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.
Uno Derrota
2017 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 3
HUMBLE. - If the last six months have taught us anything, it's that whining can take you a long way in Donald Trump's America. Case in point, Memphis Grizzlies head coach David Fizdale. Congratulations, Fizzy. Whining has now earned you a playoff victory against the San Antonio Spurs. In the least surprising development of the 2017 playoffs, to date, Memphis defeated San Antonio 105-94 on Thursday night to close the series deficit to 2-1 and place a nice, fuzzy bow on the city's obnoxious love affair with Fizdale's childish, classless, and unwarranted post-Game 2 rant. The fact that Memphis seized on the manufactured momentum to grab an emotional "backs against the wall" victory was the predictable outcome to Thursday night's contest. A Hollywood writers room couldn't have scripted it any better. There was more suspense in Thursday's new Game of Zones episode than there was in Spurs v. Grizzlies, Game 3. Note to Adam Silver: It's foolishness like this that provides fuel for conspiracy fodder that the NBA is just as scripted as WWE. Of course the team whose coach made an ass out of himself and his city (err, I mean stood up for his players) after going down two games to zero gets the vomit-inducing (err, I mean heart-warming) desperation win after returning back home a cult hero. Having already collected Fizdale's (err, I mean his players) $30K fine, why wouldn't the NBA do everything in it's power to make sure that the after-school special storyline of a coach who cares too much rallying his team to victory happens? That's just good television. I know the NBA is trying to angle it's way into the business of hosting award shows by putting on the NBA Awards this June but, come on. Usually in sports, awards are given for performance in competition, not for putting on an Oscar worthy performance for the media in the postgame press conference. But whatever, Fizzy is going to quickly learn that the award (a home playoff victory over the Spurs) which the NBA predictably bestowed on him for manufacturing a fake controversy is merely a participation trophy. Within the next week, David Fizdale is going to come to realize that he's still light years away from knowing how to coach on a level that earns real hardware, namely Larry O'Brien trophies.
Indeed...with his Monday night stunt, David Fizdale has already played his hand for this series. What a weak hand he was holding to feel compelled to so haphazardly play his cards two games into the 2017 Playoffs. The beautiful thing about Coach Pop is that his counter to Fizdale's loud, bombastic, desperate hand was quiet, stoic, and confident. Pop was so cool, calm, and collected on Thursday night, he almost made the Game of Zones White Walker caricature of him seem realistic. Pop's ice cold YIN to Fizzy's red hot YANG should provide startling evidence to every Memphis fan that their newly beloved coach is completely overmatched. The former (once again) did something that he's done several times before and something that no other coach in the history of the NBA has ever also had the stones to do. He waved the white flag and gave his opponent the victory with more than enough time left to mount a comeback. Pop did this in order to demonstrate to his players that their energy and focus to start the second half were completely unacceptable for a playoff game. In other words, he prematurely conceded the battle to help teach his soldiers how to win the war. Only down four after a relatively evenly played first half, the Spur came out after halftime and started the third quarter like we'd just been in the locker room celebrating 4/20. We committed two turnovers while the Grizzlies scored five points to start the frame. Carelessness like we displayed in the opening minute of the third is a telltale sign of littering and... so Pop rushed in like Jeff Sessions visiting Colorado and shut the whole thing down. He pulled Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge, Tony Parker, Danny Green, and Dwayne Dedmond one minute into the third quarter and replaced them with Pau Gasol, Patty Mills, David Lee, Kyle Anderson, and Jonathan Simmons because his starters had allowed Memphis to extend the lead from four to nine. There is not another NBA coach (current or former) that would have had the nerve to do that in a playoff game. In case you haven't noticed over these past 19 years, Gregg Popovich is playing chess. Unfortunately for Grizzlies fans, as much as they may have loved David Fizdale's fiery rant, such a weak hand is evidence that David Fizdale is playing checkers. On second thought, Pop hasn't even begun playing chess yet. This is still the first week of the first round, after all. Gregg Popovich is playing checkers like it's chess. David Fizdale, having gone all-in on his Monday night stunt, has already demonstrated he's playing checkers like it's Tic-tac-toe.
Here's the biggest misnomer about Game 3. The narrative is that Fizzy rallied his team to completely outplay the Spurs on Thursday night. That's true...but only if you reduce basketball to a free throw shooting contest. Fair warning: what I'm about to say is going to blow your mind. As much credit as the Grizzlies (and Fizzy in particular) were given for their Game 3 performance (and even despite Pop conceding the game early to teach our players a lesson), in actuality the Grizzlies didn't beat us in Game 3...we beat ourselves. The Spur were a horrendous 16-28 from the free throw line. Yep. We left 12 points on the board at the charity stripe in a game that we lost by 11. If we had made our free throws, which we're fully capable of doing (keep in mind, in Game 2, three nights earlier, we demonstrated it, going a ridiculous 31-32 from the line), despite everything else, we would have been right there at the end of the game with a chance to win. In all actuality, Memphis should be counting their lucky stars to have won Game 3. Had we shot that same percentage again on Thursday as we did on Monday, all Coach Fizdale's self-aggrandizing version of the Win One for the Gipper speech would've been able to muster is a shot for the Grizzlies to win Game 3 in overtime. It's kind of sad to think about the game in this context as a Fizzy-frenzied Grizzlies fan given that Pop threw in the towel with a quarter left to play. Also, knowing Pop, had the Spurs hit free throws in Game 3 allowing the bench to get the game to overtime, our plays checkers like chess coach would have awarded the bench players the overtime minutes and given them a chance to steal the game. By the way, Memphis does not have a good track record against the Spurs in overtime playoff games (having lost not one but two of them) in the 2013 Western Conference Finals. Don't get me wrong, Memphis fans should be thrilled to have finally snapped a ten game playoff losing streak to San Antonio. But being thrilled about it because you're buying the "Fizdale coached 'em up to dominate the game" narrative is delusional. Given all of this, you're probably not surprised that I am extremely confident in the #BlackAndSilver's chances to win Game 4 tonight in the FedExForum. By the way, the player of the game on Thursday was LaMarcus Aldridge. L.A. logged 16 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, and a block in 30 Game 3 minutes. We need him to keep up that type of production in Game 4. Combine it with a bounce back game from the backcourt tandem of Tony Parker and Maun Ginobili (who were both held scoreless on Thursday for the first time in the same playoff game in their illustrious careers playing together) as well as the type of dominance we've come to expect from Kawhi Leonard (aka the best player in the world) and the Spurs will have a fantastic shot to get the series back on track this evening. Gregg Popovich has played enough games of both checker and chess to not only know the difference between the two, but to also know that if we get back to playing focused, determined Spurs basketball in Game 4...we're going to be just fine. No need to panic yet. We just need our heroes to be heroes.
Featured Image Source: Yahoo Sports
Headline Image Source: San Antonio Express-News