What's the best cure for Spurs basketball being over until October? Possible future Spurs basketball, and there's plenty of it today.
The best basketball league outside the NBA started its playoffs yesterday. But, the two teams Spurs fans would be most interested in start their respective playoff runs today. Join me after the jump for more details.
The ACB playoffs are pretty similar to the playoff system of an NBA conference. There's 8 seeds, and the brackets work the same way. The playoff series, however, are much shorter - it's a best of 3 arrangement, so teams should play with a greater sence of urgency to avoid getting behind the proverbial 8-ball. Now let's meet our heroes.
Caja Laboral nabbed the second seed in the playoffs, due in large part to league MVP Tiago Splitter. Walter Herrmann also plays with Caja, for all the Brazilians among us. They'll play at 1:15 PM Spurs time against the 7th seed, Asefa Estudiantes.
Power Electronics Valencia ended up with the 4th seed, partly due to the highlight-reel playmaking ability and shooting(fills a need for the Spurs, no?) of Nando De Colo. They'll face off against Unicaja Malaga at 1:00 PM Spurs time.
For those of you who haven't seen these guys play, this is a good opportunity to see them in action. Nando especially will be facing the highest level of competition he's faced, after PEV won the Eurocup quite handily. If he can perform well in these playoffs, the Spurs may try to bring him in for next season, instead of waiting for him to spend a season in the tougher Euroleague competition.
I feel like noting that #1 seed Barcelona won the Euroleague championship quite easily, and were far and away the best team in the ACB this year, so it's unlikely either of our guys' teams will beat them . But, you still have to play the game.
Update: Go here for video feeds, per Wayne: http://acb360.orange.es/diferidos/LACB/54/309