We come not to bury the Golden State Warriors, but to praise the San Antonio Spurs… yet not praise them too much.
As you can see, the NBA got a little more complicated last night in Oakland… and even more interesting than it already was.
After the Warriors’ streak of 114 straight wins with a 15-point in-game lead was snapped by the Minnesota Timberwolves, it is clear that Golden State’s pursuit of 73 wins is taking a toll on the team. Stephen Curry and overworked teammates might not be breaking down physically — Steve Kerr was adamant about that on Tuesday night after the loss — but they certainly appear to be feeling the mental strain of having to push through to Game 82 with something to prove.
Yes, Andre Iguodala and Festus Ezeli have returned to action, but they need time to re-polish their skills and be their best selves. “Returning” doesn’t mean everything it’s supposed to mean unless or until an athlete plays at his expected level. Without the “normal” versions of Iggy and Festus, the Warriors are not yet whole. This has left Steph and Klay Thompson and Draymond Green in the all-too-obvious position of having to carry an inordinate share of the workload, night after night.
The ragged, turnover-heavy nature of the Warriors’ recent performances against Boston and now Minnesota is an evident outward sign of the pressure the Warriors’ stars feel.
This is leading at least some people — including full-time sportswriters for papers such as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram — to think the San Antonio Spurs are now the team to beat in the upcoming NBA playoffs:
Golden State is not playing it's best ball as the season comes to a close. The Spurs have the best team heading into the playoffs
— Clarence Hill Jr (@clarencehilljr) April 6, 2016
Without need for a drawn-out and dramatic build-up, let me just ask you as a reader who is absorbing this information and this contextual shift at a late stage in the regular season:
Are YOU a Spurs trauma victim?
Such is the reputation the Spurs carry in the NBA, and such is the nature of their season.
The Spurs are both omipresent and yet so conspicuously quiet in how they go about their business. They are about to produce the most low-key 68- or 69-win NBA season of all time, which is so quintessentially Spurs-y of them. Thee regularity with which they win should not be taken for granted, and yet it possesses a machine-cranked quality, with Tim Duncan still being an elite defender just weeks before turning 40 years old.
The Spurs have a way about them — totally admirable from a basketball standpoint, but terrifying to fans who want new blood and fresh storylines in the NBA playoffs. Some of the fans who can’t stand the Spurs don’t object to the way they play ball these days… but they DO hold a grudge against the Spurs for the way they played in the Bruce Bowen era, the first decade of this century.
Those same NBA fans might now appreciate what San Antonio does, but they nonetheless view the Spurs as cockroaches, organisms which can’t be killed in total. They’ll always crawl around just when you think they’re done.
In this case, the Warriors were supposed to be the team that would put the Spurs at their feet. So what if Golden State wins on Thursday night, these fans might be thinking.
The Spurs are going to be the more intelligent team in the playoffs. They’re not going to commit the turnovers the Warriors have been coughing up the past few games. Pop is going to put all the pieces together. UGH, UGH, UGH! I can see it coming now!
Are you thinking any of this? Do you feel these thoughts in your bones and marrow?
You might be a Spurs trauma victim.
At least some people are adopting this line of thought. Others are allowing themselves to consider such a line of thought.
Where you do fit in?
Forget the answer; the question is what’s particularly fascinating at this point in the NBA regular season.
Oh, the next two months are going to be something else…
