I didn't notice that technically the Thunder have fallen to the 6th seed, with Portland taking the 5th spot (they're tied). 5th through 9th in the West is so tight right now.
its kinda not a fair analogy because spurs are different than the rockets their quality of play is always around the same and its a standard for them that their scrubs raise to allstar level play when alpha dogs are abstent
Can we stop it with this myth that the Spurs are just as good without their star players? Last year, the Spurs won 61 games with a +7 point differential with Kawhi Leonard producing 13.6 WS, with a higher WS/48 than Harden (.264 vs .245). This year, the Spurs are on track, despite some development from some young guys and a resurgent LaMarcus Aldrage, to win 50 games with a point differential of +3.4. The Spurs go from 2nd in the west to 4th/5th pretty quick, they are only two losses ahead of the #4 seed.
They're 3rd seed right now with, arguably, the best two-way player in the game having played only...9 games? Their backcourt has been complete trash all season. Murray hasn't developed as fast as the Spurs want, Parker has been injured, Manu has shown his age. Mills has been garbage. They're giving significant minutes to some dudes named Bertans and Lauvergne. Gasol hasn't been great. To still be competitive in a ridiculous stacked West, with your best player available (LMA) averaging 22/8? That's damn good. LMA: 22/8 Leonard (played in only 9 games, currently injured): 16/5 Gay (played in only 34 games, also injured): 11/5 Gasol: 10/8 When the second best player on your team (uninjured) is averaging 10/8 and you're still in the race for HCA in the first round of the playoffs, that tells volumes about the team. Who else but Pop and the Spurs can remain competitive with the amount of issues they've faced, this year? To compare them to the HOU and GS and BOS of the NBA, is doing the Spurs a disservice, to be honest.
