We'll Sweep Out the Ashes in the Morning
The Spurs are dead; long live the Spurs.
There's not much to say about such a resounding defeat. The Suns outplayed us in just about every category. In a lot of ways, the teams were pretty evenly matched. There were just a few critical areas in which the Suns were clearly superior: 3-point shooting, bench play, and composure down the stretch. Do those three things sound familiar? Those are the areas in which we used to always dominate the Suns, en route to championships.
I think it's very telling that every game came down to the 4th quarter, and the Suns ran away with each game in the 4th quarter. They were the team making clutch plays, they were the team hitting the big shots, they were the team who was fresher, more aggressive, and more precise. They had at least 8 or 9 different players who made at least one positive contribution in this series.
It's hard to properly frame our season. We beat the one team that had seemed to overcome us in recent years, and then lost to the team that we had previously owned. One door opens, another one closes, I suppose. We got the return of a healthy, killer Ginobili, but watched as Duncan slipper further and further from his greatness. We had some key young players make promising strides and show glimpses of a great future, but struck out on some heavily touted off-season acquisitions. We had one of the best benches in the league throughout the regular season, yet lost our last 4 games primarily because we couldn't trust anyone off our bench (and lost to a team that had 5 trusted players coming off of theirs).
And let's give credit where credit is due, and congratulate the Suns. Like I've said before, I secretly like a lot of their team, even as they were kicking the butts of my favorite team. They deserve this win and their place in the Conference Finals. They were the better team in this series, and it wasn't even close. They've slayed their dragon, even if the dragon doesn't fly quite as fast as it used to or shoot fire quite as far as it used to. Let's hope they aren't too satisfied with themselves so that they can bring the same fight to the Los Angeles Lakers.
I'll probably be back in the coming days and weeks to talk about the team's future and share some overall thoughts. But for now, let's revel in another season of the Spurs, and appreciate all the greatness that we get to watch on a nightly basis during the season. I wouldn't trade a single moment of it.
Go Spurs Go.
There's not much to say about such a resounding defeat. The Suns outplayed us in just about every category. In a lot of ways, the teams were pretty evenly matched. There were just a few critical areas in which the Suns were clearly superior: 3-point shooting, bench play, and composure down the stretch. Do those three things sound familiar? Those are the areas in which we used to always dominate the Suns, en route to championships.
I think it's very telling that every game came down to the 4th quarter, and the Suns ran away with each game in the 4th quarter. They were the team making clutch plays, they were the team hitting the big shots, they were the team who was fresher, more aggressive, and more precise. They had at least 8 or 9 different players who made at least one positive contribution in this series.
It's hard to properly frame our season. We beat the one team that had seemed to overcome us in recent years, and then lost to the team that we had previously owned. One door opens, another one closes, I suppose. We got the return of a healthy, killer Ginobili, but watched as Duncan slipper further and further from his greatness. We had some key young players make promising strides and show glimpses of a great future, but struck out on some heavily touted off-season acquisitions. We had one of the best benches in the league throughout the regular season, yet lost our last 4 games primarily because we couldn't trust anyone off our bench (and lost to a team that had 5 trusted players coming off of theirs).
And let's give credit where credit is due, and congratulate the Suns. Like I've said before, I secretly like a lot of their team, even as they were kicking the butts of my favorite team. They deserve this win and their place in the Conference Finals. They were the better team in this series, and it wasn't even close. They've slayed their dragon, even if the dragon doesn't fly quite as fast as it used to or shoot fire quite as far as it used to. Let's hope they aren't too satisfied with themselves so that they can bring the same fight to the Los Angeles Lakers.
I'll probably be back in the coming days and weeks to talk about the team's future and share some overall thoughts. But for now, let's revel in another season of the Spurs, and appreciate all the greatness that we get to watch on a nightly basis during the season. I wouldn't trade a single moment of it.
Go Spurs Go.
posted by secretchord53 at 6:29 PM
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