Tag: NBA championship

Spurs face familiar foe in Round 1 of the NBA Playoffs

It was a gritty win for the Los Angeles Lakers as they overcame the Houston Rockets in a 99-95 overtime game at Staples Center.  The win eliminated the Utah Jazz from the playoffs but placed the Lakers squarely in the path of the San Antonio Spurs quest for another NBA Championship.

Be sure to get  your tickets and cheer on your San Antonio Spurs!

Series schedule

Game 1 — Sunday, at San Antonio, 2:30

Game 2 — Wednesday, at San Antonio, 8:30 pm

Game 3 — Friday, April 26, at Los Angeles, 9:30 pm

Game 4 — Sunday, April 28, at Los Angeles, 6:00 pm

Game 5 (if necessary) — Tuesday, April 30, at San Antonio, TBA

Game 6 (if necessary) — Thursday, May 2, at Los Angeles, TBA

Game 7 (if necessary) — Saturday, May 4, at San Antonio, TBA

Marion believes that Mavs are being dissed

Sometimes, winning a championship can make NBA players do some strange things. 

Remember back in the day when Rasheed Wallace used to bring a championship belt to games to remind others that the Detroit Pistons were  reigning champions back in 2005. The Spurs snuffed all that out with a seven-game series victory.

And it’s now caused Dallas forward Shawn Marion to tell the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that all Mavericks should be .

“I want y’all to address me like that from now on — world champion,” Marion told the Star-Telegram.

Marion is peeved that the national media has overlooked the Mavericks’ accomplishment of winning an NBA championship. It’s  only been aggravated by the doubts of most observers of Dallas’ chances of being able to repeat as titleists.

“We’ve gotten to the point where everybody started overlooking us and talking about everybody else and I kind of got [upset] about it,” Marion said. “Y’all trying to take something away from us that we’ve worked hard for and we took.

“Everybody on this team has earned the right to be addressed as world champions, so everybody address us like that.”

Whatever.

It reminds me more of when wrestler Paul Orndorff demanded to be called “Mr.  Wonderful” or else he wouldn’t participate in “Mean Gene” Okerlund’s interviews in the World Wrestling Federation back in the day.

Pop not looking at ’99 season as template

The NBA’s last strike-shortened season provided unprecdented success for the Spurs.

The 50-game season in 1999 was culminated by the Spurs’ first NBA championship and a 37-13 record that represents the fourth-highest season winning percentage in team history.

But that season or how the team played then doesn’t matter much now to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

“I’m not sure there’s a relationship between what’s going to happen this year and 10 years ago or six years ago or 12 years ago,” Popovich said. ”This year is what it is and we’ll just play this year out. I don’t remember the last time I’ve believed in omens.”

The 1999 season was an interesting one for Popovich and the Spurs. The Spurs stumbled to a 6-8 seart before finishing by winning 46 of their final 53 games including the playoffs.  They punctuated that season by winning the NBA Finals in five games over New York.  

Popovich added that any secrets he might have learned during that short season won’t provide much help this year.

“If I learned anything, it’s already in there,” Popovich said. “I’m not sure I can pull it out right now. It’s probably in there some place.”