Frankly, it's a silly question.

The San Antonio Spurs sit in second place in the Western Conference, yet a very poor record against the rest of the NBA's elite has the team's fans and NBA folks around the league questioning their status. Though really, it's understandable.As a whole, observers' memories are generally selective; what they see in front of them is what is tangible, and the rest is just theory.

San Antonio is 2-11 against the top six teams in the league, which is unquestionably poor. Whether it's an excuse or just good reasoning, the majority of those losses came on the second night of back-to-backs or without several key players, but these things must be taken into consideration when applying context to the situation.

And here's the other part of the equation: The Spurs have lost only twice to teams with a losing record (New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons), and they also maintain the NBA's best road record. In fact, the Spurs' 21 road victories is more than 26 teams have in their own buildings.

Let's be honest with ourselves, too: What exactly do the Spurs have left to prove in the regular season? Seeding is crucial in the Western Conference, to be sure, but does it matter where the wins actually come from?

San Antonio is notorious for dialing it back a notch during the regular season. With aging core playersTim Duncan is 37, Manu Ginobili is 36 and Tony Parker is 31it's a necessity that they approach it this way, especially considering they've all been through these wars. Self-preservation is key, and this isn't a team with anything to prove through the first 82 games.

And when you consider all the injuries this team has endured, they haven't had a chance to prove anything, anyway. Since Jan. 4, Tiago Splitter, Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, Ginobili, Duncan and Parker have not spent a single second on the court together

The Duncan-Parker-Leonard-Green-Splitter starting lineup that cruised through the 2012-13 postseason has spent all of 137 minutes on the court together this season. If we're debating their status as a contender, this has to be taken into account.

Early results with this group weren't good. They were playing great defense, allowing just 92.2 points per 100 possessions; but something was off on the offensive end, where they were putting up just 91.4 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com's media statistics page. But overall, the Spurs have been just fine. San Antonio has an offensive-efficiency rating of 107.5 this season, which is good enough for seventh in the NBA, according to the same site.

However, since the calendar turned, that lineup hasn't played one second together. Once Splitter went down with a sprained shoulder on Jan. 4, the Spurs went into an injury tailspin. Green followed Splitter's injury with a broken second metacarpal in his left hand just eight days later, Leonard followed that with a fractured fourth metacarpal in his right hand only nine days later, and Ginobili tweaked his hamstring only a week after that.

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Are San Antonio Spurs Still Among NBA's Elite?

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Cambridge, MA (PRWEB) February 18, 2014

The United Domains Group now holds about 10% market share in the New Domain expansion, making it the market leader in Europe and the second most trusted registrar group worldwide.

The United Domains Group is committed to offering their customers the most versatile and valuable new domains on the market. Since the introduction of New Domains on February 5th The United Domains Group holds a successful registration rate of over 70% of all pre-ordered domain names.

"As a team we are very happy to see our hard work pay off," said United Domains Group Founder Florian Huber. "We are thankful to our customers for making us their trusted registrar, and we are motivated to continue delivering a high successful registrations rate for upcoming new domains for our customers."

Since February 5th new domains have been changing the Internets landscape, bringing more opportunities to small business owners, entrepreneurs and Internet users. As of today, 14 new domain extensions have been added to the United Domains Group product portfolio including .BIKE, .SINGLES, .ESTATE and .VENTURES or .PHOTOGRAPHY, starting at $14.90 per year. With hundreds of new domains launching throughout 2014 more product additions can be expected in the months to come. Lean more about new domain extensions at http://www.uniteddomains.com/newgtlds/.

About United Domains

Based in Boston (Cambridge), Massachusetts, United Domains is a domain registrar with over a decade of expertise in domain name registration, offering over 270 top-level domains worldwide, and support for over 1.5 million domain names for more than 250,000 clients, including Fortune Global 500 companies like Siemens, Vodafone, and Lufthansa.

United domains now accepts registrations on 14 new domain extensions and pre-orders on more than 100 new domain extensions launching this year. The United Domains Group includes United Domains Inc. (Cambridge, MA) and the ICANN accredited registrar united-domains AG (Munich, Germany).

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The United Domains Group - Now a Market Leader in New Domains Extensions

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Dickinson, ND (PRWEB) February 17, 2014

The new Sanford Health Dickinson Clinic, which is replacing the existing Sanford Health Dickinson Clinic, is now open. The new clinic, located at 2615 Fairway St., is more than six times the size of the current clinic at 938 Second Ave. W. and can house more than 20 physicians, providing better patient access than ever before.

Sanford made a promise to invest in health care in western North Dakota, and this clinic helps deliver on that promise, said Craig Lambrecht, MD, president of the Bismarck region of Sanford Health. The new clinic will allow patients better access to primary care and allow them to stay closer to home for specialty care. Were committed to providing quality, state-of-the-art health care to Dickinson, Stark County and all of western North Dakota and eastern Montana.

New services at the clinic will include infusion services for cancer treatment, a separate area for walk-in patients that features extended hours, space for a mobile MRI unit and the worlds most advanced CT scanner. An ambulatory surgery center is expected to open this summer. Regular clinic hours for the new clinic are 8 a.m.5 p.m. weekdays. Walk-in clinic hours are 8 a.m.8 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m.4 p.m. on weekends.

We are not just moving, we are reinventing ourselves, said Gordon Thomas, MD, family medicine physician who has been with Sanford Health Dickinson Clinic for 30 years. In 1916 the clinic began in downtown Dickinson and has moved a couple times and made additions. The new clinic is the latest in this process of providing better and better care for this community.

Sanford Health Dickinson Clinic features more than 20 dedicated and experienced health experts in family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedics, general surgery, pediatrics and sports medicine. Visiting specialists in cardiology, orthopedic surgery, podiatry, urology and oncology/hematology also travel from Bismarck to Dickinson to provide specialized care close to home.

Were excited about it being a super clinic as that brings quality services and more services closer to home, said Sister Paula Larson, member, Sanford Board of Directors.

For more information, visit dickinson.sanfordhealth.org or sanfordhealth.org/Construction/Dickinson.

About Sanford Health

Sanford Health is an integrated health system headquartered in the Dakotas and is now the largest, rural, not-for-profit health care system in the nation with locations in 126 communities in nine states. In addition, Sanford Health is in the process of developing international clinics in Ghana, Israel, Mexico and China.

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New Sanford Health Dickinson Clinic Now Open

-In signing Freddie Freeman to the largest contract in Braves history last week, general manager Frank Wren effectively threw a bone of optimism to the fan base, many of whom waited for one all winter. It was also a palate cleanser of sorts after an otherwise encouraging 2013 season ended on a down note in a division series defeat against the Dodgers.

Freemans $135 million contract, coupled with Wrens stated plan to keep the Braves young core together, came at an opportune time just before the annual rite or renewal that is spring training. Braves pitchers and catchers report Thursday to camp at Lake Buena Vista, Fla., and the first full-squad workout is Feb. 19.

There will be plenty of storylines to follow this spring, and more issues that folks seem concerned about than might be expected for a young team with so many returners from a 96-win unit that captured its first division title since 2005.

But thats what can happen when your team loses some leaders Brian McCann, Tim Hudson, Eric OFlaherty to free agency and it doesnt make major additions comparable to those made by the main division rival, the Nationals.

Also, things seem magnified because a lasting Braves image of 2013 was Juan Uribes eighth-inning, two-run homer into the Los Angeles night off David Carpenter in Game 4 of the division series. A shot that lifted the Dodgers past the Braves while closer Craig Kimbrel stood in the bullpen, warmed and upset that he hadnt been brought in to squelch the rally.

So, the Braves head back to their spring home at ESPNs Wide World of Sports cloaked in the usual anticipation and high hopes of Braves Country, but also with many followers concerned about one or more matters that must be resolved, preferably before things get real March 31 in the regular-season opener at Milwaukee.

They Braves will play nearly 200 games 34 at spring training, 162 during the season before they could get a chance to put their playoff loss to the Dodgers behind them and end an alarming streak of eight consecutive postseason series losses. But for now, the focus is not on making the playoffs, but on getting things going in the right direction in Central Florida.

What follows are some key situations well watch to see how they begin to shake out amid the sun and palm trees. There are other questions, such as whether Jason Heyward will bat leadoff (which appears most likely). But these are the biggest.

Uggla and Upton: Its not exaggerating to suggest that Dan Uggla and B.J. Upton were among the handful of worst hitters in all of baseball last season. Especially troubling considering they were the Braves two highest-paid players, both with multiple years remaining on their contracts, meaning it was going to take more than a garden-variety extended slump to bench them.

They had slumps of epic proportion, coupled with health issues a midseason groin injury for Upton, late-season laser eye surgery for Uggla and both eventually were benched for varying periods. Uggla was left off the postseason roster, an awkward situation for him and manager Fredi Gonzalez, a relationship that dates to their years together with the Marlins.

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Uggla, Upton major story lines this Spring Training

Editors Note: This is the second of a two-part story about how social media plays a role in college recruiting.

From a players perspective, Shawn Roundtree found his own positives in social media.

With a large number of his 1,045 followers being college coaches, Roundtree sees Twitter has a way to keep recruiters updated with his most recent information.

It is definitely a great outlet for athletes, such as myself, to get things out there that could go unnoticed. Twitter allows you to put things out there that someone may not have known, he said.

During the 2013-14 season, Roundtrees twitter feed is filled with mentions of his accomplishments, including his MVP performance at the Salem Invitational Tournament. There is also plenty of basketball, which Rivals.com recruiting coordinator Mike Farrell noted is something recruiters hope to find on an athletes feed.

While Roundtree said he has seen a steady increase in followers, it was the exact opposite for Kortney Dunbar.

The shooting guard was an instant hit once Sept. 1 rolled around and womens basketball coaches were allowed to start following her on Twitter. She said it was an awesome feeling to see which coaches were coming along in the notifications.

Once I started getting heavily recruited, as soon as they could follow me on Sept. 1 and you wake up at midnight, it was boom, boom, boom. It was like 50 followers and then 100 followers of coaches following along. They would message me and say, Hey, we saw you here. I could definitely notice, Dunbar said about her followers increasing on Twitter.

Over the past couple of seasons, Dunbar has tweeted about each of Edwardsvilles games and the summer camps, along with her recent nomination as a McDonalds All-American.

New to the tweets are mentions of the Tennessee Volunteers.

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PREP SPORTS: Recruits can be followed better on Twitter