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Every championship road is tough.
us spurs fans are asking for the almost impossible from our spurs..
this is by far the toughest trip to winning a championship i have ever seen...no other team even comes close to what the spurs have to do to win a le...so if the spurs do win it all...i dont care what anybody says they should go down as one of the best teams of all time..
round1- iverson&melo now they may have been so-so since the trade happended....and people...allen iverson is going to be a handful...spurs have never seen him in a series...so we really dont kno the true allen iverson cause playoff ball is the only ball that matters..bruce bowen cant guard both melo and AI
round2-suns are the suns...honestly this may be the easiest out of all the series the spurs may have to go against..spurs own the suns and always will if tony parker makes steve nash play defense...tho the spurs could win in 5...each game will be close and suns will not go down without a fight...
round3-mavs just give everbody fits in the league with their 7ft sg...each game is basically a coin flip...this series is made to go 7...not in spurs favor to win this series...back to back series where they do no have homecourt..dont think this has happend in duncan era...
finals-ya if we play det or mia whoever it will be...its not going to be a cake walk...det is the toughest team in the league...spurs may be one of the softest...and spurs have no bigs for shaq besides timmy...and who knows wade may have transformed into jordan again like he did last year....
and o ya the NBA does not want another horrific tv ratings for the finals...
almost forgot...spurs must never ever give the refs a chance to decide a game...they will be against us in that situation...
so this is going to be the most entertaining run in spurs history...
Every championship road is tough.
this one is almost impossible
I cannot agree with your analysis.
First, every year is tough. 2005 was probably the toughest to date. We caught a surging 8 seed Nuggets that were clearly better than advertised and then had to grit it out against a really good Sonics team. I honestly think it would have gone to a 7th game if that crowd hadn't cheered when Tim injured his other ankle. That put the fire in his eyes, man. And while the Suns were probably the easiest of the three Western teams, it take energy to run up and down that court at breakneck speed. That Detriot/SA finals was one of the best to my mind - talk about evenly matched compe ive teams. Doesn't get any better.
This year? No it won't be a cakewalk.
But the Nuggets are only a decent team. They have stretches of good, as they had at the end of the season. But they don't match up as well against the Spurs and the Spurs are better, have more experience, and honestly, in my opinion, a greater desire to win. The Nuggets will hang, and the games will be close, but it won't be that difficult. Spurs in 5.
Suns will be tougher than 2 years ago, but the problems they had then still remain. Spurs in 5 or 6.
The Mavs (or Houston) will be the toughest compe ors, but that is precisely what you expect when the best teams in a conference that is far superior to the other conference meet. It's more like a Finals series than anything. The two best teams of the league will be coming together in a big battle (and that remains true, even if the Spurs happen to be eliminated). It will be hard, it will be tough, but that is also true of the other team too. If they want it bad enough, they'll take it. That's the team they are this year.
I'm not concerned about any team from the East. I expect whichever team it is will win a game or two, but I expect the West team will take it (unless the Mavs have another massive choke job).
We had homecourt last year versus the Mavs, just to let you know.
EDIT: Nevermind, you were referring to back-to-back no homecourt series as in first Phoenix then Dallas. I thought you meant we didn't have homecourt versus Dallas for 2 years.
The toughest road to the championship ever successfully navigated was done so by Houston in 1995.
championships were never meant to be easy.
You guys reply too casual about this subject because it's true. Compared to others won, lost, and 05' this appears to be the toughest playoffs for San Antonio in several years.
On paper everything looks really interesting.
It will be a tough road but Impossible? don't think so
Let's break this down to each round and really examine our (likely) opponents.
Round 1 - Nuggets
Denver's biggest factor right now is that they're playing excellent basketball and they're a hot, young team with confidence going into the playoffs. AI and Melo are practically unguardable, and Camby is a terror in the post. By all accounts, this should be an incredibly tough series for the Spurs, on paper.
The Spurs though, are arguably even hotter. Winning 24 of 27 after the all-star break gave this team the exact boost it needs. Finley is playing nearly at the level of 4 years ago. Barry is back and healthy. Duncan and Manu have never been healthier entering a post-season, as they both look to be right at 98-100%.
But the real strength of the Spurs is not measured in statistics or winning streaks, and the first time the Nuggets step on the floor, AI and Melo are going to be in for an insane dose of playoff defense. This is another realm of intensity, and not many players in the entire NBA can handle it, especially young, shoot-first players.
The first few minutes of the game will be a feeling out process for both teams, and then the Spurs D will dig in. It will be the little things, forcing the extra push to get position in the post, the denial of an easy entry-pass, a tip of a pass that would have resulted in an easy two. At first, Melo and AI will likely shake their collective heads and mutter, "Wow, lucky play, I had that."
As the final minutes of the first half wind down, they will begin to understand that they are sorely mistaken. Because the early tips that were "luck" are quickly becoming steals, and the drives in the post are resulting in well-positioned contact. Forced shots are being blocked, and the shot clock is suddenly down to 5 seconds or less on every possession.
At which point, the hot streak that this young team will have been on will be sorely disrupted. Parker will guard AI hard enough on every play that Iverson will soon forget about driving: Too much Parker footspeed, and when he does slip around Tony, he'll have a mammoth plugging the lane with hands quick enough to bother any pass attempt he might make. Bowen on Melo is probably the worst matchup the Nuggets could face out of any team, because Bruce has a habit of frustrating young players, and wouldn't you know it, Carmelo has a habit of being frustrated easily when he's taken out of rhythm on offense. And defensively, neither are worth talking about. Melo isn't keen on stopping anyone and AI gambles far too much against a team that makes precise dishes in the best half court offense the league has seen in many years.
Which leaves us with only Camby. I expect him to get 4-6 blocks in the first game, while Duncan is still figuring out when to expect his rotations. After that, either Nene will get abused 1 on 1 or Elson will be open for free dunks all game. Even if Duncan doesn't make the pass down low, if Camby doubles at all it means the weak-side rebound will be wide open for any Spur player that fills the lane from a miss.
The Nuggets high-powered offense just isn't geared for the copious amounts of defensive pressure that highlights the modern day NBA post-season. The Spurs are an absolute horror-show come-to-life for this young team which is still attempting to groove itself as a team. Watch out, because the wheels could come off very quickly after the two scorers experience 30 minutes of absolutely no clean looks. The second Denver starts settling for jumpers from 18 feet out, the Spurs walk through them to Round 2.
Ratings:
Offense
Spurs - 8.5
Nuggets - 9
Defense
Spurs - 10
Nuggets - 5
Intangibles
Spurs - 9
Nuggets - 7
Difficulty rating: 6.5. If the Nuggets have a couple of hot shooting nights, it could go to 6. But that's the extent of this first round matchup. If Denver gets frustrated early on, the brooms could be deployed for Game 4.
Theme for round one: Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto. Lure heavy, cast free, AI, Melo, & Camby.
Last edited by Cry Havoc; 04-21-2007 at 09:32 PM.
that is true. but everytime the Nuggets play the big boys they get stomped. they barely beat Dallas once this year on their homecourt, but it was near the end of the year, they were fighting for their lives we were done, we had our worst shooting outing of the year and we were still up by double digits most of the game.
the thing that will ultimately do them in is the back to back series (Phx and Dal) that they dont have HCA, they arent good enough to win both series
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