The San Antonio Spurs are Once Again Quietly Owning the NBA

The San Antonio Spurs lost last night to Utah, 91-84. When you look at the stats, you see why. Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker all sat out to rest. The loss ended the Spurs eleven game winning streak. The Spurs don't care about such trivial things. 

The Spurs and their coach, Gregg Popovich, care about one thing, winning titles. The Spurs are so mundane, you can almost forget they're in the NBA. But yet, they have the second best record in the Western Conference.

You will rarely ever see San Antonio in highlight reels, because they don't really have highlight plays. Doesn't matter. (In fact, that's one of the most exciting pictures I could find of their team.) What does matter is that the Spurs win on the road. Those are the things the Spurs worry about, not whether or not anyone on the team is making Sportscenter's Top Ten plays.

Tony Parker is having an MVP type year, averaging 19.1 points, 7.6 assists, and 2.8 rebounds per game. Parker isn't going to win the MVP, but he should be in the conversation. The Spurs aren't thinking about MVP awards.

Like I said, the Spurs win on the road. Only two teams (Chicago and Oklahoma City) have lost less on the road this season. Most teams' records are vastly different at home and on the road this year. Maybe it's the shortened season, but whatever the reason, it's very telling. Miami has lost only 3 times at home, but 12 on the road. The Lakers have lost 6 at home and 16 on the road.

And that's how it looks for the rest of the playoff teams. And as everyone knows, you have to win on the road in the playoffs. 

San Antonio may not be exciting, but they're hard to beat. They may not be flashy, but they don't care. In fact, San Antonio would rather you didn't even talk about them, until they're holding the NBA Championship trophy again. Come June, they have a good shot of doing just that.

Article by Eric Gray