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Serge Ibaka and the Thunder made news in the interminable 3 days off between Games 2 and 3, upgrading his status from “out for the remainder of the playoffs” to “day-to-day”. This is a radical change for a serious injury, and one that make the Spurs seem prescient. The thought of a fully healthy Ibaka roaming the paint on D and swishing 18-footers on O is a provocative one, but…
Oklahoma City 77, San Antonio 112 San Antonio leads the series 2-0 The more things stay the same, the more they change. This isn’t your (slightly) older sibling’s Oklahoma City vs. San Antonio Western Conference Finals. As I’m sure has been written a hundred times, 2012 ain’t walking through that door. Serge Ibaka and James Harden ain’t walking through that door. Rookie Kawhi Leonard ain’t walking through that door. Playoff…
Oklahoma City 105, San Antonio 122 Spurs lead series 1-0 Along with the tired ‘old’ tag, a common misconception about these Spurs is that you want to make them run, to speed up the game, that they’re too old to keep up with the young legs. That’s just plain wrong. Theres’ nothing these Spurs want to do more than play with pace; pace is how they win games. The Spurs…
Both teams are back where they belong, looking to finish unfinished business. Over the last 3 years, these are the two best teams from the West, so it’s only fitting that they meet in the Western Conference Finals. For the Spurs, this journey began moments after their crushing defeat in Game 7 of the Finals last year. Anything less than a chance for a return to the Finals would be…
Portland 82, San Antonio 104 Spurs win series 4-1 That was the most gentlemanly Gentleman’s Sweep imaginable. Go up 3-0 to essentially end the series, but let the lower seeded team close down their building for the season and send their home crowd off with a victory. Before mercifully ending the series in Game 5. The Blazers played hard, but the writing was on the wall early, even as they…
San Antonio 92, Portland 103 San Antonio leads series 3-1 Sometimes it’s as simple as energy and desperation: who wants it more. Portland can surely see the writing on the wall, but badly wanted to give their great fans one last win, to hold their heads high. San Antonio would love a sweep, sure, but were never going to be able to summon the same intensity as this proud Blazers…
San Antonio 118, Portland 103 Spurs lead series 3-0 And that thorn is the San Antonio Spurs. (Sorry, I just can’t resist rose puns right now.) To paraphrase Zach Lowe on Twitter, The Spurs are just being bullies now. This is particularly evident in the first halves of these games, in which the Spurs have gone into intermission with 26, 19, and 20 point leads, respectively. Games can not be…
Portland 97, San Antonio 114 Spurs lead series 2-0 These are texts I received from dear friends and Blazers fans during Game 2: “Blazers are good. Spurs are WAY better.” “They are so good.” Even after two games, Blazers fans seem to be accepting their shortcomings in the upgrade in class of competitor. This isn’t about a team not playing well or slumping; this is about a team playing their…
Portland 92, San Antonio 116 San Antonio leads series 1-0 That couldn’t have started any better. After finally coming alive in Game 7 against the Mavs, the Spurs picked up right where they left off, just annihilating the Blazers in Game 1 in all areas of the game. The Spurs offensive machine was humming, the defense was as good as I’ve seen all season, and Portland just looked completely unprepared…
Dallas 96, San Antonio 119 Spurs win series 4-3 Finally, a game between these two teams like we all kind of expected all along. Like the 9 that had preceded it over the last 2 1/2 years. It only took 7 games and 2 weeks, but the Spurs finally looked like the Spurs again. From top to bottom (at least the bottom of the shortened playoff rotation), everybody did what…
