2012 NBA Playoffs: Why the Spurs Are Going to Beat the Clippers

After having to endure an offseason in which various media sources dubbed the Spurs too old to compete, the Spurs have come out with a vengeance.

Not only have they moved on to the second round of the playoffs, but they absolutely annihilated the Jazz, a team that was supposed to expose San Antonio's supposed weaknesses. 

The Clippers will be the next matchup for the Spurs.

This is a blessing for the Spurs, who might have been mentally unprepared to face the Grizzlies again after last year. But now the Spurs are playing a team that is probably going to come out unprepared for the level that the Spurs play at.

While the Grizzlies are a good team, they were not playing at the level that they easily could have been. We've already seen the combination of Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph single-handedly win games against the Clippers, who's to say that Tim Duncan and Boris Diaw can't do the same?

That's another point.

The Spurs have a team that is ridiculously deep.

While the Spurs likely will not win the series based solely on two specific players, their team is filled with guys that could go off any given night. Kawhi Leonard got hot in Game 2 and swung that game in favor of the Spurs. Manu Ginobili did the same in Game 4.

On this roster, literally everyone has the capacity to go off for thirty points any given night. That same level of depth just is not present in the Clippers. Also, the Spurs have had the good luck of being relatively healthy this postseason, which gives them a distinct advantage over most teams.

The only way that the Clippers could win a game this series is if Chris Paul has a legendary game. A player like Paul has the potential to swing a playoff series. However, he and Blake Griffin are not at 100%, and that will really hurt the Clippers all series long.

Blake Griffin really had no way to stop the Spurs frontcourt before his injury, so there's no reason to expect him to stop them while he's injured. If Blake Griffin is not able to move as well or get the crowd behind them with a monster dunk, then the Clippers probably will not give much of a fight.

Momentum is everything in a playoff game, and without Griffin providing a spark, it's hard to see too much momentum coming the Clippers' way.

The Clippers did a good job getting to the second round, but they aren't much of an obstacle on the Spurs' drive to the championship.