Their Southwest Division leading 32-9 record aside, San Antonio Spurs star Manu Ginobili insists he would not yet list his team among the league's elite, according to the San Antonio Express.
As Exhibit A, Ginobili points to a string of recent high-profile losses to the likes of Portland, Oklahoma City, Houston and Indiana.
"When it happens the first three times, four times, five times,then you say, 'Okay, things happen," Ginobili told the newspaper. "The schedule and...' Now it's eight (losses), so there has to be a tendency now."
Indeed, Tim Duncan and company now have a dismal 1-8 record against what's widely considered the league's elite teams and are an equally dreadful 1-7 against the Western Conference's best. Even the one victory over the Clippers (116-92) came when the team was without star guard Chris Paul.
Overall, the Spurs are 15-8 against opponents with plus-.500 records, but against the best of the best it's been a different story.
"I guess at the moment we're not ready to beat them," Ginobili told The Express. "They're very talented; everybody is more athletic than us. To beat these types of teams, we've got to be even sharper, more precise, and at this point, we are not."
One bright spot has been Duncan, who after a tumultuous summer has again found a way to be one of the Spurs most consistent players. After a slow start in which he scored less than double figures in three of the team's first six games, the 37-year-old veteran has rebounded to now average 15 points and ten rebounds.
Duncan spent the offseason finalizing the terms of a contentious divorce from Amy Duncan, his wife of twelve years, where matters got so messy she openly questioned her now ex-husband's sexuality.
In recent months, Duncan has been romantically linked to former reality TV star Vanessa Macias.
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