Youth, depth spark Spurs' success (SI.com)

[ace3g]

BOSTON -- They're not old. They're not dull. They're not done.

The Spurs are suddenly and surprisingly young. They're fun, which is even more surprising. And this June they may yet win their fifth championship in 14 years, which would be an amazing achievement of resilience and renewal.

San Antonio held off the Celtics 87-86 on Wednesday despite a poor second-half performance from one of its eternal Big Three, point guard Tony Parker.

"Guys that you wouldn't expect -- like Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard and Matt Bonner -- allowed us to pull through that game,'' Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "They've gotten a lot of experience this year and they've helped us a lot and it showed tonight."

Tim Duncan is 35 and Manu Ginobili is 34, but the former is averaging only 28.6 minutes per game and the latter has missed 29 games. Everyone else, apart from the recently acquired Stephen Jackson, is in his peak years or younger, and altogether they've enabled the Spurs (38-14) to earn the fourth-best record in the NBA.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...urs/index.html

[DBMethos]

Good article, but nothing we don't already know.

[dylankerouac]

Thanks for sharing bruv!

[TDMVPDPOY]

trading and signing 3 new guys who are buried to the end of the bench...behind his favourite studs who have no business playing ahead of those guys who would be starters on other teams

[Keepin' it real]

Good article, but nothing we don't already know.

I know; why did they even bother?

[Mugen]

SI slurps the Spurs a lot. They're good people, IMO.

[Solid D]

Nice. Worth clicking on the link to read!

[jjktkk]

Thanks for sharing Ace.

[Venti Quattro]

An additional snippet from Hollinger:

And fittingly, given the Spurs' penchant for flying under the radar, we'll mention them all the way at the bottom. Quietly, San Antonio has won nine straight games to catch Oklahoma City in the loss column, and the Spurs own the tiebreaker with the Thunder.

After lying in the weeds all season, San Antonio looks like the best team in the West. And the Spurs have done this with Manu Ginobili hardly playing and with coach Gregg Popovich openly punting games to keep his players rested.

Right now, the Playoff Odds see San Antonio as slightly more likely to grab the top seed, by 57.2 percent to 42.8 percent, but that doesn't account for the fact that the Spurs are likely to effectively tank a couple more games down the stretch to keep everybody rested. No team has played fewer games than San Antonio's 52, and their final 14 are packed like sardines into the final three weeks of the schedule.

The Spurs have four back-to-backs and one back-to-back-to-back remaining -- the middle game of the back-to-back-to-back against the Lakers is one they're likely to punt. (TNT, nationally broadcasting the game, will be thrilled.) Because of that factor, I'd say the Thunder are still the most likely top seed in the Western Conference.