NBA Playoffs Spurs Suns Series Preview: The Welcome Embrace Of Ancient Enemies

Do you know what “nemesis” means? A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent.  -Bricktop, Snatch (2000)

And so old foes meet again. It would be overdramatic to say “for the last time” but doesn’t it feel like it? Don’t you get the sense that this will be the last rendesvous for these two teams in the playoffs? The odds of both teams maintaining their current rosters is low. It’s possible, don’t get me wrong. Amar’e's likely staying, as the extension is all but done. Ginobili is staying. Parker’s likely staying, Duncan’s not going anywhere, neither is Nash. But to meet again? Seems unlikely. There’s only so many times you can bump into one another at the cafe’, even in a small neighborhood.

So, weapons drawn, gents.

For those of us that believed in Seven Seconds or Less, we foolish, naive believers, the seeds of hope will likely stay stuck in our throat, choking us, even as this team bears little resemblance to the Omega Flight that brought questions of the very foundation of winning basketball less than a half-decade ago. This team rebounds. It defends (no really!), it’s built tougher, built wiser, built as some sort of hybrid model. But those seeds of hope will remain because the Suns still run. They push. They challenge you, and they spread the floor. There’s no grind to their game, just an inexhaustible fire, fueling the scoring machine.

It’s impossible not to ask the question. “What if they actually f***ing won this series?!” The idea, that finally, mercifully, some small measure of revenge could be enacted upon San Antonio for all the damages wreaked on this team feels like validation for all the work D’Antoni did, for all the brilliance Nash ha brought us, for this bizarre team that was so damn fun for so many years. Shouldn’t there eventually be a karmic yang to the yin? Some sort of small retribution for the years of misery the Spurs hammered Phoenix with?

The answer is no. Because this is professional sports, not Final Fantasy IV.

The Spurs will win this series, because we have no reference in the playoffs in the time of these constructed rosters to believe otherwise. There’s too much history. Tim Duncan hit a three to win, for God’s sake. The Horry thing was a disaster and it’s become a terrific barstool debate. Seriously, you want a good time? Get four non-Spurs, non-Suns NBA fan friends together and bring up the Horry body check. It’s fascinating. It’s Horry’s fault. It’s Nash’s fault. It’s Amar’e's fault. It’s the league’s fault. It’s a good rule. It’s a bad rule. It’s just the rule. It wouldn’t have mattered. It would have changed the whole series. It wouldn’t have changed anything. It goes on and on and on and at this point, a lot of people are violently passionate about pleading people to just let it go.

But how can you? With what was on the line? With the direction that series had taken? It’s the stuff of harmless tragedy, and those are the kinds of things we love to argue about more than anything, because it allows us to exhibit our greater philosophical leanings without the burden of things that matter. If you’re a realist, saying that children die because everything dies and it’s simply probability has the result of exposing you as a heartless and cruel being, even if it’s not a true representation. But say that Amar’e was suspended because them’s the rules and the breaks, and you can revel in a position of unbridled fact cling. You can believe in the existence of aliens and be labeled a cook, but say you think there was a conspiracy that involved Donaghy and, well, you’re still a cook, but who cares? The point is that this rivalry represents two very different and very complex systems of thought.

I’ve long said the Spurs are murderers of fun. They are. Fantastic basketball team, and now, more than ever, having seen how Pop handles that team, how Buford constructs it, how Duncan leads it, they’re even more impressive than they’ve ever been. But they are murderers of fun. Everything the casual fan would enjoy, the team vanquishes. Run and gun teams. Fast paced basketball. Dynamic superstars. And this year? The chance of an upset over LA. I made the case that the Spurs needed to try and get the Lakers in the first round. That’s when they’re most vulnerable, and you saw that with OKC. Give them the light, and they’ll muster up just enough willpower to get the job done. And now the Spurs have eliminated the team most likely to be able to upset the Lakers, while Utah has dismissed the second, and now San Antonio faces the third with every advantage including an overwhelming amount of history. Home court advantage? Who cares? San Antonio has proven it can beat Phoenix at the bottom of the ocean if it has to.

Spurs fans will blast in outrage that they, moreso than any other team, can dispatch the Lakers. After all, look at their last regular season game! But again, ths is fool’s gold. For all the teams the Spurs have a dominant playoff record against during their decade-long reign, the Lakers are 4-2 in the playoffs against the Spurs since the arrival of Duncan.  And the re-emergence of Bynum, even injured, makes things that much harder.

But we’ll have plenty of time for that later. For now, this series should be a gem, or at least, more competitive than the last time these two met in the first round, when the Suns were a discombobulated mess on account of the Big Liability and the fact that honestly, that Duncan three pointer ripped the very heart from their chest and they were never the same. This team has more heart, more guts, more impulse and more fire. But the Spurs are still the Spurs. Capable of outworking you, getting the little plays, those tiny looseballs that seem insignificant but prevent you from easy scores, able to snatch rebounds that seem to come straight at them, able to nail layups that consistently look about as lazy as can be but are actually just timed impeccably.

Matchups? Who cares. Yes, Nash is better than Parker, and George Hill, but George Hill will have a good series and be surprising and knock down shots you don’t expect him to because that’s what Spurs draft picks do. Richard Jefferson will struggle but have one good game that will help seal a win. Jason Richardson will inexplicably have a bad series while Manu Ginobili just continues tearing it up. Duncan, aging though he may be, will still get the turnaround to fall on Dudley/Frye/Amundson while Bonner will magically find himself wide open after a bizarre rebound caroms directly to McDyess who will flip it to him and then Amar’e will be blamed for bad defense while he’s pursuing where the rebound in almost any situation would have gone. We know these things because we have seen these things. We know the scorn and laughter the Suns will receive and the adulation for yet more proof of how truly great the Spurs have made their franchise even in their waning heydays.

I don’t intend to bring a morose tone to what should be an epic series, but too often we’ve seen one side take this battle. The Suns, by many accounts, were the best team in the league several years in which they lost to the Spurs. Why would a year in which they are not be any different? Enjoy the series, it will be fierce and dramatic. But carry not in your heart the hope for victory. We are in the Spurs’ territory. And there is no water, nor relief, nor hope here. Just dust and bone and championships.