Slow and steady: Spurs back atop the West

Since life seems to change every day in the newly impossible Western Conference, one team’s advancement to the top of the heap can hardly be heralded as anything all that noteworthy.

Except for the fact that the most recent social climbers are the Spurs, and it’s entirely possible San Antonio is now rested, rehabbed and prepared to reclaim its spot atop the league for good. You remember the Spurs, don’t you? They’re the team that didn’t make any really big moves before the trading deadline. (Acquiring Kurt Thomas, despite his ability to help inside, is definitely not a big move.) They’re the team that struggled a bit when point man Tony Parker went down. They’re also the team that has won four NBA titles in the last nine seasons.

It may be fashionable to crow about the Lakers and their new inside-outside axis. And those Mavs, with Jason Kidd, are exciting, too – despite their recent 5-5 wheel-spinning. Phoenix is cool, too, if its fans will stop booing. But when it comes down to real basketball, winning basketball, the discussion must begin and end with the Spurs, the defending NBA champs. Now that it has won nine in a row and 13 of 14, San Antonio is showing exactly what it can do. For the rest of the NBA, that has to be scary.

The Spurs are doing it, predictably enough, with defense. During its current run of prosperity, San Antonio has allowed just one team to score 100 or more points and has held three to fewer than 80. One, hapless Charlotte, managed just 65. Meanwhile, the troika of Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan is thriving on the offensive end, producing when necessary and giving teams an unselfish, highly dangerous collection of weapons with which to deal, each of whom is able to go for 30 if necessary.

You’ll have to pardon me if all of this sounds boring and repetitive, because there isn’t too much new in the way the Spurs do business. Although the satellite players may change, the main focus of San Antonio stays the same. That’s the reason for all the success. It’s also the reason why the Spurs must be considered the favorites to hoist a fifth banner, no matter how attractive other teams may look. It is the very stability that makes San Antonio seem so bland that makes them so good.

Think about it. If it gets down to the seventh game of a playoff series, whom do you think is more prepared for it, the Spurs and their battle-tested veterans, who have faced just about every possible situation on the court together, or a hot, new outfit that is still trying to figure out how to get things done in the post-season? Were the Spurs an aging concern, it might be possible to dismiss their “experience” as a euphemism for Old-Timers’ Syndrome. Granted, Duncan will turn 32 at the playoffs’ outset, but that hardly makes him antediluvian. Ginobili (30) and Parker (25) are still young. It doesn’t matter about Bruce Bowen or Thomas. They aren’t mainstays, despite their important roles. So, rule out age as a possible problem for the Spurs.

The concept of other teams’ improving enough to knock them off is a little shaky, too. Dallas is still trying to integrate Kidd into its lineup, and while he has moments where he looks comfortable, this is still a team that has coughed it up the past two years in the post-season. And for all of Kidd’s celebrated leadership qualities, he remains someone who has never won a title and can also become rather snippy when things aren’t going well for him. Phoenix, meanwhile, is truly struggling. Shaq has yet to display any periods of prolonged dominance, and the Suns are 5-5 in their last 10 and run the risk of losing homecourt advantage in the first round, much less throughout the post-season.

That leaves the Lakers as the Spurs’ real competition right now, and they are a legitimate threat. L.A. has won nine of 10 and appears to have made the best deal of anybody, trade deadline division. Getting a selfless performer like Pau Gasol, who doesn’t mind playing the second spot behind Kobe Bryant was a gift for the Lakers. (And don’t think Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is the only person angry at the Grizzlies for giving L.A. so much in return for so little.) Once Andrew Bynum gets back, assuming he is 100 percent or close to it, this team will be extremely dangerous. Now, can a front line of Gasol, Bynum and Lamar Odom defend anybody? Will the team’s point guard questions go unanswered in the playoffs? Those are big concerns.

Meanwhile, San Antonio rolls along, as always. There are flashier story lines in the NBA right now, but winning never gets too boring, does it?

GAME OF THE WEEK I: Utah at Phoenix, Friday, March 7

The Jazz holds the Northwest lead and boast one of the league’s top young point men in Deron Williams, while the Suns counter with veteran leading man Steve Nash. Both teams need this one. Utah has to keep its distance from Denver, because if it falls into second place, it might miss the playoffs all together. Phoenix, meanwhile, has to develop some continuity heading into the post-season. The point guard matchup is big, but the teams have plenty at stake, too.

GAME OF THE WEEK II: New Jersey at Dallas, Saturday, March 8

The Nets are clinging to the last spot in the Eastern playoff hunt, but this one has less to do with the teams and more to do with Jason Kidd and Devin Harris, who were swapped for each other last month. Look for each to bust out his A game for this one, in an attempt to show the other squad what it’s missing.

IN THE PAINT:

The Rockets may be still soaring without Yao Ming (stress fracture), but don’t count on any sustained success. Houston doesn’t have enough around Tracy McGrady to allow for prolonged winning, and a long post-season trip is entirely out of the question.

Now that Caron Butler is out, likely for the year, the Wizards are another team in danger of sliding quickly. Sure, Antawn Jamison is capable of many things, but he can’t score 35 a night, can he? First Gilbert Arenas and now this? Times truly are tough in D.C.

As the week began, there were six teams within five games of each other in the race for the final two playoff spots in the East. It would be an exciting race, were any of them above .500. Instead, it will be a crawl to the gallows for the two “winners,” which will be dispatched quickly in late April by the Celtics and Pistons.

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