http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/c...s.3613f29.html
Buck Harvey: Streaks can reverse, as Spurs know
San Antonio Express-News
The defending champs were struggling in March, and another Texas team was streaking to the top of the conference. Gregg Popovich also watched this one 13 years ago, albeit from a different seat.
What followed says a lot about regular-season success in the NBA, and why streaks have a way of turning on their owners.
The Spurs will get a chance this time from the other side.
Streaks are nothing to dismiss, and this includes the one that ended for Bruce Bowen last week. His stopped with a perfect number and with imperfect judgment.
Unless the league had a replay from a different angle, Bowen was suspended for something less than conclusive. This was likely a message from a league tired of reviewing Bowen incidents, and if true that will mean something to Bowen when he appeals. Don't be surprised if he gets his fine returned.
This ruling won't change what Bowen does, which always has been borderline illegal. But the streak also was a tribute to the line he walked. Those who call him dirty can't ignore the fact that it took 500 games to catch him doing a das ly deed worthy of a suspension.
Along the way, this streak, too, created something else, and the Baltimore Orioles once went through this. When Cal Ripken was on his way to breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive-game streak, there were days Ripken would have been better off resting.
Bowen's run isn't nearly as historic, nor is the setting the same. Bowen is never tired, after all.
But if there weren't times already when Popovich wondered if starting someone else made better sense, there will be eventually. Especially when Brent Barry returns, Popovich will have options. Against an opponent without a singular wing scorer to defend, would another Spurs shooter fit better?
Before last week, Popovich might have dismissed the change out of respect to the streak. Now Popovich is freer to change things, and he might, since the Spurs' loss Saturday puts them closer to the sixth seed.
The Rockets' streak is something else entirely, since only the Wilt/West Lakers have ever put together a better one. The Spurs, for all their championships, have to bow to the 21 that could become 22 today.
Still, the Spurs weren't far off in 1995. They had a 15-game streak that season, but their noteworthy success was the ulative. They finished that season 40-6.
Or, put it this way: If the Rockets end this season with a 14-3 run, they will also finish 40-6.
Of course, 14-3 would be a downer for these guys. In less than two months, they've gone from 10th place to first — while losing their best player.
The Rockets have tried to keep this in perspective, and Tracy McGrady said it about a week ago. "It's all about the playoffs," he said.
But the wins have kept piling up, and people have started to talk about McGrady for MVP, and the Rockets are being swept up. On Friday, after beating Charlotte at home, Rick Adelman called it "the greatest thing I've ever been around."
Usually, beating Charlotte at home doesn't qualify as a greatest thing. But McGrady, too, had forgotten his playoff obsession. "This is history," he said.
This streak will be history eventually, and recent history says the streak won't carry over. The Rockies won 21 of 22 going into the last fall's World Series, where they were swept, and then there are the Patriots.
But 1995 is a better analogy. Popovich was in his first season as the Spurs' general manager then, and he enjoyed seeing the Spurs streak and David Robinson become the MVP.
It almost was too easy for them, though. They didn't have to fight through much and, without playoff success before as a group, they weren't ready for a championship-telling test.
That would come from a team that had lost more games in March than it had won that year, and from a team that had fallen to the sixth seed in the conference.
The defending champs. The Rockets.
Never really one for the "homer" sort of articles...but damn. That really puts things into perspective.
Nice reminder that it's not about the regular season. All the glory the Spurs have obtained in the last 10 years has been garnered through post-season success.
Ah, fond memories of that playoff series.
Hakeem played better than any player I have ever seen in a playoff series, he was amazing.
DD
So you never saw Jordan in a playoff series?
That's a pretty ridiculous analogy.
For those who remember that season, Hakeem sat out about the last month and a half with injuries. That was a team that also had a major midseason trade for Drexler. The Spurs right now are perfectly healthy except for Barry but are just not playing good ball. They have the same core they've had for years, they haven't had to adjust to new faces, a revamped style, etc.
An analogy to that Houston team would be someone like the Mavs or Suns who made a major midseason trade, took time to develop chemistry, then made a move (IF that happens, it looks like it may be happening in Phoenix).
Hakeem also in 95 put on a better playoff run than any player in NBA history considering the quality of compe ion, any of Michael Jordan's playoffs included. Something like that is simply not likely to happen again.
The Spurs remind me moreso of the 2004 Lakers than anything. A team that was once great but just got tired, mentally and physically. A team that keeps thinking "we'll flip the switch one day". A team that relied on over the hill role players. Switching the flip is easier said than done.
There are a lot of parallels between the 95 Spurs and the 08 Rockets though. Big winning streaks and gaudy regular season success, but a legacy of dissapointing playoff failures preceding which raised serious questions as to each teams ability to win a le. David Robinson was looked at back then as a great player who's teams always came up short in the playoffs. Same for Tracy McGrady.
Pretty incredible to read the 95 Spurs finished the season 40-6.
2003 Lakers, really. 2004 added Payton and Malone and had a deep run. Otherwise they were shot.
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