What's Wrong With The San Antonio Spurs?

I realize the San Antonio Spurs have been branded by the national media as the "Team Thou Shalt Never Count Outeth Early In The Season," but at what point do we have to wonder whether the Spurs just aren't as good as we all thought they would be?

Yesterday's loss to the Jazz was the Spurs' third straight, dropping them to 9-9 this season.  The Spurs have some understandable losses - e.g. Boston, Denver, at Utah, at Dallas -- but they also have some ones you wouldn't expect (Oklahoma City twice, Utah at home, Chicago). 

If you ask some Spurs fans, the time to panic is now.  Via SB Nation's Spurs blog, Pounding the Rock.

The Spurs failed me last night, plain and simple.  I don't care if it was close.  I don't care if they had a chance to win in this 104-101 loss.  They didn't win -- thus, they failed me.

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They had another suckfest in a game they really couldn't afford to lose.  At 9-9, with such an easy schedule so far, our record is very worrying.

I watched the end of that game last night, and the Spurs looked, well, old.  Not Tim Duncan, he looked great, but Manu Ginobili and Richard Jefferson.  Ginobili admits he's lost a lot of his confidence and therefore a lot of his game, while Jefferson has looked like he aged five years overnight.  With Tony Parker still recovering from an early-season injury, that leaves Duncan to carry the load.  That's definitely not how Spurs brass saw this season playing out.

Look, the Spurs will recover, win their 50+ and get a decent playoff seed.  But as Pounding the Rock mentioned, is that really something to be proud of anymore?  The Spurs didn't go on an offseason spending spree (by their standards) merely to get back to the same place they've been the last two years.