The San Antonio Spurs are the first team to secure their spot in the conference finals.  They may have some company after tonight but they still have been the most impressive team in the playoffs.  With an 8-0 record and two sweeps under their belt the Spurs are preparing for their next opponent; the Thunder or the Lakers.  The odds favor the Thunder who have a 3 games to 1 advantage and host the Lakers tonight.  This is the matchup that most experts expected when the playoff brackets were finalized.  This will be your classic case of a young and atheltic team in the Thunder going up against the verteran laden Spurs team who's core has has championship experience.  I don't want to count Kobe and the Lakers out but I can't see them winning 3 straight over the Thunder especially with 2 of those games being in OKC.

Let's take a look at what the Spurs have been doing so well that has resulted in two straight sweeps.  First of all they are playing good defense.  They have yet to give up 100 points in the playoffs yet.  The 99 point they gave up last night in game 4 against the Clippers was actually the only time their opponent scored more than 92 points so far.  What even more impressive is that the Spurs are scoring at a very high rate.  They have surpassed 100 points in 6 out of their 8 games with only 1 game failing to reach 90 plus.

Tony Parker is leading the Spurs in scoring this post season just under 20 points a game.  He is also chipping in with 7 assists a night.  Tim Duncan is right behind him with 17 points and 9 rebounds and just under 2 blocks a game.  They are getting solid contributions out of there younger players like Danny Green, Tiago Splitter, Gary Neal and their first round pick this year Kawhi Leonard.  Between the 4 of them they are contributing right around 35 points a game which takes some of the pressure off of Parker, Duncan and Ginoboli who is also having a fine post season.

The first round series against the Jazz was an after thought.  The Spurs manhandled the Jazz with 3 double digit wins including one thirty point win.  I really thought the Clippers were going to give them a series.  With Blake Griffin and Chris Paul and all of those young athletes I really thought they could impose their style of play and at least win a few games.  Once again the Spurs won 3 out of the 4 games by double digits including a game in which they were down 19 points that they ended up winning by 10.  They closed out the Clippers with a 3 point win.  They will get to rest up now and await their opponent.  With both eastern conference series having to go at least 6 games they should be able to get some rest.

I think they will run into their toughest challenge against Oklahoma City and the winner of that series will go on to be the favorite to win the NBA Title.  It's hard to go against the Spurs right now. They are experiences, well coached and fundamentally sound.  They won't beat themselves so it will be interesting to see how the Thunder attack them.