Onze de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 6
Two Six - For every move there’s a counter move. Playing out of check in Game 6 of the 2026 Western Conference Finals, Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs have cross-checked reigning two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous Alexander and the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder with one cunning move. The home team shoved away the pressure of our first playoff elimination game (as a group) and won going away 128-91 on Thursday night. In doing so, we have now forced the Thunder (the very same team that went undefeated through the first two rounds of the playoffs) to face the first elimination game of their title defense. After blowing out OKC for the second time this series (and extending our season series lead over them to 7-4 in the process), we once again proved that (even though it requires suspending disbelief thinking in these terms about a team whose three franchise cornerstone pieces have an average age of the greatest player in franchise history’s jersey number) we’re already, at worst, on equal footing with the defending champs. When you have played an opponent eleven times in a season and have outscored them by a cumulative total of 1303 to 1201, it’s hard to continue to argue for what should be the conventional thinking: a team this young and inexperienced should not be a significant threat to dethrone the most recent team to raise a banner. Even with a Game 7 still ahead of us and despite the outcome of the series still being in the balance, the upstart Spurs have already made a forceful statement in this conference finals. Knotting this epic clash back up at 3-3 on Thursday night was the exclamation point. It can no longer be argued that it will require more seasoning for a Wemby-led San Antonio squad to compete at the highest level. The world now knows we are here for all of the smoke right in this very moment and ready to crash an NBA Finals party that we weren’t supposed to be getting invited to for at least another couple of seasons. The world now knows you can’t use conventional thinking to predict what something as unconventional as an extraterrestrial life form (that walks among us) can or cannot do. The world now knows that The Alien and those pesky whippersnappers from San Antonio are more than capable of marching straight into our first Game 7 on the road in insolently hostile Oklahoma City and knocking off the defending champs. Not only does the world know this but, to the delight of Adam Silver for getting to keep swimming in the reverie of his ratings bonanza, it will be on the edge of its seat holding its breath tonight to see if we pull it off.
Game 6 marks the seventh time the Spurs have held an opponent under 100 points this postseason and the second time against OKC. The type of suffocating defense we played on Thursday is virtually unbeatable. If we can repeat bringing such a ruthless onslaught of physicality and pressure again tonight (and the refs allow the players to decide the game), we will win the series. The problem is that it’s hit or miss whether or not our defensive A game is going to show up on any given night. Luckily, it’s not a home versus road question; we have proven our ability to play at our defensive best on the road during these playoffs. To me, there are two things we need to do in order to ensure that the top-secret otherworldly weapons possessed in Area 51 are unleashed on downtown Oklahoma City tonight. First, we need to come to play with the proper focus and urgency that a Game 7 requires. Every mistake is magnified. Every lapse of concentration could prove to be the thing that ends your season. The Spurs have proven throughout this inaugural playoff run that we always bring the proper focus and urgency on the defensive side of the court when our backs are against the wall and I expect nothing different tonight in our second elimination game. I’m supremely confident that we will bring the necessary focus and urgency to our first Game 7 in order to play defense with the respect and desperation it will require in order to come out on top. The second thing we need to do in order to ensure we paint a defensive masterpiece tonight is we have to protect the basketball. Let’s be honest, the Thunder’s half court office is kinda mid. The reason this team has been elite the past three seasons and won last year’s title is because of their exceptional ability create turnovers and then punish the opponent with the transition buckets those turnovers generate. When they are unable to dominate the turnover and transition battle, the Thunder are not an elite team. With Stephon Castle at the point of attack and Victor Wembanyama lurking in the shadows, the MVP had no answers to the test if the game is played in the half court. If we limit our turnovers tonight, it will allow us to guard in the half court where we will be able to clamp down and slowly turn the screws to suffocate OKC’s offense. The raucous Frost Bank Center crowd shouted “Spurs in Seven” with about 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter of Game 6 on Thursday night and with San Antonio maintaining a comfortable 20+ point lead. If we want to make that chant prophetic, we need to limit our turnovers throughout this Game 7 on the road in as hostile an environment as this group has experienced together so that our singular collection of defensive talent can suffocate the champs in the half court and destroy a city’s hopes of being the first to repeat in eight years.
It was obvious OKC was in trouble for Game 6 the minute Victor entered the Frost Bank Center wearing a thobe in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha on Thursday at 5:00 pm CT. Two and a half hours later when he came out with the conviction and determination of Prophet Musa by draining his first two threes in the opening minutes and then racking up another five points (11 total), five rebounds, one assist, one steal, and one block in the first quarter, I was like, okay, Vic. Assalamu Alaikum, brother, Inshallah. The biggest barometer for which team wins any given game in this series has been who had the best player on the court that night. When Wemby has been the best player on the court, the Spurs have won. When two-time reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been the best player on the court, the Thunder have won. After storming out the iron gate like the Battle of Khaybar in the first, Wemby played aggressively but with intention the entire night and slotted Game 6 in his “best player on the court that night” column with ease. The ascending greatest player in the world finished the game with 28 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks, two assists and two steals, By contrast, the MVP had his worst game of the series posting 15 points on 6-18 shooting with only three free throws. You heard me right, only three. The contrast between the two stars has never been starker than it was on Thursday. Wemby simply outclassed the MVP on this particular occasion. Given the series trend, Victor’s performance tonight needs to be a tikrar of Game 6. If Wemby is the best player on the floor tonight, the San Antonio Spurs will almost certainly advance to our seventh NBA Finals. The thing that can remove “almost certainly” from the equation and make it a sure thing is if one of our other three all-world talents is also at their dynamic best. In the Game 6 blowout victory, we got that type of performance from the player of the game (and only draft pick in the 25-26 class to make the all-rookie first team and also play in the conference finals) Dylan Harper. Having had a limited impact on the series since injuring his right abductor in Game 2, the straight outta Rutgers electric prodigy exploded in Game 6 for 18 points, six rebounds, four assists and most-importantly only one turnover in 22 exhilarating minutes. Dylan got his groove back just in time to help us save our season at home and set up this winner take all scenario back in OKC. I’ll be elated if he can duplicate that performance again tonight and be the Spurs guard who provides the punch that’s going to be necessary to pair with a dominant Wemby performance in order for us to put ourselves in position to win this game but we know it can be any of the weapons in our three-headed “all-world guard” monster backcourt. Keep in mind, we’ve been saying this entire postseason run Stephon Castle is built for this for a reason. Like Derrick Henry on a Power-O, Steph has plowed straight through every obstacle that has gotten in his way this postseason. There is no question Stephon Castle is built for Game 7. And while it seems the least likely because he has been severely limited in this series with the high ankle sprain suffered during the back nine of the Minnesota series, I have a sneaking suspicion that the former clutch player of the year is going to be able to dig deep enough to find something tonight that he can provide to further cement his reputation as one of the coldest-blooded players in the league. Once again, we are going to have more dynamic talent all over the court tonight than our opponent. It requires one of our three “all-world” guards to have a night alongside Victor for us to beat the champs but as I’m mentally preparing this afternoon for this evening’s proceedings, I’m exuding nothing but calm because I’m filled with the resolve that we’re going to get memorable performances from all three to help ensure this a legendary Game 7.
For my money, there is nothing better than the memories created by a legendary Game 7 in the NBA playoffs. I have fuzzy memories of watching Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics defeat Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7 of the 1984 NBA Finals with my family when I was five but the first one I truly remember is the epic 1988 NBA Finals Game 7 clash between Magic’s Lakers and Isaiah Thomas and the “Bad Boy” Detroit Pistons when I was nine. My dad was born in Detroit and was a lifelong fan of all of the city’s major sports teams so our family had a strong rooting interest in that game. Isaiah Thomas was a super hero to nine-year-old me. After spraining his ankle in Game 6 only to score 25 points in the third quarter (the NBA Finals record for most points in a quarter still to this day) but coming up one point short of sealing the title in six, I was convinced he could repeat the feat and finish the job in Game 7 but it wasn’t meant to be as Thomas was less effective performing through the injury two days after having suffered it and the Lakers closed out the series by the skin of their teeth winning Game 7 at home by only three points. Nine-year-old me was very sad but Zeke and the Bad Boys got sweet revenge the next year sweeping the Lakers in the 1989 NBA Finals to the delight of ten-year-old me. More recently, two of the most memorable Game 7s that come to mind for me are Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals when LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers (after climbing out a 3-1 hole) took down the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the Bay in stunning fashion and Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals when the late Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers outlasted the Boston Celtics in a war of attrition for Kobe’s fifth and final title. Of course most of my most vivid Game 7 memories in my four decades + of watching the NBA playoffs involve the San Antonio Spurs. Some painful, some euphoric. The most painful, given the stakes, was obviously Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals. After somehow putting the Ray Allen shot and the most heartbreaking defeat in franchise history behind us in 48 hours in order to get ourselves to what we now refer to as a “clutch time” situation on the road in Miami in Game 7 only to come up just short to the Heatles after Tim Duncan missed a six-foot jump hook he makes 98 times out of a hundred was devastatingly painful. The only other one that even comes close to that level of disappointment was the 2006 second-round Game 7 at home against Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks where after playing from behind the entire game, Manu Ginobili hit a three to give us a three point lead in the final seconds only to commit a boneheaded foul while Nowitzki was driving to the basket on the very next possession which allowed the German hall-of-famer to convert a three-point play to send the game to an overtime where the visitors eventually prevailed. On the positive side, you can’t get more euphoric than the Game 7 we played the year prior to the Dirk debacle, a Game 7 that took surviving a rock fight against the three-time (and defending) champion Detroit Pistons to earn the third title of our own. Watching the Spurs win Game 7 of the 2005 Finals on June 23, 2005 was the most emotional sports-viewing experience of my entire life because the euphoria from watching my team grind out one of the hardest fought titles in league history was soon engulfed with conflicting emotions when I called my dad (who had recently been diagnosed with dementia) after the game and told him that my Spurs had beaten his Pistons. While he was happy for me that my team won but he also asked me, “Who scored the most touchdowns?” That was the moment that I knew the opportunity to make new Game 7 memories with my dad (like the ones we made watching his Pistons take on the Lakers in 1988) was gone forever which was hard at first but over time allowed me the cherish those Game 7 memories I had made watching with my dad even more deeply. The San Antonio Spurs euphoria-inducing Game 7 victory which is most applicable to the task at hand tonight is the Game 7 from the 2008 Western Conference Semifinals against early-prime Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets. Even though it was a Game 7 victory against a less experienced opponent that only secured a conference finals birth (a regular occurrence during the Duncan-era), there are two reasons it is the most applicable Game 7 victory for facing the champs in OKC later this evening. First, it’s the only time in franchise history that we have won a Game 7 on the road. It really was the epitome of the Spurs’ pound the rock mentality. We just kept plugging away and plugging away throughout the series until eventually the damn broke in Game 7. This brings me to the second reason this Game 7 memory is most applicable. In that second-round series against the Hornets in 2008, there was no doubt in my mind that we were the better team. We just couldn’t figure out a way to maintain the upper hand long enough to knock them out in five or six but ultimately talent won out and our superiority as a team proved to be a more decisive variable than the opponent having the precious advantage of hosting the win-or-go-home contest in their building. The way I felt about our matchup with the New Orleans Hornets in 2008 is exactly how I feel about our matchup with the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in 2026. I believe we are the better team and I am confident that our superiority as a team will be a more decisive variable than the champs having the precious advantage of hosting this contest that will decide the Western Conference in their building in a few short hours. I believe the #BlackAndSilver are going to make us (their fans) a euphoric new memory tonight by winning only the second road Game 7 in franchise history and in so doing, slaying the championship dragon that is currently still standing in the way of us getting where we believe we deserve to be. Not where we deserve to be in a couple of years. Not where we deserve to be after taking our playoff lumps. We believe we are the best team in the Western Conference and therefore, we deserve to be in the NBA Finals right now. Tonight, I believe we are going to kick in the door.
Featured Image Source: 24Hip-Hop
Headline Image Source : The Athletic
Six de moins
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 5
Ride - I know, I know. The Bone Crusher was back again on Tuesday night doing his best Michael Myers impression with the way he was butchering easy-to-see-no-brainer calls. Like a C-List actor making a cash-grab to play the lead in an awful new Halloween reboot trilogy, Tony Brothers has been assigned to officiate three San Antonio Spurs playoff games now and each of his performances was worse than the one before. Some of The Bone Crusher’s blown calls in Game 5 of the 2026 Western Conference Finals were so inexcusable, they were farcical. Remember the part where he literally missed three basic calls (a clear goal tend, a ball that obviously went out of bounds off Thunder All-Star Chet Holmgren’s foot, and a Mitch Johnson signal for a challenge—who he then teed up to compound the mistake) in a 30-second stretch in the third quarter? It was at that point that I could no longer tell if I was watching an NBA playoff game at Paycom Center or amateur night at Bricktown Comedy Club. The proverbial outrage at the officiating being said, the refereeing was not the reason the San Antonio Spurs lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder 127-114 on Tuesday night. Let me repeat. The refereeing was not the reason the San Antonio Spurs lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night. We lost Game 5 because (with the exception of three players) we were not physically or mentally ready to anticipate and match OKC’s desperation in order to give ourselves a chance (on the road in a hostile environment) for a repeat of our Game 4 results. Having three players appropriately locked in might have been sufficient to allow us to keep it close enough to give ourselves a chance to steal it in the end but only if one of those three locked in players was our All-NBA first team alien and, as we all know, not only was Victor Wembanyama not one of those players, instead he had his most passive and dumbfoundedly ineffective (complete) game of the entire playoffs.
Yep, Wemby (individually) and the San Antonio Spurs (collectively) picked a bad time to have our most nonchalant, sloppy, undisciplined, “young and inexperienced” game of the 2026 postseason. Ughhhhhhhhh. That was so incredibly disappointing. The game was right there for the taking after we got out to a 16-8 lead to begin the first quarter. League MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was in his head second-guessing his answers to the test and the defending champs looked like they were on the verge of cracking the same way Minnesota did when we put it on the Wolves in their building in Game 6 of the last series. One of the players who came ready to play and helped get us out to that early lead was Julian Champagne. He drained three triples in the opening frame and finished the game with 22 points, eight rebounds, three steals, and one dime. The second player who was locked in to meet the challenge of WCF Game 5 on the road because “he was built for this” was iconoclast Stephon Castle. Steph continued where he left off in relentlessly hounding SGA on defense while also offering up 24 points (on efficient shooting), six assists, five rebounds, and three steals in his “steady as she goes” performance. Last but certainly not least of our “up for the challenge” trio was your favorite basketball player’s favorite teammate, sixth man of the year Keldon Johnson. After suffering through a mostly subpar inaugural playoff campaign to this point, KJ brought the type of energy off the bench on Tuesday that earned him the aforementioned award, hustling and bullying his way to 15 points, four rebounds, and two assists. While Keldon’s stat line doesn’t scream off the page, he provided the right type of energy and enough punch off the bench to (after squandering the early opportunity to put the champs behind the eight ball) give us a puncher’s chance get the game into a clutch time situation where from that point, victory could’ve been there for the taking. In the end, it wasn’t meant to be and we have nobody to blame but ourselves for allowing our opponent to be the more connected and desperate team. And to have the best player on the floor. Somehow in Game 5 after squandering our early lead, chess aficionado and ascending greatest basketball player in the world Victor Wembanyama broke concentration just long enough to allow the two-time NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to put us in check.
As a result, we’re definitely going to find out what we’re made of in Game 6. Tonight will be another playoff first for Victor Wembanyama in his singular quest for all of the greatness right now all at once. It will also be another playoff first for Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Julian Champagnie and Carter Bryant. Game 6 will be all of these players first time facing elimination from the NBA playoffs. This group (plus our three rotation players who have prior playoff experience—De’Aaron Fox + former champions Luke Kornet & Harrison Barnes) has proven over and over again that we treat every challenge as an opportunity to go out and seize. No one said it was supposed to be easy. The defending champions have us up against the ropes at the moment but there are only three teams left that can win the 2025-26 Larry O’Brien and we’re one of them so as long as we have another game to play, we have an opportunity to win that game and then another and then another and then another and then another and then another and then we can rest. Victor, the chess aficionado, can envision this opportunity because he believes this latest tango with adversity is simply an obstacle that must be removed because it is standing in between him and a prize he believes is his to have now. The reason Wemby has had an emphatic answer every time he has faced adversity in the 2026 NBA playoffs is because building the greatest legacy in NBA history requires a strong foundation and there’s no stronger foundation than winning the Larry O’Brien trophy on your very first attempt. Tonight will be no different. An opponent has put basketball’s Bobby Fischer in check for the first time. For every move there’s a counter move and as Fischer himself said, “Chess is war over the board. The object is to crush the opponent’s mind.” Vic will be ready for Game 6 and god bless the MVP’s soul if he is not. For the rest of our special group, I have full confidence they will earn the moniker again tonight and keep this magical journey going. We have more dynamic talent on our roster than OKC and as a result we have match up advantages to exploit on both sides of the ball when we bring the proper focus and attention to detail. We’ve got the blueprint for vanquishing champions. We always have. We’ve used that blueprint to slay dragons like the Shaq-Kobe Los Angeles Lakers in ‘03, the Iron Five Detroit Pistons in ‘05 and the LeBron-Wade-Bosh Miami “Heatles” in ‘14. If the #BlackAndSilver go out and pound the rock tonight and then go pound the rock again on Saturday, we can slay this dragon too. That’s the blueprint. We’ve had it so long it’s practically a load-bearing wall in our practice facility, Victory Capital Performance Center. Let the legend one day be told of how the greatest player to ever walk this earth joined the greatest franchise in all the land and together they vanquished a champion before hoisting their sixth trophy on his very first try in two six.
POUND THE ROCK
WHEN NOTHING SEEMS TO HELP, I GO AND LOOK AT A STONECUTTER HAMMERING AWAY AT HIS ROCK PERHAPS A HUNDRED TIMES WITHOUT AS MUCH AS A CRACK SHOWING IN IT. YET AT THE HUNDRED AND FIRST BLOW IT WILL SPLIT IN TWO, AND I KNOW IT WAS NOT THAT BLOW THAT DID IT, BUT ALL THAT HAD GONE BEFORE. — JACOB RIIS
Featured Image Source: r/NBASpurs on Reddit
Headline Image Source: Lost Otros Murals
Dix de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 4
Supersonic - That was for Downtown Freddie Brown, Spencer Haywood, Lenny Wilkens, Gus Williams, Jack Sikma, Dennis Johnson, Slick Watts, Xavier McDaniels, Detlef Schrempf, Nate McMillan, Dale Ellis, Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton, Rashard Lewis, Ray Allen and Kevin Durant. That was for the city of Seattle + every former player, coach, team employee and fan of the Supersonics and their iconic emerald and gold. Seattle is a beautiful, special city. Trust me, I would know. I’ve been everywhere, man. At one point or another in my life, I’ve visited 48 states and nearly every major city in this country (Burlington, VT and Anchorage, AK are the only two that come to mind that I have yet to visit but plans are in the works because I’m hoping to join the All Fifty States Club by next year) so I think my frame of reference is grounded when I tell you Seattle is a top-five American city. I have spent more time in Seattle than anywhere else besides Denver (where I live) over the past ten years and I know many wonderful people there who still talk about how much the Sonics are missed so cry me a river Thunder fans but it’s an objective fact that Seattle deserves their NBA franchise way more than Oklahoma City. The good people there didn’t deserve to have their Sonics stolen away because a greedy, two-faced rich guy owner cared more about being a big shot in his hometown than being the steward of a renowned franchise and a past-his-prime commissioner cared more about short-term profits than the longterm health of the league. In 2007, Clay Bennett used the lack of a new tax-payer funded arena as a pretext to move a beloved franchise from a vibrant, booming city to his obscure, mundane backyard and NBA Commissioner David Stern committed a dereliction of duty by allowing it to happen. As a lifelong NBA fan, there has been a faint but ever-present nagging melancholy providing a slight but real diminishment from my overall enjoyment of the league over the past eighteen seasons, the melancholy being the NBA is simply not the same without the Seattle SuperSonics. A league without the Sonics will always have something missing. So yeah, when Seattle-native and current San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson made the necessary game-to-game adjustments on Sunday night to help the Spurs go supersonic on the Thunder in our Game 4 103-82 Western Conference Finals-evening victory, that was definitely for the city whose team was stolen by Oklahoma City. That was for Seattle. And given that the architect of OKC’s most humiliating defeat since winning the title is the son of a legend from the Sonics 1979 championship team, most of all, that was for Mitch’s father. That was for John Johnson.
On Sunday, the #BlackAndSilver delivered one of the most dominant team defensive performances I have ever seen in my 45 years of watching the NBA playoffs. The adjustment made by Mitch Johnson giving Stephon Castle the sole responsibility for relentlessly guarding the point of attack worked to perfection overall but especially in accomplishing its primary objective. Two-time reigning league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (who had been comfortable in Games 2 & 3 and picking our defense apart) was back to seeing ghosts again. While Steph’s point of attack defense was the catalyst, it took a total team effort to spook OKC’s leader. Every player gave maximum effort and stayed disciplined with our attention to game plan detail for defending the MVP the entire night. It was a sight to behold. With Castle hounding the ever-loving hell out of Shai immediately every time the Thunder gained possession, Wemby and Luke Kornet met him in the paint (while also covering the weak side) and our perimeter defenders crowded him inside the arc (while still getting out to contest shooters). All five Spurs defenders were connected playing on a string the entire night. The most important byproduct of Mitch giving SGA a pop quiz in parapsychology (that he didn’t yet have the answers for) was it prevented the best playmaking guard in the league from elevating his teammates in Game 4 the same way he had been the previous two games. OKC’s role players, who had played like world beaters in Games 2 & 3, were forced by our suffocating defense to start regressing to the mean. Remember how Jaylin Williams and Alex Caruso shot a combined 8-11 from deep in Game 3? Clearly the adjustments worked because in Game 4, Jaylin Williams shot 1-7 from distance and Alex Caruso (whose stellar play in the first three games of the series had the media’s talking heads impulsively anointing him as the greatest role player of all time 🙄) laid a goose egg (zero points on 0-1 shooting). All told, Oklahoma City shot 6-33 from deep and 30-91 overall. For those who don’t want to do the math, that’s a putrid 18 percent from beyond the arc and a frigid 33 percent from the field. It all added up to 82 points, OKC’s third-lowest final score in their playoff history. There’s no question San Antonio (led by the tenacity of Stephon Castle) gave a defensive performance for the ages last night. Perhaps the most exciting part of getting that type of defensive performance in response to our backs being up against the wall for the first time in the 2026 NBA playoffs is that it’s proof of concept that when we play at our best, there is not a team in this league that can match our ceiling. Even though it’s supposed to be way too early because we’re supposed to still be way too young, when we play at our best, we are already unbeatable.
“Wembanyama, I think he’s gonna go. I think he’s gonna go… from half-court. Got it!” As the spotlight and stakes keep getting bigger and bigger, the player of the game’s ability to always meet the moment (when responding to adversity) is a stunning thing to continue to witness over and over again. Wemby was aggressive throughout Game 4 tallying 33 points (11-22 from the field, 3-7 from deep, 8-9 from the line), eight rebounds five assists, three blocks and two steals in the process of racking up a team-high +29 point differential in his 33 dominant minutes. His magical half-court buzzer-beater at the end of the first half was not only amazing in a vacuum but in this particular scenario it had the outsized psychological impact of allowing us to go into the break with a double-digit lead and momentum just when it looked like the Thunder (after cutting another 15-point first quarter lead down to nine) were going to start walking us down for the second consecutive game. Just when things were starting to tighten up and it was starting to feel like OKC was possibly going to claw there way back, the longest shot of Victor’s career (so far) provided reassurance heading into halftime that Game 4 wouldn’t be a repeat of Game 3. The Spurs never looked back in the second half and won the game running away. Considering that going down 2-1 in the WCF to the defending champs is supposed to be the type of pressure that a team as young and with as little playoff experience as us is supposed to wilt under, it was quite a rewarding experience to watch San Antonio respond so emphatically by playing our best game of the entire season. Unfortunately, there’s no time to savor the moment. We’re back in the orange and blue Paycom Center belly of the beast tonight and we’re still playing the champs, a team with a short memory and one that is more than capable of figuring out an adjustment to our adjustment, winning Game 5, and putting our back squarely back against the wall. How would Victor Wembanyama and company respond to the adversity of facing elimination from the 2026 NBA playoffs for the first time? That is not a question I want to be faced with answering 12 hours from now. The good news is we won’t have to if we replicate the same level of effort and performance that we displayed on Sunday. It’s clear that the San Antonio Spurs when playing at our best can already reach a level of play that the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder can’t match. It won’t be easy to do what we did on Sunday again tonight on the road against a now equally-desperate team and in front of 18,000 hostile spectators but if any team is too young and too inexperienced to know that we’re not supposed to march into OKC in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals and replicate our best performance of the season, it’s the 2025-26 San Antonio Spurs. Can’t hurt to give it a shot. We’ve already secured another home game on Thursday. The pressure is squarely on the two-time defending MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the champs tonight to come up with some answers to the latest test. If we play with the same defensive intensity tonight as the last game and combine it with playing fast and loose on offense, we’re going to be one step closer to heading somewhere we haven’t been in 12 years. The inaugural playoff run of the Wembanyama-era has been quite a journey already and I have a sneaking suspicion it’s still far from over. Chapter 16 will be written tonight so sit back, buckle up, and enjoy the ride.
Cinq de moins
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 3
Sleep Now In the Fire - Give them credit. They were the better team in Game 3. Not by the margin they won by but there’s no arguing they weren’t the better team last night. This is the first time I’ve had to objectively concede another team outplayed us in the 2026 NBA Playoffs. Considering the first game against Portland was five weeks ago and it took until Memorial Day weekend before we even blinked once, I don’t expect us to blink again for a while if at all but that was a tough loss. It’s also a valuable teaching moment. We almost broke them in the first few minutes of the game but when we didn’t, we lost our edge and weren’t able to get it back. We should now know that letting your guard down in that scenario against a team this good means you lose. That’s a hard lesson we couldn’t have received any better way than being schooled by the MVP and his defending champs. So yeah, it’s a hard loss but one I expect us to learn from and grow because if we don’t, the Thunder are good enough to make us more than blink. If we don’t draw a line in the sand by coming out in Game 4 with a focus that shows we know our season is on the line for the first time and we don’t like this feeling cause we don’t want it to end so we’re angry and about to do something about it, the champs will wrap this up in three blinks of an eye.
I don’t know about y’all but I’m not ready for this magical season to end. It would be very easy to kick our feet back after Game 4 tips tomorrow evening and just enjoy the show stress-free. The 2025-26 season has already been a smashing success, after all, with us having already completed one of the greatest one-year turnarounds in NBA history from 13th in the West last year to the Western Conference Finals this year. Even this Thunder team we are trying to dethrone got bounced in the second round on their first crack at the postseason (2023-24). It would be very easy to allow ourselves to finally succumb to accepting the premise that it is impossible for a team with a core this young to win the title after starting the postseason as playoff virgins. Your lack of experience will eventually bump up against a team that knows how to exploit it ergo the only way this thing can possibly end is with us taking our playoffs lumps. It certainly would be very easy to succumb to that premise but I say screw that. That premise just doesn’t fit with how anomalously special this team has been this season. This might be the most talented young core ever assembled on an NBA roster and I haven’t even yet mentioned the variable that renders a premise derived from historical data null and void…the magic of who Victor Wembanyama is as a basketball player is singularly unprecedented. If anyone is supposed to be capable of computing the ways in which his team was beaten on Friday at AMD Ryzen speed and then making the necessary adjustments to punch right back tomorrow, it’s the fierce young challenger from Le Chesnay, France who’s been prophesized to be basketball’s messiah and hath risen to meet every challenge of his basketball career head on so far. I expect nothing different tomorrow night. I’m not ready for this season to end and while I’m concerned that we are down in a series after three games for the first time, I’m not panicking and I’m certainly not succumbing to the premise that this inaugural postseason run has met an expiration date because I know Wemby is not interested in taking incremental steps. There is a trophy available for us to be bold enough to bear down and take this year. There’s no question that Victor understands this and will treat the opportunity with the resoluteness necessary to meet the moment and tie this series.
Not even an alien can do it alone, though. It’s a team sport, after all. It requires not just individual talent but also five teammates executing a game plan together and when the opponent solves your game plan, it requires making the necessary adjustments in strategy to give them a new puzzle. The second most important person in determining if the Spurs will punch the champs right back to even the series after losing Game 3 123-108 at home in the Frost Bank Center on Friday night isn’t De’Aaron Fox (and what we can get from our all-star vet on an ankle sprain that won’t stop getting re-aggravated) or Dylan Harper (and what we can get from our rookie prodigy on an abductor strain) or Stephon Castle (our 2nd-year iconoclast who has finally corrected his turnover issues by only coughing it up once in Game 3) or even player of the game Devin Vassell (who had 20 points, seven rebounds, and two assists while earning the distinction by being the only player on the team to continue playing Game 3 with the appropriate sense of urgency after OKC had answered our 15-0 start). The second most important person in determining whether we will win Game 4 isn;t any of Wemby’s teammates, it’s the son of a 1979 NBA champion, a Gregg Popovich-protege and our 2nd-year head coach, Mitch Johnson. The Thunder have solved our game plan predicated on limiting the MVP by making Shai Gilgeous-Alexander play in a crowd and daring his teammates to try to beat us from the perimeter. In Game 3, they did.
Last night, SGA’s supporting cast accepted our dare and made us pay. Jaylin Williams and Alex Caruso alone made 8-11 from deep. Control of the series has flipped so the most important thing that needs to happen tomorrow night besides Wemby reasserting his dominance is Coach Mitch has got to make an adjustment with how we are defending SGA. Now that we know Gilgeous-Alexander has the answers to the test, the Stanford graduate who accepted the responsibility of following in the footsteps of a legend among legends needs to give the MVP a pop quiz in parapsychology. Mitch (with a scheme adjustment courtesy of his defensive guru associate head coach Sean Sweeney) needs to get Wemby back in the types of defensive positions that will get Shai seeing ghosts again. Not only does he have Sweeney’s world class defensive scheme designs to draw from in order to get SGA back to being uncomfortable in order to walk down this series but he also has the stories his dad, John Johnson, must have told him about the Seattle SuperSonics responding from a gut-punching Game 5 loss at home to the Phoenix Suns to go down 3-2 in the 1979 Western Conference Finals only to win two straight and clinch the series in seven as well as the guidance of his mentor, Coach Pop, who has won the Western Conference Finals six times. Mitch Johnson has done a phenomenal job so far at the impossible task of replacing one of the most decorated and revered basketball coaches of all time. One of the reasons he has been so successful is that he’s learned from Pop the power of drawing from every available resource to gain the decisive edge over the opponent. Tomorrow night, I expect Coach Mitch to make the definitive adjustment of this series and show the basketball-viewing world that the #BlackAndSilver have no intentions of letting this magical season end. The irony or perhaps the symmetry of the opportunity that the Spurs head coach and Seattle native has to immediately flip this series back on its head is that he’s facing the city that stole his beloved team, the team his father helped win its only title and the team that served as a tapestry for his entire childhood. If any city deserves to be on the receiving end of the first masterclass coaching performance of Mitch Johnson’s career, it’s Oklahoma City. Tomorrow night, the bright young coach who used to bleed green and gold will have Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs ready to stare down the Thunder and go straight up supersonic.
Featured Image Source: The Economic Times
Headline Image Source: The New York Times
Quatre de moins
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 2
The Road Goes On Forever - The Bone Crusher stood at the center of the ring looking out over his conquest utterly chuffed with what he had accomplished. He had done a number on the number one contender and as a result, he knew there would be another bout and now that it was officially on the card, he anticipated it was going to do record-breaking numbers. ”The Promoter is going to be so pleased with me when we meet for lunch tomorrow at Ramsay’s Kitchen” he thought as he wiped the sweat from his brow and watched the Oklahoma City crowd jovially disperse from the arena and into the buzz of a celebrating city. “I wonder if I can expect silver to be on top of my agreed upon compensation package for ensuring the desired result? The promoter best remember I told him BC been tryin to diversify my portfolio.” Shaking his head with visions of how to spend his pay off dancing in his head, he nodded to Josh Tiven and Karl Lane in his corner and then vacated the ring. He strolled intently back towards the locker room ready to get changed and get back to the hotel so he could start making calls. He had campaign donors to woo for his Norfolk, VA mayoral bid, after all.
Back at the hotel later that night, The Bone Crusher was just sitting down in a booth in the lobby bar to order a double crown and coke and start calling potential donors when he noticed his phone was buzzing. He looked at the caller ID only to discover it was The Promoter. He wondered suspiciously, “The hell he want that can’t wait until we meet tomorrow?” He let it go to voicemail because first things first, he needed to order his drink and then waited for the beverage to arrive to see if The Promoter was going to leave a message. Annoyed when, drink in hand, no text or voice message popped up, he begrudgingly dialed The Promoter back.
The Promoter: Hello, this is Adam.
The Bone Crusher: Yeah, it’s Tony, I’m just calling you back.
The Promoter: Oh yeah, I just called to let you know I moved our Ramsay’s reservation to one. I have a deal to close tomorrow morning on that third-rate product we’re creating for those suckers in Europe.
The Bone Crusher: Okay, whatever. I got nothing on my schedule tomorrow afternoon other than counting my money.
The Promoter: Don’t worry, I got your message about diversifying your portfolio. You will be well compensated. See you at one.
The Bone Crusher: That all you got to say to me?
The Promoter: Yeah. What am I forgetting?
The Bone Crusher: How about “Good job, well done, thank you for the ratings bonanza you just ensured for me?”
The Promoter: You did the job that I paid you to do and last time I checked, you asked to be paid in currency not in thank you’s. Go hire a prostitute with the money I’m paying you if you want your ego stoked.
The Bone Crusher: Screw you, Adam.
The Promoter: You too, Tony. [Click]
The Bone Crushed took a sip of his cocktail and looked at his watch. “Ugh” he muttered. Frustrated that he hadn’t even called one donor yet and it was already 2am in Norfolk, he thought, “Screw it, I’ll make these calls tomorrow. Even the club owners and bookies back home are gonna be annoyed if I try to call them this late there.” He looked up at the TV above the bar where they were showing a replay from the contest earlier. The part where he bobbed and weaved while Isaiah Hartenstein pulling Stephon Castle’s hair went uncalled and as a result, the home crowd got to cheer a momentum-shifting triple that never should have been allowed. He chuckled to himself, “If I wasn’t on the take, I would’ve thrown his ass out for that one. Probably should be suspended too but The Promoter ain’t never gonna allow for that.” Noticing he was dry he signaled to get the attention of the bartender.
The Bartender: Another double?
The Bone Cruncher: Yeah. And what time does the kitchen close?
The Bartender: You got it. The kitchen closes in 20 minutes.
The Bone Cruncher: Let me get the ribeye rare, mashed potatoes. And can I substitute cheese grits instead of the side salad?
The Bartender: No problem. Say, aren’t you Tony Brothers? Great job tonight letting us maul that alien the entire game. We weren’t going to be able to stop him without your help. Your meal is on the house.
The Bone Crusher: I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why are you all up in my business, anyway? I don’t know you from Adam. Damn straight that food better be free.
The Bartender: My apologies, sir. Here’s your drink. I’ll leave you to it.
Turning back to his phone, The Bone Crusher tried to put the obnoxious bartender out of mind but before he could he thought, “That fool is right about one thing. I could’ve called 86 fouls on them tonight, 37 on Hartenstein alone. This city that stole the Sonics is lucky they got one last year. They have no chance in a straight up game of basketball against them young San Antonio kids.” Gulping down a healthy first sip on the second double, he opened his phone’s browser to the page for the blood red Mercedes-Maybach S680 he’d been eyeing. He thought, “Maybe it’s time to pull the trigger after I stop by the bank tomorrow?” As he was clicking to refresh the page to see if the price might’ve changed, his phone started buzzing again. “What now?” he grumbled. He looked at the caller ID but the numbs was listed as “Unknown.” He hesitated while deciding whether or not to answer but then his curiosity got the better of him. After all, “It could be a high-dollar donor” he thought.
The Bone Crusher: Who this is?
Unknown: Hey Tony, it’s Popo. I know what you did.
The Bone Crusher: Popo? How’d you get this number? Uh, uh…never mind that, how the hell are you? It’s been too long. I was really sad to hear about your ugh medical thing. We were all keeping you in our thoughts and prayers.
Unknown: I don’t remember receiving your sympathy card.
The Bone Crusher: Yeah, well…uh, why are you calling?
Unknown: I already told you. I called to tell you I know what you did.
The Bone Crusher: Popo? How’d you get this number? Uh, uh…never mind that, how the hell are you? It’s been too long. I was really sad to hear about your uh medical thing. We were all keeping you in our thoughts and prayers.
Unknown: I don’t remember receiving your sympathy card.
The Bone Crusher: Yeah, well…uh, why are you calling?
Unknown: I already told you. I called to tell you I know what you did.
The Bone Crusher: Hey, uh, look Popo, first, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Second, if you think you know something about something, what are you talking to me for? Don’t shoot the errand boy. If you’ve got a score to settle, take it up with The Promoter. The only thing that matters to Adam is maximizing ratings. You know that.
Unknown: From the intel I’m receiving, you’re being compensated quite handsomely for an errand boy. Also, you can rest assured that I also have also already delivered a message to The Promoter.
The Bone Crusher: Okay, so you know what I did. So what? You want to threaten me now? You going to send your CIA operatives to start harassing me back home?
Unknown: Possibly. My associates may or may not be interested in some of your recent and impending bank transactions as well as investigating some possible campaign finance ethics allegations that have surfaced recently in Norfolk. But that’s neither here nor there.
The Bone Crusher: So what, in God’s name, do you want?
Unknown: Just to give you the same friendly message I already gave to Adam.
The Bone Crusher: Which is what exactly?
Unknown: That it’s not going to work. Make sure to tune in on Friday and Sunday because it’s going to be a show. We’re used to playing eight on five and despite all of that, I’m going to personally ensure that we kick so much ass this weekend, Tuesday’s ratings will tank because no one tunes in for a foregone conclusion. You made your bed. I’m going to enjoy making you lie in it. [Click]
* * *
Well, I guess Tony Brothers just can’t help but make himself a part of the story. We all have eyes. We all can see that what the Oklahoma City Thunder are being allowed to get away with in order to provide the NBA with any chance of the ratings bonanza they are hoping to generate from an extended Western Conference Finals coming to fruition. On Wednesday night, the defending champs literally UFC’d their way to evening the best-of-seven Western Conference Finals at one game apiece at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. The Thunder (with the assistance of Tony Brothers, Josh Tiven, and Karl Lane turning a blind eye to actual hair pulling among other dirty tricks that completely make a mockery of the spirit of the competition and are the byproduct of the opponent’s recognition that they are simply not talented enough to compete with us in playing the game of skill we call basketball) defeated the San Antonio Spurs 122-113 in Game 2. I could go on and on about the Thunder’s dirty tactics, the refereeing, the league office, being forced to play eight on five but it’s all par for the course at this point. We knew that winning a championship wasn’t going to be easy and it’s going to require us to be able to continue to impose our will against all of the forces which are converging to not allow us to be the biggest outlier in NBA history by stamping our greatness with a title this young and this fast. We embrace the challenge and we will be ready to face it head on back home in San Antonio tonight.
Despite another nine turnovers, the player of the game on Wednesday night was Stephon Castle. Considering De’Aaron Fox sat his second consecutive game with a high ankle sprain and after losing Dylan Harper to a leg injury with 4:50 remaining in the third quarter, our second-year warrior gave a herculean effort carrying most of the ball handling and playmaking load while demonstrating once again that he is one of the fiercest competitors in the league. I simply cannot get enough of watching Steph Castle compete on a basketball court. On the night, Steph racked up an impressive 25 points, eight assists, five rebounds and a steal. His 25-5-5 stat line made him the youngest player to reach that milestone in the conference finals in NBA history. It is already clear only two games into this series that if we take care of the basketball and limit OKC’s ability to get easy transition buckets from live ball turnovers, they are not talented enough or a good enough team to match our level of execution and hang in this series. Tonight we are returning to the friendly confines of the Frost Bank Center in lovely San Antonio, TX for the first time in ten days. Hopefully we get a healthy De’Aaron and a healthy Dylan to help Steph with the ball handling duties but (in spite of a perfect storm of the current of forces we are swimming upstream agains) the comfort of finally playing back home in front of the most-electric fans in the NBA in and of itself will play a role in helping us limit turnovers and prevent us from contributing to the only way OKC can keep this series close, through generating enough fast break opportunities. One thing I know is the #BlackAndSilver led by our fearless 21-year-old floor general will be ready to meet the challenge head on tonight. I fully expect us to come out scorching and make this iconoclastic dunk a foreshadowing of how the defending champs, regardless of all the help they’re getting from the refs and the league, better prepare to sleep now in the fire.
Neuf de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 1
Paint It Black - I just kept thinking over and over again… this is as good a chance as we can expect to get here, we have to cash it in. Over and over again. Build a lead. Over and over again. Give it back. Over and over again. Build another one. Over and over again. Give it back. Over and over again. Go down a bucket. Over and over again. Get it back. Over and over again. Punch them back on their heals. Over and over again. Swing again and miss. Over and over again. Make a clutch shot. Over and over again. Give up a clutch shot. Over and over again. Score to put them away. Over and over again. Let them score right back. Over and over again. 48-minute grind isn’t enough. Over and over again. Play five more. Over and over again. Go to the mat in OT. Over and over again. Get up and deliver a body blow for the ages. Over and over again. 53-minute grind isn’t enough. Over and again. No choice but to grind some more. Over and over again. Battle physical and mental fatigue. Over and over again. Don’t be the one to blink first. Over and over again. Finally knock them out in double OT. Just keep pounding the rock. Over and over again.
* * *
That was so huge. It doesn’t guarantee we will win this series. Far from it but damn that was so huge. After the 58th minute had been played and the buzzer sounded with a scoreboard that (blink twice) really was in our favor, I melted with relief into the couch faster than a bag of Reeces Pieces left on a car’s dashboard during a triple-digit summer day. That’s right, there I was on my couch, one giant bag of melted relief-es pieces. As relieved as I was to come out on top in one of the greatest “battle of wills” basketball competitions I have ever seen in my life, one of the first points of reference my mind went to as soon as the game was over in order to make a comparison to the relief I felt given the gravity of such a massive Game 1 victory on the road was Tony Parker’s game-winner on the road in American Airlines Arena to defeat the defending champion Miami Heat in Game 1 of the 2013 NBA Finals. I remember thinking at the time, “we just stole home court advantage and now they have to beat us four out of the next six times.” We all remember how that worked out. Of course, there is one glaring difference we can point to now with this current iteration of the Spurs that should bring us some comfort for our prospects moving forward in this year’s Western Conference Finals against the backdrop of the most painful and traumatic series loss in team history; if Victor Wembanyama had been playing for the 2012-13 San Antonio Spurs, the Ray Allen shot would have been blocked into the third row.
Space-time continuum hypotheticals aside, the point is that the massive advantage gained from edging out the champs in the 2013 NBA Finals did not prove dispositive in winning the series. This should serve a warning to every Spurs fan that we cannot let our guard down for one second against an Oklahoma City Thunder team who has overcome this type of adversity before (they lost both Game 1 of last year’s Western Conference Semifinals to Aaron Gordon and the Denver Nuggets as well as Game 1 of last year’s NBA Finals to Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers at home on back-breaking last second game winners and still came back to win both series in seven games). Case in point, home teams who win Game 1 go on to win the series 85% of the time historically in seven-game NBA playoff series after winning Game 1 whereas road teams only win the series 53% of the time after winning Game 1. There is no question it was massive that we outlasted the champs on Monday night (one bounce of the ball in a slightly different direction and we could be looking at a massive uphill battle to advance) but it far from guarantees victory. All that we actually accomplished edging them out in Game 1 is that we gave ourselves even odds to advance. It’s basically either team’s series to go win from here. Statistics aside, I think the more important reason I felt so much relief that we were the last team standing in Monday’s 15-round heavyweight fight is that it would have been ten times the psychological body blow for us to have come up just short in a contest like that than it was for them. There is absolutely zero guarantees we will get another opportunity that clearcut against the champs at Paycom Center to secure the essential road victory we need to win the series so had that opportunity slipped through our fingers, it would have been extremely difficult for us (as the infamously less experienced team) to simply set the near miss to the side and give undivided focus to putting ourselves in the same position in Game 2 and this time closing it on top. For them, it’s rough to have given away a home game by such thin margins but coming back to win series from that type of adversity is something they are well versed in. Luckily, we were able to capitalize on being in position to steal home court advantage the first time we put ourselves in position to do so in Game 1 and because of that, I’m very relieved. As Victor Wembanyama put it in his postgame interview on NBC, “Winning one game means something but it doesn’t mean everything, you know, so we’ve got to stay down to Earth and hopefully if it’s a long series, we’re going to need this win.” (By the way, the irony of an alien saying “we’ve got to stay down to Earth” is not lost on me.)
Speaking of the obvious player of the game, after witnessing another player receive the 2025-26 KIA NBA MVP trophy first-hand, the extraterrestrial competitor made a resounding Hakeem Olajuwon-esque “real MVP” statement in Game 1 tallying 41 points (14-25 from the field, 12-13 from the line, and 1-2 from the line), 24 rebounds, three blocks, three assists, and a steal in an all-time “I want to earn the title of undisputed goat before I am legally old enough to rent a car in my adopted country” epic performance. It was the type of performance that the grandchildren of children who are Spurs fans today will tell their grandchildren that their great great grandparent was alive to see it. It was the type of performance that poets (including this one) will someday write epic poems about. (It’s high time I took a crack at writing my first chanson de geste.) Not only was Wemby’s performance a masterclass in one individual two-way control over the happenings of an athletic competition that also involves nine other participants, it was also record-breaking. At 22 years and 134 days old, Vic surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lou Alcindor at the time) as the youngest player in NBA history to have 40 points and 20 rebounds (or more) in a playoff game. Victor Wembanyama was so utterly dominant on Monday night it was stupid. I can’t think of a better way to sum it up than to simply share this video of the logo three Wemby pulled (from a portion of the Paycom Center hardwood previously owned by Stephen Curry) that is unquestionably the biggest shot (to-date) of his NBA career.
Victor wasn’t the only Spurs player to have a record-setting performance on Monday in the Game 1 “instant classic.” After learning that starting point guard De’Aaron Fox was going to be a late scratch due to the ankle injury he originally suffered in Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Minnesota Timberwolves and then reaggravated while closing out the Wolves in Game 6, our 20-year-old rookie prodigy Dylan Harper also learned that he would be starting his first career playoff game and fifth career NBA game overall. The soon-to-be first team all-rookie played like a seasoned vet against the champs in Game 1 bringing all of his craftiness to bear carving through OKC’s top ranked defense en route to producing the jaw-dropping stat line of 24 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, and an eye-popping seven steals. What might have been the most impressive stat of all from Dylan’s boxscore and the one that best demonstrates the beyond-his-years composure he is showing in these pressure-packed playoff road environments is that he only committed one of the Spurs’s way-too-many 21 turnovers against the Thunder’s ball hawking perimeter defenders. Back to setting records, Harper’s seven steals set a new Spurs franchise record for most steals in a playoff game but the one that gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling when I was laying in bed on Monday night still thinking about it was (while the three players that earned more rookie of the year votes than the Spurs No. 2 overall draft pick [Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and V.J. Edgecomb] were sitting on their respective couches watching him from home), Dylan Harper set a record in Game 1 of the 2026 Western Conference Finals as the youngest player and only second rookie ever to record 20+ points, 10+ rebounds, 5+ assists, and 5+ steals in an NBA playoff game. The other rookie to ever do that and the one whose age record Dylan broke on Monday was Magic Johnson. I’m pretty sure we got a keeper in last year’s draft.
This game had so many twists and turns, strategic “chess match” adjustments, clutch shot making, etc. etc. in the final 16 minutes, it deserves a play-by-play breakdown that I simply haven’t had time to write in the short 48-hour turnaround before Game 2 (especially given the complicating factor that I’ve been traveling these past couple of days). Hopefully there will be an opportunity to revisit this game at some point later in this season of Black & Silver and provide some evocative wordsmithery justice to what we collectively just witnessed. Time may be an illusion after all but for right now, I’m out of it. While there may be an alien who walks among us who can help me access the requisite portal to the fourth dimension necessary to transcend time, I’m pretty sure he’s a bit preoccupied in Oklahoma City at the moment preparing once again for battle with the Thunder. Tonight’s Game 2 is going to be a war now that we have the champs on the back foot in a must-win scenario. If we thought Monday was an exhaustive physical and mental battle of wills, we should expect all of that and more plus the added ingredient of desperation from this proud group defending their home court and a title. Given their proven track-record of overcoming adversity, the door won’t be completely shut on their season should the 2025 NBA Champions drop another home game tonight but it would put them in a hole which they don’t have a point of reference for climbing out from. This is a splendid opportunity for the #BlackAndSilver to provide OKC with a brand new galaxy of adversity to navigate. With the intergalactic being on our roster who’s looking to both slam the door on the Thunder’s season as well as the argument of who the greatest basketball player in the world is at present, I like our chances but regardless of what unfolds tonight in Oklahoma City, I know our going to learn and grow from it and use the experience to keep getting better. No matter what challenge or adversity has been put in front of this special group throughout our first playoff journey, we continue grinding and we just keep pounding the rock. We’re both here now but also our future is so bright, the road goes on forever.
Headline Image Source: The Oklahoman
Huit de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 6
Make Them Cry - At least once a day, I find my thoughts wander into thinking about everything that has happened in the past three years. And when I do, I pinch myself and muse, “it doesn’t make any sense for us to be this lucky.” Everything that has happened since May 16th, 2023 has been a glitch in the matrix where it feels like my hunger for the San Antonio Spurs to win a sixth NBA Championship is channeling a 2K roster construction through a lucid dream and then spitting it out into reality. As discussed in Un de fait, what happened on the middle day of May in the year of our basketball gods 2023 was in and of itself more than enough to have me feeling that life is but a dream. When you win the most consequential NBA draft lottery in 20 years and possibly of all-time, that alone is the type of luck that diehard fans of any team would strongly consider committing armed bank robbery in order to obtain it if they knew it was locked away in the vault. Winning the right to draft Victor Wembanyama alone should have been enough luck for a team-fandom lifetime (especially when you take into account that this fan has already had the incredible fortune to experience the hyper-unique euphoric feeling it produces once before on May 18th, 1997 when the San Antonio Spurs won the right to draft Tim Duncan). Little did I know (nor would I have even dared imagine at the time) that winning the right to draft Wemby wasn’t an isolated stroke of incalculable good luck but rather it was the starting blocks for the most spectacular streak of good luck in NBA history.
That said, after suffering through an 18-game losing streak en route to a second consecutive 22-60 season (fifth-worst record in the league) during Wemby’s rookie season and collecting a 42.1% chance at a top-four pick for our continued struggles, there was a little bit of luck involved with winning the 2024 overall number four pick but not really that much given the odds. The real stroke of luck for us in 2024 was the way the draft board played out ahead of our selection. Before ever sitting down to watch that year’s draft lottery on May 12th, 2024, there was one player and one player alone that I wanted the Spurs to draft. I had known who I wanted since April 8th after watching the UConn Huskies defeat the Purdue Boilermakers 75-60 in the NCAA Division One men’s basketball championship game. While watching that game, I became enthralled with a freshman guard from Covington, GA named Stephon Castle. Knowing he was going to be entering the draft and was projected to be a top lottery pick, I watched the way he performed on the biggest stage and for the highest stakes at the collegiate-level and I thought to myself, “he’s the one for me.” While Steph had a solid but not spectacular stat line of 15 points, five rebounds, three assists, and a steal, it was his elite combination of toughness and composure (along with the fact that he just seemed to have a knack for making key plays throughout the game whenever his team needed it) that led me to believe he was going to be one of those players who is built ready to play for the highest stakes in the NBA. So when on June 26th, first the Atlanta Hawks (selecting Zaccharie Risacher) and then the Washington Wizards (selecting Alex Starr) overvalued the French basketball renaissance by betting it could produce a consolation prize to having been a year late for Wembanyama and then the Houston Rockets (selecting Reed Sheppard) miscalculated which American collegiate guard prospect had the higher upside, we were suddenly in the astronomically lucky position to draft the player who, two seasons in, has established himself as the best player in the draft class by a significant margin. With the fourth pick in the 2024 NBA draft, the San Antonio Spurs selected Stephon Castle (the player I wanted all along) and Area 51 was born.
Castle went on to win the 2024-25 Rookie of the Year award. Vic, of course, had just won it the season before so that trophy was becoming as locked down for the Spurs as intelligence into the activities inside of Area 51 is from the American public. While the Spurs showed promise last season of making the leap to contend for a play-in position behind the development of Wemby from his first to his second year along with adding the steal of the draft and oh, by the way. having Stephon Castle play alongside and be mentored in his rookie season by future Hall-of-Fame veteran point guard Chris Paul, at the halfway point of the campaign, the idea that our streak of incredible luck was going to continue in ways that would supercharge the rebuild to a warp speed which has no precedent in NBA history was not even an idea I was entertaining at the time. I assumed a minimum decades-worth of luck had to have been used up in acquiring those two players in back-to-back drafts. After all, Vic and Steph were our first two top-five draft picks since selecting Duncan number one overall in 1997. It would have been preposterous to expect the streak to continue when it had already yielded such a massive return. I was content that with Area 51, we had a title-contending foundation to build methodically upon while the already lethal duo (neither of which had even been born when the Spurs won the 2003 title) develops the ability to consistently dominate in this league. One thing that was becoming increasingly clear at the time was that the opportunity to play with an alien was going to have a gravitational pull luring other established stars to want to sign with SA in free agency or force their way to us via trade. Early in 2025, rumors started swirling that the latter might happen prior to the trade deadline. News started breaking that an all-star point guard smack dab in the middle of his prime with the earned reputation for having “ice water in his veins” in the clutch (I know you’ve noticed the theme and graphics for this post so yes, there will be more on this later), who is widely-considered the fastest player in the league with the ball in his hands and who just so happened to have the most powerful agent in the league representing him was fed up with his situation as a King and as a consequence, was attempting to force his way out of Sacramento with only one trade destination on his mind. De’Aaron Fox wanted to be traded to San Antonio to play next to Victor Wembanyama and be a part of the franchise with the brightest future in the league (it certainly didn’t hurt that his wife was from the Alamo City and he was also a native Texan from nearby Katy only 168 miles away). On February 2nd of last year, the rumors became a reality. De’Aaron Fox was traded from the Sacramento Kings to the San Antonio Spurs in a three-team deal that also involved the Chicago Bulls. After the trade was completed, Fox said publicly that the opportunity to play in a backcourt with Stephon Castle was also a major factor in him only having eyes for the Spurs.
While it certainly happened quicker than expected, the inevitability that an already-established star was going to land in San Antonio wasn’t on it’s own an extension of our good luck (it was the byproduct of having already lucked into the opportunity to draft Wemby), the price we ultimately had to pay for his services was the result of another stroke of good luck because Spurs general manager Brian Wright was negotiating the framework for the deal with the two most inept front offices in the league. Thankfully for us, Sacramento’s general manager Monte McNair and Chicago’s general manager Marc Eversley didn’t read the first chapter of NBA General Management for Dummies before executing this trade because if they had, they would have known that the first guideline in the book says if Sam Presti, Danny Ainge, Brad Stevens, or Brian Wright is on the other end of the phone call, hang up. Our luck was “going streaking” and remembered to bring its green hat because McNair was grossly incompetent enough to allow Wright to fleece him in obtaining De’Aaron’s services for 50 cents on the dollar and when you need to rope in the GM of another team to assist in your fleece, you can always count on the Bull’s Eversley. At the time the “Fox to SA” rumors started swirling, most prognosticators assumed the price would be one of Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell or even Castle himself along with at least three of the most-prized future first round picks from our stockpile of draft assets. We gave up none of that. Because of the “dumb” luck that the first already-established star to call his “I wanna team up with Wemby” shot happened to play for Sacramento, the most-mismanaged franchise in the league and one that had this weird proclivity for conducting trades with Chicago, the second-most mismanaged franchise in the league, all we had to give up for De’Aaron freaking Fox (along with steady reserve point guard Jordan McLaughlin, by the way) was Tre Jones, Zach Collins, Sidy Cissoko, three of our least-valued first round picks and three second round picks. You know it’s a fleece when a three-way trade is completely one-sided. Brian Wright sucked all of the value out of that transaction like a cryptid-rights activist vampire on the first nightfall after a 10-year hunger strike. To the surprise of exactly no one, both Monte McNair and Marc Eversley have both since been fired from their GM positions with the Kings and the Bulls respectively.
Our pursuit of securing a play-in position in the 2024-25 season was derailed only five games and 18 days after acquiring De’Aaron. On February 20th of last year, the San Antonio Spurs announced Victor Wembanyama was out for the season with deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Wemby’s blood clot diagnosis, of course, was an incredibly unlucky turn of events that meant our pursuit of making the playoffs via the play-in tournament was effectively over. Little did we know at the time that this would be an example but there’s a funny little thing about streaks of luck: they’re called “streaks” for a reason. Sometimes during a streak of good luck, even an unlucky incident ends up being a blessing in disguise opening you up to new opportunities to be lucky in ways that wouldn’t have been possible had the unlucky incident not occurred. (I only call Vic’s blood clot a blessing in disguise with the hindsight that he has since made a full recovery and because it was diagnosed and treated early, it was assessed to not have posed any risk to his long-term health.) We predictably ended the season outside of the play-in seeding finishing 13th in the West with a 34-48 record which was also the eighth-worst record in the league. In other words, because of our backslide down the stretch of the season without Victor, we were guaranteed to get no worse than the 12th pick in the 2025 NBA draft. We were also going to get another bite at the apple of adding a top-four pick to our young core through the lottery. By falling down the standings into the eighth-worst record with Wemby out for the last two months of the season, the unlucky season-ending injury to our star player put us in position to get lucky again to the tune of a 6% chance at winning the No. 1 pick, a 6.5% chance at the No. 2 pick, a 7.1% chance at the No. 3 pick, a 7.8% chance at the No. 4 pick and a 26.3% overall chance at a top-four pick. And as luck would have it, on May 12th of last year, the San Antonio Spurs won the No. 2 overall pick through the lottery.
I’m not going to lie, when NBA Deputy Commissioner Marc Tatum was standing at that podium with only two picks left to reveal, I really hoped we were about to capture the Flagg. That said, the stakes for winning the right to draft Cooper Flagg (the consensus top player entering the 2025 NBA draft) and the stakes for winning the right to draft Victor Wembanyama when we were in the exact same position two years earlier were night and day because 1) Flagg was the type of prospect that comes along every couple years whereas Victor was the type of prospect that comes along every couple of decades at best and 2) there was an astronomical drop in the level of talent available at No. 2 to whatever team missed out on drafting an alien in 2023 but the consensus second-best prospect in the 2025 draft was no consolation prize at all. By all accounts, there was an ultra-talented guard prodigy coming out of Rutgers University by way of Franklin Lakes, NJ who was considered a greater prospect than anyone in the draft class before him. In other words, there was a No. 1 pick-level talent available to whichever team had to settle for the No.2 pick in the 2025 NBA draft and that talent’s name was and still is Dylan Harper. When Marc Tatum made the reveal that we were going to be selecting second and as a result, the Dallas Mavericks would be drafting first (the team that had just recklessly traded away top-five player in the league Luka Dončić and were because of that completely undeserving of the luck it took to cash in on 1.8% odds but I guess the basketball gods were, strictly on behalf of the Mavs enraged fan base, simply looking to make up for one of the worst decisions in basketball history), I was overcome with simultaneously feeling a strange combination of disappointment and excitement. Would it have been amazing to add Cooper Flagg next to Wemby, Castle, & Fox? Of course, he would have been an amazing fit on our team both in style of play and in that his natural position, power forward, is the position that was and still is the thinnest on our roster. At the same time, we actually just got luckier statistically jumping from 8 to 2 this year than either of the last two years and holy shit…Dylan Harper is going to be a San Antonio Spur!!! Eventually, the disappointment on coming so close but missing out on Flagg subsided and was replaced by a ridiculous abundance of even more excitement about Harper. Luck, you are once. twice, three times a lady ❤️❤️❤️
The combined probability of the Spurs winning the overall first pick (2023), fourth pick (2024), and second pick (2025) in three consecutive drafts is about one in 1400. That, however, doesn’t even factor in the additional incalculable luck of having the three teams in front of us in 2024 misevaluate the available pool of players and therefore put us back in the position for the second year in a row to be able to draft the prospect who is proving to be far and away the best in the class. And because when our luck “goes streaking” it brings it’s green hat, the cherry on top of the hot fudge sundae our roster upgrade had become was the luck that the GMs who Brian Wright negotiated with to land us an already-established star were fleece-able. In 734 days, we went from having zero top-five overall draft picks and zero already-established stars on our roster to having Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, and De’Aaron Fox. To put it another way, we went from going nowhere soon to having the brightest future in the league in two short years. So let me say it for today, “it doesn’t make any sense for us to be this lucky.” Or then again, maybe it does. Maybe this was ordained to happen. Maybe luck doesn’t exist and is merely a human construct created to allow those who are out of favor with the gods (basketball or otherwise) to have something to blame other than themselves. Maybe it is because of our righteousness that the basketball gods created a future so bright for the San Antonio Spurs that we have the potential to grow our current roster into the greatest team ever assembled in the history of the planet. Either way, luck or predestination, one thing is for certain: our future is so bright it is also our present. Less than three years after drafting Wembanyama, less than two years after drafting Castle, less than one and a half years after acquiring Fox, and less than one year after drafting Harper, we are back where we belong. We are back contending for the title. We are back in the Western Conference Finals. 👽🏰🦊
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On Friday night, the San Antonio Spurs eliminated the Minnesota Timberwolves from the 2026 NBA playoffs by winning Game 6 of our second round series on the road at the Target Center 139-109 and stamping our first ticket to the Western Conference Finals since 2017. The contest was a wire-to-wire shellacking that’s result was so never in question, Anthony Edwards decided to go ahead and get giving the Spurs coaches and players their post-game congratulatory handshakes over with when there was still eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. (As bizarre of a spectacle as it was, it also showed what a class act Ant is to tip his cap to the “better team” like that. I really admire the toughness he displayed on playing this entire series through injury, and as awful as it was for me, as a Spurs fan, to have to sit through every dagger three, every spectacular paint finish, and every clutch midrange jumper he made in this series, man is it a privilege to get to watch that dude play basketball. His game is ridiculous.) After annihilating the Wolves in his Game 5 redemption game, Victor Wembanyama had a solid but quiet (by his standards) performance in the Game 6 elimination route. While his stat line during his 27 minutes on the floor of 19 points (on efficient shooting splits), six rebounds, three blocks, and two assists would be considered an exceptional night’s work for any earthling, it was nothing to transmit home about for an alien who is on a quest to make sure the 2023 number one pick is not just considered the greatest lottery prize in 20 years (LeBron James in 2003) but becomes universally agreed upon as the greatest lottery prize of all-time. Probably the most impressive thing about Wemby’s night was witnessing the cumulative effect his defense had on Minnesota’s starting front court over the course of six games. By the end of the series, Victor had broken the basketball brains of both the Wolves starting power forward Julius Randle and Wemby’s French national teammate, friend and mentor, Wolves starting center Rudy Gobert. In Game 6, the two combined for three points (you read that correctly) on 1-12 shooting in 46 minutes. Poor, poor Rudy posted a goose egg in the game that prevented his team from making a third-straight trip to the Western Conference Finals.
The player of the game was once again, for the second consecutive contest, the iconoclast Stephon Castle. There’s no other way to describe it. Steph was simply breathtaking in his first-ever career road close out game. When Chris Finch and the Wolves made the fatal mistake to start the game by having Rudy Golbert switch on Castle but space off of him to protect against his drive (an adjustment that was designed to clog the paint in order to prevent Wemby from getting off to another fast start), Steph LIT THEM UP to the tune of three triples and 14 points in the first quarter overall. He went on to drain a career-high five three-pointers in Game 6 of the second round of the playoffs in his second season in the league. That is just silly. For the game, this NCAA Final Four champion and budding superstar whose home state Atlanta Hawks as well as the Washington Wizards and Houston Rockets miraculously (or moronically depending on your prospective) passed on drafting in 2024 had 32 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists in leading San Antonio to our first trip to the NBA final four in nine years. Steph oozed with confidence every second of his 30 minutes on the court shooting super efficiently across the board: 11/16 from the field, 5-7 from distance, and 5-6 from the line. He was also what Mitch Johnson characterized as an “attack dog” on defense the entire night and only committed two turnovers for good measure. It’s pretty clear that the kid from Covington, GA was built ready to play for the highest stakes in the NBA. Don’t forget to lock your doors and set your alarms tonight, America. There’s a stone cold killer coming to a Western Conference Finals stage near you.
On the same day that hip-hop icon Drake finally released his much-anticipated 9th studio album Iceman, the franchise who claims George Gervin (the NBA legend with the greatest nickname of all-time and the one Drake’s album title is paying homage to) also had a current player give his best impression of the original Iceman with his silky-smooth ability to maneuver his way to the rim along with his penchant for coming up with cold-blooded, “ice water in his veins” shooting in closing out the Timberwolves on Friday. De’Aaron Fox, the already-established star who shrewdly was the first to call his “I wanna play with Wemby” shot last year in forcing his way out of Sacramento and to San Antonio was spectacular in the Game 6 route. The near-consensus fastest player in the league with the ball in his hands ran circles around Minnesota’s elite permitted defenders scoring 21 points (on cold-blooded 8-10 shooting from the field, 3-3 from deep, and 2-2 from the line) and dishing out a team-high nine assists. The Iceman 2.0 cometh and he cometh to help the San Antonio Spurs young superstars compete to raise more banners in the rafters for a franchise that would have in all likelihood been shuttered during the NBA-ABA merger had the original Iceman not cometh. Speaking of young superstars doing their best impression of a Spurs legend, a 20-year-old leftie continues to look an awful lot like Manu Ginobili with the footwork he utilizes to carve his way through the paint and to the cup. Dylan Harper, the ultra-talented guard prodigy from Franklin Hills, NJ, had another stellar performance in Friday’s close out victory scoring 15 points (on 6-8 from the field), five rebounds, and two assists. The No. 2 overall pick of the 2025 NBA draft looking like the hall-of-famer from Bahía Blanca, Argentina is no coincidence because Manu, in his special advisor role with the Spurs, has made a concerted effort to mentor our soon to be first-team all-rookie phenom with No.1 pick level talent. Dylan Harper benefiting from the tutelage of Manu (one of the greatest 6th men of all-time) while playing “a” 6th-man role as a rookie (he will humbly remind you he’s not “the” 6th man, that’s Keldon Johnson) is going to pay off in spades. It’s scary how good Dylan is going to be tonight never mind in two weeks, one month, one year, five years, etc. etc. I think it’s safe to say we got ourselves a keeper with this one. All told, San Antonio’s “core four” (none of whom was even on our roster 1,061 days ago) demonstrated exactly how incomparably bright our future is by combining for 87 points on a preposterous 69% shooting (31 for 45) as well as 26 rebounds and 19 assists during our Game 6 closeout of Minnesota one Friday. When those four supernovas play like that, there isn’t a team now (or at any time in the past) that is likely to beat us.
I am so ridiculously excited for tonight’s Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. Waiting for us on the other side of the bracket is the defending champs. I wouldn’t want it any other way. The Oklahoma City Thunder cruised through the first two rounds of the playoffs sweeping both the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Lakers on the way to their second-consecutive trip to this particular stage. Touting the now back-to-back NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (the results were announced yesterday) and that undefeated 2026 playoff record, there is no question that our young group is stepping up in weight class from Round 2 to Round 3. While Vic was also a finalist for the MVP and I obviously wanted him to win, it’s not the worst thing in the world for SGA to get the award on the eve of this series because he was deserving but more importantly because, knowing how insanely competitive Wemby is, wanting to prove that the voters got this one wrong is going to add extra fuel to Victor’s desire to want to dominate this series. Because the Thunder edged us out for the best record in the league by two games during the regular season, tonight’s Game 1 will be played at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. We all witnessed the unexpected 4-1 season series domination our young upstarts displayed over the defending champions during the regular season and while I think that will be helpful in giving us confidence for game-planning this matchup, I’m not delusional enough to think that our regular season success against this team will have any bearing on what will happen against them in the playoffs. Getting the upper hand on last year’s champs during the regular season is one thing. Ending their season in the Western Conference Finals is going to take something else all together. Perhaps something otherworldly but having just such a player at least gives us a puncher’s chance 😉👽 There will be plenty of time over the next four to seven posts to dissect this series and our opponent but for now, I’ll just say we have a real opportunity to steal Game 1 tonight. Just like Minnesota came into the last series and capitalized on the fact that we had been resting for five days to help them steal one from us on our home court in Game 1, we have the same opportunity to do it to the champs tonight. Oklahoma City has been resting for a full seven days since eliminating LA last Monday. We will becoming in sharp from finishing off our series on Friday night. We have a real opportunity tonight to punch first against the champs and put them on the back foot. When the ball is tipped tonight, OKC might very well still have the best player in the series on their team in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (by a tiny margin) but, whether you want to call it luck or predestination, in acquiring our four franchise cornerstones over the past three year, there is no question we have surpassed them in high-end talent overall at the top of the roster and because of that, I like our chances to go directly into the Paycom Center aka the blue and orange belly of the beast home of the defending champs and paint it black.
Featured Image Source: TIDAL
Headline Image Source: San Antonio Express-News
Sept de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 5
Helicopter - Isn’t it lovely when you call your shot in a blog post on what’s about to happen in a basketball game and then everything you predicted comes to pass pretty much exactly how you predicted it? I’m not necessarily saying you can find me right here levitating above all of the prognosticators, pundits, and so-called experts (who get paid handsome sums of money to do this for a living) even though I’m squeezing this project into every spare minute I can find (outside of the 60 to 80 hours per week I’m currently dedicating to building the labor movement) and I’m doing it strictly for my love of the craft of writing, my love for the game of basketball, and most of all, my devotion to the San Antonio Spurs. What I am saying unequivocally, however, is my pedigree and track record speak for themselves. I know this project went on hiatus for seven years (more or less) so If you don’t believe me, peep the back catalogue. Or if you don’t want to bother, that’s fine too. I’m not writing for clicks (this blog series isn’t monetized) or to be in competition with the virtuosos (game recognize game) or to receive acclaim for my erudition (my cup is full from the occasional glance of affirmation I get from my cat). I’m completely secure in the quality of my work. I’m writing because I’m an artist and therefore I must. I’m writing to connect with a deeper consciousness. I’m writing for permanence. And I’m writing about the San Antonio Spurs, specifically, because I’ve been obsessed with this team since the age of eleven and as Twain advised, “write what you know.” I’ve thought about Spurs basketball every day for the past 36 years. You’ll be hard pressed to find a bigger or more knowledgeable fan and you’ll find it nearly impossible to find one who writes like this. I write when the San Antonio Spurs are in the playoffs for myself because it brings me joy. Whether or not it gets read and appreciated by other people now or at any point in the future is immaterial. For me, I’m right here levitating either way. It’s up to you to decide for yourself whether or not one of the most prolific Spurs writers and historians of an entire generation has been right here hiding in plain sight.
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On Tuesday night, Victor Wembanyama, his elbow and the entire city of San Antonio took the declaration that the Spurs don’t lose two in a row to frost bank, vanquishing the Minnesota Timberwolves 126-97 ✅ As predicted, coming back from the shot heard ‘round the world ejection in Game 4, Wemby was a colossal combination of amped up and locked in from the opening tip scoring 16 points and grabbing five rebounds in the first five minutes of the game ✅ The ascending greatest player in the world went on the have one of his most dominant performances of the series posting an imposing 27 points (9-16 from the field, 2-5 from deep, 7-9 from the line), 17 rebounds, five assists, and three blocks. Wemby had the play-of-the-series so far with just under five minutes left in the fourth when he pump-faked his fellow French national team mentor and friend Rudy Gobert out of his shorts before dropping a dime to Julian Champagnie for the lay with Rudy spun out in the completely wrong direction. (Don’t forget to watch the Dylan Harper reaction 😂 I love that Dylan Harper meme faces are now a thing.) With a plus/minus of +24, it’s safe to say that while seeking atonement, our superstar achieved exactly that. Vic was special in Game 5 ✅ The Timberwolves made their runs but after jumping on them 24-9 early, we pretty much led wire-to-wire. Minny squared the game once in the second half at 61-61 with 7:51 left in the third but never got a lead and then fell quickly back into a double-digit hole from which they never escaped. In the blink of an eye, that double-digit hole was 30. On Tuesday, the #BlackAndSilver played our brand of basketball, imposed our will on the opponent and stamped Game 5 with another emphatic home W. Proper trajectory for the series resumed ✅
Speaking of that run the Wolves made to start the third quarter, the one that enabled them to tie the game at 61-61, the player of the game was Stephon Castle. After outclassing Minnesota for most of the first half, we went cold down the stretch of the second quarter and as a result, what should have been a 20+ point lead at the break was only 12. So when we came out of the locker room slower than an NBA investigation into Kawhi Leonard-Steve Ballmer-Aspiration salary cap circumvention and the drought continued for several minutes while the Wolves kept making shots, it was safe the say we were once again facing some real adversity. You know, the type of adversity our lack of playoff experience is supposed to require us to buckle under. Minnesota is a hard-nosed, credentialed playoff mainstay with an eye on a third straight trip to the Western Conference Finals. The entire history of basketball says the moment they caught us at 61 in the third quarter of Game 5 on our home court in a 2-2 series, they had us. Our lack of experience was supposed to be our undoing in that moment. Instead, it was baptism by the fire and fury of a 21 year-old second-year iconoclast who doesn’t have the experience and just doesn’t care.
To give all credit where it’s due, the response to Ayo Dosunmu’s bucket that tied the score at 61 started with a momentous triple by Julian from a Wemby assist. That small crack of daylight allowed every Spurs fan to exhale but also, that was all Stephon Castle needed to bulldoze down the door. On the next Minnesota possession, Steph spring-boarded over Gobert to snag the rebound and immediately drew the fourth foul on Jayden McDaniels (the Wolves best perimeter defender). He then brought the ball up the court on the left, drove right around a double-screen set by Julian and Victor and (with Anthony Edwards guarding him) crossed over left into a lightening-quick spin back right for a running four-foot bank shot. This ridiculous display of speed and power put the Spurs back up five. Minny got an open Terrence Shannon Jr. corner three on their next possession which missed but Gobert snagged the offensive rebound. Vic was out of position to guard him at the rim but Keldon Johnson wasn’t. KJ swooped in to block the dunk attempt and knock the ball off of Rudy. After receiving the inbound from the turnover, Castle sprinted back up the right side of the court, threw the ball into Wemby in the post but continued cutting to the basket with unrelenting determination. Vic dropped it back off to Steph who spring-boarded again off of two feet like he was shot out of a cannon for a power dunk. 7-0 run San Antonio.
Dosunmu hit a floater over Julian to temporarily slow the barrage but before the Wolves could fully set their defense after the made basket, Steph was back at the top of the key taking Shannon off the dribble with a behind-the-back dribble into a runner that sat up gently on the rim before falling through. Julian stole the ball on the next Wolves possession and got it back to Castle on the break. He initiated some ball movement that kept the defense off balance and resulted in a Keldon drive into a bully ball lay-in at the basketball. Before the Wolves knew what hit them, and at the exact moment that NBA history would’ve have informed the basketball gods that it was time to command the Spurs to collapse due to our lack of experience, Stephon Castle aka the iconoclast led the Spurs on an 11-2 run that restored a nine point advantage and, for all intents and purposes, put the game away for the way too young playoff novices. Steph finished the night with 17 points, five assists, and four rebounds but it was his dominance in this critical stretch that earned him player of the game honors. I think he showed the entire NBA punditry where they can shove their ideas about how informative the San Antonio Spurs lack of experience is in assessing our chances of winning it all. (By the way, if you thought we were going to go through this entire season of Black & Silver without discussing Kawhi Leonard’s tree planting philanthropy, you were sorely mistaken.)
While the young team seeking to restore the moniker “Titletown, TX” (as soon as exactly four weeks from today) has overcome every encounter with adversity we’ve come up against in the 2026 NBA playoffs and past every test so far, we haven’t seen a greater test to-date (and one fraught with a higher likelihood for new adversity) than the test we face tonight at the Target Center back in Minneapolis. Closing out the seventh-seeded Portland Trail Blazers at home was one thing. Closing out the team that has had more recent playoff success than any of the remaining other than the champs and doing it on the road on their home floor is going to be an entirely different challenge. The Minnesota Timberwolves are not a candidate for, “One, two, three…Cancún!” They are going to come out ready to play tonight relishing the opportunity to still flip this series on it’s head one more time (and prove the so-called expert narrative accurate that we do have to take our playoff lumps first before we can compete for a championship). As much desperation and resiliency as we can count on Ant Edwards and his band of stone-cold competitors to play with tonight, I am extremely confident we can get this thing done in six if we can match their energy and physicality because there is no arguing that from a talent standpoint, Minnesota is overmatched. Knowing the mindset of Victor Wembanyama and the co-star Stephon Castle that Vic says he wants to play with for the next fifteen years (in other words, knowing the mindset of Area 51), matching the home team’s energy and physicality will not be an issue tonight.
I think I’ve sufficiently conveyed my Spurs fandom bonafides enough already in this post so to balance it out, I will admit there is one gaping hole in my portfolio for the 2026 playoffs. Because I live in Colorado, one of the areas I’m currently lacking is that I don’t get to be in SA experiencing this incredible run with my favorite city in the world. All told, I lived in San Antonio for 16 years and was living in the city for most of the Tim Duncan-era (up to and including the 2014 championship). I moved to Denver in July of 2014 and have been following the team mostly from afar ever since. Back at the beginning of April, I attended the Saturday afternoon epic regular season duel between Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama at Ball Arena. The Nuggets squeaked it out 136-134 in overtime but, despite the loss, it was one of the greatest regular season games I have ever attended. For weeks after that, I assumed we would get a chance at revenge in the second-round of the playoffs against the team that was maintaining and eventually secured the third-seed down the stretch of the regular season. My hopes of seeing The Alien battle The Joker for as many as seven games (and having an opportunity to see another Spurs playoff game in person, something I haven’t gotten to do since Game 5 of the 2019 first round matchup between Denver and San Antonio) was squashed by this very same “too dangerous to every be counted out” Minnesota squad. As mentioned in Deux de moins, I personally know plenty of Timberwolves fans and (because, living in CO, I root for the Nuggs any time they are not playing the Spurs), I distinctly remember them laughing their way all the way into this second round matchup with us after eliminating Denver in Game 6 of the last round. Tonight, I fully expect the better team to do exactly what we don’t have the experience to know that we aren’t supposed to do and in the process, remind Wolves fans that the same thing that made them laugh will make them cry.
Featured Image Source: peermusic
Headline Image Source: Sports Illustrated
Trois de moins
2026 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 4
Lucky Again - They certainly were. When I deployed some tongue-in-cheek humor to poke fun of the way Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch has been working the refs in the 2026 NBA Western Conference Semifinals against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs in Six de faits , it was supposed to be light-hearted and all in the good fun of providing protean depth to our Black & Silver coverage of the series. I actually think Finch is a really good coach (and seems like a decent enough guy) and I don’t begrudge him that it’s obviously a critical duty for any NBA coach to “work the refs” in order to gain every advantage possible during a playoff series. That being said, from the way he was outlandishly complaining after a Game 1 win that four or five of Wemby’s playoff record 12 blocked shots were goaltending (only one was, not four or five) to the way he was having a Game 3 temper tantrum over the officiating (even though for the third game in a row, his team was getting the lion’s share of the calls), the fruit was hanging so low that it was pretty much my duty as a writer to do a fictitious bit about it. I endearingly dubbed him The Sniveler (and a bunch of other nicknames) for his over-the-top obnoxious pleading to have the refs help him and his players do something they were incapable of doing on their own…slowing down the ascending greatest player in the world. On Friday night, Game 3 crew chief Tony Brother’s response to Finch’s antics was to try to fight him. Never could I have ever imagined that two nights later, Game 4 crew chief Zach Zarba’s response to Finch’s antics would be to oblige. (Aww drats! The Sniveler strikes again!)
With 8:39 remaining in the second quarter of Game 4 on Sunday, Victor Wembanyama was ejected for a flagrant offensive foul (penalty 2) called on an elbow that he never would have swung if Zach Zarba, James Williams, and Brent Barnaky were properly doing their jobs. Before I go any further, let me state (as an enormously biased Spurs fan) that a flagrant 2 and ejection was the right decision (in a vacuum) for what Victor did in sizing up Naz Reid and then violently swinging his elbow to deliver a vicious shot to Reid’s neck. Furthermore, Victor having that momentary lapse of judgement was unacceptable regardless of what the other team was doing (and what the refs weren’t doing). He let the team down. He let the city down. He let Spurs fans everywhere down. I know he also let himself down more than anyone else. This will be a valuable learning experience and a mistake he is extremely unlikely to repeat but because championships are often won on the most excruciatingly razor-thin of margins, it’s possible that Wemby’s momentary lapse of judgement could cost us a shot at one should we fail to advance out of this series.
While I fully expect our superstar and the entire team to bounce back and overcome Vic’s self-inflicted adversity, only time will tell how big of a set back the shot heard ‘round the world will prove to be. Thankfully, it was announced yesterday morning that Wemby will not be further punished with a suspension or fine and will be available for Game 5 tonight back home in Frost Bank Center. I fully expect our MVP candidate to dominate the overmatched Wolves (whose only demonstrated solution for slowing The Alien down is to turn basketball games into a UFC matches) with his most prolific playoff game to date. I can only image how frustrated Vic is with the Timberwolves, the officials, and most importantly himself. Knowing Wemby, he will vent that frustration by letting his game do the talking tonight. He’s going to be such a colossal combination of amped up and locked in when the ball is tipped that it will be shocking if Game 5 isn’t a repeat of Game 2’s wire-to-wire blowout. Speaking of shocking, while now two days later…I still can’t shake how jarring it was to witness the most poised 22-year old you could ever hope to meet make that ferocious + calamitous of a mistake and just as shocking to then (even though you knew it was coming) see him be disqualified from an NBA playoff game. It was so out-of-character, it didn’t feel real. It felt like watching some contrived AI video created by a Minnesota fan who typed, “Hey ChatGPT, create a video demonstrating the only possible way my Timberwolves can defeat the vastly superior San Antonio Spurs in Game 4.” It was so menacingly surreal it felt glitchy like it was happening in an anxiety-inducing dream state. It was truly jarring.
Now, back to the officiating and Chris Finch. In the process and immediate aftermath of Wemby craftily snagging an offense rebound in what would prove to be his final sequence of Game 4, he was fouled by Naz Reid and Jaden McDaniels multiple times each. Zach Zarba and company just stood there with their whistles swallowed presumably listening to Chris Finch’s sniveling voice in their heads whining something like, “it’s not fair that he’s so much better than us, you gotta give us a fighting chance, you gotta let us play football when we’re guarding him.” Had the referees blown the whistle on the blatant McDaniel’s shot to Wemby’s head (or any of the other infractions), there is a zero percent chance that Victor would have still swung that elbow. While it’s true that Wembanyama’s retaliation was malignant, it’s also true that is was an instinctual basketball play he made in the flow of the game and not one something he would have attempted had the play already been blown dead. It’s not in his character. Victor made a terrible choice but from a position he should have never been put in. Zach Zarba, James Williams, and Brent Barnaky owe the San Antonio Spurs and Spurs fans an apology and should strongly consider going on self-imposed unpaid leave for the rest of these playoffs for a dereliction of duty. Likewise, Chris Finch owes the entire basketball viewing public an apology for taking the art of “working the refs” so far, he’s made a mockery of the spirit of the game.
For the second time in the 2026 playoffs the player of the game was an electric 20-year old rookie from Franklin Lakes, NJ. Despite San Antonio losing our best player to an ejection with more than two and a half quarters left to play, Minnesota still almost (quite literally on an Ayo Dosunmu full court Hail Mary catch up three with 9.8 seconds left) fumbled away the it-would-be-so-completely-demoralizing-to-lose-to-the-Wembyless-Spurs-and-go-down-3-1-the-series-would-basically-be-over must win game and it was in large part due to the stellar play of Dylan Harper. Just as he did in a road playoff game without Victor in Portland in the previous round, the 2nd-generation pro baller played like NBA royalty and a seasoned vet in Game 4 pouring in a team co-leading 24 points (on an uber-efficient 8-11 from the field, 1-1 from three, 7-7 from the line) along with seven rebounds, three steals, and an assist. Dylan led the way in giving us a shot to steal the game which is, if we’re being truly honest, all we could have asked for given the circumstances. The Timberwolves escaped the Target Center with a split and despite San Antonio outscoring them by 38 for the series through four games, we’re all even at 2-2. Minnesota has life but hopefully not for long. If we come out tonight and play our brand of basketball, we will resume the proper trajectory for this series by imposing our will on this opponent and stamping Game 5 with another emphatic home W. If we do that, as I fully expect us to, tomorrow will mark the four-month mark since the last time the Spurs have lost two games in a row. The ascending greatest player in the world will be back tonight (with a few scores to settle) and Chris Finch’s only solution for stopping him remains hoping to recruit a few zebras to help his Minnesota Timberwolves play eight on five. Don’t expect even that to be enough tonight. In order to slow down this alien and the way he will utilize his craft to exact revenge in the Frost Bank Center throughout Game 5, Chris Finch and company are gonna need a helicopter.
Shot Heard ‘Round the World
Vic threw an elbow
Spurs don’t lose two in a row
Take that to frost bank
Written May 2026 in Aurora, CO
Six de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 3
Choosin’ Texas - Fighting out of the blue corner, representing Minneapolis, MN by way of Cambridge, OH with a record of 26-25, known for his slippery, rule-bending maneuvers, it’s the one they call Mr. Squeaky Wheel aka The “Woe Is Me” Machine aka Captain Wet Blanket aka The Bellyacher In Chief, it’s the challenger, The Sniveler…CHRIS FINCH. (Booooooo!!!!!) Fighting out of the red corner, born, raised, and hailing from Norfolk, VA with a record of 32-0 including 19 knockouts, known for the meanest “I wish you would” face in the history of the sport, it’s the one you run away from if he opens the door when you arrive to pick up his daughter, he’s the future mayor of his hometown and maybe yours too, he’s the undefeated, undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World, The Bone Crusher…TONY BROTHERS (Ohhhhhh!!!!)
On Friday, all of The Sniveler’s whining and complaining about the refereeing in his Minnesota Timberwolves second round playoff matchup against the San Antonio Spurs finally hit a tipping point when 30-year veteran official Tony Brothers got so fed up with Chris Finch’s antics that he blacked out and bucked up to the six-year-and-been-running-his-mouth-at-the-refs-since-day-one gasbag of an NBA coach. With 5:09 remaining in the fourth quarter of a tightly contested game, The Bellyacher in Chief stomped up and down on the court like a petulant child because it took Tony Brothers three seconds longer to grant him a timeout than he wanted. His expression of his frustration would have been understandable if this were happening in the final minute of a clutch playoff game but it was a complete overreaction with more than five minutes left to play. His problem wasn’t that those three seconds were crucial, his problem was that he had absolutely no answer on either side of the court for Victor Wembanyama that night.
Venting your frustration that a 22-year-old is eating your lunch exclusively at the referees as if it’s somehow their responsibility to help you do the thing you and your team are incapable of doing on your own (slowing down the ascending greatest player in the world) was in and of itself a mistake but venting it one too many times at this particular referee, Norfolk’s finest…Tony Brothers, that was a death wish. Luckily for Captain Wet Blanket, when The Bone Crusher started charging at him, Timberwolves reserve guard Bones Hyland and assistant coach Pablo Prigioni stepped in the hold Brothers back before he reached Finch. Their quick reaction was a wise ass-saving decision. (You see what I did just there, right?) Otherwise, Mr. Squeaky Wheel was about to be flat on his back, knocked out cold. Perhaps this will serve as a warning, one Chris Finch would be wise to adhere to moving forward; there are only three constants in this world: 1) Death 2) Taxes 3) Don’t mess with Tony Brothers.
Thanks to the quick reaction heroics of Hyland and Prigioni, play resumed with Finch on the sideline rather then on a stretcher but ultimately, there was no amount of home-cooked whistles the referees could have provided to Minnesota to offset Wemby’s sheer determination to win on this particular Friday. On this particular Friday, Victor Wembanyama composed a masterpiece and then performed it to the tune of 39 points (13-18 from the field, 3-5 from deep, 10-12 from the line), 15 rebounds, five blocks, one assist and a steal in leading the San Antonio Spurs to a 115-108 Game 3 victory and 2-1 series lead on the road at the Target Center in Minneapolis in our Western Conference semifinal matchup with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Considering that the team that wins Game 3 in a best-of-seven NBA playoff series that is tied 1-1 goes on to win the series 74 percent of the time, Wemby couldn’t have picked a better time to have a signature winning playoff performance. Home court advantage for the #BlackAndSilver over the Wolves reclaimed. Balance and harmony in the Milky Way’s galactic order restored. (More on this later.)
Vic was stellar the entire night but especially as the tension ratcheted up down the stretch of the hard-fought back and forth contest scoring 16 points in the fourth quarter on the biggest stage (to-date) of his young NBA career. While assassin-like in some of his clutch-time heroics including a pair of dagger threes and a peach of a tasty assist for a Dylan Harper layup out of the triple-team, the player of the game’s play of the game was undoubtedly when he backed down Rudy Gobert (on the next possession after the Harper assist) juked and spun into such a beautiful fade-away jumper that was like a dream shaken out of the Houston-based Hakeem Olajuwon magic big man factory. On this particular Friday, Victor Wembanyama was simply breathtaking. He’s been telling us all season long that when it finally came time for him to get to play in the high-leverage stakes of the NBA Playoffs, he was going to have something to say. Consider his statement soundly delivered. During a postgame interview with the NBA on Prime crew, he issued a couple more for good measure: “I’m built for this” and “we don’t got the experience but we don’t care.”
The American public spent much of Friday pouring through documents looking for confirmation that aliens exist. While the evidence in the documents may have been inconclusive, confirmation came later that night anyway in downtown Minneapolis, MN. Not only do aliens exist, they will crush your soul if you make the mistake of rooting for their opposition on the basketball court. Game 3 was an epic battle of wills between two tough-minded, gritty, physical basketball clubs and their edifying cities + passionate fanbases. It was hard-fought to the bitter end. The difference, when it was all said and done, was that San Antonio had The Alien on our team and Minnesota didn’t. For seven percent of the American public, what Wemby did on a basketball court in the Twin Cities on Friday night is shame because it took their previously extremely rare experience of believing you witnessed an alien life form (and their sense of belonging to that niche community) and made it a universal experience (and global community for everyone). The Alien is here on Earth conducting his affairs in plain sight for all to see. Unfortunately for Timberwolves fans, he’s currently in Minneapolis and is planning another invasion of the Target Center for this evening. It’s clear by now that in the 2026 NBA playoffs, Victor Wembanyama is operating from a higher plain of existence and to pay homage to the last bonafide generational prospect to enter the league prior to Wemby, “we are all witnesses.”
(Note to the NBA punditry on this NBA Draft Lottery Sunday: if you’re using “generational prospect” to describe every top prospect to enter the draft every single year, I don’t think you comprehend what the word “generational” means. Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, Luka Dončić, Zion Williamson, Cooper Flag, and AJ Dybantsa, to name a few who have been given this label, are not generational prospects. LeBron James was the generational prospect for the last generation. Victory Wembanyam was the generational prospect for this generation. Full stop.)
While nothing has changed with the danger the Minnesota Timberwolves pose as a wounded animal, the San Antonio Spurs now have them corned and this evening presents an amazing opportunity to get them back in their cage. We can expect them to come out scratching and clawing like it’s an elimination game because for all intents and purposes, it probably is. While Minnesota has the toughness and experience to climb out of a 1-3 playoff hole in a vacuum, when factoring in just now banged up their roster currently is, it seems like a pretty tall order. We should expect that Anthony Edwards and company are going to fight for their playoff lives tonight and consequently, it will require a sharper more determined effort by the Spurs tonight than it did on Friday for us to beat them. We should also expect The Sniveler Chris Finch to parlay narrowly escaping a Tony Brothers beat down in Game 3 (and the pity party that followed) into squeezing a few extra calls for the home team out of tonight’s officiating crew. In other words, we should expect to have to overcome an avalanche of adversity to remain undefeated on the road in the 2026 playoffs. That being said, I’m extremely confident that we can grab another victory at the Target Center tonight if we play our brand of San Antonio Spurs basketball. Given Minnesota’s terrible injury luck and the current health of their roster, it’s an objective fact that San Antonio currently has the better team in this series. Objectively speaking, Minnesota was extremely lucky to steal game one. Had they not, this thing would already be over. If we play like we’re capable of playing tonight, we won’t allow them to be in position to get lucky again. We also know, however, if the Wolves are somehow able keep the game close so that its outcome is still in the balance down the stretch of the fourth quarter, we have a superior being on our roster who we know we can trust was built for thriving in that type of situation. Victor Wembanyama has been proving it since first contact.
Featured Image Source: Rolling Stone
Headline Image Source: talkSPORT
Cinq de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 2
Talk That Talk - There were one hundred different ways we could have won Game 1 by simply doing one thing better. Number One could have pumped-faked one time on one of his eight three point attempts and instead drove for one dunk and the and one and we would have won. Number Two could have applied one more ounce of English to his one-of-a-kind finishing ability on the one layup he missed and the wunderkind puts our opponent one bucket closer to 0-1. Number Three could have demonstrated he wanted one rebound one tiny bit more than his defender one time and one pump fake before one finish coupled with making the one free throw he missed and we wouldn’t have finished the evening left wanting. Number Four could have foregone one ill-advised careless pass one time forestalling one unforced turnover and the one extra formulated shot it would’ve produced for sure would have been a game-flipping one. Number Five could have been whistled for one fewer ticky-tack foul by what proved to be one one-sided performance by the officiating crew and one loss later the opposing coach would have had one legitimate reason to be complaining that one (not four or five) of Number One’s twelve blocks was legitimately an illegal one. No wonder the next day’s film session included one special guest whose position on the list of all-time winningest coaches is not five, not four, not three, not two but one.
* * *
I sat down on my couch to watch the Spurs sixth game of the 2024-25 regular season on the evening of November 2nd, 2024 just like I would have on any other night for any other regular season game. We were playing at home in the Frost Bank Center against the Minnesota Timberwolves, a tough opponent coming off of a Western Conference Finals appearance. Even though the season had started out a little bit up and down (we were 2-3 heading into that game), I was looking forward to a good early test for Victor Wembanyama (coming off his 2023-24 Rookie of the Year season), Stephon Castle (this year’s exciting blue chip lottery pick rookie combo guard), Chris Paul (newly acquired legendary future hall-of-fame point guard) and company against Anthony Edwards, Julius Randall and the entire Wolf Pack.
The first thing I noticed was the announcers reporting that Gregg Popovich aka Coach Pop or simply Pop would not be coaching that evening; he was out with an undisclosed ailment. They went on to say assistant coach Mitch Johnson would be the one roaming the sidelines for this contest. At first, I didn’t think much of anything about it (other than I was surprised Mitch Johnson got the call to fill in for Pop over Brett Brown, the vastly more experienced assistant with former head coaching experience in the NBA). After all, Pop had missed a game or two here or there over the past five seasons due to minor medical absences which seemed pretty understandable for a coach in his 70s and now at 75 in his record-breaking 29th consecutive season as the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs. I brushed it off as another one of those and thought, it will be cool to watch and see how this young assistant handles the responsibility for one game. (He won the game 113-103 over the currently relevant perennial Western Conference contenders from the Twin Cities.)
Little did I know this at the time but on Halloween, two nights early, I had witnessed the winningest coach in NBA regular season history (1390), winningest coach in NBA regular season + playoffs history combined (1582), three-time NBA Coach of the Year (2003, 2012, 2014), 10-time Western Conference Finalist (1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017), sixth-time NBA Finalist (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2013, 2014), five-time NBA Champion (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014) and Hall of Fame (2023) greatest coach in basketball history Gregg Popovich coach his 2,547th and final game as head coach of the San Antonio Spurs in Salt Lake City against the Utah Jazz. (He also won the game 106-88 because, knowing Pop, he would probably say that, while unexpected, bowing out inconspicuously after a road win in Utah is a fitting way to sign off.)
* * *
On Tuesday, May 5th, the San Antonio Spurs President of Basketball Operations walked into a film room at Victory Capital Performance Center on the campus of The Rock at La Cantera and rolled up his sleeves. One year and three days after officially retiring from the role of head coach of the San Antonio Spurs and 55ish years after allegedly turning down a covert role with the CIA, Gregg Popovich aka Popo aka The Notorious G.C.P. aka El Jefe, never one to miss an opportunity to immerse himself in celebrating the culture of the beloved city he has made his home for the past 32 years, stood in that film room in front of the 2025-2026 San Antonio Spurs players and coaches and, in honor of Cinco de Mayo, held up a piñata. He proceed to run the tape of Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Western Conference semifinals and went play by play, point by point on every improvement the team needed to make in Game 2 in order to pummel the Minnesota Timberwolves into utter submission.
The next night, the #BlackAndSilver did exactly that eviscerating our visitors from the Twin Cities by 38 points, 133-95. This was the third-biggest margin of victory in a playoff game in San Antonio Spurs franchise history as well as Minnesota’s worst playoff defeat in franchise history. I think it’s safe to say that even though Coach Pop’s November 2nd, 2024 stroke left him with limitations that prevented him from returning to the physical demands of coaching NBA basketball, he still has the sharpest basketball tactician mind currently being deployed in the league. What a (not so) secret weapon and valuable resource Mitch Johnson and his players have at their disposal to tap when necessary. And, man, was it ever so necessary this week after fumbling away home court advantage and falling into a 0-1 hole in this Western Conference Semifinals series after a not-quite-ready-for-the-intensity-of-playing-a-more-experienced-playoff-opponent lackadaisical performance on Monday. When it became official on May 2nd, 2025 that the dream of Coach Pop coming full circle to coach the next-generation Wemby-Fox-Castle Spurs to the franchise’s sixth championship was dead due to his medically-necessary retirement from the bench, it was hard and it was sad even though we, as Spurs fans, all knew that he wasn’t going anywhere and was still going to be actively involved in the program through his role in the front office. As amazing of a job as 2025-26 Coach of the Year finalist Mitch Johnson has done in his stead, a subtle melancholy persisted beneath the surface all season knowing Pop had been robbed of the opportunity to lead this young, talented, special group while they are making their leap back into contention. That melancholy was lifted with Wednesday’s dominant, world-class response to adversity in the form of the 38-point drubbing we laid down on Minnesota and knowing how intimately involved El Jefe was in making it happen.
While Wemby had a strong, balanced performance in Game 2 with 19 points, 15 rebounds, two assists, two blocks, and a steal and De’Aaron Fox bounced back from his abhorrent Game 1 performance with a solid and steady 16 points, two assists and two steals, the player of the game was 2nd year phenom Stephon Castle. Steph imposed his will with his physicality on both sides of the ball. On defense, he held the T-Wolves franchise player Anthony Edwards in check as the primary defender, holding Ant to 12 points (5-13 shooting), zero assists, and four turnovers. Castle was once again in foul trouble (and once again called for a couple of soft ones) but he felt much more in control and intentional about what he was trying to do on that end of the floor in Game 2. On offense, he led the team in scoring with 21 points on an efficient 6-10 from the field and a stellar 9-9 from the line. He added four rebounds, four assists, and two steals for good measure. One of the questions posed by the talking heads in the national media heading into the postseason was asking if the lack of playoff experience would prove costly for the Spurs’ young, talented core in our pursuit of an “ahead of schedule” title run. I think it’s safe to say that the 2024 NCAA Champion UConn Husky was built for this.
While it is quite plausible that wire-to-wire 38-point historic beat down that we laid on the wounded Timberwolves on Wednesday night at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio might have broken them, we would be beyond foolish to count on it. This team has been here before, knows what it takes to respond and even though we are now +36 in total points for the series, the fact remains the series is tied 1-1 and Minnesota is currently still in control of home court advantage. They have an opportunity to reset and regroup tonight at home in the comfortable confines of the Target Center in Minneapolis and protect the home court they earned by snatching the toss up on Monday that was Game 1. A wounded animal is a dangerous one and if you underestimate the battle-tested Minnesota Timberwolves, you do so at your own peril. In order to regain home court advantage tonight, we need to come out sharp, focused and ready to control the tempo and the physicality of tonight’s proceedings. Game 3 is not going to be a cakewalk. It is going to be a war. Luckily for us, our (not so) secret weapon is likely holed up in a bunker somewhere deep in the bowels of Victory Capital Performance Center on the campus of The Rock at La Cantera back home in San Antonio confident that the message has been delivered about the preparedness that is necessary to play with the appropriate fear tonight and get this wounded animal back in its cage. With Gregg Charles Popovich back doing what he does best (preparing his team for playoff success), I like our chances to do exactly that tonight. We are beyond lucky for the last 30 years and everything that’s still to come. Thank you for choosin’ Texas, Coach Pop. Can’t wait to see what your incomparable basketball tactician mind has in store for us next. In Pop we trust.
Featured Image Source : The Honey POP
Headline Image Source: TODAY
Deux de moins
2026 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 1
Dog Days Are Over - There I was. At a hotel restaurant bar in Park City, Utah. Nearly surrounded by Minnesotans. Minnesotans to my left. Minnesotans hovering behind the couch I was sitting on. Thankfully no Minnesotans to my immediate right but definitely a few periodically wandering by on my right being sure to make me aware of their disruptive presence. What kind of Coen Brothers dark comedy situation have I managed to get myself into this time? Normally I find Minnesotans perfectly lovely. I enjoy the Twin Cities and their people every time I visit and considering that I have tremendous admiration for the way they taught our nation how to effectively fight back against fascist ice occupation, authoritarianism and oligarchy with their January 23rd “No Work, No School, No Shopping” general strike, I welcome their company in almost any situation. This, however, was the rare exception. This was not normal. This was Game One of the NBA Western Conference Semifinals between my San Antonio Spurs and their Timber Wolves.
The conference I was in Park City to attend was my labor union’s district meeting so it just so happened to also have a large delegation of attendees from The Land of 10,000 Lakes because of course it would when that is where the Spurs’ opponents for the playoff matchup taking place during my trip also reside. When a Minneapolis-based friend proposed that we watch Monday’s game together when we first saw each other at the conference on Saturday, I reluctantly agreed. As regular readers of this blog series know by now, I’m superstitious about the environment in which I watch Spurs playoff games. Since I can’t attend the games in person often (living in Denver), I prefer the quiet comfort of watching the game at home in a controlled environment to the social interaction of watching the game out in public but since that wasn’t an option for this particular game during this particular road trip, I didn’t want to be that antisocial lame-o who declines the rare opportunity to hang socially with some cool peeps (even if they happen to be Wolves fans) and watches the game alone in his hotel room.
We were able to reserve the couches and entire seating area in front of the biggest TV screen in our conference hotel’s restaurant and (other than the Peacock stream getting occasionally blurry or hung up) it proved to be an excellent social environment to watch the game in mixed company. (The “One Dollar Wings” special they were serving for the evening didn’t hurt either.) From the opening tip, the smack talk was bouncing back and forth from the opposing camps like a ping pong ball. Luckily, there were a few other Spurs fans in our party but we were significantly outnumbered by Wolves fans. Add on top of that that I am widely known throughout the my labor union’s district as the biggest San Antonio Spurs fan in the entire organization, most of the incoming fire was directed at me personally. That incoming fire wasn’t immediate, though. The Wolves fans didn’t have a lot to say while watching Victor Wembanyama block two shots in the first minute of the game and a third less than two and a half minutes in. It wasn’t until Minnesota pulled out the first real lead of the game going up 14-8 halfway through the first that the Minnesota cackles also started getting the upper hand in the chatter. It didn’t take long for the Spurs to bounce right back and for me to start asking my Wolves-supporting friends, “Can you remind me which is better: zero championship rings or five championship rings? I’m having a hard time remembering.” At the end of the first quarter, Minnesota had a one point lead but I was most definitely holding the slight edge in the smack talk.
My wings arrived at the beginning of the second quarter. Normally, I don’t like eating during any Spurs game much less during a Spurs playoff game (remember, I’m superstitious) but between arriving in Park City on Friday, going to the gym & attending a staff meeting & participating in a “Game Show Experience” team building event & dropping a May Day labor track playlist on Saturday, attending sessions & going to the gym & a banquet & DJing karaoke at the conference on Sunday, attending workshops, coordinating a campaign’s recognition fight, finishing Quatre de faits, and going to the gym on Monday, I hadn’t had time to eat at all that day and much at all since arriving in Utah so because of the fact I was starving plus I couldn’t resist the bargain of the restaurant’s “One Dollar Wings” special, I decided to throw caution to the wind by ordering food to eat during the game. If you weren’t already aware, let me be the first to inform you that it’s harder to maintain the upper hand in a verbal sparring match while constantly having a mouthful of food. On top of that, after Minnesota had extended their lead back up to a six point 29-23 advantage a little more than a minute into the frame, I was seriously second-guessing my decision to eat during the game and irrationally tying it to having a negative impact on the Spurs’ performance on the court. Luckily, the block party was reconvened at that point and persisted throughout second quarter (with Wemby recording four more along with Harrison Barnes and Devin Vassell each getting one) allowing us to claw our way back to a 45-45 tie at halftime of this tightly-contested defensive battle. Heading into the break, I was relieved that my meal ultimately hadn’t generated the negative impact I was superstitiously fearing it might but I also knew I was going to need to resume filling my mouth with witty barbs instead of tasty wings during the second half in order to reestablish my advantage over the Wolves fans in my viewing party in the smack talk department.
The trend of a tightly-contested defensive battle held in the third quarter. The natural “feeling each other” out quality that most series openers embody was devolving quickly into a straight up rock fight. Every time San Antonio inched ahead on the scoreboard throughout the period, Minnesota responded to draw back even or occasionally go slightly ahead themselves. Similarly, the back and forth between Wolves fans and Spurs fans in our group was intensifying from lighthearted banter to emotionally-charged reactions to the constant swings in momentum. The refereeing and which team was benefiting more from the calls being made inevitably started becoming a focal point for debate during the third quarter as it was becoming increasingly clear that this game was going down to the wire and every single good or bad, made or missed call could have a real impact on the outcome. From my perspective, Minnesota was getting away with being allowed to be ultra physical on defense while benefiting from ticky tack calls on offense resulting in them being gifted a parade to free throw line during the period. I was of course letting my Twin Cities’ friends know my opinion unequivocally as this was playing at and then roasting them when they weren’t taking advantage to the tune of seven missed free throws in the Third. “Y’all do realize you are allowed to put the ball through the basket when you get to shoot without anyone guarding you, right? That’s why they call it a free throw.” I was in pique form laying down the proverbial shit-talking gauntlet when Dylan Harper snagged a defensive rebound and then went coast-to-coast to score and put us up five with just over a minute left in the frame. Ultimately, I was pleased with the position we were in up three at 72-69 heading into the fourth. During the commercial break I was pretty careful to balance the duel goals of continuing to remind my Minnesota friends what’s what but without going so overboard that I risked inviting bad karma for my cause. I was cautiously optimistic that we were going to keep trending forward by jumping on them early in the fourth to extend the lead and in doing so, put both the game and the opposition’s “howling” to bed for good. Unfortunately, I would quickly realize that was just wishful thinking.
The jabbering in my left ear had been incessant all night but it hit a fever pitch when, after continuing to trade punches back and forth for the first six minutes of the fourth quarter, the Timberwolves went on an extended run to achieve the biggest lead of the night, a nine point advantage, when Julius Randle hit a 13-footer to put his side up 97-88 with 3:41 to play. The Minnesota delegation in that Park City, Utah hotel restaurant was brimming with overconfident barbs, most of which were directed at me personally. “Look, I think Ted is going to cry” or “You can see it in his face, he’s throwing in the towel and ready to concede defeat” or “Aren’t the Spurs the supposed to win at home? Are y’all trying to give up home court advantage?” In the moment, I was personally embracing their overconfidence and ridiculous accusations as 1) I was happy to allow them to be the ones to bring on the bad karma for their smack talk veering into overexuberance 2) I knew there was still an eternity left in the game. My intuition was accurate. As we all know by now, the San Antonio Spurs responded with a furious rally down the stretch to put ourselves in position (down two with six seconds left and the ball) to attempt a game-winning three pointer at the buzzer. As you might imagine, the Timberwolves fans got awfully quiet while this was unfolding and were noticeably sheepish while they were realizing they might in fact lose a game that they had prematurely already put in the win column in their own minds.
On a night where we were not sharp offensively (we were clearly rusty from five days off), and where Minnesota benefited from the officiating more than we did on balance (Stephon Castle, one of our three most important players, fouled out with 3:20 to play after falling victim to some questionably soft calls that the referees weren’t calling against the Wolves on the other end of the floor), and where Victor Wembayma (who receives the player of the game honors for setting an NBA playoff record for most blocks in a playoff game with 12 and coupling that with 15 rebounds) couldn’t get anything going on offense (5-17 from the field, only 1-2 from the line and a disastrous 0-8 from downtown), Julian Champagnie, our best three point shooter, had an opportunity to win the game at the buzzer. Given the circumstances, I was more than happy to be in that situation and have that opportunity. When the shot was in the air, I was convinced it was going in. Of course, it rimmed off and the Minnesota Timberwolves fans erupted in an explosion of celebration, bragging, and smack talking that attempted to mask their relief that they were lucky to escape and also one that I’m confident they will come to regret as the series progresses due to the aforementioned bringing of bad karma upon themselves. After it hit me that the game was over and we had lost, I just sat there on the couch staring at the TV processing what had happened and listening to outlandishly overconfident trash-talking over a victory that deep down, my friends from the North Star State know they were lucky to escape with.
Had Julian’s shot gone in, the narrative these past 48 hours would have been how the battle-tested back-to-back Western Conference finalists melted down in the final minutes of Game 1, blowing a nearly insurmountable lead down the stretch to the young, inexperienced team from South Texas. They know how close they were to that reality and they also know how, given the Grand Canyon level depths below our potential the Spurs played on Monday night, Game 1 was more of a must-win for them than it was for us. That win was crucial for them having any chance to win this series. (By the way, for the record, Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch can miss me with his sore-winner complaining about some of Victor’s blocked shots being goaltending as if we all didn’t see with our eyes that Minnesota benefited the most from the whistle on Monday.) For us, it was a learning experience that I fully expect us to bounce back from tonight with the fury of a ten thousand suns so that by the time we board a plane tomorrow, those ten thousand lakes up there are completely dried up by the drought that is Victor Wembanyama’s date with destiny and his continued journey towards inevitability. In the end, I’m glad I had the experience of watching Game 1 in mixed company. In all seriousness, I was able to enjoy watching the game with some really cool people and have a memorable experience even though it didn’t break my way in the end. The back and forth smack talk was all in good fun and there is a cool little invention called a cellular telephone through which we can keep the dialogue going over the next two weeks. The Minnesota Timberwolves and their fans haven’t won anything yet and getting the upper hand through opening statements has never once sealed a victory at trial. We have plenty of deliberating still to come. While I’m glad to have watched Game 1 socially, I’m also relieved that I’ll be watching Game 2 tonight in the comfortable controlled environment of on my couch in my living room at home (the Spurs are 4-0 this year in the playoffs when I watch the game at home and 0-2 when I watch it somewhere else). Here’s to getting back to basics tonight and getting back on track. When the verdict is handed down at some point in the next two weeks, I fully expect us to be the one’s making the closing statement and earning the ultimate right to talk that talk.
#GoSpursGo
Headline Image Source: Sportsnet
Quatre de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 5
LET ‘EM KNOW - Back then, it was relief and relief alone. There was no excitement. There was no fulfillment. It simply came with the territory. You don’t get to experience the joy of your favorite NBA team being a perennial title contender for two decades straight without also suffering some undesired consequences. One example of which is that when you’re a perennial title contender for two decades straight, you never get to enjoy the first round of the NBA playoffs. It’s either win as you are required to do or endure pure unadulterated agony. While first round playoff exits didn’t happen often during the San Antonio Spurs 1998-2017 vicennial run as championship contenders, when they did, it was dreadful.
All told, it happened in four of the 20 seasons. While two of the four were slightly more palatable when factoring in that they involved absences of star players due to injury (2000: Tim Duncan & 2009: Manu Ginobili), it was certainly a huge bummer to be denied an opportunity to properly defend our first-ever title in 2000 (losing to the Phoenix Suns 3-1 as the West’s fourth seed) and similarly disappointing getting bounced 4-1 by an instate rival in 2009 (losing to the Dallas Mavericks as the West’s third seed).
The two most excruciating by far, however, were losing in the first round in 2011 and 2015. As the top seed in the West in 2011, we once again were forced to open the playoffs without Manu Ginobili. While his injury was less severe in 2011 than it was in 2009 (only forcing him to sit out of Game 1 against the 8th-seeded Memphis Grizzlies), it was enough to put us in an 0-1 hole (losing a nail-biter 101-98). This foreshadowed what would prove to be a snake-bitten false start of a title pursuit for a 61-win juggernaut that looked like world-beaters heading into the postseason. We ultimately succumbed to Memphis’ Grit and Grind physicality in six games in such humiliating fashion that it’s hard to imagine it will ever be replaced as the most embarrassing playoff exit of my lifetime as a Spurs’ fan.
We covered the 2015 seven game first round war with the Los Angeles Clippers here at theLeftAhead. The conclusion of the decisive battle in that war rendered the third edition of the Black & Silver blog series shockingly brief given the first edition (2013) was 21 chapters long and the second edition (2014) was 23 chapters long. If you recall, the seventh chapter in 2015 was a tragedy ending in heartbreaking fashion when Tim Duncan missed blocking Chris Paul’s game winning floater by the width of a piece of paper. As brutal as it was to experience, CP3’s greatest playoff moment wasn’t even the most agonizing aspect of the 2015 debacle of a title defense because that matchup with the Clips should have never even happened in the first place.
On the last day of the regular season, San Antonio was in position to clinch the West’s second seed but dropped all the way down to the sixth seed after losing a close road game to the New Orleans Pelicans 108-103. Had we just taken care of business that night, we would have avoided a match up with Chris Paul and Los Angeles until later in the playoffs and also potentially given ourselves a shot to face the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals before they were the juggernaut Golden State Warriors. Forcing Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and company to actually get tested with facing the defending champions might have delayed their ascent to the top of the mountain for another year or even forestalled it completely. (Do the Warriors get past the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2016 Western Conference Finals without their 2015 championship experience to draw from? Does Kevin Durant sign there in the summer of 2016 had the Warriors never demonstrated the Bay area as being a viable landing spot for him to choose in order to chase rings?) Instead the Golden State Warriors reached the summit through one of the easiest paths to a championship in NBA history in 2015. What might have been.
I opened with this unpleasant trip down memory lane in order to demonstrate how much fun it has been getting to enjoy a San Antonio Spurs first round series again. Sure, as a 62-win team and the second seed this season, a first round playoff exit would have been a bummer but it would have also been chalked up as a learning experience and part of the process for a young core going through the playoffs for the first time. While the adversity we faced losing Victor Wembanyama to a Game 2 concussion en route to dropping that game at home followed by digging ourselves into double-digit holes during both road games was certainly stressful, the adversity didn’t carry with it the same enormity of the weight of expectation that I (as a Spurs fan) was used to experiencing annually for two decades of my life. Had we lost to Portland in this first round, I would have been devastated to have blown this fairly unprecedented opportunity to show the world how far ahead of schedule we are but ultimately, I would have been content that this first playoff experience was a solid foundational brick upon which to take the first step on our inevitable path to another golden trophy. So, yeah, it was fun to get to sit back and enjoy watching the first without being required to win. That being said, of course won.
Last Tuesday, the San Antonio Spurs eliminated the Portland Trail Blazers from the 2025-26 playoffs by winning Game 5 at the Frost Bank Center 114-95 in a nearly wire to wire dominant performance. We jumped on them early and, in the words of Stephon Castle, “punched them in the chest” by sprinting out to a 17-4 lead in the first four minutes of the game. By the end of the first quarter, we were still cruising right along finishing the period with a 12 point advantage up 36-24 and by halftime, we had extended that lead to a cool 20 up 65-45 at the break. We continued building our lead up to 26 with 8:27 to play in the third before the Blazers inevitably started playing like a team that wasn’t ready to die and began chipping away. While San Antonio had still increased our halftime lead by another point after the end of third quarter (winning the period overall 21-20), Portland shaved five points off of the game-high 26 point deficit in the last eight and a half minutes giving them so momentum heading into the fourth.
If you stepped away to prepare a snack or go to the bathroom during the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, you would have returned to a very different contest considering it was now once again a contested one. Four minutes and four Trail Blazer threes into the fourth quarter and all of a sudden, the Spurs’ lead had shrunk to single digits at 91-82. After a timely Mitch Johnson timeout, the Spurs steadied the ship a bit stretching the lead back out to 13 but once again, the desperation of a team not wanting their season to end proved consequential as Portland once again got within single digit striking distance at 97-88 with 5:46 minutes left to save it. Luckily, for the Moda Center visitors, that was as close as the Blazers would ultimately get as the Spurs were able to figure out a way to get the dam to break by outfoxing the home team down the stretch to win by a comfortable 19-point margin and closeout our first playoff series in nine years.
Wemby had another MVP-caliber two-way performance. While he only put up a pedestrian 17 points, he did it on an uber-efficient 5-7 from the field (1-2 from deep) and 6-6 from the foul line, plus he added three assists for good measure. Volume scoring wasn’t required from our best player on this particular night considering that all of the other four starters plus Dylan Harper off the bench each also had a double-digit scoring night. What was required from Vic (especially when the Blazers went on the inevitable “fighting for our playoff lives” second half run) was otherworldly defense. The Alien had 14 defensive rebounds and six soul-crushing blocks. Victor’s stifling defense was obviously a key factor in San Antonio closing out Portland but as dominant as Victor was on that side of the court, the player of the game was just as dominant down the stretch on the other side of the court. For the second time running, player of the game honors go to 2023 Clutch Player of the Year De’Aaron Fox. Swipa had 21 points, nine assists, three rebounds, and a steal overall but came up huge in the clutch for the second consecutive game scoring 13 points in the fourth quarter, nine of which came in the last 5:46 of the game after the Blazers had cut the lead to single digits for the second time in the quarter. After an up and down start to his second-ever career playoff series, Fox delivered down the stretch in closing out Portland both in terms of his reputation as a clutch player and in earning the contract extension we signed him to this summer. In the fourth quarters of Games 4 & 5, he was exactly the player we are paying him to be and that is one of the biggest reasons we are headed to our first Western Conference Semifinals since 2017.
Last Thursday, we found out who are opponent will be in the second round. Shockingly, a wounded and undermanned sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves squad eliminated Nikola Jokic and the former champion Denver Nuggets in six games, winning Game 6 at the Target Center in Minneapolis 110-98. Unfortunately, the epic rubber match second playoff victory over Denver in three series over the past four years came at a brutal cost with the season of Wolves starting guard Donte DiVencenzo ending in Game 4 of the first round when he tore his Achilles. (I was beyond sad to see DiVencenzo suffer a catastrophic injury. He’s a tough-as-nails competitor, a player I always enjoy watching compete.) Anthony Edwards, Minnesota’s star player, was also injured in the same game. He went down with a hyperextended left knee. Despite losing two starters in Game 4 as well as key bench players who picked up varying degrees of ailments in Game 5, the 6th-seeded but battle-tested Timberwolves have survived their first round match up with the 3rd-seeded Denver Nuggets and are ready for tonight’s second round opener at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio.
Late breaking reports suggest that Anthony Edwards is expected to play tonight. I’m personally glad to hear that because I always want to face an opponent as close to full strength as possible. Even though Minnesota has lost DiVencenzo for the season, bring on the best possible version of the squad that has made back to back Western Conference Finals appearances because I think the #BlackAndSilver are up for the challenge of not allowing it to become three in a row. That being said, given the pedigree, we know we cannot allow ourselves to let our guard down for one second just because Minnesota is undermanned. This wounded team just sent Denver packing and if you underestimate the Minnesota Timberwolves, you do so out your own peril. I know we’ll be focused and ready for the challenge. Anthony Edwards or no Anthony Edwards tonight, if we keep playing the stellar brand of basketball that we played throughout the regular season and maintained during the opening round, I’m confident we will inch one victory closer to confirming that the dog days are over an a new era of perennial championship contention has indeed begun. If, indeed, the 2026 NBA playoffs proves to confirm this, along with it will return those pesky undesired consequences…but not until next year. For now, there’s still no pressure. Tonight, I’m excited sit back and continue enjoying where this ride takes us. And on that note, may the fourth be with us.
#GoSpursGo
Featured Image Source: Genius
Headline Image Source: San Antonio Express-News
Trois de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 4
Aperture - We didn’t know what the future would hold when De’Aaron Fox, through his agent, Rich Paul, requested a trade from the Sacramento Kings to the San Antonio Spurs midway through the 2024-25 season. At the time, we were starting a 39-year-old point guard (albeit a legendary one) and evaluating how capable our rookie combo guard had the potential to be on the ball initiating offense (turned out…extremely capable). I mean, let’s face it. Just a season and a half before Fox’s trade request, the-man-the-myth-the-legend himself, Coach Pop, had an extremely rare tactical miscue when he attempted to start Jeremy Sohan at point guard at the beginning of Victor Wembanyama’s rookie season (2023-24). The experiment proved to be a failure that stunted both Jeremy and Wemby’s development (just a tiny bit on the latter). So yeah, when you are only that far removed from being the laughing stock of the league at the point guard position and the opportunity presents itself to trade for an all-star and clutch player of the year caliber point guard right smack dab in the middle of his prime without giving up any of your most-prized assets, it’s a no-brainer. You do it 100 times out of 100. The Spurs didn’t become the second-winningest NBA franchise of all-time (to date) and win the fifth-most championships (to date) by whiffing on the easy decisions. On February 3rd, 2025, the San Antonio Spurs traded Zach Collins, Tre Jones, Sidy Cissoko, three of the least valuable in our stockpile of first round picks and three second round picks for De’Aaron Fox and Jordan McLaughlin in a three-way trade with the Sacramento Kings and Chicago Bulls.
If San Antonio Spurs general manager Brian Wright had had the magical power to see into the future and know that a mere four months later, the franchise would have the basketball gods smile down fondly upon us yet again to bless us with a third-straight year of lottery luck and the number two overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft (with a point guard as the consensus number two prospect in the draft class), of course he might have paused to consider if we might be better served to keep our powder dry and hold on to the assets we were going to need to give up to secure Fox’s services in case they might be better allocated later to pursue needs at other positions. If Wright had known then that in a mere five months he was about to draft Dillon Harper, he might have paused to consider Swipa-ing left on Fox, but I think he has proven he’s a savvy enough team builder to have known 100 times out of 100 includes the one in a hundred time where you can have your cake and eat it too. In the sorcerous world where the Spurs’ general manager had the magical power to see our Dylan Harper future during the moment he had the De’Aaron Fox trade deal sitting on the table, he pulls the trigger regardless.
On Sunday afternoon at the Moda Center in Portland, De’Aaron “Swipa” Martez Fox officially silenced all of the critics, doubters, naysayers, and unapologetic haters who view him as an expendable overpaid underwhelming pseudo star whose acquisition is now serving as a roadblock for Dylan Harper getting the keys to the car. The player of the game dropped a cool, calm, and collected 28 points (a lion’s share of them during a furious second half comeback) along with seven assists, six rebounds, one steal and two incredible blocks to lead the Spurs to the largest halftime-to-final turnaround in NBA playoff history. Fox was at the controls for roughly 20 of the 24 second half minutes on Sunday orchestrating the high-octane explosion of dominant offensive execution that propelled us back from a 17 point halftime deficit to a 73-35 (+38) second half and a 21 point victory that puts us up 3-1 in the series heading back home for Game 5. Head Coach Mitch Johnson said in his postgame press conference that Game 4 against the Blazers “might have been his (DeAaron’s) best game as a Spur.” Do I wish our 2025-26 roster construction allowed for Dylan Harper to have a bigger role playing more minutes? Of course, I think every Spurs fan does. Nonetheless, it’s performances like the one De’Aaron had on Sunday that remind all fans across the “Fox is Great/Fox is Trash” spectrum (full transparency, I find myself pulled to both extremes from time to time but mostly hovering firmly left of middle) how integral he was to the team’s 28 game regular season improvement this season over last and how unquestionably vital he is to San Antonio having realistic postseason title ambitions way ahead of schedule. Part of what we brought him into our program for was to be a veteran leader who we could rely on to have ice in his veins during clutch playoff situations. It took him a little bit longer to get revved up than expected but as of our 114-93 Game 4 come-from-way-behind second consecutive first round road playoff victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, Swipa the Fox has arrived.
As dominant as De’Aaron and the offense were in the second half on Sunday, it takes more than one side of the ball to have a half where you outscore a playoff opponent by 38 points in 24 minutes. As mentioned above, Fox had two seemingly out of nowhere impressive blocks and a steal to add a little two-way spice to his epic performance. Of course, we can always rely on Stephon Castle to bring the pit bull point of attack perimeter defense. He did that effectively once again in Game 4 and while it didn’t necessarily translate to the box score (only one rebound and one steal), he played a role in limiting Scoot Henderson to an eye-popping ZERO points on 0-7 shooting in 27 minutes but more critically, his harassment of Deni Avdija got under the Blazer all-star’s skin culminating in a late sequence where Avdija was checking Steph on the perimeter (with obnoxious aggression haphazardly slapping his arms repeatedly trying to force a steal with Portland down 112 points and a little over two minutes left to make them up) and Steph drove right through him and got all the way to the basket for an “and one” layup. Being the good sportsman that he is, Castle politely handed the ball back to Deni so the Blazers could inbound under their own basket but or some reason, the Israeli small forward they call “Turbo” took exception to Steph’s kind gesture and shoved the 2024-25 Rookie of the Year for his troubles. Not being know as someone who is ever going to back down (and someone the likes of Avdija probably doesn’t want to mess with), Steph shoved him back resulting in double technicals. This about the point in a seven game series where we can expect the “who can get under the opponent’s skin enough to get them rattled” mind games to begin. Advantage Castle.
It goes without saying but, as well as the Spurs played defensively as a group in the second half of Game 4, there was one singular reason why the Blazers squandered their entire 17-point halftime lead within a matter of minutes and could only muster 35 second half points altogether. Welcome back, Victor Wembanyama. We didn’t get an alien sighting in the PNW on Friday night but we surely did on Sunday afternoon. Finally cleared on Sunday from concussion protocols, the greatest defensive force on the planet (perhaps the greatest defensive force in the history of the planet) was utterly breathtaking on that end of the court in the second half of Game 4. Wemby had 11 defensive rebounds, seven soul-crushing blocks and four back-breaking steals but that doesn’t tell the whole story because he completely discombobulated everything Portland wanted to do on offense. It was a masterclass by the 22-year-old. As if that weren’t enough insult to injury for the Moda Center crowd who (up 17) had just spent halftime making their Game 6 plans, Vic hit them on the other end with 27 points (9-17 from the field, 8-8 from the line), three assists, and one offensive rebound in the first 34 road playoff minutes of his career. It’s often said that, with a few rare exceptions, it’s proven to be a requirement for a team to have a first-team all-NBA super duper mega star to realistically have a shot at winning a championship. Well loyal readers, I’m happy to report…the #BlackAndSilver have one and then some.
With a commanding 3-1 lead in the series, the Spurs are back in San Antonio tonight to attempt to end the Portland Trail Blazers season at the Frost Bank Center. For a young group on their first playoff journey together, this will be another first. We have not yet experienced the desperation of a playoff team with their backs against the wall facing elimination as a group. I fully expect Deni Avjida, Scoot Henderson, and company to come out swinging and fight like their lives depend on it. I fully expect them to do everything in the power to get this series back to Oregon by stealing one tonight. Even though we’ve already had to play 1.75 games without our MVP candidate in this series, this will be the hardest game in the series thus far for us to win. Closeout games are always harder. That being said, if we come out focused and draw energy from another raucous crowd letting off more “seven years since we last made the playoffs” steam, we have an excellent opportunity to end the series and should have full confidence that this special group will get the job done and get some rest before the next round. The Denver Nuggets kept their season alive last night winning at home to cut Minnesota’s series lead to 3-2 and forcing at least a Game 6 for either of our potential second round opponents. That’s all I’ll say on the matter for now because you never want to look ahead when there’s still work to be done in the here and now. Tonight, we have an opportunity to punch our ticket to the Western Conference Semifinals for the first time since 2017. Tonight, we have the opportunity to show the world that our title contention window has arrived. Tonight, we have the opportunity to let ‘em know.
Featured Image Source: Pitchfork
Headline Image Source: Yahoo Sports
Deux de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 3
The Guillotine - It’s an embarrassment of riches but one that I’m not the least bit embarrassed about. Was lottery luck an ingredient in our elite roster construction? Sure; but so was hitting on selecting quality players later in the draft, fleecing mismanaged franchises in one-sided trades, and making savvy free agent signings. Not to mention we’ve had all of these other ingredients other than luck in the pot before even factoring in that we’ve cooked and seasoned the stew with our second-to-none player development program. So, no; I’m not the least bit embarrassed that, even though we had the nearly unprecedented good fortune to have selected two, four, and one in the last three NBA drafts respectively, our squad is so deep and talented that we have the riches to witnesses two of our youngest players, a 20-year-old rookie and a 21 year-old sophomore, impose their will on a playoff game at a first team all-NBA level on a night where our actual first team all-NBA 22-year-old superstar watches the game from the bench in vibrant street clothes while still in the protocol for returning to action from a concussion. We’ve earned the right to not be embarrassed. You make your own luck. To quote a former (and probably future) pharmaceutical sales representative, “Fortune favors the bold.”
On Friday night in Rose City, the San Antonio Spurs (sans our franchise player) competed in the most hostile environment that most of our young core has ever experienced and past the test with flying colors boldly defeating the Portland Trail Blazers 120-108 to take a 2-1 lead in our Western Conference first round series and immediately snatch back the home court advantage that we’ve spent the past seven months earning. After learning less than 90 minutes prior to tip that Victor Wembanyama had been ruled out of Game 3, we knew we were going to need to buckle in for 48 minutes of grinding against a no-longer-overmatched gritty opponent. Tell the UFO hunters to stand down. There will be no sightings of an extraterrestrial doing otherworldly things against inferior earthlings in the PNW on this particular 60 degree pleasant Spring evening. But for any blood sport enthusiasts, you can tell them there will certainly be a dog fight.
The Blazers set the tone early in the first quarter but luckily, as his teammates struggled to get acclimated to the hostile road environment, Stephon Castle was more than willing to match Portland’s physicality and intensity. Steph bulldozed and bullied his way into the paint over and over again throughout the first half getting buckets or getting free throws or getting his teammates open looks, neutralizing the rowdy Portlandian hipster weirdos in the sellout crowd, and keeping the visitors in striking distance to the tune of 19 first half points and a tremendous amount of poise for a 21-year-old second-year player. (I tease our friends in Portland out of love. Portland is one of my favorite cities in the United States. I spend a lot of time there and know many amazing people who live there. I’m really happy they also have a competitive basketball team that is in the playoffs for the first time in a long time but since they ended up being our first round match up, a little lighthearted razzing over the next couple of weeks is fair game.)
While the 2024 NCAA Champion was the primary reason the Blazers (along with their raucous Moda Center crowd) were unable to create much double-digit separation in the first half, he had a running mate. (A running mate who he coincidentally just so happens to co-own a fast food chain with.) White Castle was in the building last night serving deliciously fresh responses to every Portland first half run (withstanding the expected desperation of an opponent who understands they need to seize this opportunity to grab another game with Wemby out) and getting us to the halftime locker room only down six, 65-59. Luke Kornet (as he has been so far this entire series) was as poised and effective on Friday night as you would expect someone who was a rotation player on a championship team two years ago to be during the April portion of the postseason. 20-5 as a starter this season heading into the game, Luke’s activity on both sides of the floor complimented Steph’s bully ball in keeping us close enough to prevent the first half Blazers avalanche that felt on a knife’s edge of beginning the entire first 24 minutes. Kornet even drained his first three pointer of the entire season with 10.2 seconds left in the first quarter. Clutch shot in a critical situation.
Coming out of the locker room to begin the second half, Portland continued to execute at a high level and their intensity did not relent. It was clear they understood their path to the second round went from “you might need to squint to see it” to relatively open the instant Victor’s face hit the hardwood on Tuesday evening but losing a non-Wemby home game could almost certainly not be a pit stop if they wanted to keep the path open. They played ferociously after the break building their six point lead to 15 when they led 82-67 with 5:09 left in the third. At this point in the game, I must admit, I was begrudgingly beginning to try to start to process the possibility that this may just not be our night and our group may not be capable of restoring order to this series until Wemby is able to rejoin it. But even though these thoughts were admittedly in my head, I still believed we had more than enough time to walk this game down. My faith may have wavered but it didn’t abdicate. I knew we just needed one player to inject some nuclear fusion into our offense and ignite the type of brilliant, electric explosion that could flip the game. And to my absolute unadulterated pleasure, on the very next possession… a star is born.
With 4:48 remaining in the third period of his third-career playoff game, Dylan Harper drained a corner three point dagger that detonated a fulmination so magnificent, those of us who witnessed it will never be able to fully remove the imprint of it from our retinas. Blazers lead 82-70. On the next Spurs possession, Harper pump faked and then drove right past Donovan Clingan and beat Deni Avdjia to the rim with force laying the ball up with his left hand on the right side of the bucket. Blazers 84-70. Later in the period he boarded a Drew Holiday missed corner three and went coast to coast to draw a foul on Jerami Grant. Although he split the free throws and missed a runner in the paint on the very next possession, It was clear his confidence was through the roof and he had the mindset required for one individual player to take over a playoff game. Blazers 84-78. With a minute and a half left in the frame, he cleverly swooped in to secure a lose ball that Scoot Henderson was in better position to grab (after Carter Bryant fumbled away his own offensive rebound) and fired it out to a wide open Keldon Johnson at the three point line. Bottoms. Blazers 85-81. (More on Keldon later.)
On the next possession, he was in position to grab the offensive rebound and go up strong off the glass for the put back when De’Aaron Fox smoked a layup off a baseline drive. Grown man bucket in the paint for the still-too-young-to-legally-be-served-alcohol-could-be-college-sophomore. Blazers 85-83. After Jerami Grant missed an elbow three on Portland’s next trip up the court, Dylan once again swooped in for a rebound that this time, Robert Williams was in a better position to grab and while attempting to ignite the break, drew a foul on Toumani Camara. And this time at the charity stripe, he drilled both free throws while also jawing with Camara throughout the sequence (presumably over the last foul call). Man, oh man, this is exhilarating. The number two overall pick in the NBA draft has the swagger to stand up to one of the toughest defenders in the entire league because, at the end of the day, in Dylan’s mind, “I already know you can’t guard me.” Tie ball game.
Now in the final minute of the frame, Scoot Henderson made a strong move on Harper for a layup (seemingly wanting to intentionally upstage the hottest player on the court) but, unable to resist involving himself in the extracurriculars started by Camara, immediately drew a technical for barking obnoxiously in Dylan’s face. After Julian Champagnie made the T and Fox nailed a cold-blooded jumper from the midrange, the Blazers had the last possession of the third. As the final seconds ticked down, an over-exuberant Henderson attempted to isolate Harper at the top of the key and drive him right. Off-balance, he could only muster a rushed floater which Dylan blocked into the front row with unapologetic utter disgusting disdain. 18-3 San Antonio run to end the third quarter fueled by a second-generation basketball prodigy. Spurs 88-87.
Portland in possession to begin the fourth quarter, Harper disrupted the first attempt, a Scoot(er McGavin) driving floater that missed so badly, Time Lord was gifted the rebound (a recurring theme in this series so far) that he fired right back to Henderson for an easy uncontested lay up. Not to be outdone in the budding duel, with Scoot guarding him, Harper lost contact with him floating to the corner as Fox was probing and drained another cold-blooded corner three in the eye of a rotating Holiday right in front of the Blazers bench before turning to remind them who was in control of this game. This kid’s dripping with moxie. Spurs 91-89. Gliding up the court in transition two possessions later, Dylan crossed over a six-time All-Defensive team honoree like he was hanging in Rio de Janeiro on holiday and then immediately spun back the other direction with the grace of a figure skater into a straight line drive for another crafty left-handed finish at the cup. We want to thank you for flying with us. Spurs 93-91.
After a mini-cold stretch during which the Blazers scored four straight to regain a two point lead on buckets by Shaedon Sharpe and Holiday, the February Kia Western Conference Conference Rookie of the Month was once again the fastest to a loose ball, tipping a shot that Julian had heaved from nearly half court in desperation with the shot clock running down over to Carter who hot potatoed it to Keldon who swung it right back to Dylan to raise up and drain yet another soul-snatching three over Holiday. We know you coulda stayed home, just cried and cussed. Spurs 96-95. Back down at the other end of the court, a quickly losing steam and clearly overmatched Scoot Henderson forced another erratic fadeaway in the paint (and realized in mid air he brought a water gun to a duel). Bryant easily blocked the shot without even leaving his feet. In true Jordanesque fashion, New Jersey’s finest was not done proving his point. With Henderson checking him in the right corner and the shot clock running down on our ensuing possession, Dylan Freaking Harper blew past “Scoot” driving baseline then rose like a phoenix on the right side of the rim sailing past Time Lord like he was frozen in place only to rock the cradle now on the left side of the rim and yam with the fury of a thousand suns and the contempt of man you should now and forever know you should never scorn right on William’s grille. Ladies and gentleman, your player of the game. We got the guillotine, you better run. Spurs 98-95.
Dylan Harper’s brilliant, electric explosion as a star had not just walked the game down, it chased the game down like a mall security guard with too big an ego over too pathetically small of an amount of power pursuing a teenage shoplifter like they had just committed felony aggravated robbery and officially flipped the game for good by the 8:13 mark of the fourth quarter, turning a 15 point deficit into a three point advantage. All told for Game 3, Harper had 27 points (9-12 from the field, 4-5 from three, and 5-6 from the line), 10 rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block with only one turnover and an eye popping team-high +25 in 30 minutes. With this performance Friday night, he became the second youngest player to score 20+ points off of the bench in an NBA playoff game (bested only by the late Kobe Bryant in 1997 at age 18) forever cementing his career-high scoring evening in basketball lore as “The Dylan Harper Game.”
Other players joined the 2025 second overall pick’s coming out party down the stretch to help seal the seemingly improbable #BlackAndSilver comeback victory. Stephon Castle, the leader in the clubhouse for player of the game at halftime, book-ended Dylan’s detonation by going on a personal 7-0 run immediately following Harper’s dunk over Time Lord to increase the Spurs advantage to double figures, 105-95, with six minutes left to play. Castle finished his stellar evening with 33 points (10-18 from the field, 3-4 from deep, and a critical 10-11 from the line), five assets, two rebounds, and a steal in 34 minutes. Combined, The Slash Brothers racked up a staggering 60 points (63% from the field, 78% from deep, 88% from the stripe), 12 rebounds, eight assists, two steals, and one block becoming the first duo 21 or younger to both score 25+ in an NBA playoff game since Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook in 2010. Throw in the 18 points, six assists, and four rebounds De’Aaron Fox gave us in an uneven performance and you’re talking about 78 points, 16 rebounds, and 14 assists of production by San Antonio’s three-headed monster guard rotation. While our all-star guard didn’t deliver the '“carry the team on his back” performance I had called out in Un de moines we were going to need from him, he did hit some key “closer” buckets down the stretch to help seal the game and, to his credit, the threat he poses as a first option offensive weapon forced the Blazers to park Camara (their best defender) on him for almost the entire game which opened up the opportunities for Castle and Harper to cook lesser defenders all night.
Speaking of Stephon, White Castle combined for one more sick lob dunk down the stretch when Luke hammered down a Steph pass over the top of none other than “lord, did he have a hard time” Robert Williams to increase the Spurs lead to 13 with 4:43 left to play. Kornet finished his night with 14 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and two blocks in 30 minutes of action helping increase his record to 21-5 as a starter on the season. Carter Bryant, trusted by Coach Mitch Johnson to play key minutes down the stretch, came up with some big defensive plays in crunch time but had his highlight of the night earlier with a ridiculous step back three right smack dab in the middle of the Dylan Harper third quarter explosion. While our other 20-year-old rookie’s stat line of three points, six rebounds, four assists and three blocks looks somewhat pedestrian in the box score, Bryant’s impact went well beyond what was quantifiable playing harassing, disruptive defense every second of every minute he was on the floor and serving as a small ball offensive hub at times en route to a second-only-to-fellow-rookie-Harper +17 during his highly impactful 23 minutes. Speaking of impactful contributions that didn’t necessarily pop out in the box score, I want to also give some shine to the heart and soul of the Spurs, Keldon Johnson. KJ only had five points, five rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block in Game 3 but his relentless intensity and infectious energy were crucial to the comeback and indicative of why he deserved the magical moment he experienced just 48 hours earlier back in San Antonio.
On Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026, Keldon Johnson was named the 2025-26 NBA Sixth Man of the Year. (With the dark cloud of uncertainty surrounding Wemby’s injury, I didn’t want this incredible news to get overshadowed so even though I hadn’t yet finished the last Black & Silver post when I first heard about KJ’s career-redefining achievement, I decided to punt on highlighting it then so it could really be spotlighted under better circumstance i.e. hopefully following a Game 3 win. Glad that gamble worked out.) The longest-tenured Spur received the news watching the broadcast of the announcement at home surrounded by family and friends. He was summoned to The Rock at La Cantera later that afternoon to hold court with the media but upon arrival, he was surprisingly greeted by his teammates and coaches in the most heartwarmingly festive way imaginable. Yee haw! One of my favorite Spurs players since the minute he arrived in San Antonio as a 19-year-old late first round draft pick in 2019, I could not be more thrilled for the eclectic mixtape curating, boombox blasting ball of energy extroverted cowboy from South Hill, VA.
The fact that a former team leader in scoring for an entire season (2022-23) was willing to sacrifice for the good of the team by accepting a bench roll (as more and more bluechip talent was trickling into the roster) and now that sacrifice has been immortalized in the annals of NBA history is so freaking cool. Johnson joins hall-of-famer Manu Ginobili (2007-08) as the only San Antonio Spurs players to win the award. One of my favorite moments in Keldon’s career (to date) was when he scrapped and clawed his way onto the 2021 United States Olympic team roster at the last minute after some higher profile stars withdrew due to injury. Having been brought to Las Vegas during Team USA’s training camp to scrimmage against the Tokyo-bound squad as part of the USA Select team, Johnson all of a sudden got the unexpected call from USA + San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich to get his ass on the plane with them at the very last possible minute. While only playing sparingly, KJ did have a role in winning Team USA’s fourth consecutive Olympic Gold and he got to do it right alongside the coach that was so instrumental to his development. Watching the two of them celebrate that accomplishment together was quite special. Seeing the love Johnson received from his teammates on Wednesday in honor of his highest individual career achievement was equally special. Now, Keldon can place his newly-earned John Havlicek Trophy on a mantle right next to his 2021 Olympic Gold Medal. (He might very well still add another prize to that mantle this summer.) Well done, KJ. I can’t imagine a player more deserving of this type of honor than you.
This afternoon, we’re back at it less than 40 hours after the conclusion of the Spurs’ biggest come-from-behind playoff victory since Game 5 of the 2014 NBA Finals. Victor Wembanyama’s status for Game 4 is still unknown as I’m completing this post (just as it was on Friday) but the difference now is, rather than finding ourselves in the urgent position of needing to wrestle back control of the home court advantage for the series, we have the opportunity (with or without Victor) to march right back into the Moda Center and all but extinguish any hope of a Blazers series upset by stopping down all of the remaining light that this fun, scrappy, resurgent Portland season has provided to the Pacific Northwest through the aperture that is our state-of-the-art, magnificent, overwhelming, embarrassment of riches, jaw-dropping talent. If we play Game 4 this afternoon in an even more hostile environment but with same intensity, focus, and swagger that we played with on Friday night, our talent should ultimately overpower the opposition and win the day like it already has on 64 other prior occasions this campaign. Based on our winning percentage this season, there is a three out of four chance that my head will hit the pillow happy tonight. There’s been a great many similar nights these past seven months where I’ve drifted to sleep fully content while triumphant Wembanyama or Castle or Harper highlights are replaying in my mind showcasing the breath of our young core’s talent. It’s about the most effective sleeping medication a chronic insomniac could ask to be prescribed and one that I’ve been given a glutinous supply of this year. In case you’re wondering, I’m not the least bit embarrassed about it.
Video Source: ESPN Australia on YouTube
Featured Image Source: Mubi
Headline Image Source: NBASpurs on Reddit
Un de moins
2026 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 2
APT. - Fortuna aka Lady Luck is a mischievous sage with a twisted sense of humor. Literally less than two hours after I finished writing and posting Un de fait (the opening episode in this reboot season of the Black & Silver blog series), a post in which I wrote about the epochal luck we as Spurs fans had on May 16th, 2023 in winning the NBA Draft Lottery and the rights to draft Victor Wembanyama, and less time than that after receiving his first career Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy, The Alien was injured and knocked out of Game 2 of our Western Conference First Round series against the Portland Trail Blazers Tuesday night at the Frost Bank Center on a freak play with 8:57 left in the second quarter. Drew Holiday was guarding Vic by getting up underneath him (a common tactic by smaller players when checking the 7’4” third-year superstar) and when Wemby changed direction by spinning to separate from the two-time NBA Champion, Holiday “pulled the chair” on him causing our MVP candidate to spill dangerously to the ground unprotected and slam his face violently against the hardwood. Wemby seemed to be knocked out cold for a couple of seconds and then woozy as he attempted to sit up. With every heart in every throat of every Spurs fan everywhere, Wemby eventually jumped up and started jogging directly to the locker room but it was pretty clear that our best player had just suffered a concussion and would not be returning to this game. It was a dumbest of luck freak occurrence. Later in the game, it was confirmed that the injury had in fact ended the Defensive Player of the Year’s second career playoff outing after 12 minutes of action and five points, four rebounds, one assist, and one block. It probably goes without saying but this untoward anomaly completely shifted the trajectory of the game, possibly the series. The irony of this stroke of terrible, calamitous misfortune happening shortly after I published a post reliving the singular luckiest moment Spurs fans have experienced in the past 29 years is not lost on me. Atrox Fortuna, you wicked devil you.
The rest of the team did their best to shake the natural reaction of feeling shell-shocked by losing our leader in such a freakish manner. We played hard and gave tremendous effort for the game’s remaining 33 minutes and with 8:33 left in the fourth quarter (having come out like gangbusters to start the final period), we looked poised to put the game to bed and take a commanding 2-0 lead in the series. For whatever reason, though, from that point on we seemed to forget that (even without Vic), we’re the better team and started playing like we were a “one, two, three…Cancún” 39 win play in team. We gave nine points back over the course of the next 1:28 and once the Blazers had pulled within five, we were in a dogfight the rest of the night. Overall in Game 2, we were sloppy, careless in possession of the basketball, out of position for defensive rebounds, unfocused at the free throw line (going 20-28 from the charity stripe) and ultimately, we gave away a game we easily could have and should have won, falling to Portland 106-103. Series tied 1-1.
Our other 2025-26 NBA All-Star, De’Aaron Fox (a player who we just gave a max extension to this summer and consequently are paying to be our leader and take over games when Wemby is unavailable) was (save for a brief stretch early in the third quarter when he went on a personal 6-0 run) particularly ineffective, getting swallowed up by Tumauni Kamara on one end of the court and outplayed by Scoot Henderson on the other. With a golden opportunity to still get a W and put a stranglehold on the series down the stretch of the fourth quarter, to be frank, Swipa seemed annoyingly nonchalant about the whole ordeal. While this isn’t the first time this season that I have noticed a frustrating lack of intensity and focus in the former Clutch Player of the Year’s “clutch time” performance, he did play a strong game on Sunday in Game 1 so I will withhold further judgement for now (given the circumstances) and give him the benefit of the doubt with the expectation that he will bounce back in a major way for Game 3 and show up as the player we are paying him and critically need him to be. If Wemby is unable to clear concussion protocols and play in Game 3 in Portland, we need 30 and 10 (assists) tonight from De’Aaron on high efficiency and with low turnovers and I have confidence that he’s going to deliver.
The player of the game on Tuesday was Luke Kornet. The “vanilla” half of French Vanilla aka the “white” half of White Castle had 10 points (4-5 from the floor, 2-3 from the stripe), nine rebounds, and two assists and was a +11 in 28 minutes in Game 2. (De’Aaron was a -14 in 34 minutes, by the way.) As he has done all season long, Luke held it down in the middle on Tuesday evening in Wemby’s absence at a level one would expect from a quality starting big man. With his clever finishing around the rim and his gritty rim protection this season, Kornet was easily one of the best free agent signings in the entire NBA last summer. A proven winner and a 2023-24 NBA Champion with the Boston Celtics, Luke is one of the biggest reasons that we won 28 games more this year than we did last year when we did not have a quality back up center and our opponents regularly had a field day getting to the rim in the non-Victor minutes. From the outside looking in, he also appears to be a revered teammate that brings a lot of conviviality and humor to this tight-knit group inside the locker room and on the court. One of my favorite moments of the season was when Kornet had a game-saving block at the buzzer on the road in Orlando against the Magic on December 3rd and then spontaneously celebrated by doing the iconic Vince Carter pose from the 2000 NBA Slam Dunk contest.
As of the time of completing this post, Victor Wembanyama’s status for Game 3 tonight is still questionable. He is more than 60 hours into the process of working through his concussion protocol and the good news is that it was confirmed yesterday that he did travel with the team from San Antonio to Portland in preparation for Game 3. Like countless Spurs fans around the globe, I’ve been waiting with bated breath and fingers crossed constantly refreshing my news and social media feeds hoping against hope that I will receive the update I so desperately want to hear: there will be an encounter of the third kind at the Moda Center in Portland, OR this evening. Please, Fortuna, Feronia, Minerva, Salus, and Fides, holiest of holy basketball gods and goddesses, impart thy divine healing on the savior and allow us, his flock, to go forth with the relief that this wicked desultory accident was just a minor blip and not a major setback 🙏 Regardless of whether Wemby is able to clear protocols and suit up tonight or not, the #BlackAndSilver have to embrace playing in the most hostile environment most of our young core will have ever experienced to date and come out with the type of focus and force (which we have displayed consistently enough all year to win 62 games) to snatch our home court advantage in this series immediately back. Even without Vic, I believe we are still better than these young and scrappy Trail Blazers and that being the case, we should have the capability to make the necessary tactical adjustments as well as bring the energy and desire necessary to outwork our opponent and grab a victory this evening in the PNW. With Vic? We are the better team by an astronomical amount. Should he successfully clear the concussion protocol and play, expect Game 3 to be another otherworldly dominant une victoire écrasante. We got the guillotine, you better run.
#GoSpursGo
Featured & Headline Image Source: San Antonio Express-News
Un de fait
2026 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 1
Until The Sun Explodes - It was finally here. Considering that I had blocked the time on my work calendar weeks in advance and had been dreaming about this moment for well over a year, it seemed a bit surreal but the moment was indeed finally here. It was only a 14 percent chance that this inimitable moment would summon a version of the future that I desperately wanted to experience but for some reason, as I stepped away from my work tasks at my desk in my home office and walked into the living room to turn on the television, it felt more likely than not that it would. Call it a premonition, call it blind optimism, or just call it a confidence in my ability to will this thing into existence; whatever you want to call it, I had this calming sense that it was simply just meant to be. As I settled into the comfort of my couch, the blare of the broadcast melted into the background. It was overshadowed by the rhythm of my breathing and the melodic harmony of my actualization mindfulness mantra. Inhale. Exhale. Row, row, row your boat.
Nevertheless, as the countdown began, I was nervous. Of course I was nervous. How could you not be with so much at stake? The difference between finishing first and finishing anything less than first in this contest that was about to unfold on my television screen was on the magnitude of the difference between hitting the jackpot and winning $400,000,000 in the Powerball lottery and almost hitting the jackpot and winning $80,000 in the Powerball lottery. Sure, finishing anything less than first would deliver a perfectly adequate consolation prize. But finishing first? That would deliver a jackpot so rare, it would change everything for the splendidly magnificent better, forever.
The contest started out as expected: New Orleans, Toronto, Dallas, Orlando. Deep breaths. Inhale. Exhale. Any surprises this early in the contest could foreshadow catastrophe so the proceedings going chalk so far as was one small relief after another playing out as sweet music to my ears. Oklahoma City, Utah, Indiana, Washington. Deep breaths. Inhale. Chalk. Exhale. Chalk. Inhale. Chalk. Exhale. Chalk. Order in the universe. Everything in its natural place. Rhythm and harmony. Inhale. Exhale. Gently down the stream.
Orlando, Detroit…hold up, WHAT? That’s not chalk. That’s not order in the universe. That’s not everything in its natural place. That’s neither rhythmic nor harmonious. That is a seismic disruption of epic proportion. But thankfully, not one resulting in calamity for me. In fact, processing the information in my head as quickly as an M2 Ultra chip, I instantly realized that the Motor City being announced at this point in the sequence was actually spectacularly good news for me. It was confirmation that the probability of my desired result had just increased from a 14 percent chance to a 25 percent chance.
The broadcast on my television cut to a commercial break. In my excitement I felt a burst of kinetic energy compelling me to want to jump up off of the couch and start pacing around my living room. I felt like bouncing off the walls to pass the time until the broadcast resumed but fortunately, I had the prudence to realize that this burst of energy was being generated by the verisimilitude of bliss, not bliss itself. This thing was far from actualized. Being keenly aware now of the uncertainly that still loomed, I resisted the temptation to leap up and instead turned inward, remaining mindful and focused on my rhythmic breathing and my melodic mantra. Inhale. Commercial. Exhale. Commercial. Inhale. Commercial. Exhale. Commercial. Inhale. Exhale. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily.
My breathing and comportment fully regulated coming out of the commercial break, I braced myself for the next announcement in the proceedings. Houston. Inhale. Space City may have a problem but I certainly don’t. 33 percent chance. Exhale. Is this really going to happen? I’m not going to lie. At this point, doubt started to claw its way into my thoughts. Could it actually be that I will get this close to seeing this dream come to fruition just to have the rug pulled out at the last moment? I could feel anxiety and nerves starting to overpower mindfulness and confidence. Inhale-exhale-inhale-exhale-inhale-exhale. Portland. Inhale-exhale-inhale-exhale-inhale-exhale. 50 percent chance. In-ex-in-ex-in-ex. Feeling on the verge of a full blown panic attack as I braced myself for the next announcement in the proceedings, I somehow fortuitously garnered the self-awareness to dig deep internally and summon back my mantra so I could reconnect to my melodic harmony and take one more deep breath. INHALE.
Charlotte. EXHALE. “And that means that the number one pick in the 2023 NBA draft goes to the San Antonio Spurs.” I was stunned. Victor Wembanyama, the greatest basketball prospect in the history of the planet, was going to be drafted by my favorite team in 37 days. Call it a premonition, call it blind optimism, or just call it a confidence in my ability to will this thing into existence; whatever you want to call it, call it reality. Also, maybe just call it luck? While attempting to process a moment actualized, I just sat there on the couch looking down and for whatever reason, the next thought that entered my mind was to notice what shirt I was wearing. It happened to be a maroon t-shirt of the bluegrass hip-hip fusion band, Gangstagrass that I had purchased at a live show they performed in Denver, CO in April of the year prior. I decided right there on the spot that this was now and forevermore my lucky t-shirt. Funny the things we remember from those rarest of rare most special moments. Inhale. Exhale. Life is but a dream.
* * *
On Sunday, April 19th, 19,372 teal, pink, and orange-robed blessed souls congregated at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, TX to bare direct witness to the playoff birth of a savior and also the first contact event in an alien invasion that could possibly conclude this June with the abduction of a former United States Postmaster General named Larry O’Brien. On the same day that he was announced as a finalist for the NBA Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year awards, 22-year-old basketball prodigy Victor Wembanyama had 35 points, five rebounds, two blocks, and one assist in his playoff debut. The player of the game shot 13-21 from the field (a cold-blooded 5-6 from deep) and 4-5 from the free throw line in 33 minutes of action leading the San Antonio Spurs to a 111-98 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 1 of our NBA Western Conference First Round match up. Oh, and that aforementioned Defensive Player of the Year award? A mere 24 hours after Wemby was announced as a finalist, the NBA turned around and made the least suspenseful result on the NBA Awards ballot official. Yesterday, Victor was named the 2025-26 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the youngest and first unanimous winner of the award.
It seems mind boggling when laid out in these terms, but this was the first playoff win for the San Antonio Spurs in 2,551 days. And man, was the city of San Antonio turnt up for it. ¡Viva la fiesta!Not just the city, but an entire wing of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, as well. It was so heartwarming to see Spurs legends David Robinson and Tim Duncan sitting together supporting the next generation of dynastic-level talent as they stepped into the breach. Not just the San Antonio’s two number one (overall) draft picks to precede Wembanyama in carrying the franchise on their backs but to also see Manu Ginobili, maybe the most beloved Spur of them all, and Gregg Popovich, the winningest coach in NBA history, back in an arena where they routinely hung banners to root on the raising of the next one. (Side note: not only had it been 2,551 days on Sunday since the #BlackAndSilver had last won a playoff game, but it’s now consequently also been 1,796 days since I last wrote a blog post in this series. We have so much to catch up on and over the next several weeks, I intend to do exactly that including reflecting on Coach Pop’s abrupt retirement.)
It’s a completely oversaturated cliché in sports to call a team a “family” but if ever there were a professional sports franchise to use the term and not have it feel cliché, the San Antonio Spurs are that franchise. Case in point, one of the coolest things about Sunday night (besides the enormity of seeing the legends who were in the building to bare witness to the alien invasion) was the team building activity arranged by backup power forward, Kelly Olynyk. Kelly generously gifted the entire 18-man roster matching custom suits to wear pre-game as they entered the building for their first playoff run together. One of the things that makes this 62-win Spurs squad so special is their chemistry; how much they enjoy being around one another and celebrating one another’s success. I can’t wait to see that on full display once again tonight in Titletown, TX where, in describing the brand of basketball the next generation of one of basketball’s most storied franchises is playing right now, #SpursFamily isn’t cliché, it’s apt.
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Headline Image Source: Sole Retriever
Four Starboard
2019 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 7
Like a Rolling Stone - It was a different world, it was another life. Perhaps, in a cruelly poetic way, this was the bridge from the stability of a world that had sustained for decades to the chaos of a new world that awaited on the horizon just past the point of visibility. The San Antonio Spurs fought nobly to hang on to that past stability, to the order of a world that for Lonnie Walker IV, the Spurs youngest player, was the only world he had ever known. When Patty Mills aggressively advanced an outlet pass to a streaking Bryn Forbes for a dunk that cut the Denver Nuggets' lead to two points (88-86) with 52.2 seconds remaining in Game 7, having clawed our way back from an abysmal 13 point first quarter performance and a deficit that ballooned to 17 points in the third quarter, the continuation of stability and order was well within our reach. Full stop with one stop for a chance to advance to the Western Conference Semifinals for the 17th time in 21 seasons under Gregg Popovich. Could we get just one stop? After a Nuggets timeout, we received our answer...unfortunately it was not the answer we had been hoping for and Jamal Murray, Denver's super-talented point guard, was more than happy to be the bearer of our bad news. With 36.8 seconds remaining, Murray sank a 14-foot floater to extend the Nuggets' lead back up to four (90-86). Of course, as coldblooded and devastating as Murray's dagger was, all hope was not yet lost. In his first season headlining the post-Kawhi-defection-Spurs, DeMar DeRozan had had no issues putting the team on his back in clutch situations. Nothing was about to change during a First Round Game 7. Only eight seconds later, DeMar got to "his spot" deep in the paint and rose up for a shot to cut the lead to two with enough time left (28 seconds) for us to have the opportunity to play defense without fouling. Sadly, that opportunity never ultimately came to fruition as DeMar's shot was blocked by Torrey Craig, one of Denver's better wing-defenders. Nuggets superstar center Nikola Jokic recovered Craig's block shot giving possession back to Denver. While the blocked shot was obviously devastating to the Spurs' chances of advancement, once again...all was not yet lost. Down four, the Spurs still had the opportunity to play the "foul game" and given the Nuggets' collective playoff inexperience coupled with the added pressure of an elimination game, it was reasonable to hope that Denver might miss free throws and help keep San Antonio's door open to make up the four point deficit in the final 25 seconds. What happened next, though, was inexplicable. For some reason, the Spurs elected not to foul and allowed Denver to run the shot clock down under five seconds before Murray ultimately shot and missed. It seemed that Coach Pop was calling for the foul from the sidelines but our players on the court seemed to just have a collective mental meltdown by allowing the Nuggets to run the clock down. Even though Murray missed, it was too late by the time DeMar got the rebound given that we were still down four points. There was only one second left when DeRozan got control of the ball and realizing that it was over, he didn't even attempt a desperation shot before time ran out and San Antonio's season was over. On April 27th, 2019, the Denver Nuggets eliminated the San Antonio Spurs in seven games (4-3), winning the decisive game 90-86 at home at the Pepsi Center in Denver. Rudy Gay was the player of the game with 21 points and 8 rebounds off the bench. Without the veteran swingman's contributions throughout the game, the Spurs wouldn't have had the opportunity to be within striking distance to steal the series down the stretch. Spurs teams past regularly came up with the stops necessary to advance in the playoffs. The 2018-19 Spurs didn't and in falling short, this group, despite their grit, finally allowed the bonds of our past to succumb under the weight of an offseason transaction that changed the trajectory of our future. The new world was no longer just past the point of visibility on the horizon, the new world was here.
Fast forward 25 months and a lot has happened. First (but not foremost), this, the Black & Silver post for the 2019 Western Conference First Round, Game 7, is brazenly pushing out the limits of what constitutes a timely game recap. If you are a regular reader of the blog series, it will probably not shock you to know that I'm unapologetically defiant (borderline gleeful) to be pushing those limits. After all, one of our guiding principles here at theLeftAhead is that time is an illusion. Of course, I wouldn't have had to push the limits out this much had an unfortunate incident of playing an uneven number of games during the pandemic resulted in the unlucky math that eliminated the Spurs from competing in the 2019-20 NBA Playoffs in The Bubble in Orlando, FL last fall and also ended San Antonio's record-breaking streak of 22 consecutive playoff appearances. Like I said, a lot has happened in the 25 months since the Spurs 2019 Game 7 defeat at the hands of the Nuggets. A new world indeed. Zoom forward a little bit more into this season and we find a couple of more examples of our beloved Spurs adjusting to the realities of this new era. The season started off on a very positive trajectory and there was hope that last season was just a blip (and not the new normal). There were positive indications that we were in position to establish our return to being a perennial postseason lock through much of the season with the team reaching a season-high mark of five games over .500 and holding the fifth-seed in the standings on Valentine's Day. Then, unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic reared its ugly head. We were never the same after losing five players to health and safety protocols in late February. To make matter worse, having had six games postponed due to protocols also meant that our schedule post-All-Star break was the most brutal in the league playing 40 games in 68 days without one instance of consecutive days off in the second half of the season. More tribulations came as the Spurs decided to buy out LaMarcus Aldridge (one of the last remaining links to the old world Spurs) on March 25th when we couldn't find a suitable trade partner before the deadline. I was happy to see LA sign with the Nets so he could have a chance to compete again for a title but then really bummed when he was abruptly forced to retire on April 15th due to a reoccurrence of his heart condition. (I enjoyed watching you go to work on the block in SA for six great years, LA. Amazing career. Health is more important than basketball so I wish you a long, healthy retirement.) As if we had not already endured enough adversity, we lost Derrick White to a season-ending ankle sprain at the end of April. All of this adversity resulted in the Spurs going from five games over .500 to six games below .500 and ending the season as the 10th seed entering the newly-created NBA Playoff Play-In Tournament. Tonight, we face a familiar division foe in the Memphis Grizzlies at the FedEx Forum. The Grizzlies hold the 9th seed in the play-in tournament so they get home court advantage for tonight's game. If we win tonight, we will get to play the loser of tonight's game between the 8th seed Golden State Warriors and the 7th seed Defending Champion Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. Win that game and we earn the 8th seed and get to face the Utah Jazz in the First Round of the playoffs. Quite a task in front of us but the good new is that there is no expectation for us two win two games in a row to "make the playoffs" so we might as well play loose and see what happens. In the end, we are officially in this new world of playing the underdog rather than being the perennial powerhouse and it's kind of exciting to be in this new position. There are advantages to our new world. Tonight is going to be a lot of fun. Nothing exemplifies the transition into a new era of Spurs basketball more than an event that took place this past Saturday (May 15th). If you're a reader of this blog and a Spurs plan, the aforementioned event need not be named (but I will share a video from it below). All I need to say is thank you ? thank you ? thank you ? thank you ? thank you ? Tim Duncan. And on that note, time to start preparing for the game tonight. Even as an underdog, we still have the winningest coach in NBA history in our corner (regular season and playoffs combined) so I like our chances to play loose and enjoy the "lack of expectations" and maybe get hot and shake up the 2021 Western Conference Playoff race. If we are successful in sneaking our way into a First Round series with the Utah Jazz, all I can say to the fans of the teams ahead of us who may feel that their squads were more deserving is sorry, not sorry.
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B&S 20/20: Ecstasy at a Bachelor Party
1999 NBA Finals, Game 5
We Are the Champions - June 24th, 1999. I'd been dreaming about this night, this game, this moment for a little over nine years. To be precise, I'd been dreaming about it ever since renewing my love for the game of basketball after returning to Texas from England as a eleven-year-old in January 1990. Let me explain. While living in England in 1989 (because my dad - a college professor - was teaching abroad), I had naturally gravitated away from basketball - my first love - to soccer - my other sport - because well, you know, "when in Rome." In fact, I was so into soccer after moving back home to Texas, that when youth league basketball tryouts started a few weeks after we got back, I had no interest in trying out because I wanted to focus on soccer. My dad (who doubled as my soccer coach) had to convince me to return to my first love and tryout for basketball. I did, had a fantastic 5th grade season in my youth league, and once restored to its original place in my heart, basketball has been my unwavering favorite sport ever since. During the very same season that I was rekindling my love affair with basketball playing in my youth league in Georgetown - just north of Austin, David Robinson was playing his rookie season for the Spurs 120 miles south of me in San Antonio. Full disclosure, during the 1980s as a young tike, I was a fan of Larry Bird and Boston during the period of time that all basketball-loving Americans had to choose sides between Bird's Celtics and Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers. But after returning to Texas and basketball from England and soccer, I fell hard for this electrifying rookie nicknamed the Admiral and the team in closest proximity to my home and since the first time I ever witnessed Robinson block a shot on one end and then sprint down the court like a gazelle past his defender to receive and hammer home a physics-defying alley oop dunk, I have been the biggest die-hard San Antonio Spurs fan on planet Earth. (Being the biggest Spurs fan in the world is a title I'm proud to have held with distinction since 1990 and for those of you who are skeptical and think that your own Spurs fandom might rival or exceed mine you are welcome to look here to verify that you are in fact mistaken and that my claim to the title is more than secure, it's a verifiable fact.). So yeah, after eight well-chronicled and brutally painful Robinson-led Spurs defeats in the Western Conference playoffs (as well as the infamous 1996-97 lottery year that landed us Tim Duncan), June 24th, 1999 was a surreal occurrence, a point in time that I'd been dreaming about daily since January 1990.
There was just one small problem. June 24th, 1999 also just so happened to be the night of my older brother's bachelor party and - as the universe we exist in is never short on irony - I was the best man. How could this be? How could an event I had been dreaming about for almost a decade be taking place on the same night as one of those rare social obligations where there is absolutely no wiggle room for giving anything less than your undivided attention? Yes, the bachelor party was taking place at a gentlemen's establishment and yes, the gentlemen's establishment was going to be showing the television broadcast of the game on their TVs but this simply further complicated my predicament. Casually following along to the game while staying fully engaged in the debauchery...I mean...festivities that I was presiding over in my role as best man was not an option for me. After all, I'm the biggest Spurs fan in the world (remember?) and my team is playing in the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden up three games to one with a chance to win a championship. Following along casually was not an option. Any diehard sports fan understands this. In a game of this magnitude being played by a team that you love, the ONLY option is to give that game your undivided attention. Keep in mind, this life-altering game was taking place in 1999 not 2019 - there was no such thing as DVRs or watching sporting events "on demand" back then. Suffice it to say, I was in a pretty tough spot. You might be wondering, "Why didn't you plan to record the game on a VCR (hey kids, VCR stands for video cassette recorder...it was a thing back then) and ignore the game at the gentlemen's establishment so that you could watch the tape after and give it your undivided attention?" Well, heading into the bachelor party that was certainly my plan but as you can probably imagine, things did not go according to plan. More on that later. For now since this is a 20th anniversary retrospective post, after all, and since I did watch the game in it's entirety later that night after concluding my duties as best man and have since watched the game in its entirety at least a dozen times over the years on VCR, followed by DVD, and most recently, digitally on YouTube, let's turn our attention to the events as they unfolded in Madison Square Garden - 1700 miles away from where I was simultaneously hosting my brother's bachelor party in Austin - on this date twenty years ago.
The scene was set. The Knick home crowd at Madison Square Garden was going crazy. Each time I've watched the game, I've focused on watching the facial expression of David Robinson and Tim Duncan as they were taking the court for the opening tip. Both displayed a frenetic nervous-excited energy in their expression but balanced that with a calm, confidence deep in their eyes. Jump ball, Game 5, Spurs won the tip and history was set in motion. Both teams traded two empty possessions each before Sean Elliott opened the scoring with two made free throws. Ironically, these two free throws were the only points Sean Elliott scored the entire night. After, two more empty possessions (one each way), Allan Houston tied the game on a floating fader. From there, the Knicks got out to a 6-4 lead but also racked up a bunch of quick, cheap fouls culminating in David Robinson getting the benefit of the doubt on a Charlie Ward block-charge call to earn a dunk and three point play which gave the Spurs a 7-6 lead five minutes in. With such a low score almost halfway through the first period, it was clear that both teams came out a little tight. Shooting was clearly an issue early. The Spurs started 2-11 from the field which, despite our opportunities, allowed New York to swing back into the lead at 9-7 with Latrell Spreewell making 3-4 on foul shots after the Robinson three-point play. Both teams started to loosen up a little and find a rhythm at that point but the Knicks increased their advantage to 15-11 on a 6-4 run. New York got two Larry Johnson post scores and a Kurt Thomas jumper during this stretch but the good news for the Spurs was that Tim Duncan countered with two midrange shots (one a patented banker). Down four, Gregg Popovich called timeout with 3:13 left in the 1st. The Spurs sputtered momentarily coming out of the timeout but after going down six, Jaren Jackson followed two Tim Duncan free throws with a huge 3-pointer to cut the lead to one with 46 seconds left in the first, 21-20. Unfortunately, a Charlie Ward lay-up closed out the 1st quarter scoring giving the Knicks a 23-20 lead after one.
Two minutes into the second quarter, it was clear that second-year phenom Tim Duncan was ready to put the team on his back in order to keep the Spurs within striking distance in the most hostile of hostile environments. Timmy's stat line was up to 10 points and five rebounds a mere 14 minutes into the game. While Duncan's dominant play accomplished the goal of offsetting a deadly New York run, the Knicks were still able to methodically increase their lead to eight, 30-22, four minutes and 30 seconds into the 2nd quarter by cobbling together a 7-0 run. The Spurs punched right back going on an 8-4 run of our own (Timmy four points, Robinson two points, and Mario Ellie two free throws) to cut the New York lead to 34-30 with 3:47 left in second. The momentum stayed with San Antonio the rest of the half as the team started showing signs of the dominance that had propelled us to a 14-2 playoff record. We closed out the half on a emphatic 10-4 run that included a Tim Duncan lay-up, an Avery Johnson jumper, a David jump hook and free throw, and finally Jaren Jackson's huge second three pointer of the half which gave the Spurs their first lead since the first quarter 40-38 heading into the locker room.
The "Remember the Alamo" Twin Tower-led Spurs ratcheted up the defense to start the second half. At the beginning of the third quarter we put together a defensive spurt that included two steals, a Duncan-Robinson block of Latrell Spreewell at the rim, and another Robinson contest at the rim that led to a transition lay-up for Jaren Jackson to increase the lead to 42-38 two minutes into the third. The excitement back home in Texas started building after the Spurs got another stop that led to Jaren Jackson draining his third three of the game. All of the sudden San Antonio had 45-38 lead thanks in large part to Jaren Jackson's 11 huge points. It didn't stop there. After Mario Ellie got fouled on a transition lay up and made two free throws, all told, the Spurs had enjoyed a 25-8 run to take a nine point lead. As expected, the Knicks were not going to allow their season to slip away without a fight. New York went on a quick 5-0 run to cut the Spurs lead to four and had the ball with momentum in a pivotal moment when Latrell Spreewell swung the rock cross court to Allan Houston for an open three (which he drained) but unfortunately for the Knicks, Houston stepped out of bounds before his shot. This was a lucky break for the Spurs in a tight game and a reminder that basketball is a game of inches, if not millimeters. Despite the setback, the Knicks kept coming at us. After the Spurs got two empty trips to the Knicks one, Spreewell elevated for a massive dunk over Jaren Jackson and got fouled. He drained the free throw to cut the lead to one, 47-46 with five minutes and 30 seconds left in the third quarter. Knicks were now on an 8-0 run and Madison Square Garden was going bananas. It should be noted that Spurs point guard Avery Johnson committed his fifth turnover of the game to setup the Spreewell dunk. The floodgates continued as the Spurs missed and then Spreewell hit a baseline jumper to give the Knicks back the lead. The New York lead was now 10-0. Pandemonium in the Garden.Lucky for us, we had a counter up our sleeves in the form of a two-time champion starting shooting guard (Houston Rockets, 1994 & 1995) who was clearly unfazed by the moment having been there so many times before. Mario Ellie displayed some of his Clutch City swagger on the ensuing possession, draining a three to immediately swing the lead back to the Spurs. While Ellie's dagger temporarily silenced the crowd, the Knicks came right back with another pure Spreewell jumper. The "is the moment too big for Avery Johnson?" question reared its ugly head once again as Avery committed his 6th turnover on the next possession and Charlie Ward turned it into a transition lay-up to regain the lead. Knicks were back up two, 52-50 with three minutes and 30 seconds left in the third quarter. At this point, the game was ground to a sudden, unexpected halt due to technical difficulties. The issue was the Spurs’ basket’s shot clock stopped working. After several minutes of officials huddling, the referee's solution was to put a shot clock on the baseline of the Spurs side since, while on offense, the Spurs weren't going to be able to look up over the basket to check the clock. But since NBA players are trained to look for the shot clock over the basket, the decision by the referees put the Spurs at a huge disadvantage since our players would have to now unnaturally look on the baseline for it instead. Coach Pop asked the refs to also turn the shot clock over the Knick's basket off to make it fair and eliminate the possibility that the referees were giving New York a competitive advantage.
After further delay, Popovich lost a ridiculous decision by the refs who ultimately ruled to allow the Knicks to continue to use their over the basket shot clock while the Spurs were being forced to use the back up shot clock on the baseline floor. After all of the negotiation and delay, the Spurs had an empty trip before Allan Houston canned a jumper and increased the Knick's lead to four, 54-50. Unfazed, Tim Duncan came right back by drawing a foul and then draining a turn around bank shot. He also made the free throw to complete a three-point play. A mono y mono theme had begun to emerge as Spreewell broke the Spurs off with another baseline jumper on the Knick's next possession. Down three, a still unfazed Tim Duncan just put his hard hat on and scored the next four points with another patented angle bank shot and then two free throws giving the Spurs the lead back by one. Sprewell, clearly the Knicks go-to player at this point in the game, also showed no signs of slowing down. He hit another 10-foot fade away jumper. San Antonio responded and worked it back to a one point lead with Malik Rose and Timmy both splitting a pair of free throws each to close the third quarter. After three, the Spurs were clinging to a 59-58 lead.The referees finally evened the playing field for the fourth quarter by turning off the Knick’s basket clock and having both teams use a shot clock on the baseline floor. After the teams traded empty possessions to start the fourth, Timmy hit a world class ridiculous fading bank shot jumper to open fourth quarter scoring. Not ready to let the Knick’s season end, Spreewell came right back with quick 5-0 run on a lay-up and then a three-point play (getting fouled on a jumper and then making the free throw) that gave New York the lead back by two. At this point, there's no other way to put it: Tim Duncan and Latrell Spreewell were officially dueling with 26 points each. On cue, Timmy spun in an "anything you can do, I can do better" baseline jump hook to re-tie the game at 63 a piece. After watching the Spurs' power forward regain the upper hand in the Spreewell duel, 28-26, the New York Knickerbockers called timeout.NBC, the network that had the broadcast rights to the NBA Finals in the late 1990s, came back from this particular commercial break to what would later, for people re-watching the telecast, prove to be and eery visual. Obviously, the game was played at Madison Square Garden in New York and just as obviously, the Spurs featured a pair of seven foot all-stars nicknamed the Twin Towers. Those two things being obvious, it was a no brainer that at some point during the broadcast, NBC would come back from commercial with an areal shot of the actual Twin Towers standing tall above the Manhattan sky line. Perfectly sensible at the time, but in retrospect, this shot has proven to be quite solemn and a little spooky knowing this was a mere 15 months before 9/11. I just wanted to acknowledge that and the victims before moving ahead with my recap of the game.
Heading into the timeout, if you remember, Tim Duncan had a 28-26 lead in his personal duel with Latrell Spreewell. Well, on the ensuing possession after the timeout, Spreewell said "not so fast," when he canned a three pointer to take the scoring lead right back from Duncan, 29-28, and, more importantly giving his Knicks the overall lead back, 66-63. If you haven't caught on to our mini-theme, I guess it will be a spoiler to tell you that on the next possession, Timmy worked the Knick’s in the post swinging back the lead in the duel, 30-29, and cutting the Spurs' overall deficit back to a single point. What happened next? You guessed it. Sprewell came right back with a turn around jumper. 31-30 in the duel, 68-65 Knicks on the score board. Bob Costas and Doug Collins, NBC's broadcasters for the game, shrewdly invoked the duel between Larry Bird and Dominique Wilkens in th 1988 Eastern Conference Semifinals. Given the back and fourth between Duncan and Spreewell, this was a nice comparison, the major difference being, however, Duncan and Spreewell weren't matched up regularly guarding each other as Bird and Wilkens were in 1988. So, sure, was the comparison less than perfect? Yes, but to witness two players carrying their teams while going mono y mono in Game Five of the NBA Finals was, nonetheless, an incredible sight to behold.
On the next possession, the mono y mono duel was momentarily tempered when one of the other eight players on the court took it upon himself to forge the audacity to attempt a shot. That player was Spurs point guard, Avery Johnson. He connected on a lay up putting San Antonio back within one. After the Knicks advanced back to their end, David Robinson stole the ball and got to the line, making the first of two and tying the game at 68. The Admiral missed the second and Sean Elliott got the offensive rebound but the Spurs small forward missed the put back attempt and the Knicks regained possession. Back down the court, the Spurs were hit with a second illegal defense (and a technical foul) but Houston missed the free throw. After inbounding again after the miss at the line, Sprewell passed out of a double team and found a cutting Camby for a bucket and an "and 1." Knicks had regained the lead by three.
The two teams then traded empty possessions triggering a timeout. After the break, David Robinson got fouled rebounding a Jaren Jackson miss. He made both and once again cut the Spurs' deficit to one point. Back down the court after Robinson's free throws, Marcus Camby once again dunked, this time on a set up from Larry Johnson. The Admiral came right back with the and 1 but missed the free throw. Still a one point game, 73-72 Knicks. Some great defense by Mario Ellie on Sprewell during the next possession forced him to pass out to a desperation Larry Johnson three that missed. On the other end, Ellie couldn't capitalize on his defensive effort, missing a fade-away jumper. Spreewell marched right back down, rose up and canned another jumper over Elliott. 75-72 Knicks. (33-30 Spree over Timmy in the personal duel.) On the next possession, Mario Ellie was ready to shoot and redeem himself for the poor shot selection on last time down. Out of the double of Timmy, Clutch City came through again as Mario Ellie drained the straightaway three. Tie ball game! The Texas night electric in anticipation.Back on the other end of the court, Timmy got cross matched on Spree (the mono y mono match up we wanted) but unfortunately Timmy fouled. Spreewell made both increasing his advantage in the one-on-one dual to 35-30. More importantly, his two free throws put the Knicks back on top on the scoreboard by 2. After the next offensive possession sputtered, Timmy attempted a desperation 3 that was way off but luckily the Spurs secured the offensive rebound and worked it back to Timmy in the post where he is fouled by Larry Johnson. Timmy made one of two, cutting the dual deficit back down to four (35-31) and the team deficit on the scoreboard back down to one.The next possession proved NBC's earlier cutaway to the Twin Towers clairvoyant in that Timmy and Big Dave combine to make the first in a series of clutch defensive plays. Robinson and Duncan blocked Sprewell at the rim causing the ball to get pinned for a jump ball. NY won the tap and the Knick’s called timeout with 2:05 remaining and New York clinging to a one point lead. After the break, Duncan once again found himself cross- matched on his mono y mono rival Latrell but this time Timmy forced Spreewell to pass out to Charlie Ward for a desperation three that didn’t hit the rim. The second year Spurs superstar once again demonstrated his all world defensive talent to force a shot clock violation and also prompting one of the most beautiful phrases in the English language...Spurs ball!Unfortunately the good guys were unable to capitalize on the ending critical possession as Robinson missed a jump hook. The Knicks rebounded the miss with 1:26 remaining. If this game, this first-ever Championship was going to be won, it was going to be won at the defensive end of the court. New York orchestrated a clever play to get Avery pinned by their hot hadn't, Sprewell in the post. Timmy doubled to force Sprewell to pass out for a wide open Larry Johnson three. Fortunately, though, Grandmama missed and Ellie rebounded to give San Antonio another chance to take the lead.As any credentialed Spurs fan knows, what came next is not only history but probably the most iconic Spurs moment for all-time: Timmy, doubled in the post, passed out to Sean Elliott. Sean pump faked and drove. Avery Johnson’s man, Chris Childs had moved out to guard Sean on the switch out of the double team so Timmy screened to hold off both Larry Johnson and Spreewell. Sean Elliott hits Avery in the corner and Avery rose up confidently to release a baseline jumper. Spoiler alert: the Little General, the point guard Damon Stoudamire had infamously declared would never lead a team to an NBA Championship, drained the biggest shot in franchise history. Spurs lead! Spurs lead! 78-77. All of the eyes of Texas are emphatically fixated on Madison Square Garden.
The Spurs were still exactly 47 seconds away from heaven at this point and the victory was far from secured. After a timeout, Sprewell, still leading the mono y mono duel with Timmy 35-31 decided to go into full hero ball mode but missed a fade-away jumper over Elliott. Avery skied in for the rebound putting us one possession closer to euphoria with 27 seconds left. SPURS BALL!!!
Needing to both nurse the clock and get a quality shot to extend the lead and provide us with some breathing room, we worked the ball into David. He elevated and missed badly but he missed so badly that the ball didn’t hit the rim. Somehow Robinson got his own rebound. With the shot clock ticking down, Big Dave fired the ball back out to Elliott who swung it over to Avery. Johnson had no choice but to chunk up a desperation 28 footer to beat the shot clock. The Knicks rebounded the miss and called timeout. While to objective of padding the lead had failed miserably, the objective of milking the clock had been accomplished. The Knicks had only 2.1 seconds left to score and send the series to Game 6. If they failed, Madison Square Garden was about to be generously hosting a party for some out-of -town guests.I wonder who would be getting the ball? Charlie Ward, the Heisman winning college football quarterback at Florida State, was chosen to inbound just passed midcoast on the New York side. The accomplished Quarterback fired a go route pass to Sprewell streaking towards the basket. Sprewell caught the ball in stride, pump faked and then realized the he was under the basket with Sean on him. He spun out baseline to the other side of the rim only to be met by the four outstretched arms of the Twin Towers of Duncan and Robinson. The intimidating defensive tandem had one more shot to intimidate. Latrell Spreewell rose up and shot a floater over the tree of arm but wasn't able to get enough on the shot to get it over them and on a trajectory to fall back to earth over the basket. Air ball. IT'S ALL OVER! SPURS WIN! SPURS WIN! SPRUS WIN THEIR FIRST EVER NBA CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!
Back in Austin at the gentlemen's establishment, performing my duties as Best Man at my brother's bachelor party had inevitably taken a back seat on my priority list somewhere around the two minute mark in the fourth quarter. My Uncle Bob, who is also a huge Spurs fan and had taken me to my first ever Spurs game against Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics in the late 80's prior to my family's move to London, and I had gravitated to the bar area at the gentlemen's establishment to watch our team try to seal its first championship on the television screen overlooking the bar--the foolish notion of thinking I could avoid the score in order to watch my VHS recording of the game in its entirety at home later that night scrapped as soon as I accidentally discovered we were SO CLOSE to REALIZING THIS DREAM down the stretch. I remember us standing there at the bar completely locked in and hanging on every possession with destiny almost within our grasp. When Avery Johnson hit the go-ahead baseline jumper, Uncle Bob and I exploded in excitement and celebration causing such a ruckus that more of our party joined us at the bar to watch the final minute. As you can imagine, when Latrell Spreewell's final shot went up high in the air to avoid the four extended massive arms of the Twin Towers it felt like an eternity before it dropped short and pandemonium ensued, Uncle Bob and I hugging and celebrating with others from my brother's bachelor party. It felt unreal. It felt amazing. THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS WERE WORLD CHAMPIONS. I don't remember much about the rest of the bachelor party. Most of the details from my brother's wedding the next day are pretty fuzzy 20 years later. But the moment my favorite team won its first ever NBA title is constantly with me. In this regard, a moment of pure joy makes me believe that time is merely an allusion. The moment the San Antonio Spurs won the 1999 NBA Championship was then, is now, and will always be.
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B&S 20/20: Twin Tower Tourists
1999 NBA Finals, Game 4
House of the Rising Sun - It must've been a funny feeling for the players on our Western Conference Champion San Antonio Spurs to walk off of the Madison Square Garden basketball court in New York City on the short end of the score board after Game 3 of the 1999 NBA Finals. After all, the 89-81 loss to the New York Knicks was the first defeat in our past thirteen playoff contests. So, in other words, winning was such a regular occurrence during our 1999 NBA playoff run, it must've been a strange sensation when the (at that time) NBA record-tying 12-game playoff winning streak came to an end. Having had so much recent success, a loss was not only overdue, it was probably also a bit of a refreshing funny, strange sensation. The loss provided a rare opportunity for the team to regroup, refocus and use some much-needed adversity to come back together as one with a unified focus for completing the mission. While on the one hand, one loss after 12 straight victories might not seem like a very big deal, on the other hand, this particular loss gave the Knicks life in their own pursuit of winning a championship. At 2-1 now, the loss brought New York within one game of tying the series with the next two games still being played in their building. Regardless of the 12-game winning steak, the Spurs were in a dog fight still to win our first championship and any kind of lapse in focus could result in us returning to San Antonio down 3-2 and on the brink of elimination. The Game 3 loss, both a curse and a gift, had given New York new life but may also have been the wake up call the Spurs needed in order to summon the focus to finish the job.
Back in MSG a mere 48-hours after the defeat, the focus was evident on the faces of the Spurs' starters as they took the court after opening introductions. After the tip, David Robinson set the tone with some early aggressive blocks. The Admiral's efforts on the defense combined with an overwhelming combined effort with Tim Duncan on the boards allowed the Spurs to get out to an early 15-8 start. It was also evident from early on that the Knicks also came to play. Sparked by an uncharacteristic 10 first quarter points by point guard Charlie Ward, New York responded to the Spurs early push and pushed back to take a 29-27 lead after one.Heading into the second, the Knick's run swelled to 10-2 before Avery Johnson hit a pair of runners to tie the game back up with nine minutes left in the second quarter. Then, after getting a stop, veteran journeyman Jerome Kersey hit a corner jumper to give the Spurs the lead back 33-31. The teams traded baskets for a few possessions until Sean Elliott got a kind bounce on a three point attempt to put the Spurs back up by three at 38-35. Tim played well down the stretch of the second quarter and his 14 first half points helped to keep the Knicks at bay in order to take a 50-46 lead into the locker room at halftime.
I don't know what Gregg Popovich said to the team at halftime, but whatever it was, it ramped the focus up to an unprecedented level as the teams retook the court for the third quarter. How do I know the Spurs' focus was at an unprecedented level? We started the quarter in utterly dominating fashion, hammering the Knicks with a 9-0 run to start the second half. Latrell Spreewell's 10 points in the third quarter kept the Knicks within striking distance but continuing his strong play as the Spurs' floor general, Avery Johnson was up to 14 points of his own for the game after three quarters. Since Duncan and Robinson were continuing to dominate the paint, San Antonio was able to add five extra points to their margin having increased the lead to 72-63 after three.
David Robinson came up huge early in the fourth when his running mate, Tim Duncan, struggled with back to back turnovers early in the frame. The Admiral made some timely buckets and free throws and continued dominating the paint with blocked shots and rebounds. Despite Robinson's brilliance, the gritty Knicks continued to hang around. Game 4 was becoming another "who wants it more" competition of wills and it was reassuring that Big Dave's relentlessness was outshining anything the other side could muster. In one critical play with the Spurs up six points midway through the final frame, Robinson forced Larry Johnson into a tough, air ball fade away. Tim Duncan snatched the rebound and fired a bullet of an outlet to a streaking Mario Ellie for a break away dunk. It was Robinson's effort that made the play possible and was appearing to be winning out in the contest of wills. Latrell Spreewell and Allan Houston, however, had a "not so fast" response. Spreewell made an incredible "force of will" tip in over Duncan and Robinson and then Houston added a patented turn around jumper on the next possession. Throw in a Charlie Ward free throw and the Knicks had cut the lead to 81-80 with five and a half minutes to play.
The Twin Towers absorbed the body blow and responded with back to back buckets of their own (Robinson first, then Duncan). Mario Ellie tacked on a free throw and the Spurs' lead was back up to six. The back and forth continued as Marcus Camby made a three point play and Larry Johnson followed with a free throw to cut the lead back to two at 86-84. The momentum would swing back to the Spurs yet again but this time, we wouldn't relinquish it. The suffocating San Antonio defense (anchored by the Twin Towers) dominated down the stretch as the Spurs held the Knicks scoreless for several straight possessions. On the other end of the court, Elliott, Robinson, Johnson and Duncan all participated in a parade to the free throw line. When the dust settled, the Spurs had made 8-10 (4 from Elliott, 2 from Duncan, 2 from Robinson, 0-2 from Avery) and extended the lead to 94-84 with under a minute to play. Marcus Camby provided a "too little too late" 4-0 run with a quick couple of buckets to bring New York back within six at 94-88 with 17 seconds left. Mario Ellie officially sealed the victory with two free throws before Camby made the game's final point on a free throw of his own when the game was out of reach. All told, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the New York Knicks 96-89 to take a 3-1 lead and inch within one victory of our first-ever NBA Championship.
The player of the game deserved to be split between two players. Here is their combined stat line: 42 points, 35 rebounds, 7 blocks. Can you guess which members of the Twin Towers I'm referencing? Exactly - David Robinson and Tim Duncan were incredible. 35 rebounds, in particular, by two players is astonishingly dominant. Since the rules of our blog series are such that I have to choose a singular player of the game, let me first single out Big Dave for individual recognition. Robinson had 14 points, 17 rebounds, and four blocks. In case you don't feel like doing the quick math, that means that Tim Duncan had 28 points, 18 rebounds, 3 blocks and oh, by the way...also three assists in Game 4 of the NBA Finals as a freaking sophomore NBA player. Yeah, I think even D-Rob would agree, Tim Duncan is the player of the game. The first player since Magic Johnson to perform at basketball's biggest stage at such a high level at such a young age, the recent Wake Forrest graduate had led the San Antonio Spurs to within one victory of their first-ever NBA Championship. Along with the 3-1 series lead came an opportunity to close out inside basketball's most storied arena - Madison Square Garden two nights later. 48 hours to glory? Or 48 hours to just another Friday night in Manhattan? Stay tuned and...
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