If the Spurs win the Xmas game...

[Fabbs]

Dortz often reminds me of this guy. His cheapshots were the trigger.

 

[Fabbs]

 

[Exstatic]

I think people are getting a little ahead of themselves. OKC won 68 games last year with an all-time great point differential en route to an NBA title. No, it wasn't the most impressive or dominant postseason run we've ever seen but it's a title nonetheless. They then brought back pretty much every player on that team, and all of those players are at the stage in their career where they figure to at least maintain their play from last year if not get better. They're now 26-4 (even after losing 3 games in the past couple of weeks) with the best record and point differential in the league.

It's great that we won two straight against them. I do think our personnel matches up pretty well against them relative to other teams. I'm just not so sure OKC is sitting there "scared" of SA, and a lot of people here almost seem to be framing it like we're clearly a better team or would be favored in a playoff series...and it's that sort of thing that I just have a hard time getting behind at this point.

Back in the day when we were the proven commodity, we would laugh at fanbases that acted like winning regular season games meant they could beat us in a playoff series...just saying.

I think their record is more a function of the state of the league, adding in tanking. They’re also not nearly the proven commodity they think they are, nothing like the Spurs, who went 15-2 on their initial ring run. Those are wins and losses to notice.

 

[ginobilized]

Hopefully the Spurs have some magic left in the tank for tomorrow. We have been very well-prepared for the Thunder and Maestro Mitch and his Many Minions are using a masterful variety of lineups against them. We have such a nice array of guards now with Fox/Castle/Harper/Vassell. It seemed like they tried to neutralize Castle's passing and he became a scorer, they tried to neutralize Fox's scoring and he had 10 assists. The way these guys take what the defense gives and their unselfishness make for a tough night at the office for most teams. It's not quite the Beautiful Game, but, it's very Spursian and is a welcome change to the iso-heavy, cookie-cutter offenses are using these days.

KJ was incredible last night, we can't expect a repeat of that tomorrow, but, he's been able to put guys in the torture chamber down low. The way we played the passing lanes against OKC was very OKC-ish. Kornet played his ass off as usual and Wemby was about a 5.5/10. To the point of this thread, I believe we are already well into the heads of OKC. A Christmas victory would pretty much put the league on high alert.

 

[mudyez]

OKC has to be scared shitless after this game - getting blown out with Wemby on a minutes restriction scoring 12 points.

This Spurs team was basically built to beat OKC -
Wemby is a hard counter to Chet that neutralizes all of his advantages over regular players
OKC's small fast defense and Chet's build is awesome against most teams because they can swarm, but vulnerable to power drivers and Spurs have 3 in Castle, Harper, and Keldon
Chet's not going to be able to put on much more bulk, but Castle and Harper are just going to continue getting stronger
Too many people watching Wemby games, potentially mitigating OKC's typical bs whistle
Spurs lead assistant is the same one who coached the last team to beat OKC in the playoffs

Long term in order to counter the Castle/Harper backcourt, they need a hyper-athletic rim protector next to Chet who can swallow up drives while still being mobile enough to switch on the perimeter, since Chet works best as a weak-side shot blocker. This is why I think Presti does everything he can to make sure he takes Jayden Quaintance in the draft this year, he's one of the few guys out there who fits the bill.

Glad, Ibaka isn't playing anymore.

 

[mudyez]

All the talk about having 3 ballhandlers (+Vassell +Wemby) being a problem...but thats just how you handle OKC. And I love how our three guards seemnto embrace it and even papa Harper understanding.

It probably is a year to early, but yeah we might be OKCs kryptonite.

 

[spursistan]

I think people are getting a little ahead of themselves. OKC won 68 games last year with an all-time great point differential en route to an NBA title. No, it wasn't the most impressive or dominant postseason run we've ever seen but it's a title nonetheless. They then brought back pretty much every player on that team, and all of those players are at the stage in their career where they figure to at least maintain their play from last year if not get better. They're now 26-4 (even after losing 3 games in the past couple of weeks) with the best record and point differential in the league.

It's great that we won two straight against them. I do think our personnel matches up pretty well against them relative to other teams. I'm just not so sure OKC is sitting there "scared" of SA, and a lot of people here almost seem to be framing it like we're clearly a better team or would be favored in a playoff series...and it's that sort of thing that I just have a hard time getting behind at this point.

Back in the day when we were the proven commodity, we would laugh at fanbases that acted like winning regular season games meant they could beat us in a playoff series...just saying.

Agreed. It would be foolish to try to discount the Thunder after this mini-slump. It is a long 82-game grind. The best thing to happen for them is the Warriors' 73-win record chase is dead before it even began. Now they can focus on fine tuning stuff and gear everything toward becoming the first NBA repeat Champs since 2018