If people are actually wondering why SA is "back in the mix", it's because they are getting good if not great three-point shooting without the need for specialists. There's some luck there in terms of their assists to turnover ratio that looks to be evening out, but getting a ton of shots from guys like Gay, Murray, Johnson and even DeRozan is making the Spurs harder to defend. Defensively, they have REALLY obvious problems due to playing small, and they can only cover those up by having the drive and energy to rotate effectively and gang-rebound. They've had that enough in a lot of games, but some like the Rockets loss and Jazz loss, they haven't had it at all. As the season goes on, we'll see how sustainable that effort will be. I don't think the trio is consistent enough to carry the Spurs to a le. Maybe with White back, Poeltl in rhythm and some more development from Vassell, the young guys as a whole can do it. But by far the clearest path to the playoffs is having the four vets carry the scoring load while the youngers chip in on offense and carry the defense. You can see that in some games, but outside of Mills and usually DeRozan, the oldies have been just as inconsistent as the youngsters.
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