The San Antonio Spurs are only a game behind the first place
Oklahoma City Thunder for the top spot in the Western Conference but it seems
that Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich would rather keep his team in that second place
playoff slot.
Home court advantage is a great thing to have but in the
playoffs matchups have proven to be a much bigger factor in whether a team
advances or not. Last season neither one of the number one seeds made it to the
NBA Finals.
Before the year 2000 that would have been considered an
anomaly but in fact that has happened five times since the start of the new millennium.
It only happened once during the 1990’s.
Having the number one seed was very important during the 90’s
as the number one seed won the championship eight out of ten times from
1990-1999. On four occasions both conferences were represented by the top seed
in the Finals.
Since 2000 that dynamic has changed though. Only five of the
past twelve championships were won by a number one seed and only once did both
of the top seeds face off against each other in the Finals.
Even more telling is that a number one seed has failed to
make it to the Finals five times out of the past eight years. The NBA went four
years straight without a top seed reaching the Finals which may be an
indication of how much more competitive the league has become.
The Spurs understand fully how important it is to
concentrate on the matchup rather than just trying to obtain the best seed
after losing to the eighth seeded Memphis Grizzlies last season.
The Grizzlies lost games last season in order to drop down
to the eighth seed and face the Spurs in the playoffs. The Spurs are now eyeing
the Nuggets who have the weakest front line out of all the potential opponents
they could face in the first round.
The Spurs have a 2-1 edge over the Nuggets this season and
haven’t had any problem scoring against them. The Nuggets’ front line did boast
Nene earlier in the season but they traded him to the Washington Wizards at the
trade deadline.
San Antonio has had a much rougher time versus the Houston
Rockets who are currently in eighth place. Although they split the series with
the Rockets 2-2, the Rockets have played them tough. It took overtime for the
Spurs to get one of their wins.
The Spurs like most older teams also hate playing against
young athletic teams which they would avoid for a couple of rounds if the
playoff seeding remains as it is now. They would see the Nuggets in the first
round then face either the Los Angeles Lakers or the Dallas Mavericks in the
second round.
The Spurs could avoid facing a more athletic squad like the
Grizzlies, Thunder or the Los Angeles Clippers until the Conference Finals game
if they made it that far. Popovich knows the limitations that his team has and
has done a good job helping his team overcome its deficiencies so far but they
will be a lot harder to hide come playoff time.
But when you can no longer mask your weaknesses it at least
helps to play a team with more deficiencies than you and Popovich sees Denver as
a very flawed opponent. The Spurs hope he has calculated right because this team
is too old to remain a championship competitor for much longer.
Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2. He is also a Sports Reporter for Pro Sports Lives. He can be contacted at RHall_TPFB@Yahoo.com and be sure to follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist.
No comments:
Post a Comment