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The Hornets will win the West.
From the Sporting News Link Here
With all these great teams in the West, how many of them have better than a one-in-three chance of knocking off the defending champions in a seven-game series?
Easy. None of them.
Seriously, what about the Lakers?
Call me when Andrew Bynum returns and is playing like he was before his knee injury. In other words, call me next season. After missing two months, he can't be expected to step in and pick up where he left off. Without Bynum at 100 percent, the Lakers still might be the second best team in the conference, but that doesn't mean they can handle the Spurs' experience, depth and Tim Duncan.
OK, what about the Suns?
Any team that is outscored 27-9 in the fourth quarter at home -- as the Suns were by the Mavericks on Sunday -- should not be booking rooms in Boston or Detroit for the first weekend in June. The Suns have played well enough lately to give their fans hope that the Shaquille O'Neal trade will work. The Suns also have had enough stretches like Sunday's -- when they were shut out for the better part of the last quarter -- to keep us doubters doubting.
The Jazz?
No one is better at home, but these guys really struggle on the road. I know the Jazz's league-best 35-4 record at EnergySolutions Arena includes Friday night's convincing 90-64 victory over the Spurs. But the Jazz haven't won in San Antonio since Carlos Boozer was a senior at Juneau-Douglas High School, and Utah is the only top-six team in the West with a losing record on the road. Gaining home-court advantage on the Spurs is a long shot because the Jazz trail by two games with five to play -- with the season finale in San Antonio. No home court, no chance.
The Mavs?
Well, I sure like their chances a lot more after their fourth-quarter performance at Phoenix on Sunday. Headed for the No. 7 seed and a possible first-round date with the Spurs, the Mavs have as good a chance as anyone to unseat the champs. One reason: Dirk Nowitzki's high ankle sprain could prove beneficial in the long run. When Nowitzki was out, Josh Howard raised his game, Jason Terry woke up, and the Mavs seemed to get more comfortable with Jason Kidd. Then Nowitzki made a quicker-than-expected return and, based on the way he's played in his past two games, is closer to 100 percent than anyone figured he could be two weeks after the injury. So maybe the bad karma that dogged the Mavs in their past two playoff series has dissipated. Then again, maybe it hasn't. I'm not ready to jump on the bandwagon after one impressive fourth quarter.
The Hornets?
I could use the rationale that teams don't go from not making the playoffs one year to reaching the Finals the next. If I did that, though, I would not be able to pick the Celtics to win the championship, and I'm liking the Celtics' chances more and more. So why not the Hornets? Their bench is thinner than the other contenders, and their lack of playoff experience will, in fact, hurt them.
The Rockets?
If you can remember the last time a team reached the Finals with its best player injured for the entire playoffs, please let me know.
The Nuggets? The Warriors?
A scout told me recently that a lack of leadership could cost the Nuggets in close games. He must have been talking about games like Sunday night's, when the Nuggets lost in double overtime at lowly Seattle. Sonics rookies Kevin Durant and Jeff Green delivered the big shots, not Allen Iverson or Carmelo Anthony.
The Warriors simply aren't big enough to survive three rounds of playoffs in the West, even if they don't have to face the Spurs.
Of course, the Nuggets and Warriors have to worry about reaching the playoffs before they can think about the Spurs
Stan McNeal is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at [email protected]
The Hornets will win the West.
Maybe in a year or two.... but by then your blazers will be formidable too.
For the record, I don't believe Utah to be better than San Antonio. You're the favorites until somebody knocks you off. But...
Utah's road situation is convoluted. In fact we have some great wins on the road. We won at Denver when it still mattered. We went to Phoenix and wiped the floor with them. In Boston, we handed the celts thier worst loss of the season. I'm pretty sure we beat NO in NO.
The fact is most of our road losses came against terrible teams- Atlanta, Indiana, New Jersey, Chicago, Charlotte, New York and Miami and lost on the road twice to Minnesota, twice to Sacramento and once to the L.A. Clippers.
To me, those losses don't speak whatsoever to our ability to beat good teams on the road. If anything it says that we had one terrible Dec. road trip and that we tend to play to the level of compe on around us. It's not a good thing, but to label the Jazz as a bad road team (as everyone has done) is to not fully understand the situation. Bad road teams don't whup the out of all the good teams they face on the road.
Hence, we don't have a problem with the road in general, we have a problem getting up for road games against teams. In the playoffs, there are no teams, hence the road shouldn't be nearly as much of a problem as it was back in that horrible Dec. we had.
Wasn't Patrick Ewing injured the entire playoffs in 98-99 when they reached the finals? Can't remember when he got injured.
I don't know exactly what round it happened in (or before the playoffs) but I do know it did happen, because it spawned The Ewing Theory.
The Mavs still have the best shot, without question. Next closest is the Lakers. After that, I don't see anyone in the west beating the Spurs. Maybe the Warriors if they somehow get hot and start consistently hitting half-court turnaround shots, and 720 degree spinning no-look behind the back layups, like they did last year against the Mavericks.
Then so will the Lakers with a healthy, wiser Bynum too. To speak on the Lakers side however, it's true that there is no system to come into easier to learn for a post player than the Triangle. I think he might come back and assimilate into the Post-Pau Era very well.
mavs have no way to stop Tim Duncan. Kidd gets owned by parker.
Mavs traded away Diop and Harris, those were the Spurs killers. Mavs have no chance in
I don't see Mavs winning even 1 game in a series vs. Spurs. The mismatch is on the Spurs side now.
But I do see Hornets, Utah and even Lakers/Phoenix giving the Spurs .
I think any team but Nuggets and Warriors can beat the Spurs in the west. Spurs should be able to beat Houston but we all saw the streak and if they get hot.......More likely to beat Spurs are the rest. That article was weak!
The Spurs are the favorites IMHO, but they are not the CLEAR favorites, they could be beaten by any team in the playoffs in the WC.......
The teams are that close.
DD
The Spurs have to avoid these scoring droughts. They can only rely on thier defense so much. However Manu and Tony and Tim have shown so much that I beleive it will be hard to beat the Spurs if they are healthy. I think if Horry and Barry are able to make ti back somehow then I like the chances even more!
It's all going to come down to health as usual. The lakers with Pau are 18-3 and have the highest offensive effeciency with Pau in the lineup. Defensively is where they need to make their stand and Bynum is huge in this regard.
The Spurs are the team to beat, but they are mortal this year.
Spurs
NO
Lakers
Phoenix
Dallas
Utah
in that order.
I'm far far more concerned with SA's offense, than I am with their defense.
Granted, defense wins championships, this team's offensive droughts could easily cost them a game or two in a playoff series.
And with how packed the West is this season, that's all it could take to knock SA out.
given up now that your blazers are gone?
This entire article reads like it was written by a drunk Spurs fan.
Gets it. This is what I've been saying all along, but Spurs homers seem to think that as long as their D holds up they can win every game.
Spurs have lost ONE playoffs series in the last 5 years.
The second was won by the clock and nothing else.
Hence, just consider the thing from the OPPOSITE perspective.
How are you going to WIN four games against this machine?
For some of the other teams -GSW, Denver, Houston, Utah- this is almost impossible.
The others do have a chance, but they have to play like they never did before at the playoff level.
NO lacks experience.
Suns have D'antoni and Stoudamire in the clutch.
Dallas has Cuban.
By and large, LA and their X factor do have the best shot in the West.
But the only serious, real contender is in the east, and Billups as a point guard.
The Spurs lost in 2002 and then again in 2004 to the Lakers.
In 2002 they lost 4-1. In 2004 they lost 4-2. Both series were lost DECISIVELY.
STFU about this 0.4 bull , your team lost fair and square to a better Laker squad. If you want to talk about lucky shots why are we not talking about Tim Duncan's lucky ass fadeaway shot that he hit right before Derek hit his?
I don't know if that whole "NO lacks experience" thing is gonna matter to be honest. Yeah, we have so much more experience than they do, but they seem to match with us very very well, so I'm worried about NO. LA and PHX as well, dallas not so much. Let's just say I'd be much happier to see Dallas in the playoffs now vs 06 or 07
If the Jazz and Spurs matchup first round with Jazz having home court, I think the Jazz take it.
Suns also matchup well with the Spurs.
Mavs vs Spurs should be in Spurs favor but Mavs have historically given the Spurs a hard time.
Spurs defense is as good as ever but their vulnerabilities this year are:
1) Very thin this year. 3 superstar players and the rest are streaky
2) Serious Lack of athleticism without the 3 point shooting to compensate (Horry, Barry)
3) Problems when guarding a big Small Forward and good guard at the same time (Peja and CP3, Lamar & Kobe, Boris Diaw & Steve Nash, Kirelenko & D-Will).
Because it didn't win the game. If it did, Lakers fans would be in our place, no doubt about that. I think it's a toss-up whether the Spurs would have won that series or not, but who cares, that was 4 years ago...
I think Medvendenko said it best. We are the team to beat but we are by far mortal this year. If the Spurs are going to lose this year, it's going to be to a team that is absolutely better in almost every way.
Derek's shot won the game, but it DIDN'T win the series like you morons claim. There were still games left to be played and the Spurs lost ALL OF THEM after that.
You guys are ing and moaning like the Suns did last year saying that if Amare wasn't suspended they would have won. The Spurs lost fair and square to a better team, ing man up and admit it.
I wasn't ing. I said if the Spurs won Game 5 it was still a toss-up of whether they would have won that series. If the Spurs were the better team they would have won Game 6 and then a Game 7, but they didn't. Fisher's shot didn't win the series but it gave the Lakers a good advantage. So what? Game 5 in the 2003 series gave us a good advantage too. The better team won both of those series.
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