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Finally… A 12-Game Win Streak
The Spurs had 53 at the half; the Jazz had 53 after 3 quarters. That should tell you all you need to know about this game, as thorough a beat…
After what seemed like 2 1/2 months off, the Spurs finally resumed playing in the NBA Playoffs. And by most accounts, picked up right where they left off. The big topic of discussion was the “rust vs. rest” debate, a storyline that is brought out every time a team has an extended lay-off in the playoffs. In my thoughts over at The Big Fundamental’s series preview, I thought the expected…
After eight long days of waiting, the Spurs-Clippers series finally kicks off tonight. Here are previews of the series from around the league. From NBA.com: Few things about the No. 1 seed in the West could be more different than the Clippers, and not just in terms of franchise history. While the worn-out Clippers are facing their sixth game in 11 days, the Spurs haven’t played for eight days since…
After a week or so, our long (Spurs) national nightmare will soon be over: Sunday afternoon will crown a victor in the first round series between Memphis and the other LA team, and the Spurs will finally have a second round opponent. It would seem now that the more likely of opponents is Memphis. Having survived Game 5 and 6, they now get the clinching game at home, with health…
The copy is weak, but it’s nice to see Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Tim Duncan (finally) make an appearance in an NBA BIG promo spot. “No need to rush. Cutters are coming. Screens are being set. Pass is pinpoint perfect. And somebody ends up wide open. No flash. No gimmicks. No chance of stopping it. It’s the quiet guys you should fear. Because words are small. And game is…
And like that, we’re into the second round. Barring the last 5 minutes of the game, in which the Jazz made one last in-the-throes-of-defeat comeback, I was very impressed by what I saw in the series. I expected the series to go 5, the Spurs swept; I expected the Jazz to give the Spurs lots of trouble and play close games, and they really didn’t. For the most part, the…
It might seem like a ridiculous question to ask. Of course sweeps matter, right? Conventional wisdom has it that rest is paramount for older teams and older players. Pop has made resting his older players a science, and a source of frustration to fans and the league, during the regular season. In the playoffs, the team doing the sweeping in the first round gets more rest, which gives them an…
Coming into the series against the Jazz, Devin Harris was the player I feared the most. Any Spurs fan should know why: The 2006 Western Conference SemiFinals, in which two 60-win teams (due to a seeding quirk later corrected) squared off in what Tim Duncan, Marc Stein, and myself still consider one of the greatest playoff series of all time, even despite it’s heartbreaking conclusion. (More than 2004 and 0.4,…
The Spurs had 53 at the half; the Jazz had 53 after 3 quarters. That should tell you all you need to know about this game, as thorough a beat down as you’re bound to see in a playoff game. The Spurs controlled the game from the start, but used a 20-0 run at the end of the first half to blow it open, running even further away in the…
Congratulations to Coach Gregg Popovich for being named the 2011-2012 NBA Coach of the Year. It is a well-deserved honor for one of the greatest coaches of all time. The NBA Coach of the Year Award is an interesting one, as it is often handed out to the coach of the team that has the most surprising year. And when a team has a surprising year, it’s usually because the…
The Spurs started the game sluggish and out of sorts, looking like the scared, untested playoff team. Manu Ginobili missed an open-court fast break dunk… The Jazz out rebounded us by 6… The Jazz also had 8 more fast break points than us… Leonard and Green were mostly invisible the entire game… Splitter injured his wrist in the first half and never made it back into the game… The Jazz…
