I really like our chances right about now. (rival grading sheet)

[Godbama]

I've shared the justifiable concerns with our playoff readiness before, with the stats that showed Parker suffering an extreme possibly age/injury-induced regression...I sometimes wondered if we lacked the spirit and motivation, and I don't think Spurs fans who had (reasonable) concerns along those lines are "not real fans" or moping, I mean obviously you should take regular season stuff with a grain of salt but not completely ignore it.
I think we're getting increasingly compe ive, despite it (before tonight) being against weaker compe ion (though like I said in my other thread, last year during our championship we didn't perform well against contenders either and got called out for it, and we all know how that turned out). More importantly I think, while there are a lot of players not totally there quite yet, more and more of our players and getting into some sort of form as we get closer to the playoffs.

That's not what I wanted to talk about in the thread though, I was looking at the Western standings one day, while commenting to my Laker fan friend that "I wouldn't worry about the Cavaliers in the playoffs, we had a bad three point shooting night and it took a career night from Kyrie, Diaw and Belinelli won't keep shooting like that, and Love and Irving have zero playoff experience". I had added that "the real challenge" is the murderer's row in the West.

But now I'm looking at this , and you know what? It's wide ing open. We're in there. We could easily get a chance to repeat in the Finals, IMO.

1.) The Warriors, the legit challenge, but they've got a first time coach (basically) and the Spurs heebie jeebies. It's going to be tough taking them in the Oracle, this is the one team that will be a real Obstacle.
2.) Memphis, looking lousy lately, poisoned themselves with Jeff Green. Besides, despite the hype of the OH NO SCARY GRIZZLIES, as a Spurs fan I've always felt like we "solved" these guys permanently at the 2013 Conference finals. They still don't really have (consistent) shooters. Fine Conley is better now, but still, they're a Whatever.
3.) Portland, owned them last year, Aldridge thumb- ed and already thinking of Texas, Wes Matthews out, Dame as childish and easy-to-psych-into-shooting-slumps as ever. They could go off against other teams, but for us...Whatever.
4.) Houston, James Harden is an MVP candidate...Whatever though. They're somehow fine without Dwight, with the Beard taking real steps forward, but I still wouldn't be very frightened of them in a playoff series. He can carry them through the regular season but not against real playoff challenges. We'll blast them inside.
5.) Clippers, health questions, yearly WCF-could've-would've-beens, we've handled them before, will choke in the playoffs again at some point, no heart, Whatever.
7.) Dallas, crippled themselves with the Rondo chemistry poison pill, he'll still be a huge defensive asset and Carlisle is still a sneaky devious , but they look really really sick lately (and not in the good way), this is a solid Whatever.
8.) New Orleans, lol.

Honorable Mention:
The Redneck Hailstorm, still a question mark, potentially deadly if healthy and 100% but haven't shown signs of being able to do that consistently, split between the joy of them missing the playoffs and the hilarity of them making it in eighth and rocking the Warriors, Westbrook has looked amazing most of the time but whatever, they've got Dion Waiters lol. I don't know whether to give them a full whatever, because they're definitely not enough to be a full obstacle. Somewhere in the middle, depending on a lot of unknown variables.


First back to back incoming.

[Malik Hairston]

Too early to tell, Spurs' current surge has literally been against a bunch of ty teams, at home, tbh..every opponent has been poor defensively, too, including the Cavs(only the Bulls rank in the top 15 in D, and they were missing 2 of their 3 best defenders)..

The West is pretty overrated, as it is every year, though..there's really no way teams like Portland, Houston and Dallas have any chance at making the NBA Finals..still, though, Spurs need to show more against better compe ion, we need to see what they look like on the road, especially, since the playoffs is going to be a road gauntlet..

[hater]

Well go as far as MVParker and Matrix take us imo

[Malik Hairston]

Warriors will be a massive challenge, though, as you can't hide Parker vs. any of their guys on defense, they have backup wings that will exploit Belinelli(Iguodala), and Duncan can't play against them, unfortunately..it worked with Splitter in 2013, but Parker and Ginobili were much better players than they currently are, and Draymond Green has made massive improvements, along with the obvious coaching upgrade..

Parker can score vs. poor defensive teams like the Cavs, because they don't have any good wing defenders, but the Warriors will throw Thompson/Iguodala/Barnes on him, and he'll probably struggle as he usually does in the playoffs, unfortunately..

Meanwhile, on the other end, he would have to defend Barnes or Iguodala, which won't work for the Spurs..

Every other team has a Tony Allen/Courtney Lee, Matt Barnes, Ariza and whoever that you can hide him on, but the Warriors don't, unfortunately..

[SnakeBoy]

I think Cleveland is a lock to come out of the East and last night showed they can't beat the Spurs in a 7 game series. That was the best game Cleveland can possibly play and while the Spurs were Spursy they still have plenty of room to improve.

The West comes down to GSW and the Spurs. If the Dubs game translates to the playoffs they will win the West, but I don't think it will.

[tholdren]

Too early to tell, Spurs' current surge has literally been against a bunch of ty teams, at home, tbh..every opponent has been poor defensively, too, including the Cavs(only the Bulls rank in the top 15 in D, and they were missing 2 of their 3 best defenders)..

The West is pretty overrated, as it is every year, though..there's really no way teams like Portland, Houston and Dallas have any chance at making the NBA Finals..still, though, Spurs need to show more against better compe ion, we need to see what they look like on the road, especially, since the playoffs is going to be a road gauntlet..

Lol there is maybe 1 playoff team in the east. The west is 7 deep and no one wants the thunder

[Malik Hairston]

Lol there is maybe 1 playoff team in the east. The west is 7 deep and no one wants the thunder

I'm not comparing the East and West..the East isn't overrated, because everybody is always discussing how ty it is, and rightfully so..

The East has 2 contenders and 1 wildcard, the West has 2 contenders and 3 wildcards IMO..

[spurtech09]

If parker keeps playing like he is right now.....plus KL going off at the right time....yeah he missed some freethrows but I still like the spurs chances