Spurs clinch home court advantage in the West

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I was still driving back to Austin after the game last night, so I can’t confirm with my own eyes. But they tell me that the Lakers lost to the Warriors last night, clinching the number one seed in the Western Conference for the Spurs.

I doubt there was much of a celebration from the Spurs, as they’ve said year after year that you have to win on the road to win an NBA championship.

But, as someone pointed out in the comments in one of the game threads (sorry, not going to go back and look it up, I don’t remember which game it was), bench players usually show up more often at home than on the road. So the more home games the Spurs can boast, the better chance there is of guys like Matt Bonner, Gary Neal and James Anderson performing well.

I excluded George Hill from that last group because, well, he’s George Hill. And Indiana George looks like he’s rounding into playoff form nicely.

The Spurs have a two game lead with three to play on the Chicago Bulls for the best record in the NBA, and thus, home court advantage in the NBA Finals. But the Spurs should be much more concerned about actually qualifying for the NBA Finals. Home court advantage in that series should be the least of their concerns.

If the Spurs and Bulls end up tied with the best record at the end of the regular season, the tie-breaker is record against opposing conference. And if I remember right, if both teams are tied on that record, then it goes to coin flip. Yes, a coin flip. They are going to flip a coin to determine who has the best record in the NBA. 82 games, all for naught.

If the playoffs started today, and they don’t, the Spurs would face the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round. The Grizz are a game back of both the Portland Trail Blazers and New Orleans Hornets in the standings. If you’re the Spurs, you should be hoping for the Hornets to fall to that eighth spot, what with David West out with a torn ACL and all.

Avoiding the Grizzlies also means that either the Lakers or Mavs have to face the Grizzlies in the first round, which would be fun to watch from a distance. The Spurs have a nasty habit of picking up injuries against Memphis, so it’d be nice if they avoided them. Also, the Grizzlies are tough.

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  • DieHardSpur

    I am elated for my SPURS! All the nay-sayers had pegged us to be at 48 wins. Well, how do you like them apples!?!

  • http://www.bpifanconnect.com Alix Babaie

    I completely agree with wanting to draw the Hornets in the 1st round.

    It also looks as though Dallas is not a shoo-in for the #3 seed, seeing as they are now only 1 game ahead of OKC.

    Just curious to see if you would rather face the Mavs / Nuggets winner or the Thunder?

    The Spurs have handled OKC very well this year but that was before the acquisition of Perk.

    I personally would love to see Dallas fall to #4 and get their ass beaten up by Denver.

    Your thoughts?

  • betsyduncan

    I think that the ‘Wrecks could beat the Nougats in a long series—but I really don’t care!
    I’m glad that we edged out the Fakers, finally!
    And even if the Nulls reach that best record, that still doesn’t guarantee that they’ll come out of the East.
    For pride, I want our guys to have the best record overall, though.

  • DorieStreet

    HCA in the west playoffs (for finals -TBD). Yeah, it would be nice to face NO without David West- he was a beast in the ’08 wc semis. But if it’s MEM, so be it. That squad will be without a starter- Rudy Gay (avg. nearly 20 ppg and 6 rbg during the 54 games before the inury). So let’s not moan and groan if the Grizzlies stay in the 8th spot.

  • Rick Ashford

    It’s worth pointing out that, even though we have a 2 game lead on the Bulls, we’ve played 2 more games than they have, so they can cut that to 1 without us even doing anything. They’re playing Boston tonight, so I’ll definitely be cheering for the green.

    As for their Orlando game, it looks like Howard is going to be suspended for his stupid technical last night, so that one probably won’t even be a challenge. Unless it ends up being a trap game. Nah, they’ll kill the Magic without Dwight.

    But, as long as we keep winning and improving for the playoffs, we’re in good shape.

    Go Spurs, go!

  • SAJKinBigD

    I have a hypothesis: Pop is _playing_ the League. He’s playing the stubborn, tottering, wine-o, stuck in his rut of the players he likes and doesn’t. Come playoff time…WHAM! He unleashes Splitter and TD as the new Twin Towers. They’ve been working solid in practice and the times it does come in game, but Pop doesn’t want anyone (ie other teams) to really focus on it or have a lot of game-tape on it until he’s ready to REALLY UNLOAD the HOWITZERS!

    Now – how many folks on here have coaching experience? Okay… Now how many of those folks have NBA COACHING EXPERIENCE?

    Right. Questioning and wondering are all well and good, but save the BASHING for when things have failed – not while we’re still alive and accomplishing goals (Southwest Div/Western Conf and possibly HCA throughout…).

  • SAJKinBigD

    Also, I wouldn’t mind getting the Mavs in Round 2 - but scuttlebutt around here (Dallas) is that they’re positioning themselves for just that matchup. It irks me so much when they WANT to face us, like they did so very well against us during the season.
    Personally, I think I’d like to see NO in Round 1 - I’ve got family down around NO, so I think we could get tix for a game - and Mavs in Round 2 - living in Dallas, I’d be able to get to one game here and one in SA - and Lakers for the WCF - I WANT OUR GUYS to be the ones to put them down. :) And either the Heat or the Celtics for the Finals - Smacking the Lebrons around for the championship or the Celts and their “pedigree”; I’m good either way.

  • Hobson13

    Great night to be a Spurs fan! In October, even the most optimistic Spurs fan thought we might only win 56-58 games. Now we are at 60 and could have even won 65+ if it weren’t for that 6 game snafu. IMO, it wouldn’t hurt if Pop played the starters sparringly for the remainder of the season.

    I’m not as concerned about the Bulls having HCA (assuming they even get to the Finals) as I would be about the health of the team. I say roll the starters out for a couple of quarters against Utah and Phoenix, but don’t play anyone against the Lakers. No need to risk injury or give away strategy.

    Hopefully we get NO in the first round, but I think we could still handle the Grizz in 6 games max. Memphis just doesn’t have the playoff experience to hang long-term with the Spurs. A Duncan/Splitter combo could matchup well against a Randolf/Gasol duo. Oh well, there’s still a lot of things to be decided in the last 5 games of the season. We could also be facing the Trailblazers if we are unlucky.

  • junierizzle

    I’d rather play the Grizz than the Blazers. Just for the simple fact that the Blazers are tough to beat in the Rose Garden. I bet they tie the series at 2-2 no matter who they play.

    The Grizz are tough but I think not having Rudy Gay will finally catch up with them in the playoffs.

    I’d pick the Hornets just so that the Lakers WON”T get them. Can you imagine? The Lakers playing a half-assed season, “turning it on” for the last 20 games, and you get the West-less Hornets in the 1st round. They might as well just give them a 1st round bye.

  • grego

    Preference of who I’d prefer the Spurs play:
    1) Hornets
    2) Grizz
    3) Portland

    Hornets are the easiest of the low seeds, so if Spurs don’t get them, Lakers do.

  • rob

    Though, for obvious reasons, it would be nice to face the weaker opponent in the first round, it might also do the Spurs good to not have TOO easy a time going through a playoff series only to have to play against a team that just went through a grind it out series.

    A tough series might have a tendacy to wear out a player or produce injury…but the phsycological advantage of winning a series like that goes a long way to helping the team win yet another tough series if all stay healthy.

  • ribanez1

    Respectfully to all concerned. The Spurs without Ginobili will have a very difficult time beating the Grizzlies or any other playoff team. Secondly, Pop should waste some fouls using Splitter on Randolph. Splitter can give you some minutes and length. By the end of the game the Grizzlies inside edge was evident. Pop’s stubborn refusal to use Splitter perplexes me ! Use the guy !