West Round 2 Preview: (1) San Antonio Spurs vs. (5) Portland Trail Blazers

Terry Stotts isn't a household name like Gregg Popovich, but that could change if the Blazers advance.

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

By The Numbers

San Antonio:
62-20 (32-9 Home, 30-11 Road)
PPG: 105.4 (6th); PPG Allowed: 97.6 (6th)
+7.7 Average Scoring Margin (1st)
Off Rating: 108.2 (6th); Def Rating: 100.1 (4th)
+8.1 Net Efficiency Rating (1st)

Portland:
54-28 (31-10 Home; 23-18 Road)
PPG: 106.7 (4th); PPG Allowed: 102.8 (22nd)
+4.0 Average Scoring Margin (8th)
Off Rating: 108.2 (6th); Def Rating: 104.7 (16th)
+3.5 Net Efficiency Margin (T-8th)

Season Series: Tied 2-2
Portland 115, San Antonio 105 (November 2)
Portland 109, San Antonio 100 (January 17)
San Antonio 111, Portland 109 (February 19)
San Antonio 103, Portland 90 (March 12)

Young NBA Players are "Stupid," and Other Insights from Dennis Rodman

By Joe Parello  @HerewegoJoe

Dennis Rodman is one of the most underrated players in NBA history, and man, is the guy a character.

I mean, seriously, he made the interview I did with controversial slugger Jose Canseco last year look tame. Neither ended well, as Canseco gave me the stink-eye for asking about Roger Clemens and steroids, and "The Worm" hung up on Bob Lobel and I after Bob asked him to discuss his role in the famous Larry Bird interception of Isiah Thomas during the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals.

By the way, I was less than six-months old when that happened, so hearing these guys argue about it was pretty amusing.

"He's one of the most underrated players, but one of the most overrated interviews," Lobel said after Rodman hung up.

The (Probably Way Too Long) Suite Sports 2013 NBA Finals Preview

The 2013 NBA Finals could come down to coaching.

By Jeremy Conlin

Is it just me or did we take the circuitous route and end up at the same point we all thought we would end up at from the beginning of the season?

The Heat are taking on [insert strong Western Conference Champion here] for the NBA Championship. Yawn. Right?

We might have squabbled about which team would represent the Western Conference – I picked the Lakers and was very happy to be wrong. My second pick would have been San Antonio, and the popular pick seemed to be Oklahoma City. But we all knew we were basically going to end up with an iconic Heat-Somebody matchup. Either the storied, star-studded Lakers, the up-and-coming star-studded Thunder, or the Old Guard of the Spurs.