San Antonio Is An Overlooked All-Time Great Team

The San Antonio Spurs can take a big step forward as one of the great all-time teams by winning it all this year. But, the first issue is whether the Spurs will make it out of the West.

San Antonio surprised everyone this season with their 61 victories as most experts following NBA betting props had them to finish with far fewer wins. But a lot of people are still picking against them to win the tough Western Conference. The Spurs lost their last two games down the stretch, but even worse, Manu Ginobili got hurt and is now doubtful for Game 1 of their series with Memphis, who is one of the more dangerous underdogs in recent memory. Can the Spurs prove the naysayers wrong and make it to the NBA Finals?

Ginobili hyperextended his arm against Phoenix in a freak play, and now he’ll likely miss the first game of their series. This robs the Spurs of their best and most important player as Ginobili is their most creative player, he’s efficient, he’s the one that San Antonio goes to in crunch time, and he does virtually anything you can think of well (even flopping to get fouls, but that’s another story). But without Ginobili, that puts pressure on Tony Parker and Tim Duncan, who have both been banged up this season and fought through it, but Duncan is the one we’re worried about. Can we trust Duncan, who will be 35 on April 25th, to last for one final playoff run? Coach Gregg Popovich has tried to monitor Duncan’s minutes for this time of year specifically, so this will be a real big test for the Spurs.

But the secondary players are going to be the ones who have to step up, specifically Richard Jefferson and DeJuan Blair. Both of them have struggled since the All-Star break, and they must pick up their games if the Spurs are going to overtake the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder (yes, we didn’t mention Dallas on purpose) in the West, because the trio of Ginobili, Parker and Duncan are obviously getting up there in age and can go out at anytime. The Spurs were a deep team at the beginning of the season when they sprinted out of the gate, and they’re going to have to get back to that. If not, the Spurs could find themselves out earlier than they expected.