Rondo. Rose. Paul.<\/p>\n
Why do we always forget\/ignore\/omit Tony Parker from the list when we talk about the best point guards in the NBA? <\/p>\n
San Antonio Spurs (44-12) at Golden State Warriors (31-23)<\/strong> Like his team, Parker is ruthlessly fundamental and efficient, often carving you up and serving you for dinner before you have any idea you were even in the oven.<\/p>\n On Thursday night he bended, folded and mutilated Chris Paul and the Clippers. In a mano-a-mano matchup that was mercifully called off after three periods because San Antonio was so far ahead, Parker outscored Paul (31-4), out-assisted Paul (7-3), had 12 field goals to Paul\u2019s 1, and for good measure went 7 for 7 from the foul line.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was unbelievable,\u201d Tim Duncan said in the locker room as Parker was counting Paul\u2019s lunch money. \u201cHe just continued to attack, continued to be aggressive, making plays left and right. It was fun to watch. It was fun to watch the whole team clicking like that and playing such a good game, start to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n Parker, Duncan and Manu Ginobili all played short minutes (none more than 28), which should serve them in good stead tonight when they play the second of a back-to-back set.<\/p>\n In fact, the Spurs are coasting with five wins in a row during a 9-game road trip that had given the Thunder and Clippers some (turns out false) hope that SA would come back to the pack a bit in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n Just the opposite. San Antonio has fattened its lead in the West, and now owns a four-game edge over Oklahoma City in what remains of the race for the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. The Clippers, the only other team with a chance to catch the Spurs, have fallen 6 games back in the loss column. Looks like someone will have to win at least one playoff game in San Antonio to keep the Spurs out of The Finals. [ad-6571516]<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Warriors were able to end a deflating 6-game losing streak on Wednesday by beating the Suns, but it came at a price. Coach Mark Jackson has had to shorten his rotation, and Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry both played more than 40 minutes against the Suns. Only foul trouble kept David Lee under 40.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to see GS not slipping even further \u2013 after the Spurs game they embark on a 5-game Eastern swing that includes a nasty Indiana\/New York back-to-back.<\/p>\n Free NBA PICK \u2013 It\u2019s been a full month since the Warriors have been able to beat a team with a winning record (OKC Jan. 23), and you have to wonder if GS has enough tread on the tires to hang on to a playoff spot.<\/p>\n They were beaten soundly five times in that recent 6-game skid that wrapped around the All-Star break, and GS has fallen to 26th in the league defensively.<\/p>\n No reason the rested Spurs shouldn\u2019t be able to cover 3 on the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spurs vs Warriors NBA Handicapping Rondo. Rose. Paul. Why do we always forget\/ignore\/omit Tony Parker from the list when we talk about the best point guards in the NBA?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":28296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60124,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60090\/revisions\/60124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Friday, Feb. 22<\/strong>
\n Oracle Arena, Oakland<\/strong>
\n 10:30 p.m. EST<\/strong>
\n Spread \u2013 Spurs -3 at Bovada<\/a><\/strong>
\n O\/U \u2013 210<\/strong><\/p>\nCLICK GRAB OUR BEST Expert NBA Picks for 2013 HOOPS GAMBLING season!<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n