Not sold on Spurs just yet

Gabriel Pruett
The Orange Leader

Sat, May 17 2008

— Yawn...
Did Orange Leader Sports Editor Van Wade bore you readers enough with his annual love of the San Antonio Spurs column on Wednesday?
The Spurs are obviously a great team, I understand that fact but digging deeper into their recent success shows they have not beaten many teams with winning records.
In the month of February the Spurs went a powerful 10-1, with their only loss coming to the Boston Celtics.
That all sounds great and mighty until you look at the teams these Spurs took down.
The two most impressive teams for San Antonio to beat in February were the New Orleans Hornets and the Dallas Mavericks.
The Hornets were 6-4 in their last 10 games heading into Tuesday while the Mavericks were 5-5 over the same stretch.
Then there are wins over the Knicks, Raptors, Bobcats and Hawks just to name a few of the weak teams the Spurs won.
San Antonio did take down Cleveland in February but the Cavs record would put LeBron James and Co. in 9th in the Western Conference.
I am just not ready to crown these Spurs just yet.
If I had to pick right now who wins the NBA Championship it would be between the L.A. Lakers or the Celtics.
The Lakers have been amazing since trading for Pau Gasol and have been doing it all without Andrew Bynum.
Kobe Bryant is proving yet again he is the best player in the league and has now shown he is the most complete player in the NBA.
When Bynum gets back, the Lakers will take their game even higher and there is nothing the slow and boring, yes very boring, Spurs can do about it.
Plus I have to strongly disagree with Mr. Wade, who applied to be president of the Tim Duncan Fan Club, on the strength of the Lakers’ bench being weak.
I’ll take my chances with Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic and Ronny Turiaf any day over old-timers like Jacque Vaughn and Michael Finley.
Oh, wait...the Spurs have Matt Bonner on the bench? Exactly my point.
Then when Bynum does get back, the Lakers bench will even be one more player deep with Luke Walton coming off the bench.
The Celtics in the East have been at least record-wise the best team in basketball all season long.
With Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett the Boys in Boston have a ton of options to lead them night-in, night-out.
Remember, the last loss the Spurs had was to the Celtics, 98-90.
This year it will be more difficult than ever for the Spurs to win the title with so many teams in contention in the West and the top teams in the East being capable of downing the champs.
I never even mentioned the Detroit Pistons, Utah Jazz and Houston Rockets as possible spoilers for the Spurs.
If Wade is taking the Spurs, I’ll gladly take the field once again and this year I am positive his love for San Antonio will end in pure heartbreak.