Post#7 » by SinJackal » Tue Apr 24, 2012 4:52 am
Okay Spurs fans, so with this one, we've locked up the top seed in the west. That being said, the fate of several other teams should still interest Spurs fans.
Bulls: The Spurs are tied with the Bulls in record right now, but they have the tiebreaker, and thus will have HCA on us if it remains that way. The Bulls have two games left. One @Indiana, and one the day after at home vs the Cavs. I know you might be thinking, okay, auto win vs Cavs, but hey, possible loss vs Pacers! Well, the Bulls are in the middle of a big 3 game rest period where they will be practicing and gearing up for the Pacers. So I don't think it's gonna be that simple. It could happen, but that's the day we play the Suns, so if we tank to the Suns, there's no way we can have HCA against the Bulls. That's probably fine, since the Bulls have impressed me less as the season's gone on. I hate to say that because the Bulls are my "east team", whereas the Spurs as my "west team". Sometimes it seems like Thibs' offensive playbook must only be a pamphlet. But I digress from talking about the massive lack of plays that the Bulls suffer from.
Heat: They also have the tiebreaker on us, but they're TWO games back in the loss column. Even if we tank to the Suns, us cleaning everyone's clocks lately = we can tank to Phoenix and -still- get HCA on the Heat since they choked to the Wizards, so long as we beat the Warriors. So it looks like only the Bulls will have HCA on us in the playoffs, barring a meltdown against the Warriors after a Suns tankjob.
Suns/Jazz: They play eachother tomorrow, and it's on national tv. The winner of that game is likely going to be our playoff opponent. At that point, all we have to do to play the Suns in the playoffs is lose to them. Do I expect a 2010 again? Rofl. . .no. 2010 was arguably the worst Spurs team in the Duncan era. Actually, is that even arguable? I was shocked we even made it to the second round tbh. Once we got there, yeah, i expected us to beat the Suns, but we didn't, No big deal. This time the Spurs are so much better it's not even funny. Suns are also soft, so we will likely not pick up any injuries so long as Manu doesn't flop into one again. Jazz winning, well. . .we might's well just put the Suns out of their misery in that case, since Utah locks up their seed with a W against the Suns.
Lakers/Clippers/Grizzlies: As stupid as it is, all of their seeds aren't set in stone yet. We could still end up playing any of them in round 2. So their seeding will be something to watch, to see which team we'll not have to potentially face until the WCF (assuming we get there, for argument's sake). Let's hope the Clippers don't get the 3 seed, and that it's the Lakers or Grizzlies. That way the Thunder will actually have to earn their way to the WCF against legit dangerous teams for once.
If you look at the standings, you'll see there's a chance Utah can tie Dallas. Don't worry, they own the tiebreaker against Utah and can't fall below them. Dallas is at minimum the 7 seed.
