Two Starboard
2019 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 4
Who Gon Stop Me - Give them credit. The Nuggets played outstanding basketball in Game 4. When you make 15 threes shooting 48.4 percent on 31 attempts while taking care of your possession to the tune of only committing seven turnovers, you are probably going to win. When you do these things in a hostile environment on the road down 2-1 in a playoff series, you probably have no intention of going away quietly. Anyone who thought we had control of this inexperienced two-seed from Denver better check the time. My clock says it’s Easter Sunday and this series is tied up at two games a piece. Home court advantage: Nuggets. Last night, in what has become a trend in recent years (2015-Clippers, 2016-Thunder, 2017-Grizzlies & Rockets), up two games to one, the Spurs failed to put a stranglehold on a series this time losing 117-103 to the Denver Nuggets at home at the AT&T Center. With the victory, Denver snapped a 14-game losing streak in San Antonio dating back to 2012. Now in order to avoid back-to-back first round exits for the first time in our 22-straight playoff appearances under Coach Pop, we have to go back and win a second time in the Pepsi Center, a building where the visiting teams are 8-35 on the season. And since we fully intend to advance, that's exactly what we're going to doPerhaps I will have the opportunity to bear witness. When my wife and I purchased our tickets to Game 5, we were obviously hoping the Spurs would be arriving back in our hometown of Denver with a 3-1 advantage and an opportunity to win the series. Since the good guys fell flat yesterday afternoon, those hopes have evaporated along with the hard-fought home court advantage that we established with our Game 1 victory. Now, while attending our first-ever Spurs road playoff game, we will be forced to suffer through all of the excruciating anxiety that is unavoidable in the pivotal Game 5 of a series that's tied at two games apiece and we will be doing this surrounded by thousands of impassioned Nuggets fans. Anxiety aside, I am really looking forward to attending Game 5. There's nothing like the intensity of being at an NBA playoff game and it's definitely been a few years since I've had the experience. So, while I'm bummed about yesterday's loss, I'm going to show up at the Pepsi Center fired up and fully decked out in Spurs gear on Tuesday and while behind enemy lines, I'm going to focus on enjoying the ride because no matter what happens on Tuesday, the Spurs have another home game on Thursday and therefore a good chance to win this series in either six or seven games.
The Game 4 player of the game was LaMarcus Aldridge. Our 2019 all-star quietly put together a solid performance with 24 points on an efficient 10-18 shooting, nine rebounds, two steals, one assist, and one block. DeMar and Derrick were solid again as well but DeMar allowed frustration to get the best of him when he thew the ball in the direction of referee Scott Foster after hew was called for a charge with 5 minutes and one second remaining in the fourth quarter. Double D was ejected and subsequently fined $25,000. The Spurs were down 18 points at the time of DeMar's ejection so it wasn't disastrous, the game was almost certainly already out of reach at that point. DeMar finished his abbreviated night with 19 points, five rebounds, and five assists. Derrick White, meanwhile, took an expected step backwards from his 36 point Game 3 break out masterpiece but still played another impressive floor game. He was limited to only eight points but he also contributed five assists, four rebounds, and a block. It's safe to say that Jamal Murray rose to the challenge of getting embarrassed by Derrick in Game 3. Murray had 24 points, six assists, and two rebounds in Game 4. If series trends continue, Game 5 will once again be Derrick's turn to come out angry about Murray getting the better of the matchup in the previous game (just as Murray responded in Game 4, Derrick in Game 3, and Murray in Game 2) and play aggressive, dominating basketball on both sides of the ball. Derrick once again winning the matchup in another "odd" game of the series is absolutely critical to our hopes to steal back home court advantage on Tuesday night.
While Denver played at a high level in Game 4 up and down the roster, not surprisingly, the player that hurt us the most in Game 4 and, for that matter, throughout this series is the Nuggets all-star starting center, Nikola Jokic. The Joker was unbelievable last night putting together a stat line of 29 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists. Jacob and LaMarcus are doing a decent job of checking Jokic in this series, he is simply playing at a bonafide superstar level. Considering he's playing in his first-ever playoff series, his (damn-near) triple double series averages of 20.5 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 9.3 assists are flat out impressive. If there were a defensive scheme that could slow this man down, I guarantee that Pop would've implemented it three games ago. Since one doesn't seem to exists, unfortunately for us, chances are that the Joker is going to keep beasting for the duration of the series. The good news for us is if we can tough our way to keeping Murray and Gary Harris in check and figure out a way to get back to taking away the Nugget's role players' open three-point looks, Jokic, as good as he is, can't win this series without getting the type of help he received in the fourth quarter of Game 2 and in the final three quarters of Game 4. It's a little frustrating that the Nuggets have only gotten the better of us in four out of the 16 quarters played thus far, yet the series is tied 2-2. In the other 12 quarters, it was largely all Jokic and that has proven not to be enough to keep up with us. Since we've outplayed the Nuggets 75 percent of the time in this series so far but only have 50 percent of the victories, if we are able to continue the trend, hopefully The Law of Manu will start kicking in in Game 5 and the number of victories in the series per quarters won will start regressing to the mean.
Speaking of role players, one thing we haven't gotten in the series thus far is one of those games (that we saw so often in the regular season) in which Patty Mills, Marco Belinelli, and Davis Bertans all shoot the lights out from distance. The Law of Manu should also apply here. We are overdue for one of those games and we desperately need Tuesday to be one of them if we want to counterpunch the Nuggets and immediately regain control of the series. The Nuggets shooters had their break out game in Game 4...and they did it in our building. Much like Derrick White in his back-and-fourth matchup with Jamal Murray, hopefully the Spurs bench sharpshooters are taking what the Nuggets bench did in Game 4 personally and are getting mentally prepared to return the favor on Tuesday in the Pepsi Center. Patty, Marco, and Davis, we absolutely need your shooting in order to win this series. There's no more margin for error. We need all three of you to get hot and start draining three-point daggers.
When a series is tied 2-2, having home court advantage in the remaining three games is an important edge, especially for a team that’s as dominant at home as Denver. There’s no way to sugarcoat it, we went from front-running in this series to playing for our playoff lives with one lackadaisical performance on Saturday afternoon. What’s more important than home court advantage in a 2-2 series, however, is knowing that the series is there for the taking to the team that wants it more and having the internal fortitude to be the team that goes and takes it. In a 2-2 series, winning becomes much more about breaking the other team’s will through effort and toughness rather than talent and skill. The Spurs have a massive advantage in this department having five players (Aldridge, DeRozan, Mills, Gay, and Belenelli) that have been through enough 2-2 playoff battles to know how deeply you need to dig to get into the necessary frame of mind to do what it’s going to take to break the other team’s will. Denver can only put one player on the court (Millsap) with prior 2-2 playoff experience. If we use our experience to our advantage and focus on bringing more effort and more toughness to the last two or thee games of this series than our opponents, we will advance to the Western Conference Semifinals. It starts Tuesday in a hostile environment. We need to come out after the opening tip and punch the Nuggets in the mouth with our effort and toughness. We need to remind them from the jump that they don’t have a frame of reference for late-series playoff basketball, but we do. Luckily, that hostile environment will be a tiny bit less hostile than usual since I know of at least two diehard Spurs fans that will be cheering our lungs out to help the #BlackAndSilver break on through to the other side. 2-2 series? Game 5? First ever Spurs road playoff game? Man, I can't wait.
Featured Image Source: Sports Illustrated
Headline Image Source: Tina the Store
Eleven Left
2014 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 1
Public Service Announcement - "Allow me to reintroduce myself, my name is..." Marc - O, B to the Elinell - E, I used to move them J's by the O-Z. I guess even back then you could call me, CEO of the T-R-E. When Marco Belinelli hit two long jumpers curling off of screens to score five points during the fourth quarter of the San Antonio Spurs blowout Game 7 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, I remember making a mental note that, even though these buckets came during garbage time, they could prove huge moving forward through the playoffs. Marco had been largely absent from the Spurs' first round series and I knew that in order for us to compete for a championship, we are going to need him performing at a high level off of the bench moving forward. Two days later, San Antonio got exactly what I was hoping for coming off of Marco's confidence boosting garbage time buckets in Game 7 against Dallas. A rejuvenated and confident Belinelli, after seeing the ball go in the basket on Sunday, came off the bench last night to play 28 minutes and score 19 points on 7-9 shooting and earn player of the game honors in the San Antonio Spurs 116-92 blowout victory over the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals. Tony Parker also picked up where he left off on Sunday with another dominant performance last night while squaring off against one of the league's up and coming star point guards in Damian Lillard. Tony amassed 33 points on 13-24 shooting and added 9 assists to boot. In comparison, Lillard was only able to put together 17 points on 6-15 shooting and compiled most of those points after the game was already out of reach. While it is only one game, and Lillard remains one of the most dangerous weapons left in the 2014 playoffs, Tony Parker (whether intentionally or not) made an emphatic statement last night on how the two players should currently be compared in regards to the pecking order of the NBA's elite point guards.
For the first time since our 19 game winning streak was snapped at the beginning of April by the Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio has put together two dominant performances in which we have played Spurs basketball on both offense and defense for 48 minutes each night. For fear of jinxing our newly found momentum, there is not a whole lot to add about the performance that the Spurs put together last night. It was a complete team effort in which our bench was a decided advantage outscoring the Blazer's bench 50-18 and we even received an impressive contribution from an unlikely source in Aron Baynes who came up with 10 points and 7 rebounds in 15 minutes of action. Portland, who had not played in a Western Conference Semifinal game in 14 years until last night, will come back with a much better effort in Game 2 after taking one on the chin for, seemingly, not being ready for the intensity of second round playoff basketball. Lillard and Texas native, LeMarcus Aldridge, are one of the most talented tandems in the NBA and we should fully expect them to respond as if their backs are against the wall tomorrow evening at the AT&T Center. The Trail Blazers are fully capable of making the adjustments to steal Game 2, and also home court advantage in the series, if we let our guard down in the slightest. But if the Spurs come to the arena tomorrow to play together with the same purpose and intensity as we did last night, it seems that regardless of the talent on the other side and the adjustments that the Blazers make, the #BlackAndSilver will put ourselves in a strong position to enjoy our time spent over the weekend on heirplanes flying above the Pacific Northwest en route to Portland, Oregon with a commanding 2-0 lead in the series.
Featured Image Source: MTV
Headline Image Source: Marco Belinelli (the real) on Facebook
Fourteen Down
2013 NBA Finals, Game 3
Party Like It's 1999 - What if I were to tell you that a thunder storm and a high school graduation ceremony caused one of the greatest shooting performances in NBA Finals history? If you would like to know how, you have a choice to make. [Note: I have just held out a blue pill in one of my hands and a red pill in the other] If you take the blue pill, you will wake up and you can believe whatever you want to believe. If you take the red one, you stay in wonderland and I show you just how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I am offering is the truth. [Note: Choosers of the blue pill, stop reading now...choosers of the red pill, follow me] Lets start at the beginning. It was a little under an hour before tip-off of Game 3 of the 2013 NBA Finals. I had the KSAT 12 local pregame coverage on but was not really paying much attention to it because I was about to crack open my first beer of the night. It was at that exact moment that I heard the commentator say something that caught my attention. "Ladies and gentleman, we have breaking news to report. Tony Parker and Tim Duncan..." The reporter paused for what felt like an hour as terrible thoughts about what he would say next raced through my mind. Tony Parker and Tim Duncan...were both injured in the morning shoot around and are unable to play tonight [Thought #1], were suspended for Game 3 by David Stern after the commissioner finally came to a decision on the appropriate punishment for this after 6 months of carefully discussing it with his confidant Joey (Expletive Deleted) Crawford and yes, it is just a coincidence that these suspensions have come in the middle of the NBA Finals [Thought #2], had both started reading Bill Simmons' column about The Duncan Show at 10:00 AM and upon finishing it at 4:00 pm they had gotten so excited that they started doing treatments on how to wrap up the Season 16 arc and had completely forgotten that Game 3 was today [Thought #3]. "Ladies and gentleman, we have breaking news to report. Tony Parker and Tim Duncan...have not yet arrived at the AT&T Center because they are stuck in traffic." WTF!!!! Are you kidding me? This is just as or even more bizarre than all of the crazy scenarios that had just rushed through me head. The first NBA Finals game in San Antonio in 6 years and we might have to hear Kevin "Big Kev" Brock announce over the PA at the AT&T Center, "starting at forward from the University of Florida, Matt Bonner. Starting at guard from the University of Texas, Cory Joseph." Can someone please get Mayor Julian Castro on the phone to get Tony and Timmy an SAPD escort to the damn stadium? What the hell are my city property taxes going towards anyway? Oh wait, that's right...I don't pay city property taxes because my neighborhood is still an annex of San Antonio. Okay, can somebody please get Commissioner Tommy Adkisson on the phone to get Tony and Timmy a Bexar County Sheriff escort to the damn stadium? What the hell are my county property taxes going towards anyway?
More on this later. First, I have a confession to make. Right after I said "lets start at the beginning," I immediately decided to give you the abbreviated version of the story because I am extremely tired after a long day of work and I just wanted to get this blog entry posted as quickly as possible so that I can actually get a little bit of sleep tonight. But after getting into the abbreviated version, I've come to realize that it doesn't do this story justice and you, the reader, deserve to get the story in its entirety. After all, you did just take the red pill. So please accept my sincerest apologies and allow me to start over. The story actually begins in Port Arthur, TX and it begins at the tail end of the twentieth century. The year is 1996. A 16 year old high school basketball phenom named Stephen Jackson is hanging out with his 23 year old friend on the benches outside of their neighborhood's basketball court. It is late afternoon and it is summer. It is 3:00 PM on June 15th to be exact. Anyone that knows anything about a Port Arthur summer afternoon knows that it takes a great amount of dedication to the game of basketball to be willing to tolerate the absolute agony of the heat combined with the humidity in order to work on your game on the outdoor courts. It takes a great deal of dedication to the game of basketball or it takes being in desperate need of a favor. Oh, I forgot to mention that the 23 year old friend that Stephen Jackson is hanging out on the courts with is Bun B of the Port Arthur hip hop duo UGK.
Bun: Hey Stephen, I need a favor.
Captain Jack: What is it Bun?
Bun: I've been holding something for a New York friend of mine, but I'm about to be going out on tour for the next six months so I need someone to hold it for me to keep it safe.
Captain Jack: I don't know Bun, I've got my future to think about, this sounds kinda risky.
Bun: Chill Stack, it ain't nothing crazy, just a little something I need stashed.
Captain Jack: It ain't drugs is it?
Bun: Naw, lil' homie, it ain't nothing like that.
Captain Jack: It ain't a gun is it?
Bun:nJack, I said it ain't nothing like that. It's a bag of magic "irrational confidence" beans.
Captain Jack: Huh?
Oh, I also failed to mention that the New York friend that Bun B referred to earlier is also an up-and-coming rapper named Jay-Z.
Bun: I know, it sounds weird, but if you eat one...you will magically be given the confidence to do other-worldly things that you otherwise couldn't do. They really work. I got them from the homie Jay-Z when I was up in NY. He got them from a broke customer back in his slangin' days who traded for them because he couldn't afford to pay for his fix. Jigga asked me to hold them for him because he said that when he tried one, it gave him the confidence to write a diss track against 2pac. While the 2pac beef put him on the map, he doesn't trust himself with the beans anymore because he is worried that they might throw his career trajectory out of wack because he is working on his second album and he is already feeling compelled to write lyrics comparing himself to Michael Jordan, Elvis, and the Beatles. Jay thought that if he gave them to me, I could put them to good use by propping up an entire stable of less talented Houston-area artists over the course of the next decade. So will you hold 'em for me?
Captain Jack: I still don't know Bun, this is kinda weird.
Bun: Come on Stack, we're on the same team. P.A.T., baby. P.A.T.
Captain Jack: Okay, Bun. I'll hold them. You know that I will do anything for a teammate.
Fast forward. The year is now 2003. That tour that Bun B went on back in 1996 was off the chain cray. So much so that when he returned to Port Arthur after the tour wrapped, his head was so cloudy that he had forgotten all about the magic "irrational confidence" beans and the fact that he had given them to Stephen Jackson to hold. Likewise, Jack has now been holding them for seven years but he has been so focused on making himself into an NBA player that he had forgotten a long time ago that the bag of beans was in a storage container in his garage. It is late afternoon and it summer. It is 3:00 PM on June 15th, to be exact. Stephen, now an NBA starter for the San Antonio Spurs, is looking for an old "good luck" wristband out in his garage to help him play well in tonight's ever important game. He happens upon the storage container, opens it, and rediscovers the bag of magic "irrational confidence" beans. For the first time in the seven years that they have been in his possession, Stephen Jackson eats one of the beans.
Fast forward. The year is now 2004. It is late afternoon and it is autumn. It is 3:00 PM on November 19th to be exact. For some inexplicable reason, Stephen Jackson, now playing for the Indiana Pacers, decides to eat a magic bean for only the second time ever in preparation for a regular season road game against the Detroit Pistons.
Fast forward. The year is now 2007. It is afternoon and it is spring. It is 3:00 PM on May 4th. Stephen Jackson, now playing for the Golden State Warriors is contemplating the possibility of checking himself into rehab. He is detoxing from a 10 day magic bean eating bender.
Fast forward. The year is now 2012. Stephen Jackson has been able to remain successful at his magic "irrational confidence" bean sobriety since he swore off eating them back in 2007. But he still keeps them in his possession and for some unexplainable reason, last week he transported the bag of magic beans from his home to his NBA locker. I guess there are worse things to keep in your NBA locker, Gilbert Arenas. It is late afternoon and it is summer. It is 3:00 PM on June 6th to be exact. Captain Jack, back with the San Antonio Spurs, has another huge game coming up this evening. He thinks long and hard about falling off the wagon and eating a magic bean in preparation for the game. But he thinks better of it because he knows that after 12 years in the league his confidence to make buckets is no longer irrational. He then has an epiphany of sorts because he really wants to win tonight's game. He decides that he will give magic beans to some of his teammates. He is ready to offer them up when he realizes that the bag of magic "irrational confidence" beans is actually in his home locker back in San Antonio and this is a road game.
Fast forward. The year is now 2013. It is late afternoon and it is spring. It is 3:00 PM on April 11th to be exact. Greg Popovich, head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, is conducting his annual CIA-style surveillance exercises at the AT&T Center. Popovich, an ex-intelligence officer for the United States military, is really, really good at these sorts of things. In fact, he currently has a pretty decent side gig to his duties as head coach of the San Antonio Spurs where he is making some serious coinage serving as a consultant for both the National Security Agency (NSA) as well as for Verizon Wireless. During the sweep of his players' locker room (one of the surveillance exercises), Popovich discovers that Stephen Jackson has a bag of magic "irrational confidence" beans stashed in his locker. Disgusted that Captain Jack has been holding out on his teammates all season, Popovich confiscates the magic beans and stores them in a safe in his office that he keeps hidden behind a painting of himself wiping his nose with Craig Sager's handkerchief which ironically was painted for Pop by former President George W. Bush. Despite his ideological differences with the artist, Coach Pop really loves this painting. The next day, Greg Popovich cuts Stephen Jackson for his selfishness. "After all," said Coach Pop in an exclusive interview he granted theLeftAhead to discuss this topic, "there is no 'I' in 'bean.'"
Okay, so this brings us back to where we began. It is yesterday. I'm standing in my living room cursing my television at the news that Tim Duncan and Tony Parker are stuck in traffic less than an hour before the tip-off of Game 3 of the Finals. Greg Popovich, however, is not panicking. He is in his office at the AT&T Center adjusting his game plan to prepare for the worst case scenario. He is just wrapping up a three-way phone call with Timmy and Tony who are both sitting in the middle of San Antonio gridlock with no end in sight. Ironically, it is harder for both Timmy and Tony to see how much further they have before traffic loosens up because their vision is impeded by all of the San Antonio Spurs car flags waving on the vehicles in front of them. Luckily for them, Coach Pop (who somehow seemingly knows more about the situation that is unfolding on the streets of San Antonio than even the city's best traffic and weather reporters) informs his players that a severe thunder storm, moving over San Antonio from southeast to northwest, is the cause of the traffic jam on the highway which has now been exacerbated by the unusually large amount of traffic that is in the area for the John Paul Stevens High School graduation ceremony. About to wrap up the three-way call with his players, Coach Pop blurts out, "can you hear me now." Popovich, as well as the NSA agent and Verizon Wireless tech support representative who are both listening in on the conversation all chuckle. Tim Duncan and Tony Parker have no idea what their coach is talking about. This is not an unusual occurrence. Popovich hangs up the phone, springs up from his desk, takes down the George W. orginal portrait of him and the Ragin' Sagin (as Pop refers to Sager), unlocks his safe, opens Stephen Jackson's bag of magic beans, takes two out, walks to the training room, approaches Danny Green who is getting his ankles taped for the game and says, "eat this and don't ask any questions." Danny Green nods and without saying a word, he eats the first magic "irrational confidence" bean of his life. Popovich precedes to the player's locker room and surveys the room. His attention is drawn to both Gary Neal and Matt Bonner. He swings his head back and forth between the two players for a brief moment. Matt Bonner is eating a sandwich whilst doing some sort of yoga stretch. Gary Neal is studying game tape. Greg Popovich begins walking towards Gary Neal. The rest is now NBA history.
Gary Neal went 6-10 on three point attempts last night, stepping up on the NBA's biggest stage to carve himself out a little place in basketball history. He didn't want to occupy that space alone so he invited Danny Green to join him. Green also went an astonishing 7-9 from the arc last night and is now 16-23 on threes for a magnificent 70 percent in the series (it is actually 69.5, but when you are the leading scorer in the NBA Finals to this point you get the benefit of me rounding up). These rotation players, benefiting from their magic "irrational confidence" beans, led the #BlackAndSilver to a dominating 113-77 victory over the Miami Heat last night at the AT&T Center. Throw in the three pointer that Tony Parker sunk, and the Spurs' backcourt combined to knock fourteen down. Throw in two more threes by Kawhi Leonard, and the squad converted on an NBA Finals record 16 triples. San Antonio was able to return the favor to Miami for the Heat's 19 point Game 2 victory. Gary Neal earns player of the game honors because Danny Green has earned the honor before, also because Gary Neal hit more of his threes while the game was still in jeopardy. My wife made the comment last night that Gary and Danny played like they were partners on one of those cheesy police shows and last night was one of those scenes where Gary Neal shoots the bad guy multiple times, and then Danny Green walks up to the bad guy (who is already down on the ground) and shoots him a few more times just to make sure he is dead. One of the most exciting by-products of this amazing Spurs victory is that in the past 24 hours, Gary Neal's journeyman story of perseverance has been well covered by the national media and told to millions of people. In the post-game press conference Gary was asked about one of my favorite parts of this amazing story; the circumstances of him and his wife deciding to postpone their honeymoon for the sake of his basketball career. Gary remembered, "So she decided that it would be a good thing if we went to Vegas instead so that I could try to make an NBA push." I predicted that the Spurs would earn one blowout victory at home during this series. I still think that the next two games will be gut-wrenching slug fests that will be won by the team who can clamp down the most on defense and execute with the most precision on offense during the guts of the fourth quarter. The challenge ahead is still enormous. The defending champions will not eliminate themselves, the Spurs will have to impose our will to make that happen. We still need to play our best 96 minutes of basketball this season in order to hoist a trophy this year in San Antonio. We need to play better tomorrow than we did last night. We can do it if we remember that which matters most. That after 16 years of playoff battle after playoff battle... we are still here! Tomorrow, let us send a message to our opponent. Tomorrow, let us shake this cave. Tomorrow, let us tremble these halls of earth, steel, and stone, let us be heard from red core to black sky. Tomorrow, let us make them remember, this is San Antonio and we are not afraid!
Epilogue: Rewind. The year is 1991. It is late night and it is summer. It is 3:00 AM on June 15th to be exact. A customer trades a bag of magic "irrational confidence" beans to a small time New York dealer named Shawn Carter. That customer is Darryl Strawberry. He convinces Shawn to make the trade by informing him that the beans were harvested on a top secret farm owned and operated by the United States military. Strawberry says that the reason he knows this is because the magic beans were given to him years before by an undercover military operative and even though he has only tried them once, they definitely worked. The undercover military operative who gave the magic "irrational confidence" beans to Strawberry went by the alias Gregory "The Operator" Popo.
Featured Image Source: The New Yorker
Headline Image Source: Sports Illustrated