashes in playing style and egos, and offenses often turn into a game of one on one (see NY, Lakers, Miami, Clippers, and to a lesser extent the Hawks).

Some do better than others, but overall, you have these bunch of teams whose offense is very predictable and easy to stop, especially in playoffs when teams can prepare for each other.

Second, these teams now have all the major offensive weapons, and the remaining teams do not have anyone to create offense and draw opposition defenses (totally opposite effect), such as the 6ers, Magic (well, D12 ..) , and Jazz.

This creates two polar opposites reasons for low scoring, but runs to the same effect.

There are few teams that didn't have this problem as much. Spurs, to an extent OKC, Mavs, Nuggets.