Are the Spurs tanking to dodge OKC 2nd rnd?

eslr · Post #21 » by **eslr** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 7:10 am

Aki wrote:
Atmanne wrote:I think the Thunder are talented, but this notion that folks are tanking to avoid them is hilarious to me. No guarantee at all that they get past Denver.

lets not kid ourselves

yes they are going to get past the nuggets

Thunder have had a hard team beating good teams the last 2-3 months. The new Nuggets have beat as many playoff teams in a month as the Thunder have beat 2.5 months. The Thunder are far drom a lock from beating the Nuggets.

teamgrizz · Post #22 » by **teamgrizz** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 1:58 pm

Its funny how people think their is a huge gap between OKC and the 5-8 seeds in the West. BTW, what is their record against the teams 5-8?

Grizfan6969 · Post #23 » by **Grizfan6969** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 2:14 pm

teamgrizz wrote:Its funny how people think their is a huge gap between OKC and the 5-8 seeds in the West. BTW, what is their record against the teams 5-8?

I can't speak for the other 3 teams but Memphis is 3-1 against OKC this season.

Dr Aki · Post #24 » by **Dr Aki** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 2:42 pm

all growing pains, having 2 new big men into the rotation late into the season will do that for a team

koogiking · Post #25 » by **koogiking** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 3:14 pm

Why would they bring back Tim Duncan early from injury if they were tanking?

Post #26 » by **The Rebel** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 3:17 pm

teamgrizz wrote:Its funny how people think their is a huge gap between OKC and the 5-8 seeds in the West. BTW, what is their record against the teams 5-8?

For the season they are 8-6 against teams 5-8, they are good against the Hornets and Trailblazers where they are 3-2 against each team. Against the Nuggets they are 1-1 and of course against the grizzlies they are 1-3.

The more interesting numbers show up with their record since Jan 1st. For the season the thunder are 9-13 against western conference playoff teams, since Jan 1st they are 4-10 against playoff teams. To this point since Jan 1st the only western conference playoff team they have a winning record against is the Mavs, and they have only played 1 game. Overall since Jan the thunder are 9-12 against teams with records above 500.

for comparison sake the Nuggets are 6-5 since Jan 1st against western conference playoff teams, and 3-1 since they traded Melo. against teams above 500 the Nuggets are 6-3 since the Melo deal, and 11-10 against all winning teams since Jan 1st.

Simply the Nuggets have a significantly better record against western conference playoff teams over the last 3+ months, have split the 2 games this year against the Thunder with the Nuggets winning the last game, and the Nuggets have done significantly better against winning teams since January 1st. yet everybody acts as if the Thunder are getting a walk in the playoffs, and the nuggets have no chance.

Teen Girl Squad · Post #27 » by **Teen Girl Squad** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 3:17 pm

The Thunder are 9-13 against western conference playoff teams this season and 6 of those 9 wins are against NO and Portland. I don't know when they suddenly became the most feared team in the playoffs.

Spanish_Laker · Post #28 » by **Spanish_Laker** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 3:19 pm

It makes no sense. San Antonio desperately needs 1st seed if they want to stand a chance against the Lakers. They all know they have ZERO chances of beating the Lakers without HCA. And stop overrating OKC, they might be upset by the Nuggets...

ClubLakers KB8 · Post #29 » by **ClubLakers KB8** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 3:19 pm

Dodging the Thunder is not worth losing home court against the Lakers.

/thread.

The Laker Kid · Post #30 » by **The Laker Kid** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 4:35 pm

The Spurs' age just caught up to them

Post #31 » by **dockingsched** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 4:43 pm

Aki wrote:
dcash4 wrote:they'd rather face the lakers without homecourt than the thunder with homecourt, yup.

thats one entire playoff series longer

if you could prolong your stay in the playoffs, why not?

give the spurs more credit than that! david robinson is rolling over in his grave.

Pass the ball · Post #32 » by **Pass the ball** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 4:49 pm

the Thunder have a chance to be elite next year, Denver not. That's why people are saying OKC will beat Denver. I can see them being a new contender winning high 50's , mabe 60's with Durant winning MVP next year.

desertlakerfan · Post #33 » by **desertlakerfan** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 4:53 pm

Teen Girl Squad wrote:The Thunder are 9-13 against western conference playoff teams this season and 6 of those 9 wins are against NO and Portland. I don't know when they suddenly became the most feared team in the playoffs.

Wishful thinking from a group of haters that don't want Kobe and Co to win it all this year.

Honestly if anyone would actually go back and watch the OKC/LA series from last year instead of just remembering it as a "close 6 game series" you'd notice 2 of the key advantages which kept OKC in that series will no longer be possible since the Perkins trade.

1. Kristic/Green vs Ibaka/Perkins. Defensively this is a huge upgrade, however in the games against LA last year OKC was able to keep the paint clear for Westbrook by starting a front court that could stretch the floor offensively. This is a great strat against LA since you can get both bigs out of the paint with 2 long range shooters. Also LA was not able to take advantage on the offensive end with their bigs outside of game 5's blowout last year, so really the defensive upgrade matters little when compared to the negative outcome on the offensive side of the ball.

2. Ibaka vs Odom. This is the key matchup which kept OKC in the series last year. Odom is our main force coming off the bench and a huge part of our success. OKC did really well last year in the playoffs against us because they brought Ibaka off the bench at the same time as Odom and effectively neutralized his game. Ibaka was tall enough to bother Odom's shot and fast enough to stay in front of him, not many defenders can match up with Odom like that. One defender who definitely can't, is Nick Collision. That matchup will heavily swing in LA's favor, and will take away a huge advantage OKC enjoyed in last year's playoff series.

I don't doubt that OKC is a good team and has improved this year over last, I just don't expect the series to go more than 5 games if they meet up with LA due to the roster/matchup changes making it a more favorable matchup than last year.

eslr · Post #34 » by **eslr** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 4:59 pm

Pass the ball wrote:the Thunder have a chance to be elite next year, Denver not. That's why people are saying OKC will beat Denver.

Awful logic.

JordansBulls · Post #35 » by **JordansBulls** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 5:12 pm

uncarved block wrote:6L's in a row ....

They may be hoping LA gets #1 to play OKC in round 2.

Post #36 » by **The Rebel** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 6:59 pm

Pass the ball wrote:the Thunder have a chance to be elite next year, Denver not. That's why people are saying OKC will beat Denver. I can see them being a new contender winning high 50's , mabe 60's with Durant winning MVP next year.

I could have swore they said the same thing about the Thunder last year, the year before that was the Rockets, the Hornets 3 years ago, the Trailblazers 4, the Hawks 5 years ago, the Nuggets 6 years ago. Every year or two some new team is the next contender if everybody just waits a year, but yet it almost never happens. The Thunder this year will get a higher seed, but the are only going to win 52-54 games, far from the 60 wins many were expected and proclaimed them capable just about 9 months ago.

The Nuggets on the other hand were said to be missing the playoffs after they traded Melo, since the trade they have won 77.8% of their games despite having many players missing games due to various injuries, which is an elite level, but most nuggets fans know you do not become elite until you can prove it in the playoffs.

uncarved block · Post #37 » by **uncarved block** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 7:04 pm

Obviously Pop read this thread and decided it was becoming a lil too obvious for a NT game

joelafan · Post #38 » by **joelafan** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 7:06 pm

They are tanking on PHX pretty hard man... Dam.. lol

Blame Rasho · Post #39 » by **Blame Rasho** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 7:38 pm

uncarved block wrote:6L's in a row ....

No... and this topic is stupid.

Pass the ball · Post #40 » by **Pass the ball** » Sun Apr 3, 2011 9:22 pm

The Rebel wrote:
Pass the ball wrote:the Thunder have a chance to be elite next year, Denver not. That's why people are saying OKC will beat Denver. I can see them being a new contender winning high 50's , mabe 60's with Durant winning MVP next year.

I could have swore they said the same thing about the Thunder last year, the year before that was the Rockets, the Hornets 3 years ago, the Trailblazers 4, the Hawks 5 years ago, the Nuggets 6 years ago. Every year or two some new team is the next contender if everybody just waits a year, but yet it almost never happens. The Thunder this year will get a higher seed, but the are only going to win 52-54 games, far from the 60 wins many were expected and proclaimed them capable just about 9 months ago.

The Nuggets on the other hand were said to be missing the playoffs after they traded Melo, since the trade they have won 77.8% of their games despite having many players missing games due to various injuries, which is an elite level, but most nuggets fans know you do not become elite until you can prove it in the playoffs.

Well I don't know who said that about those teams but whatever. Anyways the Thunder are 8-3 since having Perkins healthy in the lineup which translates to about a 60 win season. Obviously it's a small sample size but I'm just not a believer in Denver. It's nothing personal really, I hate seeing teams lose their franchise player but I just think that a team led by Kevin Durant has more potential to be elite than a team led by Danilo Gallinari. I think Denver can still be good but I just don't see them making the jump to elite status that I do the Thunder. Most elite teams of this most recent era have an elite player in them. The two most recent being Orlando in '09 (Dwight Howard) and this year's Bulls (Rose). The Thunder has Kevin Durant, who was runner up for MVP last year, yes even ahead of Kobe, Wade, Howard, all those guys. Denver has a collection of good players but none great to truly be elite.