Who Will Spurs Fans Root for Now? Western Conference Edition
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Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
I cannot watch a basketball game without rooting for one team or the other. It could be a random NBA game in January, a March Madness game between East Carolina and South Virginia State, or of course an NBA Playoff game.
Unless I have a pre-existing predilection (like rooting for the Spurs or against the Clippers or any James Harden team), I will often root for the team with the most “Spursian” qualities. In this usage of the term, “Spursian” refers to the most similarities to the prime Spurs teams from approximately 2012 - 2016. Those teams featured ball and man movement, numerous passes, an international cast of players, solid defense, low draft picks and/or reclamation projects, excellent coaching and perhaps most of all, selfless players who were not too full of themselves good teammates. When deciding which team to root for, having a former Spur on
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The Portland Trail Blazers enter the playoffs relatively healthy and full of confidence. Winners of 10 our of their last 12 games, the Blazers appear to peaking at exactly the right time. Jusuf Nurkić is playing his best basketball of the season, the three guard lineup of Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and Norman Powell seems to be clicking, and the defense has gone from miserable to.well, less miserable. Four weeks ago, most of Rip City was ready for the season to wrap up. Now, optimism from most quarters is the rule of the today.
On the other hand, he Denver Nuggets are still smarting from the injury to Jamal Murray on April 12. In most people’s minds, the Nuggets have gone from legitimate title contender to a good team with an MVP-caliber player with no real title chance (sound familiar?). Make no mistake, this is still a fine team with plenty of talent. The Blazers will need to be at the top of their game to have a chance of being victorious. It should be a great serie