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We Should’ve Known Better with the Spurs By Alden Gonzalez
12.17.2008 - Updated on 12.17.2008
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Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Going into the season, the San Antonio Spurs were an afterthought in the Western Conference. We thought, after they came up short the previous year, that the Spurs were too old and their time to dominate the NBA was over. But, as the season progressed, we were proven wrong, and San Antonio was once again a legitimate factor in the NBA.
Sound familiar?
Well, maybe that’s because it’s happened every single year since Tim Duncan and David Robinson were doing shaving commercials, Avery Johnson was directing offenses with the ball in his hands and Sean Elliot was hitting clutch 3-pointers.
Ever since the franchise took home its first championship in 1999, despite what fans said – or wanted to believe – going into a season, the Spurs have been right there among the game’s elite.
And they never go away. That’s why I consider them the cockroaches of the NBA (which may explain their incredibly bland all-black uniforms).
Maybe they’re always picked to fall off because they’re just not exciting enough.
Maybe Duncan’s game is too perfect, Gregg Popovich’s postgame press conferences are too boring and the rest of its stars are not American enough – or at all.
Whatever it is, year in and year out, we think the Spurs have met their demise. Then –like those two-to-three-inch black, prehistoric creatures that walk your hallways in the middle of the night and scare the bejesus out of you when you go into the kitchen for a midnight snack – they come right back just when you thought you’ve killed them off.
This year is no different
At the beginning of the 2008-09 season, we had more reason to believe the Spurs’ run would come to an end than ever.
San Antonio had just come off losing a five-game series in the Western Conference Finals to a Los Angeles Lakers team that, with Andrew Bynum healthy, looked to be even better for the following year. And before the season even started, star shooting guard Manu Ginobili was guaranteed to miss nearly a month of the regular season.
Those thoughts heightened immensely when, with the Spurs already struggling to a 1-3 record to start the season, star point guard Tony Parker was expected to miss two-to-four weeks when he suffered a sprained left ankle on Nov. 7.
That’s it, right?
Season over. The West is too good, and the Spurs are too banged up.
But did we forget Duncan is the greatest power forward of all time?
Like a true legend should, “The Big Fundamental” held down the fort until his two star teammates returned, and he is currently averaging 21 points and nearly 11 rebounds per game.
Not only that, but now, Ginobili and Parker are back. And just like every year in recent memory, the Spurs are a scary team.
Since Nov. 21, the Spurs have won 10 of 12 games and are now sitting pretty with the fourth-best record in the West at 15-8. And they haven’t been getting fat on a soft schedule, either. Included in that 12-game run are home wins against the Jazz and Hawks, and road wins against the Nuggets, Mavericks and Rockets.
Lakers’ biggest challengers
But despite San Antonio’s recent success and previous championship allure, we all know who the team to beat in the West will be this year – the Lakers.
Are the Spurs good enough to take down Los Angeles this season? I don’t think so.
But I do believe they are the team with the best chance of doing so not named the Boston Celtics.
Crazy, right?
The Houston Rockets now have their own “Big Three,” the Denver Nuggets finally have a floor general in Chauncey Billups, the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks are full of All-Stars, and the Portland Trailblazers, Utah Jazz and New Orleans Hornets have incredible amounts of youth and athleticism.
But the one thing that has made the Spurs so good over the years is the one thing that makes them better than all those aforementioned teams: consistency.
And going into these playoffs, San Antonio will have two things none of those squads possess: the experience of winning an NBA championship, and the cohesiveness of playing together.
Better than ever?
It also doesn’t hurt that I believe this Spurs team may be better than any other they’ve fielded since the new millennium.
Believe it or not, injuries to Parker and Ginobili may have been the best thing to happen to this team because, for the first time in a long time, the end of the bench had to step up and take a more definitive role.
And that proved to me that, for the first time in a long time, San Antonio has one of its deepest teams ever.
Roger Mason (13.3 points per game) has proven to be a great offseason acquisition, Matt Bonner (8.2 points, 4.7 rebounds per game) is finally starting to play with some confidence, 22-year-old George Hill (9.9 points, 3 assists per game) has been one of the more pleasant surprises on the Spurs’ roster, and even though Ime Udoka isn’t putting up the numbers this year, I’ve been impressed with his skill sets since he emerged with the Spurs after several stints in the NBA Development League.
Yes, Michael Finley, Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas and Jacque Vaughn are aging gradually as you read this column, but they’ll be there come May and June.
Add those grizzly veterans, combine the young, upstart players and mix it all up with three stars who have proven they can lead teams to the Promised Land and what do you get?
The same thing you’ve been getting for almost a decade.
So why do we keep getting fooled? |
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Posted by
Celtics Pride
on 12.17.2008 | I actually see the Spurs facing off in the Finals with my Celtics. DUNCAN VS GARNETT is a classic. Sorry Lakers, your team sucks, thats why we beat da hell out of yah ! . | Posted by
King James 23
on 12.17.2008 | Yeah the Spurs are the only ones in the West that can beat the Lakers. And I see the Spurs and the Cavs on the Finals. Wow, this is another great rematch! . | Posted by
Go Lakers!
on 12.17.2008 | Here in L.A, we respect the Spurs because we believe that the closest team to oust the Lakers out of title contention in the West is the Spurs, whether if the Spurs end up in the first or 8th seed in the playoffs. Wish we can trade Gasol, Bynum, and Odom for Duncan. Kobe and Duncan is like Magic and Jordan on the same team...LOL. . | Posted by
Oscar De La Hoya is not a true Mexican
on 12.17.2008 | Everyone tend to forget that Tim Duncan is the best player and the most accomplished than anyone in the last 10 years. There is no way in hell that he will let the Spurs lose again to the Lakers in the playoffs. I truthfully see the Spurs beating them in six games with Odom struggling, Bynum getting into fould trouble, Gasol choking, and Spurs reserves and others like George Hill, Mason, Finley, Oberto, Thomas, Bonner, Bowen, and of course Manu Ginobili outplaying Lakers reserves Farmar, Sasha, Radmanovic, Ariza, Fisher, and Walton. . | Posted by
Prince of Compton
on 12.17.2008 | I agree Prince of Persia. The Lakers, the Celtics, and the public have longed disrespected the Spurs. The Spurs didnt win 4 championships for nothing. But again, they keep winning while people keep sucking up to the Lakers and Celtics. I wouldnt be surprise with the Spurs beating the Lakers. Trust me, the Spurs are a better team in the playoffs than the Lakers. . | Posted by
Prince of Persia
on 12.17.2008 | John Hollinger said that the Sputs will not make the playoffs. LOL. While everyone have their eyes on the lakers winning the West, I strongly believe with a healthy Spurs they can beat the Lakers. I see Duncan, Tony, and Manu by far much more superior than Kobe, Odom, Gasol, or even Bynum. But again the sanctity of the game is no longer as it use to, as the measurement of publicity and adoration is about being self centered and conceited, that is why the Lakers and the Celtics are popular, but the Spurs, despite of their modest and respectful approach to the game, they will once again rise and dethrone the lakers in the West and meet the Celtics in the Finals and beat them. . | Posted by
Genghis Khan will eat Alexander the Great for breakfast
on 12.17.2008 | People always underrate the Spurs because they dont have a single cocky and arrogant player like the likes of unprofessional and uneducated lowlives like Lebron, Kobe, Pierce, and Garnett. But the Spurs won 4 titles by making little noise and the media ignores them the whole season to suck up more for your celebrity athletes. . | Posted by
gucci
on 12.17.2008 | niggaz be sleeping on them bc they can be boring out there and annoying to watch, but they play the right and play both ends of the floor which many teams dont. I think LA is the team to beat also in the west but i think if they meet in the playoffs spurs would no surprize if they win and if there still going in june wouldnt be no suprize to see them do there typical every other year championship . |
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