A Major San Antonio Spurs Injury
For the first time ever, the San Antonio Spurs are heading into the playoffs without their normal edge. This was evident Wednesday night in their road loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, where San Antonio was looking to have finish with the 3rd seed for home court advantage. Gregg Popovich has done all he can to make sure his engine of veterans have received proper rest throughout the year, but they’ve been looking frail – which is something we’re not use to seeing. We don’t expect the Spurs to win the NBA Championship this year, based on their play in recent weeks, but back-to-back wins over the Houston Rockets last week gave us a brief glimpse at what they’re cable of.
Boris Diaw has been the one person holding this team together through play-making, tangibles and being an on-court vocal leader. With Manu Ginobili, who’s playing in his first healthy season in nearly 5 years will also need to be a vocal leader to help the team’s big three of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard. The floor general, Parker has been suffering from a hamstring injury all-season and has publicly admitted he’s not the same player since his winter return. With Kawhi playing through a torn ligament on his hand still and Duncan looking like he could break down at any second on the court, we have serious doubts this collective can remain injury free against more confident teams out west – in comparison to previous years.
Timmy’s quest to be the most successful player since Michael Jordan for a 6th ring may never happen if it doesn’t happen this year and we could see the inevitable end of the San Antonio Spurs dynasty. We never wish injury on any player and want to see team’s at full strength, but these are unexpected things that could happen.