Tag: Dallas

Spurs links: Could TP fill the Lakers’ biggest need?

I couldn’t send Spurs Nation off to bed tonight without a bedtime snack of a few Spurs-related newspaper links from around the nation from the last several days.

Enjoy.

Maybe these reminders of  your favorite team will get you through the angst of watching Dallas tonight in the Western Conference finals.

  • Veteran Los Angeles Times NBA reporter Mark Heisler explains why to the Los Angeles Lakers.
  • John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News writes how weird the 2011 playoffs are .
  • Memphis Commercial Appeal editor Chris Peck writes about what the Grizzlies’ victory over the Spurs .
  • Kevin Modesti writes in a front-page story in the Daily News of Los Angeles why Los Angeles fans aren’tas Spurs fans are missing their team in the playoffs.
  • Mike Wise of the Washington Post compared the Spurs’ 2011 playoff performance to for the New York Mets late in his career.
  • Tom Oates of the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison opines about the in a Spurs-less conference finals.
  • Old pal Herb Gould of the Chicago Sun-Times writes why a Chicago loss to Miami like the Spurs’ loss to Memphis or the Lakers being ousted by Dallas.
  • Drummer and San Antonio native Dave Vela of the gospel faith band Abandon tells the Houston Chronicle’s Kent Matthews .

Does this really feel like the conference finals to Spurs Nation?

The Eastern Conference Finals started Sunday night with Miami and Chicago battling in a tightly contested defensive battle.

Dallas and Oklahoma City will kick off their Western Conference finals Tuesday night.

And for whatever reason, something seems to be missing.

Maybe it’s merely a changing of the guard.

But for only the second time since 1999, the conference finals won’t be including either the Spurs, the Los Angeles Lakers or the Boston Celtics.

We’re being treated to new teams and new stars. Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant obviously are two of the most important pieces in the future of the NBA. “The Heatles” command attention after their celebrated grouping over the season.

But without Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and their iconic teams these playoff series appear to be a little stale from those in the past.

It will be interesting to watch how the television ratings play out for the remaining games.

Is Spurs Nation making these upcoming games appointment television over the next several weeks?

Or is it reacting with a collective yawn without their favorite heroes and villains playing in the upcoming games that will culminate the NBA season?

Rethinking Memphis

What the Grizzlies did to the Thunder Sunday won’t make the Spurs feel much better. But the game confirmed what the Spurs coaches said not only after the first round, but also during.

Such as: There were times when they felt, given the power and control of Memphis, they were the ones coaching the underdogs.

Oklahoma City can recover from a home loss in the opener. Marc Gasol, for example, can’t shoot 9-of-11 every game.

But the Spurs were thinking the same after Gasol shot 9-of-10 in their home loss in the first game of their series. As the games followed, however, the Grizzlies continued to put together the perfect playoff formula: Rugged defense, halfcourt offense, few turnovers.

Add to that a nice mix of youth and experience, with three bigs who can alternate with each other, and isn’t anything possible for this group?

At least the Spurs came within a Shane Battier 3-pointer of winning in their opener. The Thunder never threatened as the Grizzlies outlined everything they did against the Spurs. Whereas Mike Conley had two games against the Spurs where he played over 40 minutes and ended with just one turnover in each, he had no turnovers in 39 minutes Sunday. Whereas Zach Randolph finished off the Spurs with a 31-11 game, he put a 34-10 game on Oklahoma City.

Asked about Randolph afterward, Kevin Durant told reporters in Oklahoma City, “He’s an animal,” and the Spurs used similar descriptions. Durant also called him “the best power forward in the league.”

The conference’s No. 4 seed is finding out what the No. 1 already knew. And that should have everyone rethinking Memphis.
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The only other No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 in a best-of-seven series was Golden State over Dallas in 2007. The Warriors followed that by losing the first two against Utah, and eventually losing the series in five games.