The final step... We've finally developed a contender-worthy identity.

Things can change so quickly if you know what happens to you know who. I'll keep my expectations low. When Yao went down, I would have been happy if we were a top 8 WC team by the time he returns. I'll stick with that.

 

I like how everyone is cutting the Spurs out of the picture.

I wouldn't want to face them in the playoffs, even though we DO seem to matchup well with them and they don't have enough perimiter threat to expose our weakness on defense. A team with good 3 pt. shooters is our worst nightmare. The Suns are good at that, if we face them, can our defense make them choke like all the other seasons?

The Spurs are an elite team and they will prove it. I'd rather play teams without Finals experience and championship poise.

 

I agree w/ this. Most of the Spurs have been deep into the playoffs or finals several times. And now I think they've taken a page out of Shaq's playbook. They're trying to get homecourt, but their main goal is to peak in the playoffs.

 

Oh no! We must reverse the jinx!

DaDa, say something!

 

I still think the Spurs are good, but I dont think they are the team they once were. They look very old and slow when they play. Ginobili seems to be having an off year. THeir bench is not contributing as much as usual. They have very bad center situation. Duncan is getting older. Bowen in my opinion is a very overrated defender. I respect Duncan and most of the spurs, but I just dont think they have "it" this year. They need some atheleticism and youth added to their team.

 

It's nice to see such optimism. We have done much better than expected without Yao and with a rejuvenated T-Mac but we have a long way to go before becoming a contender for the championship. We need depth. Let's hope that we can get a decent player at the trading deadline without having to give up anyone significant.

 

they absolutely obliterated the wizards tonight. caught the game on league pass and they didnt seem old and slow to me. they lost a few games and everyone thinks they suck now

 

Over the next 3 years we are gonna have a great shot at a title. We are one of the few teams in the WC that can play spoiler to the mavs or suns. The Spurs still scare me, especially with homecourt, but we can certainly take them. If I could pick, I'd pick a team like the Jazz or Lakers (or a 7/8 seed) that I think we should beat to progress, but I wouldn't be terribly down if we had to face the Spurs first. With Bonzi and Yao back I think we can beat them and anyone on our way to the finals.

 

touch wood guys. this team rides on the strength (or lack thereof) of t-mac's back.

one split second and it could all change.

 

i love the positive and enthusiasm in this thread and at this time around the board, but let's not get carried away. like someone else said, one game at a time.

 

We're going to have to go through both the Mavs and the Suns, so worrying about playoff positioning will only affect our first round matchup, which we should win anyway.

 

This team is led by proffesionals. Howard, Battier,Mutombo, all help identify this team. I do not see a major collapse at any point this season. They are too smart and have to much heart to do that. I believe we can end this season at a 2 to 1 ratio for the last 34 games and that will get us 50 wins (for the second time in 3 years).

I completely agree with your post and your math.

 

I don't think we have played our best basketball yet. Our 2nd half schedule is more favorable than most teams. We're gonna be in good shape and should finish either 3rd or 5th. Most likely 5th with homecourt in the first round.

 

Tmac would have to get injured in the next 2-3 weeks for us to not get higher than 6th. The top 6 WC teams would be first in the East, but after that you have random .500 teams that are playing bad. Assuming Tmac doesn't go down (I think its a good assumption personally, he doesn't have to score 30 a night for us to win anymore, thus less strain on his back), all we have to worry about is LA, and if we keep playing the way we have been playing, I think we win the spot over them simply because of the easier schedule. We could potentially get 3rd like some people have been saying.

But an interesting question is, which is better 5th or 3rd? If the regular ended with SA 3rd and us 5th. We play Utah in the first round, probably with home court advantage, then in the second round we play Dallas. If we end up 3rd, we play LA with home court advantage, then Pheonix. Both are harder matchups. I would personally rather play Dallas than Pheonix because we just dont seem to match up well with them.

 

We're going to have to beat them both to get to the finals.

 

Not Pheonix and Dallas. If we get 5th, we have to play Dallas in the second round, and in order to play Phoenix San Antonio would have to lose to Phoenix, which I doubt would happen in a 7 game series. I'd say we have a better chance at beating San Antonio than beating Phoenix. Phoenix just gives us problems, while we've beaten San Antonio twice IN San Antonio, each time with one of the stars injured.

 

Despite that, we match up much better with them than the Suns or the Mavs. So even if they are great, we still have a better shot at winning against them than the other two.

When both our offense doesn't click, we can still fight on defense. The Mavs and the Suns just have too much offensive power, which is sth that doesn't bode well with our team in a 7 game series.

 

I agree with this entirely. That was the point I made earlier. I think Both Dallas or San Antonio can beat Pheonix in a 7 game series. If we were 5th seed I think we'd face Dallas in round 2 and I sincerely believe that the Spurs would beat the Suns and I think we could beat Dallas and San Antonio on the way to the finals. There are a lot of "what if's" in all of this, but I really think we're better off being the 5th seed (as I think we'd still have home court in the first round...and assuming the suns and mavs win their first round match ups, we'd lose our homecourt advantage in the second round anyway). As for the media saying we'd never have made it to the finals if we had to face the Suns. You know what, if we make the finals, the media can say whatever they want. Houston always has the stigma of winning a championship the two years Jordan was out, to me it doesn't matter - we were still the champs, end of story.

So again, assuming Dallas stays number one and we can be fifth seed but have a better record than Utah - I'd rather the Rockets be 5th seed than 3rd seed. Just my two cents.

 

The rockets have beaten the Spurs two out of three times this year. Once with Yao and once with T-Mac. With them both we are clearly better than the Spurs and deserve at least third seed in the west.