The battle lines have been drawn. The favorites have been picked. And after five and a half months of an up-and-down NBA regular season, the playoff picture for 2010-11 is in front of us. "Win or go home". That’s what they say in the NBA commercial and that’s exactly what it is. The San Antonio Spurs were sent home by Phoenix in 4 games last year. Stellar performances by Steve Nash and Amarie Stoudemire made Tim Duncan and co. look a few months older than what they actually were.
The regular season had also been a roller coaster ride. They had a few good games here and there. Injuries had plagued the team toward the end of the season; Richard Jefferson hadn’t quite fit into the scheme of things. George Hill and Dejuan Blair had shown great promise but weren’t up to the mark. Overall the team wasn’t consistent and although they put up a tough fight, they never looked like getting past Dallas.
In 2010-11 things were different.
Within a month of starting their campaign the Spurs were on a 13-1 run and one thought if these were the Spurs of the 2000s. If you saw their game you were sure that they were a different team. In the past decade they would go to Tim Duncan for his bank shot. If he was double teamed one of the perimeter guys would get a long ranger and "Timmy" would get an assist against his name. Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili were able supporters and the team enjoyed great success with that approach. Robert Horry, Mike Finley and Bruce Bowen would provide the odd but crucial big plays.
This season they decided to hustle. They ran out into the front court with purpose and fast break points were the order of the day. The plan no longer seemed to find a forward to post-up. Instead they started taking (and quite often making) the first available shot and that showed in their 3 point shooting percentage (.397). The Spurs were up and running and age no longer seemed to be a factor. But for Pop it still was. So Duncan saw fewer minutes on the court and the bench was called upon quite regularly and they did deliver. Richard Jefferson came up with big numbers. Gary Neal got close to 10 points per game, Blair got crucial rebounds and scored the odd bucket and Matt Bonner kept getting crucial 3s. After the break they slowed down a little bit but the wins kept coming and what seemed like a team that had got off to a good start all of a sudden seemed like a team that could win home court advantage throughout the playoffs.
They would have ended with a franchise high number of wins in a season but a spate of injuries and a 6-loss streak towards the end just pulled them back a little bit. What Spurs did well this season was TCB or taking care of business. They dropped very few games against teams ranked low in both the conferences. The down side to that statistic is that 12 among the 20 losses have come against teams that have moved ahead to the Western Conference Playoffs. So the going is definitely going to tough. Apart from the streak of losses, injuries, Jefferson’s form is also crucial. Neal and Splitter will be playing in their first NBA playoffs and Hill and Blair will have to show that they belong to the big leagues. There is also the small matter of a 37-year old going for a 5th ring.
Round one against Memphis starts on Sunday and just to let you know the colors to cheer for are black and grey.
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