There Is No Such Thing As A Good Playoff Matchup For A Bad Playoff Team

Two more chances to see that

As I watched the Spurs do what the Spurs do, both tonight and down the stretch of the regular season -- i.e., give hope to an underdog by giving their older stars rest, then turn on the jets -- the NBA on TNT guys started talking about how San Antonio was now a bad matchup for the Lakers. Which is to say that everyone's not very smart pick for an upset special was, after an 0-2 start where Steve Nash looked like a guy with less athleticism than the rec players at the Y, Steve Blake ended the game hobbling, and even Jodie Meeks wasn't around, pretty much DOA for more than a 5-game series.

Big men win playoffs, but you can't win without guards, and the Lakers don't have any right now. Nash can't defend anyone, and is only tolerable on offense because he's the smartest guy ever; there's just no way he can give you enough on one end to make up for what he takes away on the other. Blake has been making shots like mad for the past few weeks, but he's stretched as more than a change of pace point guard, and if he's hobbled now, there isn't even that. Meeks isn't more than a rotation guy under the best of circumstances, and then we're into the realm of Darius Morris and Andrew Goudelock, otherwise known as the finest Lakers the NBDL has to offer.

I feel bad for Nash, honestly. The man's getting freaking epidurals -- otherwise known as INJECTIONS TO THE SPINE that are usually only done for women giving birth -- while trying to play ball for a team at the end of his career, without Kobe Bryant, with a coach that's never gone deep, for a fanbase that only knows him as too old and hurt to help. There's a reason why guys have always loved playing with him, and why writers seem to genuinely care that he's never played in an NBA Finals. He deserves a better end of career than this.

On the other side of the ball, we've got the freakishly effective Many Ginobili (13-5-7 in 19 minutes, +19 the second-best mark on the team), Tony Parker starting to wake up the echoes (28-4-7 with no turnovers, but don't let the numbers fool you, this was more about LA having no one healthy to guard him, rather than TP being back to his old self yet), and cagey old Tim Duncan erasing Dwight Howard's 16 with the same number on his own.

The Spurs are, of course, a bad matchup for the Lake Show, but there isn't a team in the West -- and that should be obvious by now, especially after the Rockets' spirited effort in OKC tonight -- that they could beat. It's just a bad team, especially in the stacked West; no depth, bad defensively in one on one situations, and with no Bryant, no wildcard talent to give them suckout potential.

And in 2 to 3 more games, they can rest all they want, and the Spurs can go get too much time off, convincing everyone that they'll be too rusty to win Round 2.

At some point, you have to wonder if the people picking against the Spurs just hate the Spurs. Or don't watch the games...