Four Starboard
2019 NBA West 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.
Thirteen Port
2019 NBA West First Round, Game 6
Things Done Changed - Gregg Popovich is 3-3 coaching in Game 7s. He won his first at home on basketball's biggest stage in an 81-74 defensive masterpiece against the Detroit Pistons to closeout the bloodbath that was also known as the 2005 NBA Finals and capture our third NBA title. Manu Ginobili, the most beloved Spur that Pop has ever coached, was magnificent in the championship-clinching victory tallying 23 points (8-13 from the field, 5-5 from the line), five rebounds, four assists, and one steal. Coach Pop lost his second Game 7 the following season again at home, this time battling our Texas arch rival Dallas Mavericks in the 2006 Western Conference Semifinals. In that series, we stormed back from being down three games to one and would've closed out the Mavs with a Manu three in the last minute, except for future Hall-of-Famer Dirk Nowitzki having other ideas. We dropped a heartbreaker that night in overtime 119-111 largely due to Nowitzki's heroic 37 points, 15 rebound, three assist, one block, and one steal performance. Popovich coached his first-ever road Game 7 in his third winner-take-all contest in the 2008 Western Conference Semifinals against the New Orleans Hornets. After being 0-3 playing in New Orleans heading into Game 7, the Spurs closed out the Chris Paul-led scrappy Hornets 91-82. Manu once again led the way with 26 points, five rebounds, and five assists. Back on basketball's biggest stage, Coach Pop came up short in his second road (fourth overall) Game 7 in the 2013 NBA Finals, losing the game and the title 95-88 to the Miami Heat. Considering we'd just experienced the most painful loss in franchise history 48 hours earlier, it was a masterful coaching effort by Pop and a valiant effort by the Spurs but, ultimately, LeBron James' 37 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and two steal were just too much to overcome. In Pop and the Spurs very next playoff series, we served our rivals from Dallas some revenge for 2006, winning Pop's 5th Game 7 at home 119-96 in the 2014 Western Conference First Round against the Mavericks. Tony Parker played a dominant offensive game scoring 32 points en route to series win and ultimately our 5th title. The next season, once again in a Western Conference First Round Game 7 situation, Coach Pop and the Spurs, this time on the road (after dropping from the 3-seed to the 6-seed on the final day of the regular season with a no-show performance ironically in New Orleans) dropped another heartbreaker 111-109 to the Los Angeles Clippers. Chris Paul capped his 27 point, six assists performance with the game winner, a shot that was literally millimeters away from being blocked. So yes, all told, Coach Pop is 3-3 in Game 7s. The more perceptive among you may have noticed a pattern to Pop's 3-3 Game 7 record. For those of you that don't want to take the time to go back and re-read the paragraph in order to figure out the pattern, here it is: winning then losing then winning then losing then winning then losing. I'm no master code cracker, but it seems to me that according to the pattern, Gregg Popovich's next Game 7 should be a win. Of course (full disclosure), there was one constant in all of Coach Pop's previous six Game 7's that will unfortunately be noticeably absent for his seventh: The Greatest Power Forward of All-Time. Let's pause for a moment and pay our respects...
Tim Duncan - Career Game 7 Performances
2005 NBA Finals Game 7 - Detroit Pistons @ San Antonio Spurs
25 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks - 6/23/2005
2006 Western Conference Semifinals Game 7 - Dallas Mavericks @ San Antonio Spurs
41 points, 15 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 blocks, 1 steal - 5/22/2006
2008 Western Conference Semifinals Game 7 - San Antonio Spurs @ New Orleans Hornets
16 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal - 5/19/2008
2013 NBA Finals Game 7 - San Antonio Spurs @ Miami Heat
24 points, 12 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 assists, 1 block - 6/18/2013
2014 Western Conference First Round - Dallas Mavericks @ San Antonio Spurs
15 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 assist - 5/4/2014
2015 Western Conference First Round - San Antonio Spurs @ Los Angeles Clippers
27 points, 11 rebounds, 1 assist - 5/2/2015
Career Game 7 Averages
24.7 points, 12 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.3 blocks, and 1 steal per game
Happy Birthday, TD! I hope you had an awesome b-day on Thursday. How'd you like the party the San Antonio Spurs threw for you at the AT&T Center Thursday night? I know, right? That party was lit. Anyway, I actually have something else to discuss with you. I know you have the 21 USVI Duncan Relief Fund, your auto shop, kickboxing, and your wonderful family keeping you busy, but just in case all of that isn't adequately filling up your retirement calendar, I know of a nice little pickup basketball game that some of your friends will be playing here in Denver tonight. I'm sure they'd be happy to get the help of a 24.7 point, 12 rebound, 2.7 assist, 1.3 block, 1 steal power forward performance during tonight's Mile High run. So do you wanna come through? What's that? You're not going to be able to get here to Denver on short notice? Okay, gotcha. No worries, I totally understand. I know you're super busy. It was worth a shot, though, right? It's still all good that you can't get up here in time because one of your former teammates told me that as a belated b-day gift, he's going to honor you with his best attempt at an impersonation and put everything he's got into channeling your greatness from the moment the first ball gets checked until we turn out the lights because there's no challengers left to get next. Speaking of which, LA also asked me to tell you, "Happy Birthday, Old Man." Okay, cool. I'll let him know you said, "thanks." Alright, Timmy. It's been good catching up. Sorry to let you go but I've got a blog post to finish writing. Enjoy the rest of your birthday celebration. Let's talk again soon but in case we don't cross paths before it, I'm looking forward to seeing you the September after next in Springfield, MA.
* * *
On Thursday night, the heirs to Tim Duncan's San Antonio playoff fortress gave the former king of Texas postseason basketball a spectacular 43rd birthday present, defeating the visiting Denver Nuggets 120-103 at home in Timmy's house (aka the AT&T Center) to keep the season alive and force the first Game 7 of the post-Duncan era. With our backs against the wall and when we needed it the most, we finally got solid performances up and down the roster. As has often been the case in this series, our two stars led the charge. LaMarcus Aldridge came out of the gate in beast mode, scoring 13 points in the first quarter while setting the tone for the game with his intensity. LA finished his night with 26 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists. Not to be outdone, DeMar DeRozan (mostly a facilitator in the first half) aggressively attacked the heart of Denver's defense with an array of spectacular drives and pull up mid-range jumpers to score 12 points in the third quarter. DeMar finished with 25 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists. The player of the game, however, was Rudy Gay. Coming off the bench, Rudy had his best performance of the series contributing 19 points, four rebounds, and two assists in 28 tough-nosed minutes. Rudy's production was so critical, he got the POTG nod but I really want to emphasize that this was special all-around team elimination game performance. All five starters shot better than 50 percent from the field (DeRozan [12-16], Aldridge [10-18], Forbes [5-8], Poeltl [4-6], and White [4-7]) and for the first time since Game 1 of this series, our bench outscored the Nuggets' bench (36-13). Also for the first time since Game 1 of this series, the Spurs outshot Denver from deep going 10-24 (41.7 percent) compared to the Nuggets 6-24 (25 percent). While our shooters (with the exception of Patty [0-7]) made a marked improvement on three-point production (Rudy Gay [3-3], Derrick White [2-3], Bryn Forbes [2-4], Marco Belinelli [2-4]), I wouldn't exactly call it the break-out three-point shooting performance that we're overdue for in this series. That is good news heading into tonight. If things keep regressing to the mean (as they should) in Game 7, we can feel good that our shooters will make a huge impact from behind the arc in tonight's winner-take-all contest. Now more overdue for a breakout performance than any other Spurs marksman, I fully expect Patty Mills to be leading that charge.
There is nothing else in basketball quite like a Game 7. The pressure and the intensity are impossible to replicate so until a player has actually been through one, it's impossible for that player to truly know what to expect and fully appreciate the stakes. So how do the San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets stack up as far as prior Game 7 experience? I was curious to have the answer to this question so yesterday I did a little bit of research. First for the Spurs, DeMar DeRozan has the most Game 7 experience of any player in the series. For the 2014 Toronto Raptors, DeMar had 18 points (5-12 shooting) in 45 minutes in a First Round Game 7 loss to the Brooklyn Nets. In 2016, DeMar led the Raptors to a First Round Game 7 victory over the Indiana Pacers scoring 30 points (10-32 shooting) in 40 minutes. In the very next round, DeMar scored 28 points (12-29 shooting) in 35 minutes for the Raptors in a Eastern Conference Semifinals win over the Miami Heat. For the 2012 Memphis Grizzlies, Rudy Gay scored 19 points (7-15 shooting) in 40 minutes in a First Round Game 7 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. In the same game, Quincy Pondexter came off the Grizzlies' bench scoring three points (1-2 shooting) in 13 minutes and Dante Cunningham also came off the Grizzlies' bench scoring two points (1-2) shooting in three minutes. Quincy was also on the roster for the 2014 Memphis Grizzlies First Round Game 7 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, but was not active (out-for-the-season with a right foot injury). For the 2013 Chicago Bulls, Marco Belinelli had 24 points (8-14 shooting) in 41 minutes in a First Round Game 7 win over the Brooklyn Nets. In our infamous 2015 First Round Game 7 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, Marco had two points (0-2 shooting) in 18 minutes off of the bench. Patty Mills had six points (2-6 shooting) in 16 minutes off of the bench in the same game. Patty was also on our roster during the 2013 NBA Finals but was not active for Game 7. Donatas Motiejunas was on the 2015 Houston Rockets roster when they won a Western Conference Semifinals Game 7 over the Los Angeles Clippers but he did not play (out-for-the-season with a back injury). Funnily enough, in his 13-year NBA career, LaMarcus Aldridge has never played in a Game 7. Tonight will be his first.
The only rotations players on the Nuggets roster with Game 7 experience are Paul Millsaps and Mason Plumlee. As a rookie for the 2007 Utah Jazz, Millsaps scored two points in seven minutes off the bench in a First Round Game 7 win against the Houston Rockets. For the 2014 Atlanta Hawks, Millsaps scored 15 points (6-21 shooting) in 44 minutes in a First Round Game 7 loss to the Indiana Pacers. As a rookie, Plumlee logged scored two points and logged 5 minutes for the 2014 Brooklyn Nets in their Western Conference First Round Game 7 victory over DeMar's Raptors. Outside of the Nuggets' rotation, a pre-injury Isaiah Thomas scored 29 points (9-21 shooting) in 40 minutes for the 2017 Boston Celtics in an Eastern Conference Semifinal Game 7 win against the Washington Wizards. Trey Lyles was on the roster of the 2017 Utah Jazz who won a First Round Game 7 against the Los Angeles Clippers but Trey did not enter that game. And that's it. For most of Denver's core of young players who are playing in their very first playoff series, obviously tonight is going to be their first Game 7 experience. All told, the Spurs have 15 Game 7s under our belt (counting Pop's six) to the Nuggets four. Our players have logged 251 Game 7 minutes and scored 114 Game 7 points (led by DeMar's 120 minutes and 76 points). Denver's players have logged 96 Game 7 minutes and scored 48 Game 7 points (29 of those by Isaiah Thomas who is unlikely to see action tonight). When it comes to Game 7's, the San Antonio Spurs have a distinct experience advantage over the Denver Nuggets.
Unfortunately for us, the Nuggets have their own advantage tonight; this Game 7 is being played in Denver. Coming off of his monster 43 point, 12 rebound, and nine assist performance in a Game 6 losing effort, I'm sure Nicola Jokic is expecting to pick up right where he left off, this time with the luxury of a rowdy Pepsi Center crowd cheering him on. Much like Game 6, it may be part of Coach Pop's game plan to continue to allow the Joker to get his points but try to take away his cutters and shooters in order to throw Denver out of its offensive rhythm. Then again, the Michael Malone-tagged Bobby Fischer of basketball may attack the Nugget's king with a completely different strategy. Either way, the key to neutralizing Denver's homeport advantage is for us to slow down the pace, protect the ball, and (no matter how well Jokic plays carrying his team) limit the Nugget's fast break opportunities. I sat among the Denver fans last Tuesday during Game 5. There was a lot of nervous silence in the stands at the beginning of the game when we got out to a 9-4 lead. As soon as the Nuggets converted their first fast break and subsequently parlayed it into one of their lethal offensive blitzes the building erupted in noise and confidence. We can't allow that to happen again tonight. Instead, if we can limit fast break opportunities, the pressure and stakes of needing to rely on superior half court execution to prevail should weigh on Denver's young players and provide for a nervous rather than raucous Pepsi Center crowd. We need to set a tone that establishes the game will played at our pace from the opening tip tonight. Because we decisively control the experience advantage, the Nuggets may very well (in their lack of Game 7 experience) allow us to establish our pace. If they don't, we need to use our experience-advantage to force them into it because their home-court advantage becomes infinitely more powerful when they're allowed to get out and run. The crowd feeds off of pace and in return Denver plays better when they're able to feed off of the crowd. If we allow Denver to turn this into a track meet, we're probably in for a very long night. It's going to be interesting to see what ultimately wins out between our experience advantage and their home court advantage but because this is the first Game 7 for seven of the Nugget's nine rotation players compared to only four of our eight, I really like our chances to be the 29th team in league history to win Game 7 on the road.
The formula for completing the upset tonight and extending our season has three main ingredients. First, LaMarcus Aldridge needs to control the paint on both ends of the court the way Tim Duncan did in his first-ever Game 7. (You know, that one against the Pistons to win the 2005 title that we talked about earlier.) A trip to visit his former employer out in the Pacific Northwest is within reach and since I know that a trip down memory lane would be a lot of fun for LA, I'm confident he's going to rise to the challenge. The second ingredient is DeMar DeRozan using his series-high three Game 7s of experience to impose his will on the Denver Nuggets by attacking down hill, drawing fouls, and knocking down his patented turnaround jumpers. Despite being on a two-game Game 7 winning streak (and being the best player in both of those games), there is an existing narrative that DeMar DeRozan is a playoff choker. Most of that criticism comes from DeMar's Raptors repeatedly falling short against LeBron James, the game's greatest active player. So while, in my opinion, the narrative is unfair, but it exists nevertheless. Tonight, free of the pressure that comes with putting an entire nation on your back, DeMar can silence the choker narrative and cunningly pass it along to Denver's young superstars to see how they handle the annoyances that come with failing to meet expectations. After a season of getting to experience the competitiveness of Double D, I know he's preparing to do exactly that. Finally, there's Coach Pop. Nothing would be more Popiavellian (yes, with all respect due to Niccolò Machiavelli, I'm stealing this) than to devise a gameplay for tonight that steadily applies atmospheric pressure to Denver's playoff oxygen until it eventually evaporates into the Mile High air. The old ball coach has seen and prevailed in every imaginable situation (including this one) and has had an entire season now to teach his first Duncan-Parker-Ginobili-less group of players since the 1996-97 season that the key to playoff success is to continue pounding the rock until it breaks. Tonight, with the greatest coach of all-time manning the sideline, the #BlackAndSilver will have the formula for breaking the formidable Denver Nugget rock into a thousand tiny pebbles. And if we follow that formula with attention to detail, competitiveness and execution, we will get to savor in the experience of watching every single last pebble drop from the highest-elevated Rocky Mountain peak back down to earth like a rolling stone.
Featured Image Source: Beats from Beijing
Two Starboard
2019 NBA West 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
One Starboard
2019 NBA West First Round, Game 2
Fire - So close, yet so, so far away. When we went up 19 points (42-23) with 8:28 still to play in the second quarter, of course I was pleased, but I wasn't thrilled. All I could think about was how many eternities were left in the ballgame and how potent the offense of the team in the city I call home (and therefore the team I watch more than any team in the league other than my own) has the ability to be when it gets hot and starts swaggin' long-range bombs followed by filthy dunks off of backdoor cuts followed by long-range bombs. The combination of a 19 point lead, 32 minutes to play, and Denver's extensive offensive artillery had me feeling uneasy, to put it mildly. The concern was not without warrant. It only took 5:07 of game time for the Nuggets to trim our 19 point advantage down to 6 (46-40). After we slowly but steadily rebuilt our lead to eventually establish a second 19 point advantage (78-59) with 4:28 still to play in the third quarter, once again, I was pleased, but I wasn't thrilled. In fact, I was even more uneasy than the first time around. Now I had already seen in this very same contest that Denver only needs 5:07 of playing time to chop a 19 point deficit down to a two-possession game and last time I checked, 16 is a lot more than five. If they are capable of making up 13 points in five minutes, they are capable of changing a 19 point deficit into a 20 point advantage when there's still 16 minutes left in a game. Once again, the concern was not without warrant. In the end, the Mile High City basketball club did not change a 19 point deficit into a 20 point advantage during the final 16 minutes of the game but they may as well have.Last night, the Denver Nuggets defeated the San Antonio Spurs 114-105 relying on a furious fourth quarter comeback that, let's be honest, was absolutely necessary to save their season. After struggling mightily for the first seven quarters of the series, Jamal Murray was sensational in the final frame last night scoring 21 of the Nuggets 39 fourth quarter points. And that was all the difference Denver needed to not only get back into the series but also reclaim some of the mojo that we had methodically sucked from their souls over the course of the first seven quarters of the series. Let's be clear, you can't give up 39 points in the fourth quarter and expect to win a playoff game on the road. Coach Pop said as much (but not much more) in his two-question, one minute postgame press conference that lasted about as long as his April 3rd appearance at the Pepsi Center. By the way, isn't it funny how scared reporters have become of asking Pop questions in these postgame press conferences? You can sense the same paralyzing fear in these reporters as was displayed on the court for the first seven quarters of the series by the home team. Unfortunately for Spurs fans, the Nuggets figured out a way to overcome their soul-sucking fear and play basketball just in time to save their season. Contrarily, I don't think these reporters will overcome their fear of Pop's wrath in time to save their souls. Souls or not, too scared to ask Pop a question or not, they still got to write their stories about all of the season saving that happened on the court last night. And for us as Spurs fans, we should make sure and read between the lines: this is going to be a long series and it's anyone's to take.
That being said, I'm really pleased to be leaving the Pepsi Center with a split. The Nuggets have the best home record in the league and we got what we needed in the hardest place in the NBA to do it. I'm also pleased with the way be played in Game 2 and the fact that we put ourselves in a position to virtually end the series in two. Trust me, I know that blowing a lead like that is a tough pill to swallow but I think the comeback was much more about the Nuggets finding a way to constructively channel their desperation to regress to the mean (to use a Manuism) than it was about the Spurs choking away a playoff game. Could we have made some better decisions down the stretch and generated better looks to close the game? Absolutely. But overall, we played a hell of a game considering our opponents were playing for their season. Our three best players, in particular, played fantastic. LaMarcus had 24 points, eight rebounds, and three assists and did a solid job of keeping the Joker in check. Derrick White established a new playoff career high of 17 points and consistently made timely shots throughout the game. I'm pleased to announce, though, that for the very first time in the stories history of the Black & Silver blog series, the player of the game is DeMar DeRozan. DeMar was deadly, dropping in an efficient 31 points on 11-19 shooting while also contributing seven rebounds and two assists. My favorite stat and a stat that will greatly improve our chances of prevailing in the series should it become a trend: DeMar only had one turnover in Game 2.Where we came up short last night was a lack of firepower off of the bench. The bench combined for only 23 points on 9-25 shooting. That's simply not good enough against the best home team in the league. I have complete confidence, though, that this problem will be rectified in Games 3 and 4. Tomorrow, the best home team in the league is about to become a sub-500 road team. While sensation at the Pepsi Center (34-7), the Nuggets went a subpar 20-21 on the road during the regular season. And did I mention that tomorrow they'll be playing in the AT&T Center, a building that hosted a a 32-9 home team of its own? I guess I have now. Our bench has played fantastic at home the entire season and I have no reason to believe they won't deliver similar results during these playoffs. So yes, despite losing Game 2 late after leading most of the night, I'm really pleased to have earned a split in Denver. We are a really, really good home team. Three out of the next four possible games will be played in San Antonio and if we can defend our home court as if it were the Alamo, we will advance to the Western Conference Semifinals. Such is the magic of stealing home court advantage away in one of the first two games of a playoff series as the higher-seeded team. In Fifteen Port, I reported that (since my dream of having the Spurs play a playoff series against the Nuggets so I could go to a Spurs road playoff game had been realized) my wife and I would be purchasing tickets to attend Game 5 should Game 5 become necessary. Last night after Pop's marathon of a press conference, we secured our tickets for next Tuesday night. If we take care of business at home starting tomorrow, next Tuesday could bare out to be our first opportunity for the #BlackAndSilver ride into the next round. Here's to hoping my Game 5 ticket proves to be my ticket to ride right alongside.
Featured Image Source: The Denver Post
Headline Image Source: Starboard SUP
Four Saṃsāra
2018 NBA West First Round, Game 5
All Night - In his late-14th Century poem “Troilus and Criseyde,” Geoffrey Chaucer penned the phrase, “All good things must come to an end.” The poem is about the tragic love story of Troilus and Criseyde and is set against the Siege of Troy as a backdrop. As with every good thing that has come before, one could assume the love affair between the city of San Antonio and winning at the highest level in the NBA has finally come to an end against the backdrop of the Siege of Uncle Dennis. Coming into the 2018-19 season, many of the so-called experts were salivating with delight to make this assumption. There was a healthy trend among the handsomely paid prognosticator lot to pick the San Antonio Spurs to finish 9th, 10th, or even 11th in the Western Conference standings for the 2018-19 season. After all, more than a few of these so-called experts have already been predicting our demise for going on a decade or more now. You might think that year after year of being proven wrong time and time again might humble these so-called experts and perhaps even push them to feel the human emotions that we, the self-aware Homo sapiens, call embarrassment and shame. Unfortunately, should you think this, you'd eventually come to discover that our NBA prognosticator friends are callously devoid of these human emotions. As it turns out, being a so-called NBA expert requires one to suffer from a quite vicious personality disorder: talking-out-of-your-assicissism. Every season, something in the so-called NBA expert's gut tells him or her that this will be the year that the San Antonio Spurs run of sustained excellence will end and his or her ego implores him or her to make this prediction as loudly and flamboyantly as possible, evidence be damned. Isn't it funny how we never (ever ever ever) hear an acknowledgment of getting it wrong from the so-called NBA expert when the season ends and the Spurs have qualified for the postseason once again? In fairness, who has time to admit a mistake when you've got a busy schedule of cashing your lucrative "expert" checks and polishing your precious talking points so they're ready to be recycled for the next season. It is a little known fact that in every broadcast journalism program in the country a class is offered called "How to Be an NBA Expert For Dummies 101." In this class, future prognosticators are taught by their esteemed instructor Jeff Van Lundy (it's an online class, so yes, JVG teaches it everywhere) to take a lesson from the saying that Austrian writer Marie von Ebner-Eshenback is credited with penning: even a broken clock is right twice a day. This is surely sound advice for almost every NBA prognostication a future so-called expert will be asked to make during his or her career. Unfortunately for Van Gundy's students, there is one glaring exception. When it comes to the San Antonio Spurs run of sustained excellence and the so-called experts who cover us, the broken clocks are never right.If you're reading this and asking in your head, "But Ted, what about last season? The Spurs were merely first-round fodder for the eventual-champions. How does that count towards sustained excellence?" Of course we all remember when on April 25th of last year, the San Antonio Spurs were eliminated by the "gluttony of more" Golden State Warriors 99-91 in Game 5 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals. (The player of the game was LaMarcus Aldridge with a workman's 30 points, 12 rebounds, and four assists.) I would argue that the defeat came with a huge asterisks. For the first time since the Spurs drafted David Robinson in 1987, a Spurs franchise player put himself ahead of the team. And not only did this player put himself ahead of the team, make no mistake about it, he flat out quit on the team in mid-March. Setting aside for a moment the fact that Kawhi Leonard abandoned the franchise that helped develop him from a raw wing-defending prospect into an NBA superstar, San Antonio still won 47 games and entered the postseason with a roster (on paper) that was equipped to compete for a championship. Keep in mind that Stephen Curry was injured and ruled out for our first-round series against his Warriors. Now pick back up that Kawhi thing. Had the medically-cleared-to-play Leonard possessed the integrity and competitive spirit to set his aside his ego and instead earn his paycheck, the Spurs / Curry-less Warriors first round matchup would've been a toss up. Trust me, had Leonard played, there would've been a googolplex of Silicon Valley tech geeks sweating through their Kevin Durant Warriors jerseys so profusely, you'd've been able to see the purple bleeding through from the Kobe Bryant Lakers t-shirts they wear underneath. (Yes, this is descriptive writing calling out Warriors fans for being bandwagon converted Kobe-era Lakers fans.) The bottom-line? Had even a rusty Leonard chosen to play in the first round matchup with the Curry-less defending champion Warriors, I believe the Spurs win the series in 6. Last season's inability on the part of the Spurs to overcome being ghosted by Kawhi Leonard and consequently bowing out in the first round to the defending champs in five games is simply a bad luck break. When you field a championship-caliber roster every single damn season, you're going to have a few of those seasons end because of bad breaks. 2018 was no different than 2009 (when Manu was out for the playoffs due to injury) or 2000 (when Timmy was out for the playoffs due to injury). Sure, in this case, we were dealing with a pampered star who could've played and chose not to whereas those other players were stars because they were willing to give their left nut (in Manu's case, literally) for the opportunity to compete for a championship. But in the end, it's nearly impossible to legitimately compete for a ring when one of your best players misses the playoffs and effectively, that truth is what sealed our 2018 fate. This, friends, brings me full circle to my original point. SCORE BOARD ALERT: The San Antonio Spurs have been in title contention for over two decades and have booked the following results:
1998: 56 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
1999: 37 wins, NBA Champions
2000: 53 wins, Western Conference Quarterfinalists
2001: 58 wins, Western Conference Finalists
2002: 58 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
2003: 60 wins, NBA Champions
2004: 57 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
2005: 59 wins, NBA Champions
2006: 63 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
2007: 58 wins, NBA Champions
2008: 56 wins, Western Conference Finalists
2009: 54 wins, Western Conference Quarterfinalists
2010: 50 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
2011: 61 wins, Western Conference Quarterfinalists
2012: 50 wins, Western Conference Finalists
2013: 58 wins, NBA Finalists
2014: 62 wins, NBA Champions
2015: 55 wins, Western Conference Quarterfinalists
2016: 67 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
2017: 61 wins, Western Conference Finalists
2018: 47 wins, Western Conference Quarterfinalists
2019: 48 wins, To be determined...
Somehow, we continue to defy Marie von Ebner-Eshenback's logic (which just so happens to be backed by the scientific laws of physics) that even a broken clock is right twice a day. The so-called NBA experts predict our demise year over year and year over year Coach Pop leads the Spurs back to the playoffs and makes them look foolish. With all deference to the wisdom in the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, all good things mustn't come to an end. One good thing continues to persevere. The Spurs enter the 2019 NBA playoffs with a roster equipped and in position to make another deep postseason run. To tie a bow on this thought, I see the writings of Ebner-Eshenback and Chaucer and raise you the writings of the incomparable Mark Twain. Paraphrasing Twain, reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated.
* * *
Hello, Mr. Leonard. Can I call you Mr. Leonard? I know I used to call you Kawhi. But I used to think we were (Spurs) family. I also used to think you were the Chosen One. I used to believe in you so much, you're tagged in the Black & Silver blog series more times than Tim Duncan for Pop's sake. But that was then and this is now. Given what’s transpired, I feel much more comfortable calling you Mr. Leonard, if it’s all the same to you. Oh, and I fully plan to rectify the tagged-more-times-than-Timmy problem before the completion of the 2019 installment.
Think whatever you want about the way the Spurs handled your injury, the bottom line is that you quit on the team. As far as I’m concerned, your choice to abandon your team during the 2018 playoffs is a black mark on your career that will permanently be a part of your legacy. As far as I’m concerned, you can now never earn a place in the history books among the fiercest competitors, best players, or greatest champions. No matter how many accolades you rack or how much adulation is showered upon you moving forward by Raptors fans, or Clippers fans, or Lakers fans, you will always be remembered in my book as Kawhi Leonard: Quitter or Kawhitter for short. I know last time we spoke during the Golden State series, I defended your choice to err on the side of caution with your injury and sit out. What I’ve come to understand is that by late-March of 2018, I was already in the grieving process for coping with your betrayal but at the time of the Golden State series (late-April 2018), I did not know it yet because I was smack dab in the middle of the denial phase.I always knew that the Big Three era of Spurs basketball would eventually come to an end. But your decision to put yourself ahead of the team sure did have a way of ensuring that the end came with guillotine precision. Four-time Champion Tony Parker: signed to the Charlotte Hornets. Four-time champion Manu Ginobili: retired. God damn, Mr. Leonard. What, did you stop by and egg Tim Duncan’s house on your way out of town too?
There was so much I wanted to say to you after the trade last July. I was filled with so much anger, hurt, confusion over your betrayal I was ready to write a novel about it. Frankly, after reflecting on things for eight months now, I no longer feel you're worth the energy it would take me to spend 10,000 words excoriating you. Look, we have an NBA regular season of separation now from the divorce. Time and distance really do make a difference. I don’t know if I’ll ever really know your reasons for asking for the divorce and for as long as I live, I know I’ll occasionally circle back to ponder what might have been, what should have been had Zaza Pachulia not wrecklessy ended your 2016-17 season in Game 1 of the 2017 Western Conference Finals and set into motion this “Back to the Future Part II” alternate reality that has you playing the role of pampered superstar for another NBA franchise instead of continuing to accept the challenge of replacing Tim Duncan as the Black & Silver face of the franchise and raising more banners into the AT&T Center rafters. But time and distance have allowed me to really appreciate the fact that I get to watch DeMar DeRozan every single night. DeMar is one of the most electrifying scorers and playmakers to ever take the court in a Spurs uniform. From an entertainment standpoint, give me DeMar's silky-smooth 360 spin move to the rack that results in an improbable kick out to a wide-open shooter in the corner over your methodical, deliberate, tunnel-vision turnaround jumper every single day of the week. Of course Demar is not the defensive player that you were for us. I'm okay with that, though, because Derrick White and DeJounte Murray have the potential to be and when both of them finally have the opportunity to take the court together alongside DeMar, Aldridge, and Poeltl I'm happy with our chances to once-again field an elite defensive lineup for the 2019-20 season.
Anyway, I guess that's it, Mr. Leonard. I don't want to keep you. I'm sure Uncle Dennis has a New Balance commercial shoot he needs you to bring your personality-less personality and creepy Grandpa laugh to as soon as we wrap up. Oh wait, there he is now pulling back into the parking lot in his new 2020 limited-edition Mercedes Coattails 500. Man, that's a nice ride. He deserves it, though. He's put it a lot of long, hard, laborious hours converting you to the Dark Side of the Force. Closure really is a wonderful thing, isn't it, Mr. Leonard? You see how closure is allowing us to joke again? Look, you're even smiling. As much as I appreciate your smile...wait, please don't laugh. Save it for the New Balance commercial. Whew, that was a close call. In all seriousness, Mr. Leonard, thank you for your contribution to the San Antonio Spurs. Thanks for your role in raising that fifth championship banner into the AT&T Center rafters. I wish you nothing but the best of luck with the rest of your career (except against the San Antonio). Please tell Danny we miss him.
* * *
Tim Duncan had brief flirtation with the Orlando Magic in the summer of 2000. I remember in my heart at the time, I didn’t think he would leave. Don’t get me wrong, I remember being scared shitless and a nervous wreck for several weeks, but deep down I believed unequivocally in his loyalty to my team and city. The day it was announced he was re-signing with San Antonio, I remember thinking, “there is no longer any doubt that he will be a Spur his entire career.” And, as it turned out, I never once had to go back and question that thought during the final sixteen years of Timmy's career.
There was a brief 48-hour period during the summer of 2016, when ex-Spurs assistant coach Brett Brown and his Philadelphia 76ers made a strong play to acquire Manu Ginobili with a massive two-year $30 million contract offer, that I was forced to entertain the idea that the most beloved Spur of all-time might not play his entire NBA career for the franchise. I remember not having to dig as deep as I did during Timmy’s 2000 free-agency to find the confidence to believe in Manu’s loyalty. In the end, as I expected, the Spurs ponied up some overdue extra cash to a legend who had been underpaid the previous year (a measly 2.8 million) and re-signed #20 to a one-year $14 million contract putting the uncomfortable contemplation of having to see Manu in another jersey to bed quickly. 48 hours of minimal doubt over the span of a 16-year career ain’t bad. You couldn’t ask for less discomfort.
Of the Spurs legendary “Big Three,” Tony Parker was the only one that forced me to regularly contemplate the idea of him taking the floor at the AT&T Center as a visitor at some point in his career. The “Tony Parker might not re-sign” rumors started as early as 2009. After losing in five games during the first round as the three-seed in the 09 Playoffs to the sixth seeded and rival Dallas Mavericks, Tony Parker started giving quotes about how the Spurs were no longer at a championship-caliber level. For the next three years, rumors swirled on San Antonio’s local sports talk radio about Tony jumping ship. From his initial comments until the unraveling of his marriage to actress Eva Longoria, the specific rumor was that Tony would eventually leave the Spurs to go play with Kobe Bryant out in Los Angeles for another hated-rival, the Lakers. Once he was divorced from Longoria and the Hollywood lifestyle, that rumor slowly faded but Tony continued to talk openly about eventually leaving the Spurs for another NBA club until the Spurs were rebuilt to go on another three-year-long championship hunt from 2012-14. After the Spurs were bounced in the first round of the 2015 playoffs in a hard-fought seven game slugfest of a series with the L.A. Clippers, Tony restarted public contemplation of ending his career for another NBA team and added a new wrinkle. He threw in the possibility of finishing his career playing professionally in his native France for the EuroLeague club he owns, Villeurbanne. Suffice it to say, of the Spurs’ “Big Thee,” Tony Parker is the one who, in regards to his legacy, seemed the least concerned about playing his entire career in Black & Silver.
The announcement on July 7th, 2018 that Tony Parker would sign a two-year $10 million deal with the Charlotte Hornets was not shocking, but it was still surprising and it coupled as utterly gut-wrenching. After 17 seasons at the helm of our ship, it was hard to imagine TP in another uniform. So yes, it was weird when the first photos of TP wearing Purple and Teal surfaced on Twitter. And yes, it was uncomfortable to watch him come off the bench at the Amway Center in Orlando on October 19th, 2018 and lay a goose egg on 0-5 shooting in 16 minutes for the Charlotte Hornets in his first NBA game not playing for San Antonio (he did have six assists, though). And, of course, it was flat-out weird to watch Tony return to the AT&T Center on January 14th to help his Hornets defeat our Spurs 108-93 with eight points and four assists in 19 minutes off the bench. All of this was tough. All of this was weird. But given the history of Tony speaking openly for a decade about the possibility of leaving the Spurs that's documented above, none of it was shocking.
As we struggled with the weirdness of Tony toiling away as a mentor and role player for a middling squad in the Eastern Conference, thankfully there was closure to be had and it came late in the season in the form of Manu Ginobili's jersey retirement ceremony. As luck would have it (or perhaps this was intentionally planned), the Spurs play the Hornets in Charlotte the game before Manu's jersey retirement night. With permission from the Hornets, Tony flew back to San Antonio from Charlotte on the Spurs' team plane to attend the ceremony. During the game, he was spotted sitting next to Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili in the stands. By the time Tony delivered his hilarious and fitting tribute to Manu during the ceremony, it felt as if he never left. In that moment, not only did I get closure from the weirdness of Tony Parker: Charlotte Hornets Back-Up Point Guard, I realized the deeper context driving the closure. TP's new identity as a journeyman is a technicality. Tony Parker is a Spur for life.In thinking about the quintessential Tony Parker moment, I remember too many dagger pull-up jumpers to seal a playoff win to name or count. The one play that seems to stand out was from Game One of the 2013 NBA Finals. Even though we ultimately did not win that series, the play epitomizes the craftiness, fearlessness, resilience, and perseverance that Parker played with throughout his entire 17-year Spurs career. I'm just going to leave the clip of that shot right here and end these reflections by saying, #MerciTony.
* * *
It was about this time of year. I remember feeling hyped for the postseason. We were heading into the playoffs as the three seed but that was of no matter. After all, we had just one the title two years earlier from the very same position as a three seed. I got up on an early-April morning daydreaming about how we were about to be going on a tear back to the NBA Finals (and getting some Western Conference Finals revenge on the Los Angeles Lakers in the process) when I checked my phone only to discover that the top headline in the San Antonio Express-News was that Manu Ginobili would miss the playoffs due to injury. In an instant, right then and there, I knew we would not be making that tear back to the Finals. For all intents and purposes, the season was over. Sure enough, we were upset by the Dallas Mavericks in five games in the first round.If I could sum up Manu Ginobili in one word, it would be hope. As long as Manu Ginobili was suiting up for the San Antonio Spurs, I had hope that the last game of each season would end with the Black & Silver hoisting a trophy. Only the fiercest of the fierce competitors genuinely illicit hope on that level. The Larry Birds. The Michael Jordans. The Kobe Bryants. Manu Ginobili belongs right alongside these players on the pantheon of the NBA’s greatest competitors. Coach Pop expressed this exact sentiment in a video tribute that was played during Manu's jersey retirement ceremony on March 28th. No matter what the situation, no matter how big the odds stacked against us, as long as there was time left on the clock and Number 20 was on the court, Spurs fans could always bask in the eternal warmth of hope. There was always a chance because of Manu Ginobili's competitiveness.
I'll be honest, I'm feeling overwhelmed trying to write this Ginobili retirement piece and put into words what Manu has meant to me as a life-long Spurs fan. I summed Manu (the player) up in one word: hope. I'll respectively sum up my experience as a fan watching his entire NBA career in one word as well: joy. The competitiveness, the creativity, the basketball intellect, the relentless will to win; all such a joy to watch night after night, year after year. Reflecting on the fact that I no longer get to watch the most beloved Spur of all-time play basketball doesn't make me sad. I set out into my reflection thinking that it will but the instant a vision of Manu Euro-stepping through traffic to finish at the rim or Manu throwing a bounce pass to a cutter between his defender's legs appears in my mind, I become consumed with joy. There's no way around it. Every memory that I have of Manu playing basketball makes me happy. The way he played the game was so joyous, even in the past-tense there is simply no room for sadness. Every season. Every game. Every moment bring a smile to my face. None so more than this:
I watched the aforementioned Manu Ginobii retirement ceremony from my hotel room at the Rome Cavalieri. I think there was something poetic and fitting about me getting to watch Number 20 go up into the AT&T Center rafters from Italy, the country Ginobili left (after playing two seasons's of professional basketball for Basket Viola Reggio Calabria) when he moved to San Antonio, Texas in 2002 to begin his NBA career. It was cool to celebrate the end of Manu's NBA journey from the place in which it began. I imagine Italy danced through Manu's mind more than a few times during that ceremony. When reflecting back upon a journey, it's only natural to think of its origin. The idea that Manu was peering back to Italy that night, peering back to the beginning, and I was able to experience Italy peering forward and back around the globe to reflect with him in San Antonio makes the notion of Manu's career cyclical and renders beginnings and ends obsolete. In other words, Manu's career is timeless and to be celebrated as a living, breathing fierce part of the present in perpetuity.
The game started at 1:30 am local time, so by the time the post-game retirement ceremony had concluded, it was almost time for the sun to rise over Rome. I figured Alba di Roma was something worth putting off a little extra sleep in order to experience so I decided to stay awake for it. I waited out on the terrace of my hotel room and watched as the colors slowly started rising from the silhouettes of the mountains behind the city. Out on that terrace, I watched the sun rise in all of its newness and spectacular beauty with my mind still on Manu and his career. I thought about the timelessness of Manu Ginobili the basketball player and how I will continue to experience his career body of work it in all of its newness and spectacular beauty for as long as I breathe (and probably beyond).Revisiting that terrace in Rome as I write these words todays brings me comfort and relieves me of the burden of feeling overwhelmed in writing this piece. I have forever to get my thoughts down on paper regarding Manu Ginboili's retirement and what his career meant to me and since all good things mustn't come to an end and the Spurs will continue making the playoffs forever, I'll have endless opportunities to revise these thoughts as part of the Black & Silver blog series. That being the case, let me end with this: #GraciasManu. It was an absolute privilege to watch you play basketball for my San Antonio Spurs de principio a fin.
* * *
Alotta the so-called experts predicted the #BlackAndSilver to miss the playoffs. They never learn. The irony? Even if the "experts' pooled their money, bought the team, got rid of the current roster and made themselves the replacements, so long as Coach Pop is still manning the bench, he would still drag them to the playoffs. As I'm putting the finishing touches on this, one of the most important Black & Silver posts to-date, the San Antonio Spurs are preparing for Game 1 of our first round matchup for the 2019 NBA Playoffs, our NBA record-tying 22nd consecutive appearance in the postseason. More on that tomorrow. For now, it's clear that a lot of things have changed in San Antonio since I wrote One Nirvana 355 days ago. A lot has changed but one thing remains the same. The San Antonio Spurs are in the playoffs and (broken clocks beware) are a threat to win the title. Much like the sunrise or the brilliance of Manu Ginobili's career, the sustained excellence of the San Antonio Spurs is eternal. We've merely experiencing a Black & Silver: Reincarnation. All good things mustn't come to an end. Reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated.
Video Source: NBA on YouTube
One Nirvana
2018 NBA West First Round, Game 4
Pray - I mean, it's basically stupid at this point. How many Is This Real Life moments can one individual, singular, unitary player of basketball have? Just when you think he's reached the Tip Your Cap And Call It A Day bitter end and he can't possibly continue to pull more of that handkerchief out of his pocket, his eye twinkles as he slips you a little wink and then proceeds to seduce you with a devious grin which draws your attention away from the fact that he is also continuing to pull that handkerchief out of his pocket. Yesterday afternoon, Manu Ginobili sold out the premiere of This Is 40: Part Two like it was Black Panther. I must say, it was mighty kind of him to select the AT&T Center as the venue for the premiere. The ageless one went so classic, he lit up Fiesta 2018 and the San Antonio skyline for a vintage fourth quarter performance that held the Warriors at bay and kept the #BlackAndSilver season alive. Manu scored 10 points in the fourth (including the final five points of the game) to help the San Antonio Spurs defeat the Golden State Warriors 103-98. Manu's fourth quarter heroics included two breathtaking three pointers and an improbable You Want To Stop Me Bad But I Want To Score On You Worse turnaround push shot over reigning defensive player of the year Draymond Green. Overall, Ginobili finished the night with 16 points (5-10) shooting and five assists. Suffice it to say, the future-hall-of-famer was the player of the game. The victory had the further significance of making Manu and Tony Parker the winningest teammates in NBA Playoff history with 132 playoff victories together. Who, you might ask, did they surpass to secure this prestigious anecdote in NBA history? Only Tony Parker and a little-know retired Spur named Tim Duncan. That pair previously held the record with 131 NBA playoff victories as teammates. Sorry for the loss of your record, TD. But hey, you and Tony are still No. 2. Oh and bye the bye. You're also No. 3. Timmy and Manu as teammates just so happen to be hold that third slot with their combined 126 playoff victories as teammates. In case you were wondering, Kobe Bryant and Derrick Fisher (123) and Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen (117) round out the top five sets of most winningest teammates.
We can now officially say that the San Antonio Spurs have not only qualified for the playoffs but won at least one playoff game for twenty-one consecutive seasons. For those of you keeping score at home, that's Tim Duncan years in a row. For those of you who are really keeping score at home that's 172 playoff victories in 21 years. And for those who are JAY-Z counting at home, THAT'S AN 8.2 PLAYOFF VICTORIES EVERY DAMN SEASON AVERAGE. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not a betting man but I would be comfortable in betting the farm that that is an NBA record that will not only stand for my lifetime, and not only for my unborn child's lifetime, but it will also stand for my unborn child's child's lifetime. As much fun as it is to add more armory to the impenetrable fortress that is the sustained streak of excellence that the San Antonio Spurs have enjoyed these past two decades and change, I can't lie...no matter what else happens this series, it felt so good yesterday to get a W. It felt Exhale A Well-Deserved Sigh Of Relief good to get a playoff W against that team during the most trying season in franchise history. Props to Ettore Messina. He did and excellent job in Coach Pop's absence. (It's really cool that a coach who helped develop Manu as a 21 year-old over in Europe also got to coach him during an NBA playoff victory as a 40 year old legend.). Props also to our reliable All-NBA power forward. LaMarcus Aldridge battled the Warriors inside for the entire afternoon yesterday to deliver a rugged 22 points (7-19 shooting) and 10 rebounds. Incredibly three of those seven made field goals just so happened to be three pointers. LA was perfect from beyond the stripe including a SUPER LIT bank three with roughly four minutes left in the game and the Spurs clinging to a four point lead which, like Manu's clutch push shot, just so happened to be over reigning DPOY Draymond Green. So once again, I leave you (as I did in the last post) with no prognostications or expectations on what is going to happen tomorrow night in Game 5 back in Silicon Valley. All I know is that 30 something hours after that beautiful Game 4 victory, I'm still all warm and fuzzy inside with such a happy #GSG feeling. I know that feeling will be there when I wake up tomorrow morning but, much like a Fiesta party that spontaneously pops off in a neighbor's backyard in the early afternoon, I'm trying to keep it going all night.
Two Saṃsāra
2018 NBA West First Round, Game 2
Wonderwall - Dear Kawhi, isn't it funny how so many of these so-called experts and insiders have filled your silence with so much noise? I'll be honest. As a die-hard fan, it's been a really hard year. Knowing your competitive spirit, I can't even begin to try to imagine how hard the year has been for you. But as a die-hard fan, believe me, I'm trying to imagine it. I'm trying to imagine your frustration and your uncertainty. I'm trying to imagine your isolation and your pain. I'm trying really hard to imagine what you must be experiencing to be deciding to stay away from the game and your team when the organization has medically cleared you to play. I say this not with judgement or condemnation but with utter bafflement because, knowing what I know about you, I simply can't imagine what you're experiencing to need to be in New York right now instead of San Antonio. I'm trying hard to imagine, but I just can't seem to fill the vacuum that is your silence. Even though I can't fill the void in my own mind, knowing what I know about you, one thing I can say is that most of this noise coming from the pundits to fill the void is laughable. You and I know that these noise-makers, these so-called experts aren't interested in knowing what's in your head right now. They're interested in figuring out what they can say about what's in your head right now that will generate clicks and traffic. In other words, they're not interested, given your quiet nature and your consistency in avoiding the media like the plague throughout your nine-year history as a public person, in taking your March statements at face value. They're interested in generating profits through sensationalism. Silence is boring but speculation sells. A hundred trade scenarios dissected by a thousand blog boys will generate a million clicks and voilà...everybody is making money off of your silence (including the moms who provide their blog boy sons with basements). You and I both know this that his is how the internet works in 2018 and that is why I return time and time again to your March statements as my quiet place to try to block out the noise. I'm not panicking because I know you too well to believe any of this hype. The so-called experts would have Spurs fans believe that they have miraculously established in 2018 some secret back channel (that has never, ever existed before this season) and have penetrated the Fort Knox vault that is the Spurs organization's inner-circle to get the inside scoop on what is happening between you and the team. Sure. We both know that the pundits' conspiracy theories on you are faker than Donald Trump's conspiracy theories concerning illegal voter fraud during the 2016 election. You and I both know that the notion you're sitting out the 2018 playoffs and foregoing one of the precious few chances you'll get to compete for a championship in this fleeting thing we call an NBA career because you're worried about jeopardizing a super-max contract offer this summer is such a joke, it's actually insulting. We both know you don't play the game for money. You play the game for the love. You play the game to win. You play the game to be the best. You and I also know that the notion that you're sitting out right now because your relationship with your team's front office is so broken, you're angling to force a trade during this offseason is equally ridiculous. We both know that you put the game of basketball before the business of basketball. We both know you would never pass up the opportunity to force Kevin Durant into a live ball turnover so that you could take the opportunity to force R.C. Buford into turning over his franchise cornerstone during the offseason. You and I further know that the notion that you're sitting out right now because of a players' only meeting or because of something that Gregg Popovich, or Tony Parker, or Manu Ginobili said about your injury to the media is the biggest whopper of them all. You spilled blood, sweat, and tears together with these men for six years. You died together in Game 6. You were resurrected together a year later. You've been in the trenches with this general and these brothers through all of the battles and all of the wars but the so-called experts would have us believe that you're sitting out because of hurt feelings? Because the most professional, tight-nit locker room in modern American sports has inexplicably deteriorated this season into a junior high lunch room? You and I know know that's not how the Spurs were built and it's certainly not how you're wired. I don't blame you for not dignifying these so-called experts and their overloaded wheel barrels of horse manure speculation with answers. Having said that, what about us Kawhi? What about the die-hard fans? I mean no disrespect but now that we're in the playoffs, don't we deserve a press conference? A statement? Don't we deserve to know whi our 2018 championship dreams are likely shattered? Can you imagine our frustration and uncertainty? Can you imagine our isolation and pain? Don't we, the die-hard fans who have allowed you to go about your craft quietly in our city in a way you would never have been allowed to do in Los Angeles, or New York, or Boston, or Philadelphia at least deserve a sentence from you regarding your playoff status? I have been a die-hard Spurs fan since David Robinson's rookie season in 1989 or since about 20 months before you were born and I've gotta tell you, I've endured more anxiety as a Spurs fan this season over the uncertainty surrounding your injury and the delicate state in which it has left our championship aspirations than I have in the previous 29 years combined. Sure, the 1996-97 season was tough, but that year was propped up by the hope that landing a franchise cornerstone from the Virgin Islands could be on the horizon. This year, our season has been haunted by the dark cloud of terror of losing a franchise cornerstone from Los Angeles, CA could be on the horizon. Even though I return day after day, week after week to your March statements as my quiet place and my shelter from this dark cloud of terror, the noise has become impossible to block out because you have chosen to remain silent since the playoffs have begun. So here's a simple, humble request to you, Kawhi, from a die-hard fan (and when I say die-hard fan I mean of both yours and the special, special little South Texas basketball powerhouse for which you have the privilege of playing): consider coming back to help us win this championship, this year. And if that is not possible, let us, the die-hard fans know whi. Because I don't believe the so-called experts' speculation that is now churning at a fever pitch speed and continues to increase each pitch, I think it's fair for me to give you my best guess as to whi you remain out even though the organization has medically cleared you to play. My guess is that you don't want to become Bill Walton, Grant Hill, Isaiah Thomas. My guess is that you are such a fierce competitor and your love for the game is so strong that, as much as it hurts to sacrifice this season, that pain pails in comparison to the pain you would feel to lose the prime of your career to a chronic injury and you're simply not willing to take that risk. When Zaza Pachulia stepped on your foot in Game 1 of last year's Western Conference Finals, I believed, without qualification, that you had ascended to the mountaintop and grabbed the title of best basketball player on the planet. My guess is that you're dying to get back to that level and you are not willing to take any amount of risk that this injury will rob you of your opportunity to climb that mountain again. If I'm guessing correctly, that is completely understandable. Die-hard Spurs fans will understand. All you have to do is let us know. Even if you choose to keep your silence all the way into the offseason, I may be baffled but I won't be angry. I will continue to support you because that's what die-hards do and until you break your silence, I will continue to try to block out the noise. Another thing die-hards do? Hope. As long as our 2017-18 season and this playoff run are alive, I will continue to hope for your return to the court as starting small forward for the #BlackAndSilver. Whi?
Because maybe you're gonna be the one that saves me.
* * *
We played well enough to win. We made every single adjustment we needed to make. We lured the Warriors into 15 turnovers while only committing nine ourselves. Our defense was ferocious and our intensity exceeded our opponents. Most importantly, LaMarcus Aldridge was a beast. The player of the game punished Golden State with 34 points (11-21 from the field, 12-12 from the stripe) and 12 rebounds. We led by six at halftime. We led by one with 4:44 left in the third. We were right there. Sometimes you can do everything you need to do and it's still not enough. Asterix Champion Kevin Durant and Proven Champion Klay Thompson combined for 63 points on 22-39 shooting. The Warriors as a team went a sharp 15-31 from deep while we went a putrid 4-28. Sometimes shots don't fall and you simply can't win in the playoffs (especially against the champs) shooting the basketball like that. What're you gonna do? Back in Silicon Valley at Oracle on Monday night, the San Antonio Spurs fell once again to the Gluttony of More Golden State Warriors 116-101 to fall into an 0-2 hole in our Western Conference First Round series.
The bottom line is that if we had hit more of our wide-open threes in Game 2 and if Bryn Forbes hadn't committed that bone-headed "clear path" foul that set Klay Thompson off on his own personal 6-0 run early in the fourth quarter, the Spurs would've won Game 2 and the entire complexion of this series would be looking entirely different right about now. As far as I'm concerned this is a relatively evenly matched series. Both teams are missing a superstar. LaMarcus is playing at such a high-level right now, he basically cancels out Durant. Is Klay better than anything we have as a second option? Sure, but I'll put the collective experience of Coach Pop, Parker, Ginobili, Gasol, Mills, and Danny Green up against Steve Kerr, Thompson, Draymond Green, Andre Iguadola, Sean Livingston, and David West and really like our chances. We are a really good home team so if we can figure out a way to take care of business down in the Alamo City tomorrow and Sunday (while Fiesta is conveniently popping off with Oyster Bake), all of the pressure shifts back to Golden State for Game 5. What part of die-hard don't you understand? I will never stop believing. I will never give in. I won't back down.
* * *
I was in the final stages of editing this post when the news broke of Erin Popovich's passing. This is such devastating news. Coach Pop kept his family life extremely private but from all that I've read and heard over the years, Erin was remarkable person. I want you, the readers, to know that everything I had previously written for this post (the Kawhi letter, the Game 2 analysis, the unwavering confidence in our chances to turn the series around) seems embarrassingly trivial now when juxtaposed against humanity and mortality in such an acute, piercing way. This has been such a tough week. Already this week I've been reflecting upon the passing of a close family friend in Texas, a colleague of mine in Germany, and former First Lady Barbara Bush. It is only Wednesday. Rest in peace, dear Erin Popovich. My heart goes out to you and your family, Coach Pop. May the outpouring of support from the NBA community and your #SpursFamily bring you some comfort.
Featured Image Source: ClutchPoints
Headline Image Source: Pounding the Rock
Twelve Ahead
2016 NBA West First Round, Game 4
The Background - It was the Fourth of July around 10:00 am when I heard the news. My wife and I were getting ready to head up into the mountains to visit with family and celebrate the holiday. Despite the fact that we were running late, as soon as the texts started popping up on my phone I had to stop packing my bag and investigate for myself. Sure enough, I was immediately able to confirm what multiple friends had already been texting to me. On his Twitter account (which is currently deactivated), LaMarcus Aldridge aka the top free agent available on the 2015 open market wrote, "I'm happy to say I'm going home to Texas and will be a Spur!! I'm excited to join the team and be close to my family and friends." Bam, just like that with this one simple tweet, the San Antonio Spurs' championship window was yanked back to being more wide open than a refrigerator in the Inside the NBA break room thirty seconds after the show wraps. Wait a second, I'm understating the magnitude of LaMarcus' tweet. Not only was the Spurs' proverbial championship window reopened, but the screen and glass were completely removed from it so that the winds of triumph could continue to flow freely into the AT&T Center for the next four seasons to come. Indeed, this one simple tweet paved the way in allowing a transition for Tim Duncan aka Time's Father (the greatest winner in the modern NBA) to move quietly into the background this year (along with perennial running mates Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker) while LaMarcus and Kawhi Leonard took over center stage in putting together what would later prove to be the winningest season in franchise history. Given that I had been tempering my optimism about our chances of landing LaMarcus during the free agency courting period (the Spurs had never signed a free agent of Aldridge's caliber in franchise history), that moment on the Fourth of July where I heard the good news engendered a simply amazing feeling. It was a grand mixture of disbelief, excitement, and of course (being that it was Independence Day) patriotism. Yep, it's safe to say that I was bouncing off the walls elated that morning. The Spurs were back. Granted, this would be a new remixed version of my beloved team, but we were definitely back. As my wife and I finished packing and got on the road, I couldn't wait to get up into the mountains so that our elevation would match my mood. When we finally reached our destination, I got out of the car and breathed in a deep breath of the crisp mountain air and coupled it with the world class fireworks show that was popping off in my chest. Cloud nine. Man, what an amazing morning that was. Oh, and the phenomenal barbecue feast we had up in those mountains later that evening wasn't too shabby, either. God bless America.
LaMarcus Aldridge to sign with the San Antonio Spurs. God bless America! #LAtoSApic.twitter.com/npBk0VU2Pj
— Ted James (@tedjames) July 4, 2015
This past Sunday, LaMarcus and Kawhi indeed took center stage as the San Antonio Spurs completed a sweep of the depleted Memphis Grizzlies at the FedExForum in Memphis. After a competitive first half, the Spurs made quick work of the Grizzlies in the second half and won the game and series going away 116 to 95. The karmic powers that be in Tennessee (yep, that rhymes) must have seen the writing on the wall because they attempted to turn the lights out on the Grizzlies season a couple of hours too early. LaMarcus and Kawhi (the one-two punch of the remixed Spurs) amassed 36 points and 17 rebounds in only 54 minutes of combined game action while securing the victory as well as the welcomed six days of rest that came with it. Considering that we are the oldest team in the field, completing a sweep in Memphis and becoming the first team to advance to the second round (giving us more rest at this point than any of our potential opponents) could prove to work to our advantage in the coming weeks as the competition gets stiffer. While LaMarcus and Kawhi had equally dominant outings closing things out at The Grind House in Game 4, LaMarcus edges out Kawhi to earn his first ever Black & Silver player of the game honors. LA earns the honors not only for his Game 4 double-double (15 points, 10 rebounds) but also in recognition of the stellar defense he played the entire series on Zach Randolph. LaMarcus' length frustrated the Grizzlies best available player and prevented him from being able to put together a signature performance in any of the four games. While everyone has been focused the entire season on how LaMarcus Aldridge fits into our offense, it is the way that LA has seamlessly plugged into our defense that has probably been his biggest contribution in helping to transform the #BlackAndSilver into a 67 win juggernaut. Sure, no one would have labeled LaMarcus a defensive stalwart back in his Portland Trail Blazers days. He was certainly a serviceable, but no one was mistaking him for the second coming of Hakeem Olajuwon (or Tim Duncan for that matter). However, when you put his length and quickness next to Timmy and a certain Defensive Player of the Year named Kawhi Leonard, all of a sudden you have one of the most formidable defensive front courts in NBA history. The numbers bare it out. San Antonio league best defense was not only vastly better than the next best defense in the league this year, it was historically great. Back to LaMarcus' offense for a second. With less touches and less minutes this season, a lot has been made of the slippage in LaMarcus' offensive numbers playing for the Spurs. Numbers can be deceiving. A lot of that slippage had to do with LaMarcus learning how to find his spots in the Spurs offensive system early in the season. A lot more of it has to do with him adjusting to our "good to great" unselfishness as a group. Make no mistake about it, though. LaMarcus Aldridge is still one of the most dangerous post weapons in the entire NBA. His ability to get buckets in the low block and on put backs is a huge safety net that we did not have last year.
After the Memphis Grizzlies were dispatched last Sunday in what proved to be a record-breaking ninth sweep for head coach Gregg Popovich, the Spurs returned home to get some rest and also to prepare for our good friends Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Starting tonight, the two teams will square off in the playoffs for the third time in the past five seasons. With the Thunder taking the 2012 Western Conference Finals and the Spurs returning the favor to win the 2014 Western Conference Finals (both series ending in six games), it's fitting that we are being treated to this postseason rubber match. Fitting, but considering that OKC boasts two of the leagues six or seven best players (yes Mark Cuban, Russell Westbrook is a superstar and tests confirm that Kevin Durant is correct, you're an idiot), this is a very scary second round matchup. It is going to take the Spurs playing disciplined, focused basketball to take care of business in this series. We need to limit OKC's fast break attempts and force them into half court sets as much as possible. Whether Scott Brooks or now Billy Donovan, the Thunder are not known for picking teams apart through complicated half court offensive wizardry. That is why limiting OKC's opportunities to use Durant and Westbrook's speed and athleticism as a way to push the tempo will be crucial to our game plan. Sure, the Thunder are bringing two incredible weapons into the AT&T Center this evening but one of our biggest advantages in this series is that, overall, we boast a much deeper arsenal. Depth is a huge advantage for us against OKC. Players three through ten on the Spurs' depth chart include future hall-of-famers Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili. Once you get past Durant and Westbrook, the Thunder simply can't match our firepower. On July Fourth, the San Antonio Spurs landed a major weapon in LaMarcus Aldridge. What made the signing so spectacular, however, was placing LA in the mix with the incredible arsenal of weapons we were already stockpiling deep in the heart of Titletown, TX. It's true that we are facing an incredible challenge in this series because of the scope of the two huge guns our northern neighbors will be deploying in the Alamo City tonight, but hopefully the Spurs will prevail in this series because, when it comes to weapons, we don't have to just rely on LaMarcus and Kawhi. When it comes to weapons, we've gotta lotta.
Featured Image Source: The Morning Call