2015-16 NBA Thread (feat. the Wives)

I wonder if they would have played so well if it had been the Lakers, Knicks or some other patsy they were facing on the road. The Spurs are a lot of incentive for any team. Not saying they wouldn't have, mind, just that it may not have been the record that was in their heads the most.

 

Good win for their mentality.

 

If they lose to the Spurs in the West finals, I'm sure The Narrative will say it's because they're too tired from four weeks earlier. But that will be crap. The Spurs are damn damn tough.

I'm still not convinced the Warriors are better than the full-strength Spurs. Of their 192 matchup minutes this season, Duncan played 27.

 

At this point Duncan is not the key for the Spurs; at least from my vantage point. He's a very good rim protector but that means he can't get out on the PnR against the W's, which plays right into the Ws gameplan. On O, Duncan is not the reliable low post threat he used to be.

The Ws put a lot of Qs to rest tonight; most importantly reminding everyone that the Ws basically can overcome any obstacle, even the Spurs on the road, on the back end of a B2B, with some 0-33 streak going and the Spurs protecting the perfect home record.

 

Didn't you just agree with me two pages ago that the streak was irrelevant to these guys because they won a playoff game there?

On Duncan, he is a starter who averages 25 minutes, more in the playoffs. His absence from these games is a big enough deal to make drawing conclusions almost meaningless.

 

I said there was no mental block to the streak; but I'm not going to deny that it was part of something the W's put behind them tonight, they can stop talking about it now.

Duncan's absence is something but if I'm the Spurs I'm not taking too much heart in that; they lost the season series 3-1; got blown out in the biggest game of the year, and are the #2 seed. Oh yeah, and they have to rely on Aldridge more than Duncan in the playoffs, where he's not a proven winner (admittedly he's not had the greatest support).

 

I hope for the Spurs' sake they can find some "proven winners" somewhere in the organization.

 

Do you just love jumping to the snark? I hate that I even jump to this bait. I guess somewhere in my posts you've leaped to the conclusion that I believe that the Spurs have no "proven" winners and that they're just going to sink or swim based on Aldridge right? Brilliant. Of course, I think that Popovich, Duncan, Ginobili, Parker, Leonard are all past their prime and the Spurs have no shot unless Aldridge plays like a superstar.

 

Duncan missed the first game in Oakland and had limited minutes in the second and third meetings, which no doubt led Pop to sit him tonight.

 

You aren't making very much sense. I think you get in a Draymond-like frenzy watching the games.

I can't tell if you're serious here. Could go either way based on the rest of what you've said.

 

I'm not sure what's more amazing. That you wrote two paragraphs almost entirely using letters instead of actual words, or that I still got the gist of what you were saying.

 

Maybe Popovich is playing a long game there? At some point he realized the Spurs weren't catching the Warriors, so he held out Duncan in the head to head matchups to keep them from getting a good look at something he wants to do when they meet in the playoffs?