The Spurs continue their playoff journey Monday, but what will be a running, series long dialogue between Amar and I continued today (and while Amar has been a joy to do these with, hopefully ended today, too). To get things started, I asked him a few questions, and his first answers are here. His first questions for me and my answers can be found here. Round two of his answers to my questions are here, and round two of my answers can be found over here. Round three is here, with my answers here. Round four is below, with a link to my answers to his questions here. Enjoy, Pounders.

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The Spurs continue their playoff journey Saturday, but what will be a running, series long dialogue between Amar and I continued today. To get things started, I asked him a few questions, and his first answers are here. His first questions for me and my answers can be found here. Round two of his answers to my questions are here, and round two of my answers can be found over here. Round three is below, with a link to his questions and my answers here. As always, keep the convo classy, Pounders.

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So, does anyone else feel like the NBA essentially shot us all up with black tar heroin all regular season, and now is doing everything they can to string us out? I feel kind of like a rat in a science experiment where everytime I pushed a button, I got food, and now when I push the button nothing comes out. Come on, NBA. You were supposed to wean me off non-stop basketball by having at least one set of back to backs in the first round, not this three games in seven days rubbish. THRGASENI? That's not even a worthwhile acronym. I'm pretty sure JRW (lover of all things acronymical) just vomited a little reading that.

Bollocks, Stern. Absolute Bollocks.

Fortunately, sports writers still have jobs to do, so enjoy some links.

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The Spurs continue their playoff journey wednesday, but what will be a running, series long dialogue between Amar and I continued today. To get things started, I asked him a few questions, and his first answers are here. His first questions for me and my answers can be found here. Below is round two of his answers to my questions, and round two of my answers can be found over here.

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So, we've got two days off between games in the playoffs...remember when we were stuck playing FOGAFINIs, THIGAFONIs, and all those other acronyms I don't feel like butchering? Well, there was always a game, which meant there was always something to do. No Spurs game tonight? Or tomorrow? Might as well enjoy some linkage.

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The Spurs begin their playoff journey tomorrow, but what will be a running, series long dialogue between Amar and I begins today. To get things started, I asked him a few questions, and his answers are below. His questions for me and my answers can be found here. Go forth, read, and as always, enjoy responsibly.

Nice view from Salt Lake City

via www.infinitedial.com

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Here are some good end of season links. Get ready for the playoffs, Pounders. We're going to have some fun.

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So, the Spurs finished number one in the non automated weekly power rankings. Currently, they sit atop John Hollinger's daily rankings as well. Nba.com put us on top of their power rankings, but predicted the Heat would win the title.

Enough about power rankings. Let's see what else is being said about the Spurs.

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The following links are stories from around the internet- mostly about the Spurs but some are good generic NBA reads. Also, in case you missed them, here are some great reads from PtR.

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So, everyone is riding pretty high right now. We've got another league leading win streak, we're second in John Hollinger's robotic power rankings (a pretty good indicator of past/future success IMO) and our esteemed leader, JR Wilco, has written several articles recently about how great the Spurs are. In a sign of the end times, Fred Silva is praising Matt Bonner with compliments that are hardly back handed. After the OKC and Miami losses, the Spurs now have the best record in the West and second best record overall. Everything is great in the Spurs universe. Right?

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This is the first in a series of posts looking at the playoff bound teams in the West. Basically, if I was an assistant writing a scouting report, this is what I would write. First up, we'll take a look at the Oklahoma City Thunder. I'm starting with them because they are the only team in the West that's officially clinched a playoff birth. If the playoffs started now, we'd have to make it all the way to the Western Conference finals in order to meet up with them, but it's never too early to learn a little more about teams we might be unfamiliar with.

I'm just practicing for when Derek Fisher gets here.

via cdn0.sbnation.com

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While it's still pretty early to jump to a conclusion, we're now three games out of the Richard Jefferson trade, and 2-1 in that time. I was having a conversation with JRW the night of the trade, and I pointed out one of the benefits of having Jackson instead of RJ. I'll fill you in on my theory, but first, hearken back, if you will, to the story by Edg5 regarding the positional revolution and what it means to the Spurs. Then, get ready for a brief sports history lesson and finally how that will relate to the rest of San Antonio's season.

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The following are observations I've made during a couple recent losses to "contenders" or at the very least playoff teams. Specifically, I wrote some things down during the Clippers game and the Mavericks game. Since the roster changed, I edited out some from the Clippers and focused a bit more on the Mavs. These are things I'll be looking at going forward, especially in regards to the defensive rotations and the minutes rotation. As always, I'd love to know what you're seeing that I'm missing or what I'm seeing that you're missing, so let me know in the comments.

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The 20 point late-third quarter lead had dwindled away. The shots were no longer dropping. The plays had stopped opening huge lanes to drive through, and the free-flowing feel that had defined so much of the game had turned into a difficult slog through marshy ground that sticks to your shoes and pulls them off your feet.

There were 59.7 seconds left in the fourth quarter in Oklahoma City, and James Harden waited on the near sideline to inbound the ball. Russell Westbrook was on the far baseline being guarded by Danny Green. As soon as Harden received the ball from the ref, Westbrook broke, and sprinted out to the three point line to receive the pass. Green was taken by surprise and trailed the Thunder's point guard by a good five feet.

Just as Green looked about to slow down and prepare to defend Westbrook, Harden threw a bounce pass and Green accelerated. No, that's not an accurate description of his motion. It would be better to say he pounced. That's better. Where was I? Oh, yes. Green was flying by the time he drew even with Westbrook, and reached out his left hand, intercepted the pass and streaked for an uncontested dunk with only enough time to dribble the ball three times. San Antonio 111, Oklahoma City 105. The lead was back up to six points, and there were 56.6 seconds left in the game, but it was all over besides the crying.

Sure, Matt Bonner would block Westbrook on OKC's the next possession, and Green still had to collect his third steal of the fourth quarter, but the game was, for all intents and purposes, pretty much done. Green had shut the door on the Thunder's comeback attempt, and San Antonio's crunch time prowess took a step back towards what it used to be, once upon a time -- defined by excellent defense.

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PEMDAS (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction)

For those of you who were never mathletes (myself included), this is the order of operations on any mathematical equation. You start by solving anything in parenthesis, then solve for any exponents, then do any multiplication, and so on until finally you do addition and subtraction. What does this have to do with the Spurs? Let's turn them into an equation.

Math: Now in color!

via www.coolmath.com

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So. let's keep this intro short and sweet. The title pretty much says it all- you all asked the questions (or at least some of you) and ClipperSteve from Clipsnation responds. Good job by both -- to those of you who asked the questions, and to Steve in answering them. Drinks all around. If you'd like to see the questions they asked me and my response to them, then you should probably click this link. Enjoy.

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So, we've got another game against the Clippers coming up. ClippersSteve and I have already done two fraternizing posts, so we're running out of questions for each other. We would like to do another one- so we're opening up the questioning to all of you.

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So, originally, I was going to write about Gary Neal and how he's evolved from a spot up shooter to an all around scorer, like Jamaal Crawford or J.R. Smith but with a brain....then Edg5 beat me to it. So, to spare you from redundancy, I won't write about how Gary Neal has evolved from a spot up shooter to an all around scorer....like Jamaal Crawford or J.R, Smith, but with BBIQ. Instead of that, I'm going to my backup plan to get the Spurs a back up big. I've got a trade idea that I'm stealing from a good friend of mine.

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The Spurs are getting old, declining, yada yada yada. Many of us read ESPN's The Whirlwide Liter's the recent article on Grantland about the Spurs mortality. I read it. It left me feeling unhappy. Not the kind of unhappy where you see what's going on and just have to realize that "life happens" and you just need to get through it, but the kind of unhappy like listening to a 13 year old hold forth on deep, life philosophy, as you sit there realizing just how wrong he is about everything.

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So, the Spurs are playing the Clippers again, but this time, the stakes appear higher. The winner of Saturday's game takes sole possession of second place in the Western Conference, within striking distance of the Thunder. Like the previous game, Clipsnation's Steve and I had a chat. So yes, it a conversation between the ClipperSteve and SpursFanSteve. (FYI, there aren't any Steves anymore. There are literally five dads that live within two blocks of me on my street named Steve, but neither of my kids goes to school with a single Steve. Actually, there is one, but everyone calls him Scotty. Whatever happened to Steve?)

Since I had the first go round last time, I let him take the lead this time. I hope you enjoy. If you're up for it and promise to play nice, you can go chat with the Clippers fans here.

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Welcome to the fifth...or sixth installment of my State of the Spurs series. I'm not good at counting, so I'm not sure what number I'm at, but five or six sounds right (I may be wrong, but I doubt it). Anyway, if you've read the title, and have this annoying feeling in the back of your head, like a song that just won't leave, it's likely because it immediately brought to mind this commercial.

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