One Up

I’m On Fire (Kawhi's Quest to Curry Favor as the Second Coming of Bruce Bowen [A Novel]) - Kawhi Leonard's ability to defend Stephen Curry will be a key factor in whether or not the Spurs will prevail in this series. Last night, in chapter two of this saga, Kawhi did an admirable job limiting Curry to 22 points on 7-20 shooting. I can only recall a couple of times that Curry scored when Kawhi was matched up on him in isolation. Kawhi earned my player of the game with his defense on Curry and by having a solid offensive night while pounding the boards to post his first double-double of this year's playoffs. The problem last night, however, was that Klay Thompson was playing video game basketball in the first half. I felt like I was watching myself play NBA 2K13 and Klay Thompson was a custom player who was created with 100 percent three point ability. It was unreal how he was able to just pull up from anywhere and drain shot after shot. Of course, it didn't help that (in keeping with this video game scenario) it looked as if the defensive settings for the Spurs had been adjusted to the beginner level. Thompson torched the Spurs for 29 points and 7 three pointers before halftime putting San Antonio in the precarious position of needing to overcome a massive deficit at home for the second game in a row.

The #BlackAndSilver once again did an admirable job in the second half of getting back in the game, cutting the Golden State lead to as few as 6 with a few minutes left. If a couple more three pointers had gone down in the closing minutes, the Warrior's inability to hold leads under playoff pressure would continue to be a top national sports story. As it stands, San Antonio suffered our first playoff defeat of 2013 losing to the Golden State at home 100 to 91 and the Warriors are back to being the underdog darlings of the NBA playoffs having stolen home-court advantage from the Spurs. The Warriors are now 1-30 in San Antonio during the Tim Duncan era and we are officially now in a fight to win this series. I take comfort in the fact that the Curry performance in Game One and the Thompson performance in Game Two were more than likely aberrations that will be difficult to repeat as the pressure mounts and the intensity in the series builds. If these playoff first-timers can continue to replicate those types of performances, hats off to them and the Spurs are going to likely need another miracle to get out of Oracle Arena with a victory.

I'm fully confident that Danny Green can match Kawhi's playoff level defensive pressure and San Antonio will be able to contain both Curry and Thompson to the extent necessary to leave the Bay Area with either one or two victories over the weekend. In Three Down, I had wished for the Spurs to face more adversity than we did last year in the early rounds of the playoffs. Sweeping through the first 10 games last year left us ill-prepared when we finally faced adversity against Oklahoma City in the Western Conference Finals. Seemingly, I have gotten my wish. The Spurs face an unbelievably hostile environment over the weekend but if we want to be champions we are going to have to win tough games on the road. Past championship-winning Spurs squads have thrived under these circumstances and I'm fully confident that this current group can do it as well. I'm looking forward to the weekend. We're going (going) back (back) to Cali.

#GoSpursGo

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Featured Image Source: Questionable Questing

Headline Image Source: Nintendo

Five Down

Warrior (Warriors, come out to play [e-ay]) - Well, they sure did. Stephen Curry lived up to the hype, torching the Spurs for 44 points and 11 assists last night. Curry broke a close game wide open in the third quarter by going absolutely bonkers. He had 22 points in the period, compiling that insane total by hitting ridiculous shot after ridiculous shot. It didn't matter who we threw at him or how close our contests were on his jumpers, everything was working for the NBA's newest sensation. When we started trapping him on the perimeter he made the proper reads to get the ball to an open teammate. The Spurs trailed by 12 points after three quarters and the crowd at the AT&T Center seemed shell-shocked by what was occurring.

Things weren't looking much better for much of the fourth quarter. With four minutes remaining in the game, San Antonio still trailed by 16 points. I talked to several Spurs fans today that said that they had checked out of the game and went to bed or changed the channel by this point. Luckily for me, I'm the type of fan that hangs in until the bitter end (especially in the playoffs) and embraces the misery of getting beat. Miraculously, last night was one of those special moments where everything fell into place to allow the #BlackAndSilver to comeback in a game that they had no business coming back in. Kawhi Leonard started making plays on offense and defense. Tony Parker came alive and started attacking the rim. And Danny Green hit a super-clutch game tying three with less 30 seconds left in the game, capping an 18-2 run that forced overtime.

With the Spurs stealing all of the momentum to force the game into overtime, I thought that Golden State might come out blurry eyed and lose their ability to compete after having to deal with the dejection of blowing another seemingly insurmountable lead. To their credit, this was not the case as they battled the Spurs rally for rally and shot for shot throughout the extra period. Despite the fact that the Spurs had been, for all intensive purposes, playing without Tim Duncan since the end of the third quarter (Timmy was still battling a stomach bug) including the amazing rally to close the fourth, you could tell they were starting to figure out Golden State by overtime. Kawhi was figuring out how to defend Curry on one end and Tony was figuring out how to break down the Warrior's defense on the other. Somehow, Golden State was able to hang tough and tie the game with just a few seconds left. This set up Manu Ginobili to be the hero, as the Spurs ran isolation for him at the end of overtime. Manu got a good look, but couldn't put it in. Double overtime.

Things started looking dicey as the Spurs fell down by 5 points early in the second overtime. But once again, the Spurs fought their way back with Boris Diaw hitting a big three to keep the game within reach. The Warriors were becoming visibly tired as the period wore on and the Spurs, playing the aggressors, were able to retake control of the game with around one minute left. San Antonio had built their lead to as many as 6 and were still up 3 with about 40 seconds left in the game when Manu Ginobili happened. Inexplicably, with 11 seconds left on the shot clock, Manu pulled up from 4 feet outside the three point line and attempted to seal the game with one shot. The results were catastrophic as Golden State immediately turned the ricochet off the rim into a quick fast break finger roll by Curry. Still up by one, the Spurs came back down and Tony Parker missed a layup because of heavy contact (the referees could have easily called a foul) and the Warriors sprinted back down to get the ball on the break to Kent Bazemore, of all people, to score his first playoff basket on a lay up to take the lead. Timeout, Spurs down one...3.4 seconds left. Everyone, at this point probably knows the rest. Manu Ginobili happened again. San Antonio Spurs 129, Golden State Warriors 127 in double overtime.

After the game, Spurs Coach Greg Popovich was quoted as saying, "I went from trading him on the spot to wanting to cook him breakfast tomorrow." It goes without saying that Manu Ginobili was the player of the game. Manu did what only Manu can do. After almost wasting a historic comeback by needlessly trying to seal a game with one shot that the Spurs were at an advantage to win already, Manu came back and sealed the game with one shot. This was one of the most incredible NBA playoff games that I've ever seen and I'm glad that I watched every single second of it. Having Manu seal it with one of the more memorable of his plethora of memorable clutch playoff shots was nothing but classic.

#GoSpursGo

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Featured Image Source: MySA

Headline Image Source: SBNation

Four Down

Guerrilla Radio - It was two minutes into the third quarter when Dwight Howard, well, went all Dwight Howard and got himself ejected from Game 4 of the Los Angeles Lakers first round series with the San Antonio Spurs last night, effectively ending one of the worst experiments of throwing team chemistry out the window to chase the allure of superstar talent melding in NBA history. After Howard's ejection, Kobe Bryant made an appearance on the bench to give the Lakers fans one last thrill, but by the end of the third quarter - the Spurs were up 20 points and LA super fan Jack Nicholson was leaving the building. The final score was 103 to 82 and this rapid playoff exit was the first time the 16 time Champion Lakers have been swept out of the first round since 1967. Last night's player of the game for me was Dejuan Blair who played some huge minutes off the bench for the Spur's depleted front court. Dejuan had 13 points and 5 rebounds in 19 minutes and seemed to constantly be making plays the entire time he was on the court. Having dispatched the Lakers quickly, the #BlackAndSilver will now have roughly a week off to get healthy (with Tiago Splitter and Boris Diaw nursing injuries) and prepare for a second round match up with either the Golden State Warriors or the Denver Nuggets.

While I'm ecstatic that the Spurs have eliminated their long time rival in dominant fashion, a much more important story broke today in the world of sports. NBA center Jason Collins, who finished last season for the Washington Wizards became the first American professional athlete playing in one of the four major American professional sports leagues (NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL) to announce he is gay. This was a courageous announcement and a major advancement for gay rights within the American sports landscape which is tragically behind the curb when it comes to the acceptance of homosexuality. While there have been professional athletes who have come out of the closet after retirement, it is dumbfounding that in 2013 not a single one had done so as an active player; until today. Hopefully, Jason Collins' courage will usher in a sea change in progressive openness within professional locker rooms and he can serve as a role model for any athlete at any level thinking about coming out of the closet. He will likely serve as inspiration for countless young athletes to see that there should be nothing to fear in being openly gay. The best part of following this story today was seeing the groundswell of support from the NBA community towards Jason Collins. As a life-long NBA basketball fan, I am thrilled to see that community rally around Collins and I'm happy that it was a basketball player who was the first to break down this barrier.

#GoSpursGo

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Featured Image Source: SBNation

Headline Image Source: Famous Fix

Three Down

Sleep Now In the Fire - Last night, the LA Lakers waved the white flag of surrender rather than making a stand against the San Antonio Spurs in their home city. The #BlackAndSilver manhandled them 120 to 89, dealing the historic franchise their worst home defeat in playoff history. While the writing has been on the wall for some time regarding this disastrous season for the Lakers, keep in mind that this is still the same team that many pundits predicted could win 70 games last summer when Dwight Howard and Steve Nash were brought in to team up with Kobe Bryant.

There isn't a whole lot to say about the Spurs performance, other than they are rounding into the same type of overpowering machine as last year. This type of systematic dismantling of opposing defenses propelled them to win their first ten playoff games in 2012 without a defeat. Of course, we don't want to replicate last year's results. I would much prefer that the Spurs face some adversity earlier in this year's playoffs. Speaking of adversity, it was really disappointing to hear that Russell Westbrook is out indefinitely. If a rematch of last year's Western Conference Finals is in the cards, it would be much more gratifying to take on Oklahoma City at full strength. Hopefully Westbrook can get sooner rather than later.

Back to last night's carnage, my player of the game was Cory Joseph. He has been playing tough and has been active around the basketball throughout the series and is noticeably contributing to the cause. I know that Coach Pop gets plenty of credit for being a genius and what not, but pulling Cory Joseph out of the D-League to become the Spurs starting point guard earlier in the season when Tony was injured was a brilliant move. Pop could have easily filled that hole with a combination of Patty Mills and Gary Neal and just bode the time until Tony returned. Instead, he gave Cory the confidence boost he needed to take his game to the next level and become an effective player. That foresight is paying off in spades right now. Hopefully, Cory can continue to have that Speedy Claxton type high energy presence off the bench behind Tony. If so, we might be looking at lights out, guerrilla radio at the Staples Center tomorrow.

#TheBattleOfLosAngeles

#GoSpursGo

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Featured Image Source: Airminded

Headline Image Source: Amazon

Two Down

Red Nation - Last night, the #BlackAndSilver held strong on their home court defeating the LA Lakers again 102 to 91. Even though the Lakers injury problems just seem to keep getting worse, we shouldn't feel sorry for them (they have had more than their fair share of good luck over the years) nor should be write them off; they're still dangerous. Game 2 was a much more focused, dominant performance with several players deciding to join Timmy and Manu by rounding into playoff form. Tony looked dominant for the first time since coming back from injury, and Kawhi showed glimpses of being the second-coming of James Worthy in transition. If Kawhi keeps progressing with his ability to run the one man fast break, he will add a dynamic to our attack that could serve invaluable as the playoffs progress. However, the player of the game for me was the Red Rocket himself, Matt Bonner. Matty B. played his ass off on defense and was able to get Dwight Howard a little flustered. Whether is was because of Bonner's peskiness or not, it was clearly evident that Howard checked out of the game mentally half way through the fourth quarter. Bonner also hit clutch threes which is crucial for us to have a shot at making a run this year. Bonner's jumper has seemed to stop falling under the pressure of the playoff lights in passed years and with Boris Diaw injured and Steven Jackson exiled, it is critical that Matty can stretch the floor by draining threes. Keep it up, Bonner!

#RedMamba

#LetBonnerShoot

#GoSpursGo

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Featured Image Source: Bleacher Report

Headline Image Source: NBC Sports

One Down

On Top of the World - In a thrilling addition to an already amazing first weekend of Fiesta, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Los Angeles Lakers this afternoon 91 to 79 at the AT&T Center. There is no place quite like San Antonio for this time of year. Can't nobody check the city right now.

¡Viva la fiesta!

...from the top of the world.

#BlackAndSilver

#GoSpursGo

That Good Ole, Dreadful Feeling

You had almost forgotten how a day like today feels. The nervousness. The doubt. The utterly terrible nagging that permeates deep in your gut from the moment that you wake up. Upon noticing it while yawning after your alarm goes off, you already know that it won't subside at any point during the day. Sure, you rise out of bed, grab a cup of water and three Advil to dust out the cloudiness of a six beer night. You think about turning on the TV, but hesitate slightly, because at this time of year you usually turn on SportsCenter with coffee and breakfast in the morning. Instead, you turn on Morning Joe trying to use election coverage as a way to distract yourself. You grab a yogurt for your breakfast. You start a pot of coffee, shower, get dressed for work and quickly shift to focusing on going about your business.

The drive to the office is a tough one, though. Do you listen to the radio and embrace the angst? Or do you drive quietly thinking of anything but; trying to fool yourself into pretending it didn't happen or better yet, that you just don't care. You choose the latter. Once you arrive at the office, you concentrate on the tasks in front of you, sipping your coffee quickly in an attempt to blanket your blues in a solid caffeine rush of bliss. You let your new-found alertness swindle you into properly focusing on the things that you're being paid to focus on right now. You crush your morning, squeezing every drop of productivity out of your time at the office; shielding yourself from the undercurrent of anxiety that you can't allow yourself to acknowledge.

You leave the office. You have a three hour window out in the field that will take you from late morning to mid-afternoon. You need to be on your game when you arrive at your destination but at this point in the morning, deciding not to turn on the radio during your drive is no longer an option. You need to know how the rest of the world is analyzing the events that transpired last night. The national perspective is as expected. A counter punch. A resurgence. A momentum changing statement. The national pundits tease your anxiety and mesmerize your paranoia. There is no time to dwell on your expanding doubt; you have arrived at your destination. Game face. Three hours of interacting with your business associates allows you to push the trepidation back to the corner of your mind. By the end of your time in the field, it is hunger, not anxiety, that dominates your attention. No radio, just back to the office.

Starving, you grab your lunch out of the fridge and pop it into the microwave. Usually when you eat your lunch at the office, you take a break from work while you eat to surf the web or listen to a podcast. Today, you start by checking The Huffington Post and your Twitter feed, but you already know that this attempt to insulate yourself will be short lived. You're a glutton for punishment. You grab your lunch out of the microwave and take it back to your desk. Once you begin eating, the hunger which had been consuming your focus subsides and there is nothing left to shield your attention from that which has been nagging you since the moment you woke up. There is no more holding back. You feel ready to embrace your anxiety, so you log on to Spurs Nation to get the local perspective. After reading the analysis of what happened last night, you begin to feel a bit emboldened. You reflect on the other days like today. May 12, 1999. April 20, 2003. April 25, 2005. April 23, 2007. You begin to embrace the fear. You start to find the doubt soothing. You smirk as you realize that as terrible as you feel, part of you has missed this feeling. After all, the routine of enjoying jubilation 20 straight times was becoming unsettling in its own right. You finish your lunch and get back to work.

You put in three more solid hours of work at the office, with hardly a passing thought about the uneasiness that hovers overhead. Upon completing everything on your to-do list, you leave the office and turn on the local radio coverage during your drive home. You float between jittery distress and stoic confidence as you listen to local commentators dissect the implications of last night's events. Your mind is comforted by the 94 percent chance that the set back will not ultimately result in disaster. But you also can't get it out of your mind that one time it did. Since your revelation at lunch to not only accept but embrace your fear, you are much more determined to face your uneasiness head on. The nagging in your gut is still there, but you are beginning to relish it as you are driving home. Without adversity there cannot be perseverance. It is the struggle that keeps you captivated by the journey. You know that had things gone your way last night, the triumph would pale in comparison to what the triumph might feel like if it comes after getting knocked down. As you pull up to your house you begin to remember how you cherish this anxiety. Tomorrow is not captivating without it. This is the good part. You know that the nagging will not subside, but you no longer want it to. You shut off your car. You have a nice evening planned to grill steaks with your wife and play with your newly adopted kitten. Heck, maybe even get some writing done. You walk to the house ready to start your weekend. You are exhausted from a long day, but the anticipation is beginning to build for tomorrow evening. You know that in every moment leading up to it, your exhilaration will be amplified. And you know that the catalyst for this is that good ole, dreadful feeling.

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Featured Image Source: Medical News Today

Headline Image Source: Bleacher Report

The Hack-A-Shaq Debate

Yesterday afternoon, with three minutes and 14 seconds left in Game 3 of the second round playoff series between the LA Clippers and San Antonio, the Spurs were protecting a 13 point advantage when Spurs Coach, Gregg Popovich, decided to implement the Hack-A-Shaq defensive strategy on Clipper forward, Reggie Evans. The Spurs proceeded to intentionally foul Evans, who is a notoriously poor free throw shooter, in hopes of stifling the Clippers' chances of mounting a comeback. The rationale for the Hack-A-Shaq strategy in this situation was the assumption that Reggie Evans would not be able to make enough of his free throw shots to significantly cut into the Spurs lead. Before the Spurs began intentionally fouling him with 3:14 left, Reggie Evans was 1-4 from the free throw line in the game and 15-32 overall on free throws in the playoffs. Therefore, he was shooting 25 percent in the game and 47 percent for the playoffs. Down by 13 points with so little time left in the game, the Clippers invariably were going to need to score multiple points per possession to catch up, and ideally knock down multiple three point shots. By intentionally fouling Evans for three straight possessions, Popovich eliminated the possibility of the Clippers making any three pointers during that stretch and put the statistical likelihood of the number of points they would produce per possession at less than one (since Evans was shooting less than 50 percent on free throws for the playoffs).

The strategy paid off as Evans went two for six from the line during this stretch, netting the Clippers only two points in three possessions and 1:06 of playing time (more than one third of the time remaining in the game). Conventional wisdom would suggest that the Spurs (up 13 with 3:14 left) would have won the game easily even without employing the Hack-A-Shaq strategy, however Popovich had good reason to worry facing the Clippers. After all, 21 days earlier (down 27 to the Memphis Grizzlies) the Clippers did this.In a strange twist of fate, the Spurs had erased a 24 point second quarter deficit and pushed ahead by 13 with 3:14 left for a 37 point turnaround in the game. Popovich employed the Hack-A-Shaq strategy to prevent the Clippers from seizing momentum one last time and potentially stealing back a game that they had coughed up in historical fashion. One could argue that had the Memphis Grizzlies gone to the Hack-A-Shaq strategy in Game One of the first round, they could have held off the Clippers' rally which relied on a flurry of three point field goals. Had Memphis gone to the Hack-A-Shaq in Game One, it is reasonable to assume they would have won the game and won the series. Popovich was not going to allow the Clippers an opportunity to repeat their performance against the Grizzlies and the Spurs went on to win the game comfortably by 10 points, 96-86.

While watching the last 3:14 of the game with my wife, Jennifer James, we got into a debate about the merits of the Hack-A-Shaq strategy. As Reggie Evans went to the line for three straight possessions and uncomfortably attempted to shoot his team back into the game, Jenn became increasingly perturbed at Popovich's strategy. A debate ensued as I tried to defend my beloved Spurs, who in my eyes could obviously do no wrong.

Jenn's Argument: Using the Hack-A-Shaq showed a lack of confidence in the Spurs' defensive ability to get the stops necessary to ensure the victory. She also felt it was wrong of Popovich to repeatedly and intentionally embarrass Reggie Evans. She said that using the Hack-A-Shaq strategy to ensure the victory took away from the accomplishment of erasing a 24 point deficit and took away from her excitement as a Spurs fan for the team taking a 3-0 lead in the series. Jenn wittily compared the strategy to Senate Republicans using archaic procedural maneuvers to obstruct the Democratic agenda from passing Congress. Because I was attempting to defend Popovich's decision to go to the Hack-A-Shaq, Jenn went on to compare me to a moderate Republican who attempts to defend the extreme policy positions of Tea Party Republicans (even though they know deep down that the Tea Party extremism is wrong). To Jenn, while the Spurs were technically following the rules, they were taking away from the spirit of the game.

My Argument: While the Hack-A-Shaq strategy is indeed somewhat of a moral conundrum, the Spurs winning the game was what was important and I would much rather employ the Hack-A-Shaq and win, than allow what happened to Memphis happen to us and lose. I suggested that she should not feel pity for Reggie Evans because he is a professional athlete and a millionaire and if he didn't want to be embarrassed, he should have put in more time at the gym working on his free throw stroke. The Hack-A-Shaq strategy can't work if the other team makes their free throws. While I would find the strategy more mean-spirited at the amateur level of competition, players should be prepared to deal with having their weaknesses exploited at the professional level. While I am willing to concede her political analogy comparing me to a moderate Republican, I would rather be a Republican Spurs fan with a 5th championship to celebrate than a Democratic Spurs fan dealing with playoff heartbreak for the 5th year in a row.

Greg Popovich was clearly unapologetic when asked about the Hack-A-Shaq strategy after the game. He said, “I just don’t know what else to tell you. We weren’t going to go foul Chris Paul. I’m not trying to be a wise guy, but I fouled him for a reason. It’s not pretty. Basically, it’s ugly, but it’s part of the game. My job is to try to win.” I would be interested to know where other readers of theLeftAhead come out on this debate.

BIG

(2012 San Antonio Spurs Playoff Promo)

"It's the quiet guys you should fear, because words are small and game is BIG."

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Video Source: Antonio Medrano III on YouTube

Featured & Headline Image Source: Karfan

Faith in a Resurrection

Editor's Note: To inaugurate the launch of Black & Silver: theSanAntonioSpurs blog presented by theLeftAhead, I am posting an article that I wrote during the first round of the 2011 NBA playoffs when the Spurs were trailing the Memphis Grizzlies 3 games to 1. Luckily, this year the Spurs are off to a better start! They are leading the Utah Jazz 1 game to 0 after defeating them in the playoff opener last Sunday. Stay tuned to Black & Silver throughout the Spurs' playoff run as I will be regularly posting Spurs related content with theLeftAhead flavor that you have come to expect. Also, we will tag all San Antonio Spurs posts on theLeftAhead which predate this Black & Silver blog series launch so that they also appear on the feed. Enjoy.

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Faith in a Resurrection: True Spurs Fans Will Celebrate Easter Next Sunday

...and the national sports media, the heretics, and the faithless will gawk in disbelief as they stumble upon an empty tomb.Today the San Antonio Spurs were buried. Headlines across the country spoke of the end of a dynasty and compared the Spurs to sports heroes such as Muhammed Ali and Willie Mays stumbling in the twilight of their careers. Radio commentators, having already advanced the Memphis Grizzlies to the second round, speculated on how far they can go in the playoffs. Critic after critic lined up to get a turn to throw dirt on the grave of a once proud champion. Generic hacks chuckled at their extraordinary gravitas as they bemused the symbolism of Tim Duncan's poor performance on his 35th birthday as the tour de force of their pathetic attempts to creatively contextualize the demise of the Spurs. A committee was formed, invitations were sent out via the airwaves and the AP wire, and a bandwagon that stretches from Beale Street to the TNT Studios in Atlanta was boarded by all.

The Memphis Grizzlies, with one spectacular half of basketball, have turned an evenly played playoff series into a funeral procession. Zach Randolph is quite the magician. He sure does have a lot of tricks. First he disguises his slightly above average career as an NBA journeyman in the cloak of the most dominant post player in the NBA playoffs since well, the 2007 version of Tim Duncan. Then he magically transforms a lucky shot to appear to the masses as the work of a seasoned NBA three point marksman. Now, apparently, Zach Randolph has mastered the greatest trick of all; the ability to travel back in time. It seems that Zach has magically transported his team and the rest of the country back to 2002. Back then, the first round of the NBA playoffs was only a five game series. A team needed only win three games to advance. Judging by today’s reaction of the Spurs inability to win either Game 3 or Game 4, such is the case once again in 2011. Smoke and mirrors can only take a player, a franchise, and a city so far. Memphis has won the first three playoff games in franchise history. Great, congratulations. Tomorrow night they will get their first true test of what the NBA playoffs are all about.

Winning their fourth playoff game in franchise history and eliminating the four time champion Spurs in the process will not be easy. Just ask the 2008 New Orleans Hornets. In the second round of that year's playoffs the similarly inexperienced Hornets blew out the Spurs in New Orleans three times before succumbing to the pressure of closing them out by losing Game 6 in San Antonio and Game 7 in New Orleans. The Spurs will dig deep tomorrow night in San Antonio and tap into their pride and anger to find the energy to win Game 5 against Memphis. Should the series extend back to San Antonio for Game 7, the Spurs will be heavily favored to take the advantage of the frenzied home crowd that they worked all season to earn and eliminate Memphis. That puts an awful lot of pressure on the Memphis Grizzlies to close out the Spurs in Game 6 on their home court. And considering that they will be working to achieve something that the national media has already convinced America they have already achieved, it is quite possible that those free flowing jump shots might have tightened up a little bit by Friday night.

Do the Spurs need to play better? There is no question that they do. And true Spurs fans have no doubt that they will. True Spurs fans have faith that the champions that have delivered in these situations for years and years are not going to start lying down now. Most of the Grizzlies' confidence-building runs in this series have been a direct result of uncharacteristic unforced Spurs turnovers. These careless mistakes have prevented the Spurs from delivering to Memphis thus far the only thing the Spurs need to deliver in order to break the Grizzlies and win the series. One overpowering and suffocating six minute stretch of well executed Spurs playoff basketball. It will only take one of these six minutes stretches and the Memphis Grizzlies will fold up their tents, put back on their "happy to be here" eighth seed hats and go away. Had the Spurs been healthy for Game One and already delivered such a blitz, this series would already be over and the Spurs would be game planning the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Grizzlies have still not yet beaten a healthy Spurs team in San Antonio this season and the Memphis Grizzlies have never closed out a playoff opponent. The Spurs have won countless pressure filled playoff Game 6's on the road. Memphis is riding high on being the national media darlings and the sheik new in playoff pick. They have played well thus far in the series and earned their two game advantage. Tomorrow night with one thunderous Manu Ginobili dunk a new wrinkle will enter into their playoff experience; doubt. It will be subtle, but everything will begin to change. One by one the jump shots they have been hitting all series will begin to rattle out and the foul calls they have relied on to fend off the Spurs in close games won't be made by the referees any more. Before they know it, the Grizzlies will be staring down a Game 6 fourth quarter deficit on Friday night and Zach Randolph will reach into his bag of tricks and realize there is nothing left.

Next Sunday, the Memphis Grizzlies bandwagon will come to a screeching halt in San Antonio. The gathered masses who yesterday booked their easy ticket to lay the Spurs dynasty to rest will instead discover an empty tomb and quickly repent as they bear witness to a resurrection. The first ones off the wagon will be the national media, they will scramble to quickly replace the words "old" and "done" with "experienced" and "savvy" so they can dust off their tired, clique stories about how you never count out the heart of a champion. Next off the wagon will be the heretics. They are the Spurs fans who have allowed a little adversity to shake their faith in the team. As of yesterday, they have written off this team. As we speak, they are complaining about the refs, or the coaching, or the lack of fight in the players and quietly shopping for a new team to cheer for throughout the rest of the playoffs. Next Sunday, they will be beating their chests loudly and telling anyone who will listen how they knew all along that the Spurs would prevail. Deep down in their hearts they will know that their testament is false but we'll welcome them back anyway.

Last off the wagon will be the faithless. These are the apostates. The people who stopped believing in the Spurs in 2009. The fans and analysts who said then that the Spurs were no longer a championship contender. The people who have whole heartedly given up on the notion that another river parade will come to fruition in the Tim Duncan era. They have dismissed this team and their exceptional record all year long but next Sunday they might begin to have their faith restored. We will welcome them back as well. As for the true Spurs fans, the one's who have never stopped believing, we will quietly and reflectively enjoy Easter next Sunday when the San Antonio Spurs eliminate the Memphis Grizzlies from the NBA playoffs. Tonight as the rest of the basketball world laughs, we remain steadfast in our faith that sometime this June our beloved Spurs will be NBA champions once again.

Written April 2011 in San Antonio, TX

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Featured & Headline Image Source: United Church of God

Message to Spurs Sports & Entertainment L.L.C. Chairman Peter Holt

Mr. Holt:

I am a life-long supporter of the San Antonio Spurs and have been a frequent attender of Spurs games at each the AT&T Center, the Alamodome, and Hemisfair Arena. One way or another, I try desperately to never miss a game. I have been in attendance at many wonderful moments in Spurs history, but I experience the vast majority of the team’s games through the organization’s media outlets on television and radio. While I would like to watch every game on television, because of various professional and social commitments I often find myself listening to the radio broadcast on WOAI 1200 AM (a Clear Channel radio station). Even though I thoroughly enjoy the broadcast performance of Bill Schoening and believe the coverage of the games is second to none, I have long had a crisis of conscience reconciling the association between Spurs Sports & Entertainment L.L.C. and WOAI 1200.

While I understand the value of broadcasting the Spurs games on WOAI’s 50,000-watt signal (I’m always glad that I can receive a decent signal while traveling hundreds of miles away from San Antonio), I have long been disheartened to purposely contribute to the financial success of WOAI 1200. The reason for this is that I am morally opposed to the views and opinions that are disseminated during the station’s daytime programming. It has long been my belief that much of the rhetoric disseminated on The Glenn Beck Program, The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Sean Hannity Show, and The Joe Pags Show is reckless and destructive. I find the misinformation propagated by these talk show personalities on a daily basis poisonous to the public discourse in our community. In particular, I find the utter lack of respect for President Barack Obama reprehensible. I believe that this rhetoric is clearly endorsed by WOAI 1200 because they continue to broadcast and market it as part of their programming. Furthermore, I believe that this rhetoric is also endorsed by Spurs Sports & Entertainment because your company indirectly associates with it by also broadcasting on WOAI 1200. At the very least, for many who do not agree with this rhetoric, this association with WOAI 1200 puts a black eye on an otherwise stellar reputation that the Spurs organization has worked extremely hard to cultivate in our community. For many years, I was willing to overlook my dissatisfaction with this association and continue to listen to Spurs broadcasts on the station because I tried to compartmentalize my disgust with the daytime programming and my passion for the San Antonio Spurs.

However, because of comments made last week on the Rush Limbaugh Show, I can no longer continue to reconcile listening to Spurs programming on WOAI 1200 with my personal moral opposition to contributing to the station’s financial success. I’m sure you are well aware of the comments that Mr. Limbaugh made on your team’s flagship station last week directed at Georgetown University law student, Sandra Fluke. In my opinion, these comments crossed the line of reckless political rhetoric into the realm of poisonous hatred that has no place on the public airwaves. I find these comments offensive and I am extremely frustrated that I have indirectly supported their dissemination by supporting your company’s relationship with the station that broadcast them in our community. You should be concerned that Spurs fans are making a direct connection between the values that Mr. Limbaugh promotes and the values that Spurs Sports & Entertainment promotes.

I’m urging you to take one of the following actions in the coming weeks in order to send a clear signal to Spurs fans that Spurs Sports & Entertainment does not endorse the values promoted last week by Mr. Limbaugh.

1. Announce the termination of your company’s relationship with WOAI 1200, effective immediately following the end of your current contract with them.

2. Announce that any future contract between Spurs Sports & Entertainment and WOAI 1200 will be contingent upon WOAI 1200 first ending its relationship with The Rush Limbaugh Show.

3. Follow the lead of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and announce that you are pulling all Spurs Sports & Entertainment advertisements from the airwaves of WOAI 1200 while The Rush Limbaugh program is on the air.

Until Spurs Sports & Entertainment makes a statement repudiating Mr. Limbaugh’s comments, I will assume that the company shares those values. Until your company makes a decision that clearly establishes a distinct separation between Spurs broadcasts and The Rush Limbaugh Show, I will not listen to another radio broadcast of the Spurs on WOAI 1200. I believe that you can find precedent for taking swift action by the stellar example provided by one of your employees. In 2007, Greg Popovich swiftly cancelled his appearances on the Ticket 760 after personalities on that station made offensive comments about Denver Nuggets players Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony. Popovich clearly understood that he did not want his name associated with values that were in conflict with his organization’s hard earned reputation in the community and across the country. The work that the Spurs organization does to uplift our community is commendable. Why risk tainting that legacy by continuing to associate with values that a great portion of our community find irreconcilable with our own? Being a San Antonio Spurs fan should not be a political issue. I greatly appreciate your careful consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

Ted James

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Spurs Deal George Hill to the Pacers

The San Antonio Spurs have tradeed 6th man George Hill to the Indiana Pacers for the draft rights to 6-7 San Diego State forward Kawhi Leonard, 6-10 Latvian forward Davis Bertans, and 2005 second round pick Erazem Lorbek, a 6-10 center playing in Spain. Leonard the cornerstone of the Spurs end of the deal is an athletic, tough-minded small forward who can play lockdown defense and rebound. Perimeter defense and rebounding were both areas that the Spurs needed to improve upon coming out of this year's embarassing first round playoff elimination to the Memphis Grizzlies. However, George Hill has been a fan favorite in San Antonio. He had been a solid contributor at both the point guard and shooting guard for the Spurs and is a good defensive player in his own right. Hill still has so much potential improvement and upside to his game, I would not be surprised if he develops into an all-star caliber player in Indiana where he will most likely be a full-time starter. During the 2009-10 season, George was dubbed by Spurs Coach Greg Popovich, "My favorite player." While I generally keep faith in the decision-making ability of Spurs General Manager R.C. Buford, this trade is a pretty tough pill to swallow. Leonard is going to have to bring some nasty athleticism, have a nose for the ball off the glass, and channel the second coming of Bruce Bowen on defense to make me forget about George Hill anytime in the near future.  The one saving grace to losing George is that he is returning to Indiana, his home state where he played both his high school and college ball. So where does the rest of theLeftAhead Spurs Nation come out on the trade? Was this a good move?

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Tim Duncan Is Still Setting the Bar

Evaluating the Greatest NBA Players in the Post-Jordan Era - With the news last week of Shaquille O'Neal's retirement from the Boston Celtics and in the mist of an entertaining NBA Finals, I thought this would be an appropriate time to open up a debate here at theLeftAhead about the best NBA player in the post-Michael Jordan era. I don't mean since 2003, when Jordan limped off of the court as a Washington Wizard. I mean the true Post-Jordan era, since his retirement from the Chicago Bulls in 1998.

As we speak, Dirk Nowitzki and LeBron James are doing battle trying to seize an opportunity to erase their names from the list of best NBA players to never win a championship. But the question at hand is who has been the greatest player in the NBA since 1998. For the purpose of being thorough, I will open up the debate by ranking every player worthy of consideration from this era. Needless to say there are only three players on this list that someone could make a legitimate argument for being the greatest. They are, in no particular order, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, and Tim Duncan. So please, do not come at us here in the comments and make an argument that any player besides these three is the greatest of the era because we will be forced to put you in the penalty box for two weeks.

Let me begin by saying that my list is not subjective. It is based on a simple mathematical formula for determining NBA greatness. For the sake of keeping things entertaining, I will unveil my list first and then present the mathematical formula that determined it afterward. Let the blood boiling begin.

Greatest NBA Players in the Post-Jordan Era

18th - Jason Kidd
17th - Derrick Rose
16th - Allen Iverson
15th - Dirk Nowitzki
14th - Ray Allen
13th - Steve Nash
12th - LeBron James
11th - Kevin Garnett
10th - Pau Gasol
9th - David Robinson
8th - Chauncey Billups
7th - Paul Pierce
6th - Dwyane Wade
5th - Manu Ginobili
4th - Tony Parker
3rd - Kobe Bryant
2nd - Shaquille O'Neal
1st - Tim Duncan

Before you start typing your profanity laced responses about me being an idiot, let me lay out a couple of clarifications. First, this is a ranking of the "greatest" players of the era, not necessarily a ranking of the "best" players of the era. Obviously, a ranking of the "best" players of the era would have LeBron James much higher than Tony Parker, for example. I define greatness by winning championships and so my mathematical formula is heavily weighted towards players who have won rings. Secondly, whether my formula skews Chauncey Billups ahead of Dirk Nowitzki, for example, is irrelevant to the task at hand. As I stated before, there are really only three players in the conversation and I think that my formula gives a good perspective on how to determine between the true great players of the era. Consequently, I will show later that my formula puts Michael Jordan vastly ahead of all three great players from this era which should add some levity to the debate and perhaps muffle those of you who are foolish enough to argue Bryant is better than Jordan. So without further ado, let me present my mathematical formula for determining NBA greatness.

The complexity of this formula wll shock you.

1 point for each NBA MVP award won (regular season)
2 points for each NBA Championship won
2 points for each NBA Finals MVP won

According to the formula:

18th - Jason Kidd = 0 points (I put Kidd on the list because he was the only player I could think of in the era that should be on the list of greatest players but has not earned any points according to the formula. Perhaps that will change in the next week.)

17th - Derrick Rose = 1 point (2011 NBA MVP)

16th - Allen Iverson = 1 point (2001 NBA MVP)

15th - Dirk Nowitzki = 1 point (2007 NBA MVP)

14th - Ray Allen = 2 points (2008 NBA Champion)

13th - Steve Nash = 2 points (2005, 2006 NBA MVP)

12th - LeBron James = 2 points (2009, 2010 NBA MVP)

11th - Kevin Garnett = 3 points (2004 NBA MVP / 2008 NBA Champion)

10th - Pau Gasol = 4 points (2009, 2010 NBA Champion)

9th - David Robinson = 4 points (1999, 2003 NBA Champion - I put Robinson on the list for work done in the post-Jordan era, his career point total under this formula is actually 5 [1995 NBA MVP])

8th - Chauncey Billups = 4 points (2004 NBA Champion / 2004 NBA Finals MVP)

7th - Paul Pierce = 4 points (2008 NBA Champion / 2008 NBA Finals MVP)

6th - Dwyane Wade = 4 points (2006 NBA Champion / 2006 NBA Finals MVP)

5th - Manu Ginobili = 6 points (2003, 2005, 2007 NBA Champion)

4th - Tony Parker = 8 points (2003, 2005, 2007 NBA Champion / 2007 NBA Finals MVP)

3rd - Kobe Bryant = 15 points (2008 NBA MVP / 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010 NBA Champion / 2009, 2010 NBA Finals MVP)

2nd - Shaquille O'Neal = 15 points (2000 NBA MVP / 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006 NBA Champion / 2000, 2001, 2002 NBA Finals MVP)

1st - Tim Duncan = 16 points (2002, 2003 NBA MVP / 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 NBA Champion / 1999, 2003, 2005 NBA Finals MVP)

Here are a couple more notes about my ranking system. First, I did not include ranking role players, so that is why Derrick Fischer, Bruce Bowen, Robert Horry, Lamar Odom, ect. are not on the list. Every championship team of the era (with the exception of the 2004 Detroit Pistons) has had either two or three "great" players, so those are the players I ranked. Secondly, players with tie scores I made subjective determinations about their resumes to decide who I ranked higher. For example, in my opinion Shaq is second and Kobe is third because Shaq was the dominant player for three championships and a side kick on only one whereas Kobe was the dominant player on only two championships and the sidekick on three.

You could argue that Shaq should be tied with Tim Duncan in first place based on the point system because he was robbed of the 2005 NBA MVP which was given to Steve Nash. I would respond that you could make the same argument to give Tim Duncan two more points for the 2007 NBA Finals. Duncan was still the dominant player for the Spurs in 2007 and the only reason Tony Parker won the NBA Finals MVP trophy is because Cleveland did not put up a fight and got swept.

The bottom line is that Tim Duncan has been the dominant player in winning four titles, Shaq has been the dominant player in winning three (Dwyane Wade was in 2006) and Kobe has only been the dominant player in winning two (Shaq was in 2000, 2001, 2002). This is why Tim Duncan is still setting the bar for greatness in the post-Jordan era and the formula bares it out.

By the way, for that perspective I alluded to earlier. Shaq is now retired with his 15 points under this formula.Tim and Kobe have a long way to go to try and get in the Michael Jordan conversation of greatness. Here is an evaluation of Michael Jordan based on this formula.

Michael Jordan = 29 points (1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998 NBA MVP / 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998 NBA Champion / 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998 NBA Finals MVP)

Hence, the phrase the post-Jordan era.

Let the official theLeftAhead debate begin.

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