RealGM

When: 10:30 PM ET, December 16, 2013
Where: STAPLES Center, Los Angeles, CA

Should be a good one against the Clippers tonight.

Go Spurs!!

Really excited for this one...Spurs have to start beating some elite teams if they want to be taken seriously as WC favorites.

Boarder Patrol wrote:Really excited for this one...Spurs have to start beating some elite teams if they want to be taken seriously as WC favorites.

Agreed, but it's still way too early to be concerned about that. Clips are tough but far from unbeatable. If we can slow things down and keep it ugly we will be ok.
Winning basketball in the playoffs is usually ugly basketball and I'm not sure if Doc Rivers has that team buying into the style yet.

Per usual, I predict a close one

Edit: Never mind, he's playing.

Not a good performance last night. Parker looked gassed and the defense was awful.

My prediction strategy didn't work
Guess I can stop doing that. I missed the game due to Monday Night Football here.

Boarder Patrol wrote:Really excited for this one...Spurs have to start beating some elite teams if they want to be taken seriously as WC favorites.

I've lost count of the amount of times we've gone into a playoff series and opposing fans shout about a 3-1 season series advantage, or a 4-0 or something like that...and then it gets to the playoffs and we cream them.

I'm not saying that by not beating these so-called elite teams we've got nothing to worry about, but from what I've seen so far the only west team that will give us trouble in a seven game series is OKC.

I'm impressed with Portland, but they live and die by the jump shot and if that's not falling for any stretch in a playoff series, they will be eliminated. The Knicks started out hot last year after a crazy November/December where they couldn't miss, and we know how that turned out for them.

The Rockets rely on Dwight and Harden, so I'm not fazed with them.

The Clippers haven't done anything.

Donald Kaufman wrote:

Boarder Patrol wrote:Really excited for this one...Spurs have to start beating some elite teams if they want to be taken seriously as WC favorites.

I've lost count of the amount of times we've gone into a playoff series and opposing fans shout about a 3-1 season series advantage, or a 4-0 or something like that...and then it gets to the playoffs and we cream them.

I'm not saying that by not beating these so-called elite teams we've got nothing to worry about, but from what I've seen so far the only west team that will give us trouble in a seven game series is OKC.

I'm impressed with Portland, but they live and die by the jump shot and if that's not falling for any stretch in a playoff series, they will be eliminated. The Knicks started out hot last year after a crazy November/December where they couldn't miss, and we know how that turned out for them.

The Rockets rely on Dwight and Harden, so I'm not fazed with them.

The Clippers haven't done anything.

I feel the same about the West. OKC is the only team that scares me and even they are not as good as the team that ran us out of the gym 2 years ago. Barring injury I still feel pretty good.

If Duncan can get back to somewhat near to the level he was playing at last year, I think the Spurs will be fine. Surely, Splitter will be better with another year of experience, and Manu can't be as bad as he was last year (I hope). I don't really expect much out of Manu, just that he isn't the third best player on the opposing team again.

I think Belinelli looks like he will be a solid contributor. Diaw should be pretty good in the playoffs. I expect Leonard to really pick it up in the playoffs. Green will probably be solid by the playoffs.

With the question of whether Duncan will able to continue to hold back Father Time unknown, I think the Spurs should be better this year. Maybe quite a bit better.

But don't count out the Clippers. Give them a healthy Reddick, and if they can somehow trade for a half way decent back up big man, I think they could be right there with the best of the West.