About a month ago I read (on 48 Minutes of Hell, I think) where somebody suggested that being the 4th seed and meeting the Lakers in the 2nd round rather than the WCF might actually have its advantages.  Last year if the Spurs had met the Lakers in round 2, they wouldn't have been so worn out from playing 7 games against New Orleans and Manu might have been healthier. 

Meeting the Lakers in round 2 might give the Spurs a better chance (maybe 6% rather than the 5% that Tomasito suggested?) of beating them for a couple of reasons.  Maybe the Spurs are fresher / healthier going into that series.  Maybe the Lakers do not have Bynum fully integrated back into their game plan.  Of course the Spurs might still be getting their rhythm going into round 2 and another round before seeing the Lakers might help.  Also, avoiding the Lakers in round 2 means that there is a chance (however small) that someone else might knock them off first.

Being the 4th or 5th seed now would pit the Spurs against Houston/Portland (based on Hollinger's playoff odds) whereas the 3rd seed pits the Spurs against New Orleans/Utah.  Obviously, all of this can change on a daily basis.

I don't pay too much attention to or place too much stock in Hollinger's Power Rankings, but I do find it funny how many people call him biased based on his automated rankings system.  Hollinger addressed this (again) today in his PER diem because of all of the Lakers fans whining to him about the Lakers being # 3.  Hollinger always makes a point to explain that scoring margin is a much better indicator of future success than win-loss records are (yet he uses opponents win-loss record to determine a team's strength of schedule).

One thing that he keeps coming back to in order to validate his rankings is the fact that his rankings had the Spurs ranked # 1 in 2007.  Today he wrote, "two years ago San Antonio finished No. 1 despite being a whopping nine games behind Dallas in the standings. I got a lot of letters then, too, but it worked out OK in the end when the Spurs hoisted the championship trophy."  He has written this numerous times, but he always fails to mention that the Spurs did not actually beat the Mavs in the playoffs and that his power rankings had the Mavs destroying the Warriors team that knocked them out in the first round.  I'm not saying that the Spurs weren't the best team that year, just that it doesn't do much to validate his rankings, yet he uses it as the prime evidence that his system works.  I guess he figures the people who are dumb enough to call an automated system biased are also dumb enough not to think his evidence through.

I've seen stuff written on PTR about Hollinger's PER rankings, but I wondered what others thought about his power rankings / playoff odds.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3921500

He's undergoing ey'e surgery.  I wonder if this had anything to do with him not being traded.  It would have been weird to have 2 trades rescinded for a bad toe and a bad eye.  It couldn't have happened to a classier guy, organization or fanbase.  I'm sure Shaq will come out and say that he is going to put the team on his back and they are going to surprise everyone the rest of the year.

The host of Sports Talk San Antonio e-mailed R.C. Buford to get an update on Ian after the surgery.  R.C. e-mailed back and said that the surgery went well and that it is not out of the realm of possibility that Ian will be back this year. 

I'm definitely not resting my hope on Ian being able to work himself into the rotation in April for the playoffs, but I guess it's promising to hear that the party line is that Ian still has a future with the Spurs and they hope it is sooner rather than later.  Of course, R.C. may just be hoping that other GM's listen to San Antonio radio so that he can drive up his trade value (yeah, right).

The following quote about the Ginobili steal is from Jeff McDonald's game recap in the SA Express News:

"Here is what Ginobili thinks he saw on the fateful inbounds play: Allen was trying to get the ball to Pierce. Ginobili moved quickly to block the pass, causing Allen to halt his throwing motion and lose his grip on the ball.

Later, Allen would dispute this version, saying he thought Ginobili had crossed the out-of-bounds line to make the steal."

The replay showed that it happened exactly as Manu says it did.  This comes on the heels of Allen claiming that he got fouled against the Lakers on the last shot.  I didn't see the play, but I've heard that he may have gotten fouled prior to the shot.  Either way, why can't he just stop whining and admit that he didn't make the play when his team needed it?  Oh, that's right, because he's RAY ALLEN!!!

In his ESPN chat today, somebody asked him about Ricky Rubio and he said that he wants to see him play in the NBA before judging him because of some of the struggles of other foreign players in the past and he pointed out that Manu comes off the bench.  That led to this exchange:

Umm, J.A. Ginobili has been an all-star and a key piece of several championships. What are you talking about?

 J.A. Adande: (3:45 PM ET ) Not saying he hasn't been great. But he's the best player on the court in Int'l comp. Argentina's whole team is built around him. you'd think that would make him a starter on every team in the NBA. He's a sixth man on the Spurs. Shows you the difference in the games.

So, Adande thinks that Manu comes off the bench because Mason and Finley are better?

This is my first time doing a fanpost on this site, but I thought this was something worth posting.  According to Jeff McDonald's blog on the Express News website, Manu wants to play Monday against Memphis.  This comes shortly after Roger Mason accidentally told reporters that Manu had participated in 5 on 5 drills, which the team might have been trying to keep under wraps.  Here's the link to the blog:

http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/courtside/archives/2008/11/jeff_mcdonald_m_19.html