Tony Parker now says Spurs won't rest, 'everybody's playing' against Warriors
The Spurs and the Warriors will face each other twice in the final four games of the regular season, but there was a very good reason that fans weren't wasting their time in getting too excited.
San Antonio is notorious for resting its best players in situations like these. Part of it is Gregg Popovich wanting his older guys as fresh as possible for what should be a deep run through the postseason, but there's also a strategy element involved in not wanting to give a potential playoff opponent 48 minutes of game film to study this late in the season.
Tony Parker had said recently that he expected the Spurs to rest their players in both matchups against the Warriors, which would obviously have been very helpful to Golden State's quest to finish with the most wins ever in an NBA regular season.
But now, in advance of Thursday's contest in Oakland, Parker believes (via News4SanAntonio.com) that the Spurs may be at full strength.
"I think we'll play," Parker said. "Utah, I thought he was going to rest everybody. But we played Utah, so I don't see any reason we're not playing Golden State.
Like I said, before the Utah game, I thought [Popovich] was going to rest everybody," Parker said. "He said he wanted to play. So if we played Utah, I don't see any reason now we're not going to play Golden State. Before, we were going to rest everybody like against Utah and Golden State. But I guess he changed his mind. Everybody's playing now."
This would obviously be great if it happens, but it wouldn't at all be a surprise if Popovich changed his mind. And in fact, he already appears to be engaging in a bit of gamesmanship, because we won't find out about his lineup decision until he meets the media 90 minutes before tip-off on Thursday night.
Yes. We'll next see Pop about 90 minutes before tipoff Thursday https://t.co/dH5E4jKzAN
— Jeff McDonald (@JMcDonald_SAEN) April 6, 2016
History will be on the line in both of these meetings. In addition to the Warriors trying to get to 73 wins, the Spurs are just two games away from becoming the first team ever to finish with an undefeated record at home.
It's crazy to think that Popovich may be the one who ends up preventing both from taking place.
