Kick your feet up and relax, make yourselves at home

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Remember a week ago when the sky was falling, the Los Angeles Lakers were unquestionably going to overtake the top seed, and the San Antonio Spurs were surefire cannon fodder for either the Memphis Grizzlies or Portland Trailblazers in the first round?

Keep the umbrellas out if you must, but it turns out the Spurs scorching start was not for naught after all. Last night’s 124-92 drubbing of the Sacramento Kings, coupled with the Golden State Warriors 95-87 victory over the Lakers means the Spurs clinch the top seed in the West and home court advantage in a possible Spurs-Lakers Western Conference Finals.

From ESPN Stats & Info:

The San Antonio Spurs clinched the one-seed in the West after the Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Golden State Warriors. During the Tim Duncan era the Spurs have held the one-seed five times including this season. On three of those occasions the Spurs have at least made the Conference Finals and twice have taken home the NBA title. On Wednesday, the Spurs also became the first team this season to reach 60 wins as it is the fourth 60-win season in team history and third since drafting Duncan in 1997. The only other teams with three 60-win seasons in that span are the Lakers and Dallas Mavericks (three each).

Rest, if not rejoicing, is in order. Especially considering around this time a year ago the Spurs were going full tilt just to keep out of the eighth seed.

Now the question through the rest of the regular season is what to do with the rest of the regular season. Some cameos may still be in order for a few of the veterans to clean things up a little more, but at this point the team is what it is.

And these Spurs are a legitimate 60-plus win team that, despite the nice story, did not put as much emphasis on the regular season as people like to report. The minutes were still restrained, some nights still given off, and injuries still erred on the side of caution. Their ceiling may not run as high as the Lakers, but their basement doesn’t quite sink so low and the group has been more consistent than the rest of the NBA all year long.

So relax dear readers, your Spurs are good. How good will be determined in the coming weeks, but for now enjoy what could be another extended look at Tiago Splitter, some face time for your Steve Novaks, Danny Greens, and James Anderson. And try to keep the blood pressure down through what could be even longer stretches of Blair-Bonner fun—save that energy for the playoffs, the regular season mission is accomplished: We get to support them at home.

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  • Titletown99030507d

    @MarkB,

    Cool. Same here.

    This is our best shot and lucky for us the offense seems likes its now back on track and less prone to mental mistakes. Good time for us to start moving forward while the Lakers are moving backwards.
    GSG!

  • Titletown99030507d

    @TD=BestEver,

    I said Splitter or Blair? not Splitter or Bonner.

    You think Bynum is a bug?

  • TD = Best EVER

    They are called typo’s, should have said big…… I usually don’t check to see If I spelled everything correctly….. I also said “in” when I should have said “is”………

    But Splitter is better a guarding players of that size…….. I just don’t think this is or should be Blair v Splitter……. Just giving Bonner 20-25 min a game in the playoffs will be a huge mistake as always…… I would start him off at around 10 min or so and let him earn the rest of his minutes during that 10 min stretch……. The same would go for Splitter and Blair……

  • td4life

    “Bonner and Blair is definitely the way forward.”

    Talk to me when the Spurs start their summer ahead of the likes of Chicago or the West’s #2 seed…
    Both of these guys bring something, but over the course of a series, both are gonna get thoroughly exposed and give you big L’s when you needed it least.

    Splitter is not the answer at the end of games when Dice gets the nod, but a long player who makes his mark on D is gonna be more reliable than an undersized guy (Remember, not even Charles Barkley could ever overcome that obvious fact), or a shooter. And Splitter in the PnR also gives you good high-percentage opportunities. Unfortunately stubborn Pop has made his bed throughout the season, and the outcome will be predictable.

  • Titletown99030507d

    @td4life,

    That’s not my post. Someone did an inside job on me. And I will find out. Ok who’s the coward?

  • MSteele

    Ahhhh Titletown99030507d
    It twas I!!! Dun dun DDUUNNN
    First of all I didn’t think it would work because someone already had the name.
    Secondly it was only a joke, everyone on this board knows you won’t need a new name next season if they play significant mins together. I was just mocking the fact that you constantly bring up Splitter. No offense was intended just a childish prank.

  • http://www.48minutesofhell.com Timothy Varner

    MSteele,

    That’s not the sort of prank we welcome. Let’s agree that this is the end of it.

  • Bob

    Winning it all means you need good offensive execution and good defense. You can’t get by with just the offensive execution. In the playoffs teams focusing on taking away each other’s strengths. That’s why the playoffs is oriented to stars taking over. All the game plans break down and they have to create their own shot. Pop has said that they won’t win unless they improve their defense. They haven’t all season and by his own words currently they’re not going to win. Unless the defense gets a makeover in the playoffs it’s just not going to happen. That’s why it’s baffling that Pop is unwilling to work Splitter into the rotation even though he can help the defense.

  • Titletown99030507d

    Ok MSteele, play fair now. I have to admit the mouse did crack me up!

  • MSteele

    Im sorry buddy, hope no offense was caused, it certainly wasn’t intended.

  • Titletown99030507d

    @MSteele,

    Okaay, just feel a little violated right about now. I’ll just take a shower and come back next season and start new and pretend it never happened.

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