The one where I’m p*ssed off

Yeah, so this happened:

Joe (NY): If that was the two best teams in the west playing each other last night then the West isn’t very strong. I’m still not sold on the Spurs. If they are playing a motivated Lakers team how can they hold up inside the paint against them??

Ric Bucher (1:05 PM): To answer the first question about the Spurs: yes, the Lakers’ length still gives them a huge advantage over San Antonio. The Spurs can’t play appreciably better than they are right now. They used to have a style that you didn’t want to face in the postseason. That’s less the case now. Duncan is, essentially, David West, as in a jump-shooting PF/C. That’s not what wins playoff games.

I like the chats over at ESPN, but until last week I had avoided Ric Bucher’s because I see him a nothing more than a PR tool for Kobe, but I read last week’s and didn’t vomit so I thought I’d try again this week. Right out of the box I’m pissed off. “The Spurs can’t play appreciably better,” what the fruckitty-fruck-fruck is that? You’d think that a professional sports reporter would have some clue that the Spurs could get better just by playing their starters closer to the league average for starting players, or that two key bench players are injured.

The other part that I take offense to is the assertion that Tim Duncan is somehow on a lesser plan of existence. To those that have at least some clue, it is clear that Timmy’s numbers are down because he’s playing less and needed less to boot. However, with a smigdeon of research one can see that Duncan’s per 36 minutes averages are mostly identical (his scoring is off by 4 points, but everything else is the same).

I know that I shouldn’t less this bull plop get to me, it’s just that I’ve always felt a certain kinship with Tim Duncan. Too see any slight coming his way is like someone coming at a family member, and that’s just not cool. Let’s see how Duncan performs down the stretch before we start to talk about how he’s slipping…mmm-kay?