The colossal mistake by the Spurs ignoring what a 3 seeded Denver really means to their title hopes

Everything was set up so beautifully.

It was handed to them in their laps.

That last Sunday of the regular season.

Just beat a depleted Denver squad (rested several players and Jokic only played 18 minutes) and you guarantee yourself the winner of the Lakers and Rockets in the semi finals instead of a Denver team that gave you your only 3 losses in an otherwise dominant end to the season.

When I heard they benched Wemby I could not believe it. To make matters worse they didn't bother to have any bigs in the game, having rested Luke Kornet as well. Denver destroyed the ultra small lineup of the Spurs inside, and came away with the victory.

I screamed to the heavens for anyone that could hear me what a fatal this was.

The flip side of this, and the worst part of it all, was not forcing a title worthy Denver team to exhaust OKC in the semi finals in what would probably have been a repeat of last year, a grueling 7 game series.

The path to the finals was set. Destroy Portland. Destroy the Lakers or the Rockets. Play an exhausted Denver or OKC team in the WCF. Huge advantage Spurs.

Alas, it was not in the cards. The powers that be in Spurs land decided pfffft, who cares.

The Spurs, with that fateful decision, went from an outright Western conference favorite to having very little chance of making it out of the West having to face Denver and then a VERY RESTED OKC team. Not gonna happen. And it didn't have to be this way.

 

Yes you're correct.

But the other side of the coin here is OKC is getting 2 layup series before potentially playing the Spurs who will have gotten exhausted by Denver, if they even can survive the series.

It just did not make any sense to throw the game.

 

Now maybe you people realize the problem.

The layup series with OKC against the LeBronda Lakers bore itself out as expected, and are now waiting for a long drawn out series with either the Spurs or their opponent (in this case Minnesota) being worn down after what is likely going to be a 7 game series.

OKC has just won back to back NBA championships.

And no the Knicks aren't winning it all, lol.

 

You've missed the biggest part of the premise, OKC getting to cruise thru the WCF by playing the trash Lakers.

And I'm not fully convinced Minnesota gets by those same Lakers. TWolves have now been blown out twice in this series. They are certainly not a team you would have given them a free pass against the Lakers.