One Left
2014 NBA Finals, Game 4
Juicy - It was all a dream... All thirteen players that suited up for the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of the 2014 NBA Finals dotted the box score with at least two points. Yes, thirteen players scored for one team in an NBA Finals game. This has never happened before. The NBA expanded the active roster for an NBA game from 12 to 13 players during the lockout-shortened 2011-2012 season. We are currently in the third NBA Finals series played since that happened and in no contest from 2012-2014 had all 13 players scored for one team until Thursday night. The San Antonio Spurs used 40 field goals (25 of them assisted), 18 free throws, and 13 different scorers to defeat the Miami Heat 107-86 in Game 4 and for our second consecutive blowout victory on the road in this series. So many different people scored for the Spurs Thursday night, I'm pretty sure even the Coyote was in the box score with a dunk. We came back to Miami this week seeking not just a split, but rather redemption for our last two NBA Finals appearances in American Airlines Arena. And this was no easy task. The Triple A, now housing the two-time defending champions, had apparently become more intimidating than ever because the Heat were undefeated at home in the 2014 NBA playoffs heading into these Finals. We also returned to the scene of San Antonio's greatest playoff disappointment to face an opponent who had not lost back-to-back playoff games since dropping Games 3, 4, & 5 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals to the Boston Celtics. Well, we came back to Miami and, as the Spurs often do, we were able to find a way to be the team that put an end to our opponent's impressive streaks. More importantly, we also got our coveted redemption. It sure doesn't hurt, either, that we got in such emphatic fashion.
The San Antonio Spurs were able to navigate the past several weeks to arrive back in the city of blinding lights and achieve our redemption in American Airlines Arena by just continuing to play outstanding team basketball during these NBA playoffs. In fact, since May 4 when the Spurs blew out the Mavericks 119-96 in Game 7 of our first round series we have (on most nights) played some of the best basketball that the league has ever seen. During this impressive stretch, the Spurs have gone a solid 12-4 (.750 winning percentage) but have won our twelve victories by an average of 20.08 points per game (the only close contest was the Spurs' five point overtime victory to closeout the Thunder in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals). Granted, the four contest that we have lost during this stretch (by an average of 8.75 points per game) and the prior three contests that we surrendered to the Mavs (by an average of 4.67 points per game) will prevent these Spurs from having a shot at being remembered as one of the most dominant teams in NBA playoff history, but in our wins we have played impeccable team basketball. Rarely, during this stretch, has there been a victory that has been the byproduct of a signature performance by one of our star players. In last years run to the 2013 NBA Finals, the Spurs rode Tony Parker's brilliant play to many a playoff victory. While Tony, Tim Duncan, and Manu Ginobili have all played stellar basketball throughout this year's run, we have not needed to rely on any of our big three to put up huge numbers in order to win. We have just shared the basketball night in and night out and overwhelmed our opponents with our depth. And the Spurs are not just deep, we are Indian Ocean deep. Better yet, we are Jack Handey deep. Case in point, the aforementioned ability of this team to get thirteen players into the scoring column in an NBA Finals game is proof enough that this is an historically deep basketball club. Here is one of the Spurs player's lines from Thursday night: 20 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks. Looking at it in a vacuum, one would assume that this line probably belonged to Tim Duncan but that would be an incorrect assumption because this was the line of Kawhi Leonard: NBA superstar. Here's another line from Thursday: 14 points (on 5-8 shooting), 2 assists. Again in a vacuum, one would assume that this could be Tony's line on an efficient shooting night in a game where the defense was predicated on getting the ball out of his hands early. Again, this would be an incorrect assumption because this was Patty Mill's line which he impressively put together in 16 minutes and from his role as back-up point guard. Here's one more: 8 points, 9 rebounds, 9 assists, 1 steal. That's Manu Ginobili's line, right? Obviously, Manu is the only Spur who is versatile enough to put together a near triple-double without having a huge scoring night. Guess again, Boris Diaw is also that versatile. By the way, on Thursday night the big three (while not needed to dominate) still contributed to the team win. Tim Duncan had 10 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 1 blocked shot. Tony Parker had 19 points and 2 assists. Manu Ginobili had 7 points, 1 rebound, and 2 assists.
In the flow of San Antonio's team efforts, Bloriff Diaw has indeed had an astronomical impact on this series, especially since he was inserted into the starting lineup alongside Tim Duncan for Games 3 & 4 in what Coach Pop refers to as Medium Ball. In last year's Finals, Miami was able to punish the Spurs for playing our traditional lineup of Tiago Splitter and Tim Duncan because we were unable to close out regularly enough on all of Miami's shooters when they went small. When we adjusted by trying to match them with our own small lineup featuring Manu Ginobili in the starting lineup, the Heat proved to be slightly better than us at Small Ball, winning two of the final three games. Boris Diaw playing at the level he is playing at this year, with all of his versatility, changes everything. On defense, Boris has had the quickness to defend the three point line while also protecting the rim. On offense, he has had the size and low post skills to punish Miami for going small as well as the passing skills of a point guard which has allowed us to run much of our offense through him down on the block and from the point forward position. Boris Diaw's impact on this series is a testament to the Spurs depth in the respect that we have so many weapons that we can eventually devise a strategy and find one to strategically utilize in order to completely change the trajectory of a Finals series. Even though Kawhi had another monster game on Thursday night, I am giving Boris the nod as player of the game because he has been that trajectory-altering weapon for the Spurs in the past two games played in Miami.Fortunately for Spurs fans, when Heat coach Erik Spoelstra looks beyond his four future hall-of-famers and down his bench to find players who can make a momentum-changing impact on the series, to this point, he has been unable to find the weapons to match ours. Boris' ability to impact this series in drastically more ways than the fifth or sixth player on the Heat's depth chart is also a testament to the brilliance of Gregg Popovich as a basketball tactician. Employing Medium Ball has allowed the Spurs to take Miami completely out of their game. Coach Pop is generally regarded as the best basketball coach currently coaching in the NBA despite the fact that he has had some really heart-breaking playoff defeats over the years at the hands of some good but probably inferior coaches. One of the reasons why Pop garners so much respect is that he has been proven time and time again that, if you are an NBA head coach that has figured out a way to beat the San Antonio Spurs in a playoff series, you do not want to give Coach Pop a year or more to game plan how to approach a playoff rematch. He really has had the ability to look under the hood and figure out the necessary personnel moves, player development, and eventually a game plan to overcome whatever match up problems your team and your game plan had presented him with in the series that you beat him in. In the past two seasons alone, Coach Pop has already gotten revenge on Lionel Hollins and the Memphis Grizzlies for our 2011 defeat and Scott Brooks and the Oklahoma City Thunder for our 2012 defeat. This series is far from over, but it seems at this point that Miami's best hope for clawing their way back into the 2014 NBA Finals will come via a herculean effort by LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, and Ray Allen. It seems much less likely that Erik Spoelstra has the personnel nor the strategic savvy to dig his team out of this hole by making a tactical adjustment that utilizes another one of the Heat's weapons.
It appears that many among the national media covering the NBA are utterly shocked at the level of team basketball that the Spurs have been playing during these NBA Finals. It continues to be mind-boggling to me that very few of the people who get paid to report on the NBA all season didn't already know how good the Spurs are and couldn't see this coming. Before this series began, I compared these Spurs to the 1988-89 Detroit Pistons who overcame a heart-breaking seven game defeat to the Los Angeles Lakers the year before to come back and sweep the two-time defending champion Lakers out of the 1989 NBA Finals. These Spurs came within a few missed free throws in Game 2 of sweeping the two-time defending champion Miami Heat out of this years Finals. It has been quite apparent to me after watching both of these teams all season that the scenario we find ourselves in was not only a possibility but more likely a probability. Somehow (heading into this match up), the so-called experts continued to not know about the potential that these Spurs have for all-time historic greatness. ...and if you don't know, now you know.
Nonetheless, as much as I would love to definitively say that the Spurs have broken the will of the team that eliminated us from the postseason last year, I've been watching NBA basketball long enough to know that is very unlikely and that this series is, indeed, far from over. Even though it has never happened in the Finals, eight NBA teams have overcome 1-3 holes to win a playoff series. Heading into tonight's contest, it would be ludicrous to think that the two-time defending champion Miami Heat are incapable of becoming the ninth. The main reason that Spurs fans must refrain from celebrating prematurely is because LeBron James is just too good to go down without a fight. While our team play has been hitting on all cylinders these past two games, LeBron had already proven once in this series that his individual greatness can rattle our unit enough that we can still be forced into abandoning the team defense and ball movement which we must rely on in order to win games. We can also still be pushed into playing a desperate brand of basketball in which our defense takes unnecessary risks in reaction to a player of LeBron's caliber and consequently (after a player like that gets into a rhythm where he is dictating the action by creating his own offense and also setting up his teammates), Tony and Manu sometimes respond by reverting back to playing one-on-one basketball on offense in an attempt to neutralize the momentum of the other team's star player. Tonight, the greatest basketball player in the world is going to be highly motivated to impose his will in order to try to force us into playing that desperate style of basketball again. San Antonio cannot fall for the trap. If we continue to stick to our defensive principles and share the ball on offense, it will not matter what LeBron does individually to create his own offense. Even if LeBron is able to play the best scoring game of his career, as long as we do not allow him to use his offensive gifts to break down our defense to the point where he is dictating both his own offense and also getting his teammates going, the Heat will have a hard time winning (even if LeBron goes for 60). This is provided that we also don't turn the ball over repeatedly and continue to execute our ball movement on the other end. In other words, LeBron James is capable of winning tonight's ball game. He is not capable of winning it if he is not allowed to take us out of our game by reeking havoc on defense and also both scoring and getting Wade, Bosh, and Allen going as well on offense. If the #BlackAndSilver take the court tonight at the AT&T Center and proceed to use one of the deepest rosters in NBA history to play together in pursuit of Revolution 1, we will put ourselves in position to win another playoff basketball game against a great player whose team just happened to get the better of us last year. It is that simple. Sometimes the best team is simply the best team and is able to prove it more times than not against individual greatness. If we consistently play our game tonight, chances are it will be demonstrably apparent to every viewer (including those who happen to also be members of the national media) that we are indeed the better team. The Spurs did not start this transformation to becoming the best team last Tuesday or in April or even last October. Gregg Popovich has been preparing the 2013-2014 San Antonio Spurs to be the best team by equipping us to be better than the 2012-2013 Miami Heat since June 21st, 2013. Now that the transformation has taken hold, hopefully tonight is another night that we are able to prove it.
* * *
Wish you were here.
Featured Image Source: Widescreen Wallpapers
Headline Image Source: The New York Times
Two Left
2014 NBA Finals, Game 3
City of Blinding Lights - It has been quite a long time since the San Antonio Spurs have had a superstar basketball player on our roster who was born on the American mainland. 29 years to be exact. "How could this be?" you ask. Well, Tony Parker obviously doesn't fit that criteria. He was born in Bruges, Belgium on May 17, 1982. Manu Ginobili obviously doesn't fit the criteria either. He was born in Bahía Blanca, Argentina on July 28, 1977. "Tim Duncan?" Although he was born a U.S. Citizen, it is pretty well universally known among basketball fans that he doesn't fit the criteria either. Timmy was born in Christiansted, United States Virgin Islands on April 25, 1976. "Hold on, surely David Robinson was born on the American mainland, right? After all, he postponed beginning his NBA career for two years to finish his commitment to the United States Navy. His nickname is the Admiral. He is practically Captain America." Actually, while David Robinson was born in the continental United States, even he does not fit the criteria because he was born on the island of Key West, Florida on August 6, 1965. So there you have it. The last player to fit the criteria was a nine time NBA All-Star, made the All-NBA First Team five times, and was a four time NBA scoring champion. He stopped playing for the franchise in 1985 and his number 44 jersey has been hanging from the rafters in the AT&T Center (the Alamodome and HemisFair Arena previously) for quite some time. As far as being born on the American mainland and also going on the become a superstar basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs is concerned, George Gervin, who was born in Detroit, Michigan on April 27, 1952, might finally have some company. 22 year old Kawhi Leonard, who was born in Riverside, California on June 29, 1991 (six years after The Iceman played his last game for the franchise), had a performance Tuesday night on basketball's biggest stage that just might have cemented his ascension to superstar basketball player status. Leonard scored 29 points on 10-13 shooting (3-6 from deep) in Game 3 of the 2014 NBA Finals to spearhead a 111-92 Spurs road victory over the Heat at American Airlines Arena in Miami. Thanks in large part to the performance of Kawhi, home court advantage in the series has officially been grabbed right back.
Not only did Kawhi shoot lights out, but he also collected 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocked shots while playing stellar defense the entire game on the world's best basketball player. LeBron James was limited to 22 points and committed an uncharacteristic seven turnovers with Leonard draped all over him for big stretches of the game. After two games in this series and a split at home, San Antonio Spurs fans had been worried because Kawhi's performance had not been able to rival the breathtaking showcase of his abilities as a two-way player he had unleashed during the 2013 NBA Finals (averaging 17 points and 11 rebounds). For Games 1 & 2 of the 2014 NBA Finals, Kawhi put up only 9 points and 2 rebounds in each game and was in constant foul trouble committing 9 personal fouls in 56 minutes and fouling out of Game 2. He seemed tentative with his decision making back in San Antonio and he was allowing James to be the aggressor in their one-on-one match up on both ends of the floor. It is no secret that the acquisition of the draft rights for Kawhi Leonard during the 2012 NBA draft is one of the primary reasons that the Spurs have reemerged as championship contenders over the past couple of seasons. Coming into Game 3, Spurs fans knew that it would be extremely difficult for us to win a road game against the two-time defending champions if we continued to get the tentative Kawhi from Game 1 & 2. We knew that we needed the beast-mode Kawhi from the 2013 Finals and Tuesday night we got that and then some. Whi played a breathtaking game and asserted himself as a dominant force from the jump by hitting his first six shots on his way to scoring 16 points in the first quarter and outdueling LeBron in the process (James had 14 first quarter points). Leonard, as the primary defender on James, then proceeded to hold LeBron to only eight points over the course of the final three periods. Kawhi clearly was on a mission on Tuesday to make up for his earlier struggles in the series and his superstar performance made him the runaway choice for player of the game. By the way, only two other players in NBA history have scored 29 or more points in an NBA Finals game before enjoying their 23rd birthdays. Their names? Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant. Last night, Kawhi Leonard: NBA superstar may just have indeed arrived.
* * *
Yes, the Spurs might actually have our first NBA superstar on the roster that was born on the American mainland since George Gervin in 1985. In fact, in this period that constitutes R.C. Buford's tenure running the franchise's basketball operations, I would venture with near certainty that the San Antonio Spurs have had the fewest American basketball players suit up for our team of any franchise in the league. I can't imagine that it is even close. You would be hard pressed to find a better collection of international athletic talent on display any where in the world over the past 10 years than the basketball roster that the Spurs have sent on the court night in and night out and currently have competing in the NBA Finals. Thinking about the Wild International uniqueness of the Spurs yesterday, I was reminded of a preseason game I attended a few years back with my best friend, Brian and my wife, Jenn. I knew that I had tweeted before that particular game so I used my Twitter feed to help me remember when it took place. It turns out that it was a preseason game that occurred as we were embarking upon the 2009-2010 season. On a side note, after locating the tweet I also realized just how long ago 2009 was technologically. If I had had a fully developed Twitter game back in the fall of 2009, the tweet from that day would have looked slightly different:
Going to the Spurs game tonight. Seats on the 15th row. 2nd best seats I've ever had. Pop better play Timmy, Manu, and Tony.
— Ted James (@tedjames) October 9, 2009
After scrolling back through my Twitter feed to 2009, I almost chuckled remembering how primitive my skills at using the platform were back then. Knowing what I know now as an unverified Twitter ninja, the tweet would have probably been reworded and abbreviated so that it could have also included @thebdub and @JHook528 and #GoSpursGo. This would have made for a much more nostalgic trip back down #MemoryLane (You see what I did there? Ninja skills). At any rate, what prompted me to think about a random preseason game yesterday was that it had served as an interesting opportunity to watch the best international basketball club in the world actually play another international club. The Spurs took on Olympiacos Piraeus B.C. at the AT&T Center that night. I remember that the three of us had an amazing time watching an interesting game. What stood out to me about the game, more than anything, was that because we had been fortunate enough to have unbelievable seats on the 15th row, we were close enough to the court to hear the players communicate. To my surprise, I heard less English from the Spurs at times than I heard from the Olympiacos squad led by Josh Childress. The current version of the Spurs is even more international than those teams at the beginning of the decade. Despite all of the English As a Second Language (EASL) barriers that the Spurs have had to work around each and every season during the R.C. Buford era, it is quite obvious that basketball (at the least the way its played in San Antonio) is a universal language. The San Antonio Spurs, in the truest sense of the word, are the world's best basketball team.
As often happens, reflecting on one positive memory triggers the remembrance of another. That night, after the game, Brian came over to Jenn and my house to partake in another one of our other favorite past times along with rooting for the Spurs...barbequing. On countless occasions after Jenn and I had bought our house in 2008, Brian came back into town to kick back with us, have a few cold ones, listen to music, and eat. If we were grilling food on a Friday or Saturday night and there was any possibility that Brian could get away from Austin, he was there. Sometimes we would have large gatherings of friends over to barbeque at the house. Other times it was just the three of us. Either way, there was nothing more enjoyable than hanging out with Brian late into the night on our deck (or before we built it, in the driveway) discussing politics, music, and of course the Spurs. Brian and I were known to overdo it from time to time. Every once and a while, a few cold ones turned into a few too many. One of those nights was on the eve of the 2009 Inauguration of Barack Obama. Brian and I were so excited about the historic event we were about to witness the next morning that we just stayed up right through the night. As the sun was rising on the morning of January 20, 2009, Brian and I were wide awake, deep in conversation, and listening to music. One of the songs that I distinctly remember us listening to during that brilliant sunrise was a song that had become somewhat of an Obama for America campaign theme song: "City of Blinding Lights" by U2. Memories have a funny way of fusing together the things that you miss about the important people you have lost. I miss listening to music with my best friend. I miss watching the Spurs with my best friend. In reverence to these things that are now absent in my life, the songs that appear in this year's edition of the Black And Silver blog series originate from a playlist entitled Brian's Cuts that I created for his memorial party.
* * *
San Antonio put on an historic exhibition of basketball on Tuesday night during the first half of a game played under the blinding lights of the city that boasted an undefeated home record in American Airlines Arena during the 2014 NBA playoffs heading into Game 3. We scored 41 points in the first quarter. We scored 71 points in the first half. We made an NBA Finals record 75.8 percent of the shots that we attempted in those two quarters. It was a beautiful display of sharing the basketball that happens only once upon a dream. As perfection is an unobtainable pursuit in an endeavor as complex as an playing an NBA basketball game, the 2014 San Antonio Spurs may never reach Revolution 1: the art of teamwork perfected, but during the first half of Game 3 we seemed hellbent on trying. That was probably about as close to a perfect display of team basketball as has ever been seen on a stage as grand as the NBA Finals. Hopefully, since we came up a little short of perfection (missing 24.2 percent of our shots by the end of the half), the Spurs can make another run at perfection tonight. We are going to have to play even better than we did on Tuesday in order to return home from Miami unscathed and to give ourselves an opportunity to close out the champs at home on Sunday. While tonight's game is a must-win for the Miami Heat, in my opinion it is also a must-win for us. Miami has proven over and over again that they will make you pay for allowing them to hang in a series in which you've had the early upper hand. Yes, it is becoming harder and harder to argue the fact that the Spurs are the best team in the NBA. San Antonio has won two games in this series by sharing the basketball and relying on our cohesion as a collection of international talent to overwhelm the Heat in those two contests. The Heat, however, still have the best basketball player in the world and were able to win Game 2 because of his determination and his brilliance. The longer a series is prolonged, the better the chance that the best player has of imposing his will to outlast the best team.
The reason for this is that the longer that the best player is able to keep his teammates afloat, the more confident they will become in their own abilities to help him persevere thus elevating their entire group closer to the level of the better team. Once the two teams are playing on closer to an equal footing, the lesser team has a much better chance of utilizing the best player in the world to steal the series. We have seen that movie before and I am not interested in seeing a sequel. The heartbreak of Game 6 much less LeBron James' series clinching jumper in Game 7 last year never happen if the Spurs had somehow found the energy and resilience to match the Heat's desperation in Game 4 and impose our will. Tonight it will be even more difficult than it was last year because Miami has the added advantage of playing Game 4 at home. We are facing an extraordinary challenge tonight against the defending champs. I believe, however, that if the #BlackAndSilver continue to play our wild international brand of basketball in pursuit of Revolution 1, we will be up for the challenge. We came to Miami this week for redemption, not for a split. The juicy gossip on South Beach is that there might be a new superstar coming to town next season. What is being overlooked in all the hysteria surrounding the possible completion of the Heatles is that, perhaps, there is a new superstar in Miami at this very moment. Even when your game is as American as apple pie and as smooth as ice, when you are quieter than Tim Duncan sometimes it takes a while for people to take notice that the thing that makes you a superstar is playing your role to help your team play winning basketball in the most hostile environments and for the biggest stakes. Kawhi Leonard, you might just be the brightest star in the city of blinding lights tonight.
Featured Image Source: Atchim
Seven Right
2014 NBA Finals, Game 2
Starin' Through My Rear View - The Miami Heat lead the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals five to four after coming into the AT&T Center last night and stealing Game 2 of this year's series 98-96 in front of 18,581 properly cooled off Spurs fans. My fear coming into last night was that the Heat were capable of stealing Game 2 by forcing the Spurs into committing an uncharacteristic number of turnovers and then converting those into fast break points at the other end of the court. To my complete and utter shock, Miami indeed proved capable of stealing Game 2 but not through the formula that I believed to be their only path to victory. San Antonio only committed 11 turnovers last night which Miami converted into an uneventful five points. If I hadn't been allowed to watch the game and was only allowed to look at one statistic from the box score after the game to try to determine whether or not we had won, I would have looked at the Spurs' turnovers. The way that we have been playing at home this postseason, having seen those numbers, I would have assumed that we probably cruised to another double-digit victory at the AT&T Center. And, indeed, we were well on our way to doing just that for the first 14 minutes of the game. The Spurs were ahead of the Heat by 11 (30-19) when, for some inexplicable reason, Ray Allen was able to fake both Marco Belinelli and Boris Diaw into believing he was going to pass the ball to a cutter while standing at the three point line. Both Marco and Boris bit on the pump fake pass leaving Allen wide open behind the arc. Ray Allen drained the triple to cut the Spurs lead to eight and in doing so, completely shifted the momentum in the game. Miami finished the second quarter on a 24-13 run to tie the game at halftime and were able to get the best player in the world going in the process. During that run, LeBron James scored 11 points and established a rhythm in the game that would come back to haunt the Spurs in the second half.
In the third quarter, James gave San Antonio a flashback of the nightmares we had all of last summer by shooting the basketball like he did in Game 7 of last year's Finals; except this time he did it in our building. James shot 6-7 in the period (including a pair of three pointers) for 14 points. All of his baskets in the third came over the top of the defense from the perimeter. Yet despite LeBron taking over the game on the offensive end, the Spurs hung tight in the period and even took a one point lead into the final frame when Tony Parker hit a shot on our last possession to put us back ahead. The fourth quarter was back and fourth again as the Heat pretty much relied on James to create all of their offense by facilitating at the top of the key. LeBron was brilliant again scoring another eight points in the period and creating a wide-open three pointer for Chris Bosh to give Miami a two point lead with 1:17 left in the game. After Manu Ginobili committed the most costly of our 11 turnovers on the ensuing possession trying to force it into Tim Duncan on the post (to be fair, Manu was poked in the eye at the top of the key which should have been called a foul giving Manu two free throws), Kawhi Leonard fouled out of the game trying to defend LeBron's drive to the basket. James split the pair of free throws and then Manu missed a jumper from 19 feet. The Heat rebounded the ball, gave it to LeBron at the top of the key where he was able to create a hockey assist by passing to Bosh who then hit a cutting Dwyane Wade under the basket to take a five point lead with nine seconds left. After a timeout, the Spurs ran a decent play to get Boris Diaw a look at a three pointer but he decided to drive and kick when a Miami defender rushed towards him. He got the ball to Manu, who drained the triple, but the play took too long to develop and time expired.
While LeBron James put on a masterful 35 point, 10 rebound, 3 assits Game 2 performance that put his team in a position to win an NBA Finals game on the road, the San Antonio Spurs beat ourselves. To my surprise it wasn't turnovers that did us in last night. Instead, another nemesis of ours (that hadn't reared its ugly head in quite a while) made an unfortunate and untimely cameo in the 2014 NBA Finals: missed free throws. The Spurs went 12-20 from the charity stripe in Game 2 including a brutal possession in the guts of the game in which we went 0-4. With 6:43 remaining in the fourth quarter, Mario Chalmers was flagged with a flagrant foul when he hit Tony Parker in the chest with a vicious elbow underneath the Heat's basket as he tried to free himself from Tony off of his dribble penetration. This gave the Spurs two free throw attempts and possession of the basketball. Tony missed both and on the ensuing play, Chris Andersen fouled Tim Duncan for two more free throw attempts. Timmy also missed both. That wasted opportunity, ladies and gentleman, is the difference between being up 2-0 in the NBA Finals and now needing a victory in Miami in order to win the series. Despite the missed foul shots, Timmy was once again the player of the game putting up 18 points, 15 rebounds and tying Magic Johnson for the most double-doubles in NBA playoff history during the loss.
As heartbreaking of a defeat as last night's ball game was, I'm extremely confident that it was an anomaly rather than what is to be expected as we move further into this series. LeBron James played about as well as you could ask him to play and it still took a Spurs meltdown in the fourth quarter for Miami to secure the victory. Granted, there will be a smaller margin for error once we get back to the circus-like atmosphere of American Airlines Arena in Miami (and all of its pyrotechnic glory) but the Spurs are equipped for the challenge. If we figure out a way to make LeBron work a little bit harder to manufacture the Heat's offense and if we get back to our patented ball movement and rely on our deeper bench, we will put ourselves in a position to bounce right back from last night's disappointment. One man can always win a basketball game against any opponent, but the 2014 San Antonio Spurs are too good to be beaten in a series by any one player; even one as gifted as LeBron James. If the Heat offense continues to be as reliant on James as it was last night, the odds are that Miami will prove to be the team with the smaller margin for error moving forward in this series. Yesterday, was a tough day at the office. The #BlackAndSilver need to forget about it and simply focus on what's next. After all, we have been invited to host a passing clinic tomorrow evening down in the city of blinding lights which is providing us with an excellent opportunity to move one step closer to writing these San Antonio Spurs into the history books as one of basketball's finest teams.
* * *
City of Blinding Lights
The city took something from me, it took something from all of us.
Upon arriving on our maiden voyage, we battled masterfully.
We were not distracted by the shimmer, we were not intimidated by the lights.
We saw those gaudy displays of opulence as hubristic,
The last gasps of an overextended empire, bumptiously unaware of its vulnerability.
We know that the fall is coming.
It will happen, it just didn't happen then.
We had advanced swiftly but as we moved into position to trample the throne,
The city, intoxicated in its excess, found favor with the gods.
Through the ostentatious worship of its false idols,
It seduced a fleeting moment of commotion that neutralized our resolve
And fire reigned down from the heavens like spears on our heads.
Blinded, we left wounded and empty handed.
But now we will return to the city once again, with our vision restored.
We will arrive on this voyage wiser, bonded by the fellowship of our noble scars.
We are still not distracted by the shimmer, we are still not intimidated by the lights.
After rebuilding the strength of our core, we are more resolute in our preparedness to persevere.
The city, more overextended than ever, relies now almost completely on the strength of its king.
We know that the fall is coming.
It will happen, and we know that is has to happen now.
We have advanced again swiftly and moved back in position to trample the throne.
With the grace of a thousand stars we will embrace our chance at redemption
And working together we will use our wit to overwhelm the the city's aggressive defenses.
While the spoils of a prolonged period of decadence are the desire of most challengers,
We return not in pursuit of the city's abundance of treasure.
Just to rip the crown jewel from the king's bare hands.
Written June 2014 in San Antonio, Texas
Featured Image Source: Sporting News
Headline Image Source: ClipArt ETC
Three Left
2014 NBA Finals, Game 1
Revolution 1 - "You say you got a real solution, well you know, we'd all love to see..." the fan. "You ask me for a contribution, well you know, we're all doing what we can." It is true. The San Antonio Spurs had not paid the electric bill for the power used at the AT&T Center in almost a year. However, this is not a story about a sports franchise that is too broke to pay its bills. This is a story that is much more inspiring than that. This is a story about an NBA owner standing up on principle against one of the most sinister types of people that exists in our American democracy: the braggadocious, crass, smack talking Miami Heat fan. Let me explain. To put everything in context, I'll need to start with the NBA Finals Game 1 post game press conference; near the end of the story when San Antonio Spurs head coach and world renowned no-nonsense badass Gregg Popovich got involved by attempting to play peace-maker in a long running feud. Determined to help mediate a solution between Spurs Sports & Entertainment Chairman Peter Holt and CPS Energy President Doyle Beneby, late on Thursday night Coach Pop surmised, "Hopefully we can pay our bills." Rewind to the beginning and we discover that Holt has been suspicious of Beneby ever since the latter's arrival in San Antonio at CPS Energy in 2010. The reason for Holt's suspicion is that Beneby, who earned a masters degree at the University of Miami - School of Business in 1996, just so happens to be an unapologetic Miami Heat fan. Ever since The Decision, Beneby had been flaunting his love of LeBron James and the Heat to Holt every time that these two titans of industry crossed paths. To make matters worse, when Holt invited Beneby to a meeting to discuss San Antonio's energy future last summer (a few weeks after the 2013 NBA Finals), Beneby showed up for the meeting looking like this. When, during the meeting, Beneby made repeated references to the miracle working grace of Jesus Shuttlesworth's corner three point jumper, it was the final straw for Peter Holt. Since that day, he had vowed to never pay another dime to CPS Energy (regardless of how many bills he received for the power supplying the AT&T Center) until Beneby apologized.
Beneby never offered the desired apology so Holt began to rack up past due notices on his CPS Energy bill month after month. Even though CPS Energy has an outstanding reputation for giving its customers ample time to catch up on payments before cutting their power, Beneby had grown increasing leery of Holt's astronomical past due balance (which as of his June statement) had reached $3,274,895.65. The AT&T Center is a large building to power and Holt had not paid a bill since last July. Although Beneby would have been within his right to pull the plug on the AT&T Center power months ago, he decided to bide his time and wait for a great opportunity to do it when he could really embarrass Holt. On Thursday afternoon, Beneby knew he had just that type of opportunity and took action against Holt by cutting off the power supply for the AT&T Center's cooling system. Rather than cutting power to the entire building, Beneby thought he could stick it to Holt even more by just cutting the power supply to the air conditioning system so as to embarrass him on the biggest possible stage, the NBA Finals. By just cutting power to the AC supply, Beneby cunningly predicted that the NBA would not cancel the event (which they would obviously be forced to do if the entire building was without power). Cutting only the AC supply, therefore, allowed Beneby to pursue the objective of embarrassing Holt in front of a global audience. Ironically for the CPS Energy President, as it turns out, he did not think his sinister plan all the way through because the person most affected by the lack of air conditioning in the building on Thursday night was Beneby's beloved LeBron James. With James sidelined for the final four minutes due to heat exhaustion and muscle cramping, the San Antonio Spurs pulled away from the Miami Heat to take Game 1 of the NBA Finals 110-95. Having gotten the last laugh in the feud with Beneby (for now) and because he always makes it a point to heed the advice of Gregg Popovich (his most valued confidant), after the game Peter Holt found some spare change in his sofa cushions and paid his three and a quarter million dollar past due balance with CPS Energy. He also made a sizable donation to REAP. Now that his bill is current; CPS Energy has restored the electricity powering the air conditioning unit at the AT&T Center. theLeftAhead has reached out to Doyle Beneby for comment on his decision to cut AC power at the AT&T Center, but like any typical braggadocious, crass, smack talking Miami Heat fan, he was no where to be found and was not heard from after the loss. TMZ is reporting, however, that he has been spotted outside of LeBron James' hotel room apologizing profusely and offering James a CPS Energy tote bag along with flowers and candy as an apology for his blunder.
* * *
All kidding aside, Game 1 of the 2014 NBA Finals produced an amazing story about heat for the basketball public to digest. Unfortunately, it is not the story about heat that is currently dominating the news. If you love basketball and haven't been living under a rock these past couple of days, you are already well aware that Game 1 is being dubbed The Cramp Game and most of the analyses in its aftermath is being focused on LeBron James. Is it unfortunate that the air conditioning was broken and that the temperature in the building reached 90 degrees during the game? Yes, it is unfortunate. But what is getting lost in all of the hysteria surrounding the incident that made #LeBronning go viral Thursday night is who the real victims were of the unfortunate conditions. The players surely weren't the real victims. They all played in the same conditions therefore the heat was not unfortunate for either team. The lack of air conditioning did not give one team an advantage over the other. As many of the players noted during postgame interviews, if you want to make it all the way to the NBA then at some point during your basketball development you are probably going to have to learn to play the game in heat. The lack of AC in the building did not cause LeBron's body to shut down. It is something in his genetic makeup that predisposes him to this recurring problem that is to blame for him being the only player in the game that was not able to finish. Sure, you could argue that San Antonio benefited indirectly from the heat in the building because we are a deeper team than Miami. But our depth in the series is an advantage that we have regardless of the playing conditions. Also, winning an NBA Championship is supposed to be hard and requires having the ability to overcome adversity in the NBA Finals (however it presents itself). Miami has proven to have that ability for the past two seasons in a row (they lost Game 1 of the Finals both times and came back to win the series). Game 1 is just one game. They are more than capable of overcoming adversity and a 0-1 series deficit again. No one should be feeling sorry for LeBron James and the Miami Heat. Having key players affected by injuries and ailments is part of basketball. The lack of air conditioning in the building was not unfortunate for the Miami Heat. On this particular night, they just got beat.
The people that the lack of AC was actually unfortunate for were the Spurs fans attending the game at the AT&T Center. NBA Finals tickets are obnoxiously expensive and many basketball fans dream of the opportunity to attend an NBA Finals game. For some die-hard fans of modest means this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I know that I enjoyed every second of the NBA Finals game that I attended (Game 1 of the 2003 NBA Finals) because I knew that I might never get a chance to have that experience again. The uncomfortable temperature in the building was unfortunate for Spurs fans, especially the ones who were fulfilling a dream to attend their first and possibly only NBA Finals game, because they had to spend what should have been a magical evening in prolonged discomfort. These fans in particular, who had been waiting a lifetime for this opportunity, are the unfortunate victims of the malfunctioning AT&T Center air conditioning system. I contemplated purchasing tickets for Game 1 when they went on sale on Tuesday, but decided against spending the money. In retrospect, I'm glad that I watched the happenings at the AT&T Center from the comfort of my temperature controlled living room.
But, of course, the media has spent the past couple of days fixated on how the heat affected the Heat. This is disappointing because they are depriving themselves and their audience of an opportunity to celebrate an actual amazing story about heat in Game 1 of the 2014 NBA Finals. What the media should be covering is he hottest thing that was in the building on Thursday night: the fourth quarter offensive attack of the San Antonio Spurs. Over the course of the final quarter of play in Game 1, the San Antonio Spurs took a positive step towards Revolution 1: the art of teamwork perfected. The Spurs put on a masterful performance in the fourth, outscoring the Heat 37-16 in the period while overcoming a four point deficit entering the final frame. San Antonio overpowered Miami with our ball movement and precision shooting to blitz the Heat with 14-16 from the field in the period and an astounding 12 of the made baskets coming off of an assist. When it was all said and done, we had blown open the four point deficit that we were facing with six minutes left in the game into another comfortable 15 point home victory. How did this happen? It seems that Miami has a short memory because for some reason they forgot that Danny Green loves animals and Danny Green gets buckets. In the course of three minutes of play, Danny turned a terrible performance through the first three quarters and a half quarter around by erupting for 11 points off of three triples and one vicious dunk. As spectacular as Danny's performance was in the final six minutes, it was not enough to put him into the running for player of the game honors. Here are some other Spurs players lines from Game 1 of the 2014 NBA Finals: Boris Diaw (2 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists), Tiago Splitter (14 points, 4 rebounds), Tony Parker (19 points, 8 assists), and Manu Ginobili (16 points, 11 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, and 1 block). This was a complete team effort with each of these players worthy of player of the game honors but none of them were able to quite outshine the indelible Tim Duncan, aka Time's Father. Timmy led the Spurs with 21 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 assists and he is now just one double double away from tying Magic Johnson for the most in NBA playoff history. At age 38, his performance the other night was simply stated: spectacular.
While San Antonio had a vintage performance in Game 1 that seemed reminiscent of the old Boston Celtics teams, in both the way we shared the basketball and also in that playing a game without the air conditioning was a notorious Red Auerbach trick (enter conspiracy theorists stage left), we cannot let our guard down for even a split second. Miami is the two-time defending World Champions and, as stated earlier, they have lost Game 1 of the NBA Finals two years in a row and stormed back to win the series. Last year, we were in an even greater position than we are now after the first game considering that we stole that one on the road. We all know how that series turned out for us. The good news is that there is plenty for us to concentrate on in order to keep our focus. In fact, there is one blatant aspect of our Game 1 performance that we must improve upon drastically in order for us to have any hope of winning Game 2. We committed 22 turnovers in Game 1 which is like playing with a hornets nest against the Miami Heat; we were just asking to be stung. San Antonio is extremely fortunate that Miami was unable to capitalize on our turnovers (most of which occurred in the first three quarters) to blow us out of our own gym before our fourth quarter blitz was even able to develop. If we give LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and company another crack at that many turnovers, they will certainly make us pay. On each and every possession of the game tomorrow night, if I were a Spurs player, I would be looking left, looking right, and starin' through my rear view before attempting each and every pass. I know that the ball has got to zip around the perimeter in order to capitalize on our precision offensive attack, but protecting the basketball against the Miami Heat is just as important. Their defense is built upon creating turnovers. If we do not turn the ball over, it will be extremely difficult for them to beat us, especially at home. We are the superior half court defensive team, we are the superior offensive team, and we are the deeper team. If the #BlackAndSilver protect the basketball tomorrow night like it is our essence then we can take another step towards Revolution 1: the art of teamwork perfected and our offense will remain the hottest thing in the AT&T Center.
Featured Image Source: Rolling Stone
Headline Image Source: SA Express-News
*The Peter Holt and Doyle Beneby depicted in this blog post are fictional.
Six Up
2013 NBA Finals Game 7
Shake It Out - Intellectually, I understand the merits of the worldview that argues that it is irrational for me, as a spectator, to get emotionally invested in the outcome of a sporting event when it does not have a direct impact on my own life. I understand the rationale behind treating sports as escapism, as a distraction from the rigors of everyday life, and to enjoy the injunction from personal stress that rooting for a favorite team provides but to do so while remembering that what I am participating in is just a game and should not hold relevance to my personal happiness because it exists tangentially to the circumstances of my life and the societal forces which are influencing it. After all, my desired outcome for the 2013 NBA Finals would not have lessened the remaining balance on my home's mortgage nor would it have accelerated the recovery of the San Antonio housing market from the 2008 collapse that occurred within six months of my wife and me purchasing our first home; a collapse that has subsequently caused us to spend the duration of our marriage digging out of the financial hole that we were left to manage given that our home was rendered chronically underwater and we've been too responsible to walk away but also too financially limited to maneuver our way out of the unfortunate bad luck of investing in the housing market at literally the worst possible time in the last 50 years. My desired outcome for the 2013 NBA Finals would not have increased the size or scope of the across-the-board pay raise that was recently fought for and won by the members of Texas State Employees Union, a group of people that I am privileged to work closely with every day, in an effort to force the Texas legislature to address a systemic problem, front-line state employee salaries in Texas have lagged dangerously behind inflation for decades which has severely eroded their buying power in relation to the cost of living; a problem that the power brokers in Texas would have been more than happy to ignore completely, this past legislative session, if they had been left to their own devices. My desired outcome for the 2013 NBA Finals would not have repaired strained relationships in my personal life, it would not have afforded me more free time to devote to completing the manuscript for my first book, and it would not have provided the clarity for my wife and me to definitively answer an on-going question, "when in the journey towards establishing our careers is the best time to start our family?" [Note: any comments in response to this post which attempt to compare us to the characters Carol and Trevor from the movie Idiocracy, no matter how humorous and well intentioned, will not be received favorably since poor Trevor dies childless as a result of a tragically embarrassing episode]. Yet despite all of the merits of the worldview I have just described, a worldview that carefully places one's spectator sporting allegiances on the peripheral of the forces being exerted upon one's pursuit of personal happiness, as a die-hard Spurs fan, I have no choice but to unequivocally reject it. Despite my attempts to intellectually rationalize to myself the worldview that basketball is just a game, that the successes and failures of my favorite team are inconsequential to the forces which are creating the tapestry of my personal happiness, it has been more than a month since the completion of the 2013 NBA Finals and I remain utterly heartbroken that the Miami Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs 95-88 in Game 7 on June 20th.Perhaps the reason for this is that the intellectual worldview is inherently incapable of accounting for an indispensable variable factoring into the experience of a die-hard sports fan such a myself. That is, the rooting interest has developed organically out of deeply personal experiences and in care of immeasurably valued relationships over an extended period of time. For a die-hard sports fan, each opportunity to root for the favorite team does not occur independently in a vacuum, but rather occurs on the top of a mountain of memories and experiences that have not only contributed to a lifetime of both happy and sad moments but also have played a significant role in determining the trajectory of the individual's life and consequently, have indeed made a substantial contribution to personal happiness. In other words, for a die-hard sports fan, the obsessive participation in spectator sports is an outward projection of meaningful experiences and relationships which cut to the core of the fan's sense of self. When a significant collection of memories that help piece together one's understanding of the experiences and relationships that bring meaning to life are stitched together through the common thread of a sporting interest, one's allegiance to the success of that sporting interest naturally becomes very central to one's sense of self. This mountain of memories collected in pursuit of cheering for one's favorite team are valuable not only in there relevance to organizing the team's successes and failures in ones' mind, but more importantly they are important as bookmarks of one's own personal experiences and vessels for cherishing one's most meaningful relationships. Where is it that we begin to formulate our sense of self and our conditions for happiness if not through our own memories?
My Uncle Bob took my brother, Chris, and me to see the Spurs play Larry Bird and the Celtics at the old Hemisfair Arena for our first NBA game. From around 1994 to 2005, I went to see the Spurs play the Pistons in San Antonio with my father almost every single year. One year, the Pistons beat the Spurs at the buzzer and I'm pretty sure Dad was the only person in our entire section that was cheering. While on a college visit to Trinity University with my mom in 1996, we went to a Spurs game while in town and I decided that night to apply for early admission. I was at Tim Duncan's first home game as a rookie in 1997 at the Alamodome with my friend, Yousif. When the Spurs used to practice at Trinity, I was playing pick-up basketball on the outdoor courts when David Robinson was walking to his car one day. You better believe, I dribbled right up to him and crossed him over, he couldn't stop chuckling all the way to his car. I was at the first game that Tony Parker started in his career in 2001. I was in building at the AT&T Center when Tim Duncan received his 2nd NBA MVP trophy, the Spurs beat the Shaq and Kobe Lakers that night. My friend, Brian, and I were at Game 1 of the 2003 NBA Finals. I watched Game 2 of the 2005 NBA Finals between the Spurs and the Pistons with my dad in Georgetown, TX. I watched the Spurs play the Pistons with Dad in Georgetown again that fall, our last game. My wife, Jenn, has continued the tradition with me, we still try to go to see the Spurs play the Pistons every year. I was at my brother's bachelor party when the Spurs won their first title in 1999. I was out with my sister, Heather, and Brian in San Antonio when they won in 2003. We did the celebratory drive down Military. I watched Game 7 of the Finals alone in my Dallas apartment when the Spurs beat the Pistons in 2005, I can only describe it as bitter sweet. I watched the Spurs win in 2007 in Dallas with Jenn as we were literally packing our things to move to San Antonio.
These memories and the experiences and relationships that are represented within them are catalogued then preserved carefully and done so in close proximity to the core of who I am as a person. In my own weird way, because the San Antonio Spurs are so intrinsically woven into my entire life experience, I internalize the success of the team as barometer of my sense of self and a validation of the people and memories that I hold dear. Admittedly irrational, each victory and defeat is a deeply personal experience despite the fact that my role as a spectator is marginal and removed from directly impacting the results. Is this healthy? Perhaps not, but this deep personal connection and investment in the team is, indeed, one that I hold for better or for worse.In Five Up, I wrote about the cruelty of "having the trophy so close within reach we could almost scrape a finger nail on it." Obviously, this was written before Game 7, when I was still filled with hope that the Spurs would bounce back to ultimately win the title anyway. In hindsight, after witnessing Miami edge out San Antonio in the fourth quarter of the decisive game, while I remain pleased with the way that I constructed that sentence as a writer, I am personally haunted by the excruciating imagery of my own prose. Reliving that dreadful Tuesday evening at the AT&T Center has proven to be utter torture. The incomprehensible sequence of events that led to our Game 6 defeat played over and over in my mind for days after Game 7. The nightmare still pops into my head, as if from out of no where, at any random moment to prompt a queasy sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. 28 seconds to go in Game 6, the Spurs were ahead by 5 points and closing in on the 5th championship in franchise history. Over the course of the last 28 seconds, 5 basketball plays occurred that adversely affected the Spurs. Miami secured an offensive rebound off of a missed shot, LeBron James buried a three pointer, Kawhi Leonard missed a free throw, Miami secured an offensive rebound off of a missed shot, Ray Allen buried a float back to the line off balance three pointer with his feet flirting dangerously with the out-of-bounds line. What if even one of those five actions had gone the other way? The San Antonio Spurs would have been the 2013 NBA Champions. And this only scratches the surface of the Pandora's Box that randomly bursts open in my brain like a sinister jack-in-the-box at some point on a daily basis. Left to my own devices and with time alone inside my own head, 'what if' scenarios bounce around my brain like a pinball. What if the NBA had not rejected the 7 year, $100 million contract that the Miami Heat signed Juwan Howard to in 1996? The Miami franchise would have been irreversibly crippled from having signed a mediocre player to a superstar contract, would have likely not have been in the same position to build a championship contending team around Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade a decade later, and the San Antonio Spurs would have probably been the 2013 NBA Champs. What if Ray Allen hadn't betrayed his loyalty to Kevin Garnet and Paul Pierce and hadn't left the Boston Celtics to go and sign with the enemy? He would have never hit the dagger three pointer at the end of regulation in Game 6 and the Spurs would have probably been the 2013 NBA Champs. What if LeBron James hadn't betrayed his loyalty to Cleveland in 2010 and had had the fortitude to continue to trust his own ability by believing that if he remained on the journey to fight to the top of the mountain top with his own teammates, his own franchise, his own city that he would one day persevere? Instead, he took the easy way out by becoming Dwyane Wade's more talented sidekick. In order for LeBron James to become a champion, he chose to take shortcuts. Had LeBron James had the competitive integrity of Michael Jordan, for example, the match up with the Miami Heat would have never happened and the San Antonio Spurs would have probably been the 2013 NBA Champs. There are hundreds of 'what if' scenarios that haunt me into searching for pathways through which the Spurs could have won this year's championship, but the person that this 'what if' scenario will likely wind up haunting the most in the long run is LeBron James, himself. There is a reason why 49 out of 50 states were rooting for the allegedly boring Spurs to win the 2013 NBA Finals. Taking shortcuts in life is not an endearing quality, especially in an all-time great basketball player. All-time great athletes, much like U.S. Presidents, can really only be judged accurately through the prism of history. I suspect that no matter how many championships LeBron James wins as a member of the Miami Heat, history will remember him unfavorably in comparison to the other all-time great champions that he will be measured against because of the shortcuts that he took and I suspect that after his playing days are long behind him, the decision to leave the Cleavland Cavaliers will haunt him immeasurably. Nonetheless, the image of an old LeBron James being tormented by regret as he sits in the rocking chair on his porch is of little consolation right now because in the end, we did lose to that player and that team which makes this defeat even more traumatic to deal with. With the whole country finally squarely behind the small market Spurs, a franchise that genuinely conducts its business the right way, building a team from the ground up and going through the painstaking effort to develop players year after year to remain competitive, it is heartbreaking to lose to a franchise that leveraged all of the space within the salary cap rules to it's advantage in order to shortcut its way back into contention.
Despite my personal animus with LeBron James' decision and the way that the Miami Heat put together a championship caliber ball club, give them credit. In a tightly contested Game 7, the Spurs were led by Tim Duncan's 24 points and 12 rebounds and my player of the game Kawhi Leonard's 19 points and 16 rebounds, but in the end it was not enough to match the brilliance of James and Dwyane Wade. LeBron scored 37 points and collected 12 rebounds and Wade scored 23 points and collected 10 rebounds. Most importantly, however, the duo made clutch shots in the final moments of a gut wrenching fourth quarter and on the other end of the floor, the Spurs did not. Tim Duncan, one of the most consistently unflappable all-time great players basketball has ever seen, inexplicably missed a bunny of a jump hook over Shane Battier with around a minute left and an opportunity to tie the game. On subsequent Spurs possessions, the physical breakdown of the body of San Antonio's most beloved player caught up with the Spurs once again as Manu Ginobili was unable to be Manu Ginobili and physically execute the basketball plays that his fearless and brilliant basketball mind was asking him to execute. Furthermore, my predicted ascension of Tony Parker into the conversation of best basketball player in the world hit a speed bump as Tony was unable to assert his will over the outcome of Game 7 up to the level of the lofty standards that that title would expect. Sometimes basketball is just that simple. There is no rational explanation for why, but when two teams are evenly matched, one team executes and the other doesn't. On the court, the Miami Heat earned the title by being the better team in the fourth quarter of the last game of a series where two teams played each other to a draw in the previous 27 quarters. Congratulations, Miami. And as heartbreaking as this defeat in the NBA Finals was, I'm thankful for having had the experience. The journey to and the experience of having my beloved #BlackAndSilver back in the NBA Finals was such a joy. San Antonio is a special place and I feel truly blessed to have gotten to experience this amazing run with my community. This journey, despite all of the pain which has resulted from its difficult conclusion, has given me a unique opportunity to reflect upon the relationships and memories that have made being a San Antonio Spurs fan such an integral part of my life as well as live new experiences with loved ones and create new memories. Despite the irrationality of it all, I welcome the pain of losing the 2013 NBA Finals in heartbreaking fashion because in the end, being a die-hard Spurs fan is as central to who I am and is a force in my life that contributes as much to my personal happiness as the forces that influence my residence, my career, my friendships, and my family. After all, some more than others, but where I live, the types of people that I work with, who my friends are, and how I relate to my family are all aspects of my personal happiness that have been influenced by my die-hard affinity for the San Antonio Spurs. So, I'll relish this pain right now and learn to cherish it at some point down the road, but I'm already beginning to feel some of the heartbreak begin to get squeezed out of me by anticipation of the future. I still believe that Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker will raise another banner in the AT&T Center. I couldn't have higher hopes for the San Antonio Spurs in the 2013-14 NBA season. Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, and Tiago Splitter will be one year further into their development and therefore more seasoned come playoff time. Couple that with the fact that Timmy, Manu, and Tony were, are, and will always remain true champions. Each time that they have experienced a crushing playoff defeat which has arguably cost them a championship [see 2004, 2006], they never jumped ship, nor did the franchise back up a Brink truck to lure in reinforcements, instead they regrouped and came back with the same core group to win the title the next season. It's always darkest before the dawn. We've got next.
Featured Image Source: Promo News
Headline Image Source: Texas Non Profits
Five Up
2013 NBA Finals, Game 6
One More Time - Potentially seconds away from the roof being blown off the building, and with the AT&T Center the loudest I have ever heard it in all of the countless visits that I have made inside the arena that Tim Duncan built, 18,000 people were simultaneously stricken with the same nightmare. What was setting up to be one of the most special places to be in America late last evening, somehow became one of the worst places to be in America. I have never experienced a more violent swing in emotions during a sporting event and I have never seen a more dazed and confused group of people clear an arena and rightfully so. Losing a tight game and squandering an opportunity to eliminate your opponent is always rough. But this was something entirely different. The post-game AT&T Center scene was so other-worldly bizarre that it quickly became dangerous. Generally, there is a heavy rush to the parking lot immediately following the final buzzer of a game, but usually some people leave early and others hold back to wait for the crowd to dissipate. Quite literally, everyone was trying to get the hell out of that building all at once. The last time I was pushed in the back that many times in a crowd was on the rope line at a 2008 Obama for America campaign rally waiting to shake then Senator Obama's hand. Spurs fans were pushing, clawing, grabbing, and yelling at each other in an effort to get through the exits so that they could breathe again. This is a natural reaction to experiencing all of the air being sucked out of a building, but it was quite a chilling experience to go through nonetheless. My wife and I tried our best to stay calm and move with the flow of the crowd down the escalators and through the lobby towards the exits, but it became increasingly difficult. Some of the more inebriated amongst the herd were cursing the refs, the Heat, and the world without any regard for their proximity to children. To make matters worse, I counted at least three or four Miami Heat fans who were senselessly baiting the crowd and gloating to anyone who would listen. It is one thing to attend an actual game and root for the road team, but to attend a watch party hosted by a franchise for its fans, root for the opponent, and then gloat to the gathered masses after we've just suffered one of the most excruciating defeats imaginable; classless. Although, I didn't actually see any of them get jumped, there were definitely some heated exchanges going on between dejected Spurs fans and these clowns. I guess in any crowd of people this size you will always find a handful of lunatics exercising the same amount of sense as a chihuahua barking at a pack of wolves. Hopefully, none of them were actually physically harmed so that they can get what's coming to them in the form of karma. After all, there is one more game to play. So enough about them, more so than the handful of Heat fans baiting the masses, it was the aggravation that Spurs fans were displaying towards each other over our inability to move through the crowd and get outside that was escalating the most tempers. A woman almost pulled me down by the shoulder screaming hysterically about how she needed to get out of here. I let her by, trying to keep my arm on my wife's shoulders in front of me, but I sternly reminded her about the news flash of the year..."everyone really needs to get out of here." Another woman, a few yards behind me in the crowd, was pushed into another fan who turned around unquestionably agitated. That fan proceeded to push the first woman and it seemed as if the incident was tinkering on the verge of setting off a riot. Luckily, there was a very large gentleman (must have been 6'4, 300 pounds at least) who was near enough to the altercation that he was able to put himself between them and diffuse the situation. Of what I witnessed, this was the closest that the building evacuation process got to devolving into utter chaos but the entire walk felt as if it could happen at any moment. While the loss itself was indescribably disappointing, the thing that was truly heart breaking was seeing our community momentarily turn on each other and regress back to an "every man for himself" mentality when we had been so close to getting to instead experience a harmonious departure from the arena, filled with dancing, hugging, and back slaps, and into the streets of San Antonio to join our friends and neighbors as we all continued to celebrate well into the night like a family.San Antonio Spurs fans had the right to be angry, confused, dejected, and sad last night after the game. Given the stakes and our proximity to victory, it was the toughest defeat I have personally ever experienced in my 28 years as a Spurs fan. The Game 7 loss to the Mavericks in 2006, the Game 5 loss to the Lakers in 2004, and the Game 6 loss to the Rockets in 1995 were all up there, but having the trophy so close within reach that we could almost scrape a finger nail on it? The cruelty of this one is utterly excruciating.
And that has spilled over into a citywide hangover through out the day today. The entire city seems to be sleepwalking in a zombie-like transient state. But it has to end tonight when we go to sleep. Tomorrow is a new day. The saving grace to the cruelty of this loss is that it comes with an immediate chance for redemption. Also, if someone had told Spurs fans at the beginning of the season that we would be getting to play one Game 7 in the 2013 NBA Finals with a chance to win our 5th championship, we would have all been thrilled about the opportunity to put another banner up in the rafters of the AT&T Center. There are 48 minutes left in our season and we should be confident that our ball club will seize this moment. The San Antonio Spurs still lead the Miami Heat 596-584 (cumulative scoring) in the Finals and we have, for more time in this series than not, proven that we are a deeper, more well rounded, and, yes, a better basketball team than our opponent. Tim Duncan, last night's player of the game, has clearly saved something in his tank for this moment. Timmy had 30 points and 17 rebound trying to get the thing done last night. I would be shocked if he does not repeat or improve on that performance tomorrow night in Game 7. By the way, San Antonio is 0-2 in this series in games that have been officiated by Joey Crawford, we are 3-1 in games that have not (including 1-0 on the road). Joey Crawford will not be officiating Game 7. On a historical note, no road team has won a Game 7 in the NBA Finals since the 1978 Washington Bullets defeated the SuperSonics in Seattle. While this seems discouraging, to me this seems to suggest that the road team is due. Also, the #BlackAndSilver have not lost back-to-back games with Tim, Tony, and Manu in the lineup since December 12th and 13th. This is a longer period of time without losing back-to-back games than the constantly referenced streak the Heat have been on since January 8th and 10th. But more than anything, the reason to remain optimistic about our chances on Thursday night is that I genuinely sense that our players and our city want this title more than those counterparts in Florida. As excruciating as it was to be in that AT&T Center after the final buzzer had sounded last night, I had never experienced so much excitement and so much hunger for a victory in any sporting venue that I have ever been in as I did during last night's game at the AT&T Center, and the game wasn't even being played on the court down below us. The crowd was going bonkers and the noise level was deafening when the Spurs took a 5 point lead in the final minute on a Tony Parker floater, it was utter pandemonium. This city and our players are so hungry for a championship and it seems more than reasonable to me that Miami and its players will not have the capacity to reach down deep enough to match that hunger tomorrow night, having won a championship last year.I spent a lot of time last night at the AT&T Center peering up at the four championship banners in the rafters. I know that the energy that was in that building last night (while greater than any I had ever experienced) will pale in comparison to the energy that will be in it tomorrow. Tomorrow night, the city of San Antonio will be so hungry for a championship that we will be loud enough for the greatest winner of a generation, Tim Duncan, to hear our screaming on South Beach and use it as fuel to make that one final push that will hopefully put championship banner number five up in the rafters of a building that will one day have his statue on its grounds. Before this series began, while congratulating the Miami Heat on winning the Eastern Conference, I suggested that this match up would be an epic clash of champions. The 2013 NBA Finals have certainly lived up to that prediction. I also proposed, "may the best team win." I am utterly convinced at this point in time that the San Antonio Spurs are the best team in this series. Although tomorrow's game will be the hardest leg of this journey, it will also be the final one. Game 7 is an amazing opportunity for the Spurs to prove that we are the best team in the series by absorbing the body blow of the toughest loss in franchise history and countering it with a resounding upper cut and delivering it with such fury that it produces aftershocks which resonate in our community and the annals of basketball history forever. Our best basketball of the season has yet to be played. It's always darkest before the dawn. Shake it out.
Featured Image Source: The Hoop Doctors
Headline Image Source: Bleacher Report
Fifteen Down
2013 NBA Finals, Game 5
Come Together - Sometimes, when a photogenically challenged former Weight Watchers spokes model whispers softly into the vast open spaces of an empty arena, the fleeting sounds still travel far enough to awaken a sleeping giant. Manu Ginobili erupted out of hibernation last night to add another chapter to one of the most Paul Bunyanesque folklore inspiring legends of a sports career that our generation has ever seen, earning player of the game honors to boot. In a surprise start, Manu went wire to wire in Game 5 pouring in 24 points while dishing out 10 assists in a performance that I will certainly add to the bedtime stories that I will one day tell to my children about Number 20 (the same way my dad used to tell me bedtime stories about all the breathtaking feats he witnessed watching Ted Williams hit a baseball). On a side note, topping the list of legendary Manu stories to tell my children...the Halloween Bat story, a tall tale so incredible that you wouldn't believe it had we not been blessed to live in an age of video documentation (note to self: remember to tell that story every October 31st from the time your first child is age five until the time your grandchildren come to visit and find you mumbling incoherently in a rocking chair). Manu's resounding statement of defiance last night came upon the heals of a media onslaught of negative press and speculation that his retirement from the game of basketball might be imminent. In the post-game press conference, Ginobili carefully reminded the gathered masses that overall he hasn't played a bad series but has just been taking what the defense is giving him which has made his role more of a distributor than a scorer. He did admit, however, that he was disappointed in his Game 4 performance saying, "Game 4 was a different situation, and I was a little upset." Thanks to the heroics of a particularly feisty Ginobili (everybody loves when Manu gets that look in his eye) as well the remarkable hot streak of Danny Green (24 points and 6-10 from the arc to set a new NBA Finals record for threes in a series with 25), a player that is so locked in that he's draining wadded up napkins in random strangers cups from across the restaurant during his lunch break, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Miami Heat 114-104 last night in Game 5 of the 2013 NBA Finals in front of 18,581 appreciative fans who were treated to a marvelous mix of nostalgic delirium and clairvoyant exuberance. For one last time on our home floor this season, Spurs fans were able to bask in the enjoyment of taking in a perfectly blended mixture of our dynastic past, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan (17 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocks), and our surprisingly bright future, Danny Green and Kwahi Leonard (16 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals). Oh, by the way (I almost forgot), our present got into the mix last night too. Tony Parker had 26 points on 10-14 shooting and threw in 5 dimes to boot. All told, the San Antonio's starters combined for 107 out of our 114 points besting with 5 players the firepower that the Heat have only been able to generate from their top four players over the past couple of ballgames. If you take Kawhi's 16 points out of the equation, Tony, Manu, Danny, and Timmy outscored James, Wade, Bosh, and Allen 91-87 in Game 5. Had the teams been playing four on four, this would have been the gut-wrenching nail biter I had expected it to be. But because the #BlackAndSilver are making a strong case that they are a deeper, more well rounded basketball team, San Antonio was able to win the pivotal game of the series relatively comfortably and will be returning to Miami needing to only win one more game to put an exclamation point on a truly remarkable 2012-13 campaign.
And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light that shines on me. Shine until tomorrow, let it be.
With so much riding on the outcome of Game 5, I knew I needed an enduring theme for last night to put myself in the right mental frame of mind to stay locked in for the entire evening. I was admittedly a little nervous all weekend but I was able to remain, all things considered, extremely optimistic and calm. I knew that if there was any group of players, any franchise, any city that was up for the challenge of seizing the upper-hand in the NBA Finals back from the defending champs and putting their backs against the wall, it was these players, this franchise, this city. I was comforted all weekend by the tranquility of a singular thought. The entire San Antonio community just needs to come together and we are going to be just fine in Game 5. When you are attempting to be the best it is befitting to draw inspiration from the best, so "Come Together" by The Beatles made a ton of sense for my Game 5 theme. Until I started writing this post this evening, the irony that The Heatles is one of the premature nicknames that was manufactured for the James-Wade-Bosh incarnation of Miami, honestly, hadn't even dawned on me. Interestingly, another thought had been percolating in my mind this morning which was to come home from work tonight and recompose the iconic Abbey Road photo of The Beatles with the faces of Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Greg Popovich. Funnily, after a five second internet search this evening, I quickly came to realize that it has already been done. Well played, Pounding the Rock, well played. I guess the ability to do this Spurs bloggy thing full time has its advantages, after all. You get the first crack at snatching tremendous ideas out of the creative stratosphere. But like the San Antonio Spurs themselves, I could care less who gets the credit, I'm just glad that that steaming bowl of awesome is just one click away for all to enjoy. For now, I'm content to keep living on the same plane of existence in this vast unexplainable universe as the one currently inhabited by Danny Green; one that keeps him trapped in a Waking Life dream state (spoiler alert) where all he does is knock down three pointers in the NBA Finals and every time he thinks he is waking up back into reality, instead he wakes up into another dream where all he does is knock down three pointers in the NBA Finals. Don't wake up, Danny, at least not for 72 more hours. Dreams are powerful appendages of the human condition and every San Antonio Spurs fan is on verge of living one, but every dream comes at the risk of falling victim to the nightmares that are lurking out there just beyond the horizon. Game 5 was pivotal, but we have not accomplished our goal yet. The defending champions are more than capable of terrorizing all of the plans that we've already made to dance around in our dreams with the haunting eternity of instead making us live with the nightmare of perpetually pondering what could have been. If the San Antonio Spurs play our best basketball game of the season tomorrow night, that will not happen. This journey has been long, this journey had been weary, this journey must be seen through to its completion. This is not the time to ease up, not one millimeter. This is not the time to relax, not for one second. This is not the time to celebrate, not one bit. This is the time to get physically, emotionally, and spiritually prepared to bring everything we've got, one more time.
Featured Image Source: POPSUGAR
Four Up
2013 NBA Finals, Game 4
Not Afraid - The San Antonio Spurs lead the Miami Heat in the 2013 NBA Finals 382-377 (cumulative scoring). Win by 36 or win by 16, San Antonio and Miami are now tied at two victories a piece and in case you haven't noticed...it is really, really, really close. On Thursday night, the San Antonio Spurs spoiled a growing hope in the city to celebrate a championship by winning this series at home. Miami defeated San Antonio 109-93 at the AT&T Center in front of 18,581 mildly overconfident Spurs fans who were unable to match the desperation of a group of Floridians who had the audacity to come into our house and wear black. The player of the game was Tim Duncan who had 20 points, 5 rebounds, and a block. Eric Spoelstra, more than from his tactical adjustments, benefited from a radical increase in effort and aggressiveness from his best four players. Spoelstra must have stolen a card out of the Mark Jackson coaching playbook and spent all day Wednesday building up his top players to believe that they are an invincible angelic force manifested by God the Father and sent down to Earth for the purpose of giving mortals a glimpse of the level of play that he gets to enjoy in Heaven when he watches Jesus, Moses, Abraham, and Noah lace 'em up and take on all comers on the parquet of the old Boston Garden which was transported upstairs after its earthly demolition in 1998. By the way, in Heaven they play with 12 foot baskets but don't you dare challenge Jesus at the rim because he will get up and cram in your face. The difference between Spoelstra and Mark Jackson as motivators, however, is that Spoelstra benefits from players who already know how to play at the highest level and don't have to be prematurely anointed by their coach to believe it. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Ray Allen combined for 99 points on Thursday night. But chances are very high that Eric Spoelstra is going to need to display more coaching acumen than being a world-class motivator to win the series. The rest of the Miami Heat combined for a paltry ten points in Game 4. A performance where three future Hall-Of-Famers and Chris Bosh play aggressive, purposeful basketball can work to win one "our backs are against the wall" NBA Finals game. It is highly unlikely that it can work to win an NBA Finals series against the San Antonio Spurs. Greg Popovich will make the necessary adjustments to get his players to take away some of the motions that put Bosh and Allen in spots where they were able to feed off of Dwyane and LeBron's energy and get into rhythm. The Heat will need to get more contributions from more places in order to win Game 5 because if San Antonio can indeed limit Bosh and Allen, 65 combined points between James and Wade (no matter how spectacular the buckets that generate them) shouldn't be enough to beat the Spurs. LeBron's performance was to be expected and if it had just been LeBron playing his best game of the Finals, the Spurs might have still been okay (even with Bosh and Allen playing well too). The man that did us in on Thursday night arrived via time machine. The throwback performance by Dwyane Wade, where he displayed some of the individual brilliance of his 2006 Finals run, could not have been anticipated. It was reasonable to expect that Wade would play better out of desperation but you need more than 8 timeouts and a halftime to prepare for this version of the Flash and if you tell me that the treatment he received on his injured knee before Game 4 is on the up and up, then I have no choice but to believe you. Nonetheless, with two days off before Sunday's Game 4, the Spurs will adjust the defensive schemes to now account for two superstars instead of one. Not that that Dwyane Wade will necessarily show up again. But if he does, the Spurs will be much better prepared for him.
The #BlackAndSilver are certainly in a dog fight now but there is no need for Spurs fans to panic. Sure both teams are evenly matched and both teams are equally capable of winning this series but the winner of tomorrow night's Game 5 will be at a huge advantage to win it all and, luckily for us, that game is being played right here in Titletown, TX. Sure, having home court advantage in the pivotal game of the series doesn't, in and of itself, guarantee anything so if you are looking for a little something extra to help alleviate your overwhelming case of Finals anxiety, you have come to the right place. Let me walk you through a statistical analysis that I put together last night for the exact purpose of putting my own mind at ease. In a relatively close sample size, the San Antonio Spurs are 18-8 all-time in the NBA Finals (.692 winning percentage). The Miami Heat are 12-9 (.571 winning percentage). Each team needs to play 2-1 ball (.667 winning percentage) or better over the next week to hoist a trophy. To date, San Antonio's organization has performed above that marker and Miami's has performed below it. Individually, LeBron James is 8-11 in the NBA Finals (.421 winning percentage) and he is trying to improve the trajectory of his legacy against Tim Duncan, who is an identical 18-8 (.692 winning percentage) as the franchise having played in every game (winning all four series) and who was 16-6 (.727 winning percentage) in the Finals before Miami was able to add two more losses in the four games so far this year. James was 6-9 going into this matchup (.400 winning percentage). A split of the first four games has inflated LeBron's Finals record and it has deflated Timmy's Finals record. Granting that both of these players are far enough into their NBA Finals career that these statistics bare some meaning on who they are, then the sheer statistical probability is that the extending out of this year's sample with two or three more games will pull each player back closer to their mean. To put these numbers in context, Michael Jordan (one of the most dominant forces the Finals have ever seen) won six Finals series against zero defeats and his career Finals mark is 24-11 (.686 winning percentage). Remember, Tim Duncan as of today is at 18-8 (.692 winning percentage) which is a slightly higher Finals winning percentage than a player who is widely regarded as the best basketball player of all-time and who finished his career without ever losing the series. Conversely, Kobe Bryant, 23-15 (.605 winning percentage), has won five championship series and lost two. Shaquille O'Neal, 17-13 (.566 winning percentage), has won four championship series and lost two. Both of these players are fine champions, but the difference between always winning a championship in the Finals and usually winning a championship in the Finals is likely having the ability to consistently win two out of every three games played (.667 winning percentage) in the NBA Finals as Jordan and Duncan have done but Kobe and Shaq have not. Furthermore, LeBron James has not yet established a capacity to win in the Finals at any where close to the clip that Kobe and Shaq established, much less Michael and Timmy. The worst case scenario for James that still yields him a championship gets his Finals record to 10-12 (.455 winning percentage) after this series.That is still an unusually large jump in winning percentage for a superstar from a third to fourth trip. Conversely, at exactly the point that Tim Duncan is at, four games into his 5th Finals, Jordan was 18-9 (.667 winning percentage). I feel better about the chances of an all-time great player who wins in these games at a slightly higher clip than Michael Jordan and who has consistently kept his Finals winning percentage above two out of three (.667 winning percentage) to be able to figure out a way to get this thing done than I would about a superstar who will not even be able to climb to even (.500 winning percentage) in the Finals no matter what happens for the duration of this series. Tim Duncan just needs to do what he has done throughout his career, stay above above 2-1 (.667 winning percentage) and win two out of the next three games to win another title. Do you feel better now? Well you should feel a little better, one thing that my vast experience watching and studying lots and lots of sports (particularly the NBA) has taught me is that some teams and athletes have a higher capacity to persevere through adversity than others. The numbers bare it out that between the Spurs and the Heat and Tim Duncan and LeBron James, the Spurs and Duncan have shown a higher capacity to overcome. That being said, hopefully all of that mild overconfidence that was on display in the AT&T Center during Game 4 has been flushed out of the collective systems of Spurs fans. We should go into tomorrow night rooting confidently for our Spurs but we should also root with what Coach Pop refers to as "appropriate fear." The players on the court will almost certainly be playing with "the appropriate fear." The Miami Heat are extremely talented and very dangerous, especially now that they have perfected time travel technology and gone back to fetch the 2006 version of Dwyane Wade to take the place of this 2013 counterpart, and they are still the defending champions. They also have the ability to draw on experience to figure out a way to put a boot on our neck by stealing another one at the AT&T Center tomorrow night. This is our last stand in San Antonio for the season and we as a community need to make it abundantly clear to the Miami Heat that it is because of their greatness that we are not going to allow them to become the first road team to win two games in South Texas in an NBA Finals series. They need to feel early and often that their best hope for winning back to back games in the 2013 NBA Finals will come in Miami. At some point tomorrow night we need to force them to come apart by making them realize that they are incapable of matching the way we come together.
Featured Image Source: USA TODAY
Headline Image Source: Traditional Music Library
Fourteen Down
2013 NBA Finals, Game 3
Party Like It's 1999 - What if I were to tell you that a thunder storm and a high school graduation ceremony caused one of the greatest shooting performances in NBA Finals history? If you would like to know how, you have a choice to make. [Note: I have just held out a blue pill in one of my hands and a red pill in the other] If you take the blue pill, you will wake up and you can believe whatever you want to believe. If you take the red one, you stay in wonderland and I show you just how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I am offering is the truth. [Note: Choosers of the blue pill, stop reading now...choosers of the red pill, follow me] Lets start at the beginning. It was a little under an hour before tip-off of Game 3 of the 2013 NBA Finals. I had the KSAT 12 local pregame coverage on but was not really paying much attention to it because I was about to crack open my first beer of the night. It was at that exact moment that I heard the commentator say something that caught my attention. "Ladies and gentleman, we have breaking news to report. Tony Parker and Tim Duncan..." The reporter paused for what felt like an hour as terrible thoughts about what he would say next raced through my mind. Tony Parker and Tim Duncan...were both injured in the morning shoot around and are unable to play tonight [Thought #1], were suspended for Game 3 by David Stern after the commissioner finally came to a decision on the appropriate punishment for this after 6 months of carefully discussing it with his confidant Joey (Expletive Deleted) Crawford and yes, it is just a coincidence that these suspensions have come in the middle of the NBA Finals [Thought #2], had both started reading Bill Simmons' column about The Duncan Show at 10:00 AM and upon finishing it at 4:00 pm they had gotten so excited that they started doing treatments on how to wrap up the Season 16 arc and had completely forgotten that Game 3 was today [Thought #3]. "Ladies and gentleman, we have breaking news to report. Tony Parker and Tim Duncan...have not yet arrived at the AT&T Center because they are stuck in traffic." WTF!!!! Are you kidding me? This is just as or even more bizarre than all of the crazy scenarios that had just rushed through me head. The first NBA Finals game in San Antonio in 6 years and we might have to hear Kevin "Big Kev" Brock announce over the PA at the AT&T Center, "starting at forward from the University of Florida, Matt Bonner. Starting at guard from the University of Texas, Cory Joseph." Can someone please get Mayor Julian Castro on the phone to get Tony and Timmy an SAPD escort to the damn stadium? What the hell are my city property taxes going towards anyway? Oh wait, that's right...I don't pay city property taxes because my neighborhood is still an annex of San Antonio. Okay, can somebody please get Commissioner Tommy Adkisson on the phone to get Tony and Timmy a Bexar County Sheriff escort to the damn stadium? What the hell are my county property taxes going towards anyway?
More on this later. First, I have a confession to make. Right after I said "lets start at the beginning," I immediately decided to give you the abbreviated version of the story because I am extremely tired after a long day of work and I just wanted to get this blog entry posted as quickly as possible so that I can actually get a little bit of sleep tonight. But after getting into the abbreviated version, I've come to realize that it doesn't do this story justice and you, the reader, deserve to get the story in its entirety. After all, you did just take the red pill. So please accept my sincerest apologies and allow me to start over. The story actually begins in Port Arthur, TX and it begins at the tail end of the twentieth century. The year is 1996. A 16 year old high school basketball phenom named Stephen Jackson is hanging out with his 23 year old friend on the benches outside of their neighborhood's basketball court. It is late afternoon and it is summer. It is 3:00 PM on June 15th to be exact. Anyone that knows anything about a Port Arthur summer afternoon knows that it takes a great amount of dedication to the game of basketball to be willing to tolerate the absolute agony of the heat combined with the humidity in order to work on your game on the outdoor courts. It takes a great deal of dedication to the game of basketball or it takes being in desperate need of a favor. Oh, I forgot to mention that the 23 year old friend that Stephen Jackson is hanging out on the courts with is Bun B of the Port Arthur hip hop duo UGK.
Bun: Hey Stephen, I need a favor.
Captain Jack: What is it Bun?
Bun: I've been holding something for a New York friend of mine, but I'm about to be going out on tour for the next six months so I need someone to hold it for me to keep it safe.
Captain Jack: I don't know Bun, I've got my future to think about, this sounds kinda risky.
Bun: Chill Stack, it ain't nothing crazy, just a little something I need stashed.
Captain Jack: It ain't drugs is it?
Bun: Naw, lil' homie, it ain't nothing like that.
Captain Jack: It ain't a gun is it?
Bun:nJack, I said it ain't nothing like that. It's a bag of magic "irrational confidence" beans.
Captain Jack: Huh?
Oh, I also failed to mention that the New York friend that Bun B referred to earlier is also an up-and-coming rapper named Jay-Z.
Bun: I know, it sounds weird, but if you eat one...you will magically be given the confidence to do other-worldly things that you otherwise couldn't do. They really work. I got them from the homie Jay-Z when I was up in NY. He got them from a broke customer back in his slangin' days who traded for them because he couldn't afford to pay for his fix. Jigga asked me to hold them for him because he said that when he tried one, it gave him the confidence to write a diss track against 2pac. While the 2pac beef put him on the map, he doesn't trust himself with the beans anymore because he is worried that they might throw his career trajectory out of wack because he is working on his second album and he is already feeling compelled to write lyrics comparing himself to Michael Jordan, Elvis, and the Beatles. Jay thought that if he gave them to me, I could put them to good use by propping up an entire stable of less talented Houston-area artists over the course of the next decade. So will you hold 'em for me?
Captain Jack: I still don't know Bun, this is kinda weird.
Bun: Come on Stack, we're on the same team. P.A.T., baby. P.A.T.
Captain Jack: Okay, Bun. I'll hold them. You know that I will do anything for a teammate.
Fast forward. The year is now 2003. That tour that Bun B went on back in 1996 was off the chain cray. So much so that when he returned to Port Arthur after the tour wrapped, his head was so cloudy that he had forgotten all about the magic "irrational confidence" beans and the fact that he had given them to Stephen Jackson to hold. Likewise, Jack has now been holding them for seven years but he has been so focused on making himself into an NBA player that he had forgotten a long time ago that the bag of beans was in a storage container in his garage. It is late afternoon and it summer. It is 3:00 PM on June 15th, to be exact. Stephen, now an NBA starter for the San Antonio Spurs, is looking for an old "good luck" wristband out in his garage to help him play well in tonight's ever important game. He happens upon the storage container, opens it, and rediscovers the bag of magic "irrational confidence" beans. For the first time in the seven years that they have been in his possession, Stephen Jackson eats one of the beans.
Fast forward. The year is now 2004. It is late afternoon and it is autumn. It is 3:00 PM on November 19th to be exact. For some inexplicable reason, Stephen Jackson, now playing for the Indiana Pacers, decides to eat a magic bean for only the second time ever in preparation for a regular season road game against the Detroit Pistons.
Fast forward. The year is now 2007. It is afternoon and it is spring. It is 3:00 PM on May 4th. Stephen Jackson, now playing for the Golden State Warriors is contemplating the possibility of checking himself into rehab. He is detoxing from a 10 day magic bean eating bender.
Fast forward. The year is now 2012. Stephen Jackson has been able to remain successful at his magic "irrational confidence" bean sobriety since he swore off eating them back in 2007. But he still keeps them in his possession and for some unexplainable reason, last week he transported the bag of magic beans from his home to his NBA locker. I guess there are worse things to keep in your NBA locker, Gilbert Arenas. It is late afternoon and it is summer. It is 3:00 PM on June 6th to be exact. Captain Jack, back with the San Antonio Spurs, has another huge game coming up this evening. He thinks long and hard about falling off the wagon and eating a magic bean in preparation for the game. But he thinks better of it because he knows that after 12 years in the league his confidence to make buckets is no longer irrational. He then has an epiphany of sorts because he really wants to win tonight's game. He decides that he will give magic beans to some of his teammates. He is ready to offer them up when he realizes that the bag of magic "irrational confidence" beans is actually in his home locker back in San Antonio and this is a road game.
Fast forward. The year is now 2013. It is late afternoon and it is spring. It is 3:00 PM on April 11th to be exact. Greg Popovich, head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, is conducting his annual CIA-style surveillance exercises at the AT&T Center. Popovich, an ex-intelligence officer for the United States military, is really, really good at these sorts of things. In fact, he currently has a pretty decent side gig to his duties as head coach of the San Antonio Spurs where he is making some serious coinage serving as a consultant for both the National Security Agency (NSA) as well as for Verizon Wireless. During the sweep of his players' locker room (one of the surveillance exercises), Popovich discovers that Stephen Jackson has a bag of magic "irrational confidence" beans stashed in his locker. Disgusted that Captain Jack has been holding out on his teammates all season, Popovich confiscates the magic beans and stores them in a safe in his office that he keeps hidden behind a painting of himself wiping his nose with Craig Sager's handkerchief which ironically was painted for Pop by former President George W. Bush. Despite his ideological differences with the artist, Coach Pop really loves this painting. The next day, Greg Popovich cuts Stephen Jackson for his selfishness. "After all," said Coach Pop in an exclusive interview he granted theLeftAhead to discuss this topic, "there is no 'I' in 'bean.'"
Okay, so this brings us back to where we began. It is yesterday. I'm standing in my living room cursing my television at the news that Tim Duncan and Tony Parker are stuck in traffic less than an hour before the tip-off of Game 3 of the Finals. Greg Popovich, however, is not panicking. He is in his office at the AT&T Center adjusting his game plan to prepare for the worst case scenario. He is just wrapping up a three-way phone call with Timmy and Tony who are both sitting in the middle of San Antonio gridlock with no end in sight. Ironically, it is harder for both Timmy and Tony to see how much further they have before traffic loosens up because their vision is impeded by all of the San Antonio Spurs car flags waving on the vehicles in front of them. Luckily for them, Coach Pop (who somehow seemingly knows more about the situation that is unfolding on the streets of San Antonio than even the city's best traffic and weather reporters) informs his players that a severe thunder storm, moving over San Antonio from southeast to northwest, is the cause of the traffic jam on the highway which has now been exacerbated by the unusually large amount of traffic that is in the area for the John Paul Stevens High School graduation ceremony. About to wrap up the three-way call with his players, Coach Pop blurts out, "can you hear me now." Popovich, as well as the NSA agent and Verizon Wireless tech support representative who are both listening in on the conversation all chuckle. Tim Duncan and Tony Parker have no idea what their coach is talking about. This is not an unusual occurrence. Popovich hangs up the phone, springs up from his desk, takes down the George W. orginal portrait of him and the Ragin' Sagin (as Pop refers to Sager), unlocks his safe, opens Stephen Jackson's bag of magic beans, takes two out, walks to the training room, approaches Danny Green who is getting his ankles taped for the game and says, "eat this and don't ask any questions." Danny Green nods and without saying a word, he eats the first magic "irrational confidence" bean of his life. Popovich precedes to the player's locker room and surveys the room. His attention is drawn to both Gary Neal and Matt Bonner. He swings his head back and forth between the two players for a brief moment. Matt Bonner is eating a sandwich whilst doing some sort of yoga stretch. Gary Neal is studying game tape. Greg Popovich begins walking towards Gary Neal. The rest is now NBA history.
Gary Neal went 6-10 on three point attempts last night, stepping up on the NBA's biggest stage to carve himself out a little place in basketball history. He didn't want to occupy that space alone so he invited Danny Green to join him. Green also went an astonishing 7-9 from the arc last night and is now 16-23 on threes for a magnificent 70 percent in the series (it is actually 69.5, but when you are the leading scorer in the NBA Finals to this point you get the benefit of me rounding up). These rotation players, benefiting from their magic "irrational confidence" beans, led the #BlackAndSilver to a dominating 113-77 victory over the Miami Heat last night at the AT&T Center. Throw in the three pointer that Tony Parker sunk, and the Spurs' backcourt combined to knock fourteen down. Throw in two more threes by Kawhi Leonard, and the squad converted on an NBA Finals record 16 triples. San Antonio was able to return the favor to Miami for the Heat's 19 point Game 2 victory. Gary Neal earns player of the game honors because Danny Green has earned the honor before, also because Gary Neal hit more of his threes while the game was still in jeopardy. My wife made the comment last night that Gary and Danny played like they were partners on one of those cheesy police shows and last night was one of those scenes where Gary Neal shoots the bad guy multiple times, and then Danny Green walks up to the bad guy (who is already down on the ground) and shoots him a few more times just to make sure he is dead. One of the most exciting by-products of this amazing Spurs victory is that in the past 24 hours, Gary Neal's journeyman story of perseverance has been well covered by the national media and told to millions of people. In the post-game press conference Gary was asked about one of my favorite parts of this amazing story; the circumstances of him and his wife deciding to postpone their honeymoon for the sake of his basketball career. Gary remembered, "So she decided that it would be a good thing if we went to Vegas instead so that I could try to make an NBA push." I predicted that the Spurs would earn one blowout victory at home during this series. I still think that the next two games will be gut-wrenching slug fests that will be won by the team who can clamp down the most on defense and execute with the most precision on offense during the guts of the fourth quarter. The challenge ahead is still enormous. The defending champions will not eliminate themselves, the Spurs will have to impose our will to make that happen. We still need to play our best 96 minutes of basketball this season in order to hoist a trophy this year in San Antonio. We need to play better tomorrow than we did last night. We can do it if we remember that which matters most. That after 16 years of playoff battle after playoff battle... we are still here! Tomorrow, let us send a message to our opponent. Tomorrow, let us shake this cave. Tomorrow, let us tremble these halls of earth, steel, and stone, let us be heard from red core to black sky. Tomorrow, let us make them remember, this is San Antonio and we are not afraid!
Epilogue: Rewind. The year is 1991. It is late night and it is summer. It is 3:00 AM on June 15th to be exact. A customer trades a bag of magic "irrational confidence" beans to a small time New York dealer named Shawn Carter. That customer is Darryl Strawberry. He convinces Shawn to make the trade by informing him that the beans were harvested on a top secret farm owned and operated by the United States military. Strawberry says that the reason he knows this is because the magic beans were given to him years before by an undercover military operative and even though he has only tried them once, they definitely worked. The undercover military operative who gave the magic "irrational confidence" beans to Strawberry went by the alias Gregory "The Operator" Popo.
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Three Up
2013 NBA Finals, Game 2
All of the Lights - Shane Battier put a three up from 25 feet out with 18 seconds left in the game (5 seconds left on the shot clock) and with the Miami Heat ahead of the San Antonio Spurs by 18 points. Battier would probably say, if asked, that his motivation was simply to try to put up one more attempt to see if he could get himself out of a terrible shooting slump. But deep down, being of Duke pedigree, he probably knows that it was ill advised because fans of the opponent could perceive it as an attempt to run up the score and deem it bad sportsmanship. Further eroding the soundness of the decision to put the three up, Battier has inadvertently given Tim, Tony, and Manu a tiny little present to store away in their vast reservoirs that normal human beings call memory banks. And even though these reservoirs overflow with countless disrespectfully premature celebrations by would be conquering rivals, they always seem to have room for one more juicy nugget. The proper play for Battier in that situation, the one that Mike Krzyzewski surely taught his Blue Devils, would have been to hold the ball for the remaining 5 seconds and then hoist a halfhearted attempt as the shot clock expired. Another acceptable option, and the classy choice I would have expected out of a former Dukee, would have been to simply hold the ball and then hand it to the referee after taking the 24 second violation so that San Antonio could run out the remainder of the game clock. There must be something in the water down there on South Beach because Shane Battier is one of the last players that I would have guessed would try to embarrass an opponent by running up the score. That's okay, the San Antonio Spurs always take these sorts of matters in stride. More often than not, San Antonio is able to draw back upon these seemingly benign little slights and use them as a little extra shot of fuel to help us persevere and ensure that in the end we are the last ones laughing. The difference is, we do our laughing behind closed doors. If you believe in basketball karma, which I do, then you could argue that Battier has tempted the basketball gods to frown down ever so slightly every time a Miami three point attempt is in the air at the AT&T Center over the coming week. Furthermore, if you put stock in the law of averages (which I also do) and observe the entire series as a singular statistical sample (i.e. the number of threes Miami can make in the series is finite), then you could argue that Battier has wasted a precious made three point basket on tomfoolery in a blow out victory that Miami might come to desperately need later in the series if it remains close. Win by 19 or win by 4, Miami and San Antonio are now tied at one victory a piece after the Heat averted disaster by defeating the Spurs last night 103-91 in their gym. Nonetheless, the two teams are now heading to Texas after San Antonio has already done enough in Florida to earn an opportunity to show that we are better at protecting our home court than the defending champions. If the #BlackAndSilver are successful, then that disrespectful "turd sandwich" of a three pointer that Shane Battier launched in garbage time of Game 2 will be the last Heat points at American Airlines Arena this season.
The Spurs will have to play 144 minutes of focused and determined basketball at home in order to accomplish the arduous task of preventing Gloria Estefan, Rick Ross, Flo Rida, Justin Bieber, David Beckham, and Jimmy Buffett from having plans for a week from tomorrow on South Beach. I mentioned in Thirteen Down that the only way that the Heat will win this series comfortably is if the Spurs commit the cardinal sin of repeatedly turning the ball over, especially in ways that ignite the Miami fast break. The Miami break is too dangerous of a weapon to tempt into action not only because LeBron James and company finish like maniacs at the rim but also because the confidence level of every single player on that squad, one through thirteen, is transformed by the team getting a couple of easy, highlight worthy baskets in transition. Miami's pedestrian role players are transformed into sharp shooting savants and Wade and James get an extra spring in their step when a moment of swarming defensive pressure ignites the most devastating up-tempo offense in the league. It was clearly evident last night that once those flood gates were opened, there was no shutting them off. The most frustrating part of Game 2 was that those proverbial flood gates were so close to never opening in the first place. San Antonio was only down two with 3 minutes left in the third quarter of a grind-it-out, heavy weight slug fest which seemed like a replay of Game 1 when disaster struck. A nightmare that we had been waiting to haunt our small, humble community throughout the duration of this playoff run finally came seeping through the cracks in our living room window sills to spoil our dreams of watching the Spurs steal another close game on the road. That's right, Joey Crawford swallowed his whistle at a pivotal moment to the detriment of the Spurs. Remember Joey Crawford? You guessed it, Joey (Expletive Deleted) Crawford has struck again. With a little under 3 minutes left in the third quarter and the Spurs down two, Manu Ginobili drove the ball to the basket, got raked across the arm, the ball popped loose, Joey Crawford (the closest official to the play) held his whistle, Miami stole the ball, LeBron spotted Mario Chalmers in the left corner in transition, Chalmers kicked to a wide open Ray Allen for an elbow three. Bucket, 5 point swing, Miami is off to the races, ball game. In fairness, the Spurs had been undefeated this postseason with Joey Crawford working the game but part of me wonders if the reason for that is that he had just been patiently biding his time so he would have an opportunity to stick his finger in our eyes during the NBA Finals. Of course, I know it is unreasonable to argue that one blown call towards the end of the third quarter cost a team a ball game that they lost by 19. But then again, if the foul call is made and Manu earns two free throws, he potentially reties the game. Miami is then forced to run a half court set on their next possession, the run never gets started, this never happens, and perhaps Tony Parker has an opportunity to work his fourth quarter magic once again. I concede that, based on the law of averages, the probability was such that Miami would have taken Game 2 even without their huge run. After all, Tim, Tony, and Manu were a combined 10 for 33 from the field and their Spurs committed 16 turnovers, four times as many as we did in Game 1. So hats off to the champs, they played an excellent ball game and deserved the victory.
The player of the game was Danny Green which was a pleasant surprise. I assumed that in every road game during the NBA Finals that it would be either Duncan, Parker, or Ginobili that would earn this honor. Clearly, none of them were worthy last night but Danny was spectacular going 6-6 from the field (5-5 from downtown) for 17 points. Danny is now 9-14 from the arc in the series and if he can keep shooting lights out coming home to the AT&T Center, San Antonio will likely put ourselves in a position to return the favor and win at least one of the next three games in blow out fashion. Given the evenness of the match up, I anticipate that the other two home games will be gut wrenching contests of will and execution similar to Game 1. The Spurs will have to play our best basketball of the season over the course of the next week to have a chance at hoisting a trophy on our home court. Despite the fact that Miami has likely gained confidence from the decisiveness of last night's victory, the Spurs won't be rattled and we are capable of a resounding response. We have recovered from bigger beat downs than this to win the NBA championship. Even though the task at hand is unquestionably difficult, San Antonio is still in the drivers seat in this series. We went down to Florida and accomplished everything that was reasonably realistic, we forced the defending champions to relinquish home court advantage in the series. Now we must defend it with everything that we've got. It starts tomorrow night. The city must come together and cheer louder and harder than we did when we were in this position for the first time while our players execute more brilliantly on offense and lock down more aggressively on defense than we did in our most dominating championship run. Tomorrow night, we've gotta party like it's 1999.
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Thirteen Down
2013 NBA Finals, Game 1
Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Welcome to the circus. The White Stripes blared through the PA system while nearly 20,000 hysterical Miami fans chanted in unison as the Birdman led a contingent of the Heat players in some sort of strange ritualistic hybrid bounce-dance number with periodic fire flames flaring behind them. This Miami pregame introduction was reminiscent of the obnoxiously premature pep rally held by the Heat upon the signing of Chris Bosh and LeBron James in 2010. Don't get me wrong, the NBA Finals are one of the grandest stages that the world of sports has to offer and a franchise should be able to celebrate the honor of hosting this event however it sees fit. I concede that the purpose of the pregame introduction is to whip the fans into a frenzy and generate the energy necessary to maximize your home court advantage, so I'm trying my best not to be overly critical of the Heaification of the NBA where the marketing of basketball as a billion dollar entertainment product has become seemingly just as important as the showcasing of a sport played at its highest level. But on the other hand, the NBA Finals are one of the grandest stages that the world of sports has to offer so exercising a bit of class and decorum in reverence to the historical sacredness of the moment might be in order (especially when you've been here before). But what do I know, I'm just a basketball purest who has been watching this event since I was 5 years old. Funny, I don't remember ever once seeing Larry Bird or Magic Johnson dance before an NBA Finals game. To his credit, LeBron James did not participate in this pandemonium but stood there stoically mentally preparing for the battle at hand.
Game 1 on Thursday night was a monster of an NBA Finals game. From the moment that the two teams took the court, it was easy to sense an aura of determination on both sides that has the makings to provide for one of the greatest Finals match ups in league history. San Antonio controlled the opening tip and immediately committed the type of cardinal sin that is probably necessary for us to commit regularly in order for the Miami Heat to be afforded an opportunity to win this series comfortably. The Spurs turned the ball over on a lazy pass that led to an easy Dwyane Wade transition dunk off of a LeBron James dish at the other end. I guess we can chalk that first play up as the single most glaring manifestation of the "rust" that many analyst hypothesized would rear its ugly head to hurt the Spurs after a nine day lay off since our last game. Over the next 47 and a half minutes, the #BlackAndSilver only turned the ball over three more times to tie an NBA Finals record for fewest in a game set by the Detroit Pistons in Game 4 of the 2005 Finals against the Spurs. This was crucial because it gave San Antonio an ability to hang in the game by preventing Miami the aforementioned comfort that their fast break attack provides to their overall level of play. After the initial turnover on the first play of the game, San Antonio settled down nicely to jump out to a 9-2 lead. During the run, Danny Green partially put one of my biggest fears about this series to rest by knocking down his first three point attempt. The biggest unknown for me, going into this series, is whether or not the San Antonio spot up shooters could continue to consistently knock down open three pointers with the added pressure of the enormity of the Finals. Green was clearly up to the task hitting on 4-9 from three for the game. The other spot up shooters were a combined 1-9 from three with Kawhi Leonard going 0-4, Gary Neal going 1-5, and Matt Bonner not even attempting a three. Manu Ginobili in a confident and efficient NBA Finals game hit 2-5 with both of his makes being run stopping daggers to keep the Spurs within striking distance while the Heat enjoyed the lead. Manu finished the game with 13 points on a conservative 4-11 shooting with 3 assists, 2 steals and only 1 turnover. As a team, the Spurs shot only 30.4 percent on 7-23 from the arc. This is somewhat concerning moving forward because our ability to knock down open shots off of Tony and Manu's penetration is key for San Antonio to win this series. Our shooters will invariably shoot better at home, so (given the lay off and the intensity of the energy in the building) the percentage of threes we hit on Thursday night was decent enough to help the Spurs hang in and thwart extended Heat runs.
After the initial 9-2 burst by the Spurs, the Heat settled down and punched us right back to take a lead that they would not relinquish again until the fourth quarter. Throughout the game both teams seemed to be feeling each other out, unable to impose their will for prolonged stretches. The Spurs seemed to be in an early predicament when both Kawhi and Tim Duncan got into early foul trouble. To add to our cause for alarm, when Timmy left the game with his second foul he was 0-5 from the field having missed a handful of shots that he normally makes. With Duncan on the bench, Miami was able to build their lead to nine and by the time Tim returned in the second quarter the Heat seemed like they were on the verge of breaking the game wide open. But the focus was clearly evident on Timmy's face when he walked purposefully back into the game and he went on to take command of the rest of the quarter scoring 12 points, gobbling up rebound after rebound, blocking a couple of shots, and calming sinking a buzzer beating jumper with 0.8 seconds left before halftime to cut the Heat's lead to only three at the break. Number 21, aka Time's Father, went on to have a prototypical Tim Duncan NBA Finals line with 20 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks. Without out the utter domination of the second quarter by one of this stage's most magnificent performers, the Spurs would have all but assuredly been facing a double digit deficit after 24 minutes. All things considered, I felt pretty good to be within striking distance at the half especially considering that Tony Parker had not really broken free to start picking apart the Miami defense at his normal level of proficiency and also because the Heat had squandered several opportunities to build their lead to a large enough margin that we might start questioning our ability to compete. Luckily, San Antonio was able to do what we so often have done in the past and use our mental toughness to play through adversity and hang in a rough game on the road.
The third quarter offered more of the same. Miami extended the lead and then San Antonio fought our way back to close to even. In fact, when the quarter was over the Spurs were in the same position that we were at the half; trailing by three after playing the Heat to an even 20 to 20 in scoring for the period. While the "rust" versus "rest" debate (in regards to the Spurs' ability to perform in Game 1) had been debated exhaustively all week, it had seemingly not tilted dramatically in one direction or the other in the first three quarters of game. I remember predicting during the timeout between the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter that the Spurs had a golden opportunity to take advantage of the "rest" side of the equation during the fourth quarter and out work Miami to steal the game and home court advantage for the series. Miami had played an emotionally taxing Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Monday night and by the fourth quarter much of the "I'm playing in the NBA Finals" adrenaline that was likely fueling them through out the game would begin to dissipate. This prediction proved accurate as San Antonio dominated the fourth quarter on the defensive end of the court by limiting Miami to only 16 points and forcing them into a couple of costly turnovers in the closing minutes and with the game in the balance. Despite the visibly more energetic defensive acumen, the Spurs (who finally took the lead on a Kawhi put back tip-in) were still in jeopardy of coming up short down the stretch. Miami seemed positioned to potentially sneak back and re-steal the game by making just enough plays on offense to keep the entire city of San Antonio on edge. In order for the Spurs to secure the victory, it took another put back tip-in and two clutch free throws by Timmy as well as a "step aside young fella, you're not ready to check me" spin move around Norris Cole for a reverse layup by Tony Parker and oh yeah, this...
The NBA Finals, where 1/10th of a second is BIG!
The San Antonio Spurs defeated the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the NBA Finals 92 to 88 at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida to improve to 5-0 all time in Games 1 of the NBA Finals. Kawhi Leonard's individual defense on LeBron James was commendable. As the primary defender for most of the game, Kawhi held James to 18 points on 7-16 shooting. Don't get me wrong, LeBron still had a monster game racking up a triple double with 18 rebounds and 10 assists but on this night the consensus best basketball player on the planet was unable to impose his will enough to lead his team to victory. In fact, it was Tony Parker who imposed his will to not only earn my player of the game honors but lead the Spurs to a victory that dramatically shifted both the balance of pressure squarely onto Miami for the next game in this series and also the perception of Tony's greatness as a basketball player. In Twelve Down, I argued that Tony should be universally recognized as the best point guard in the world and that he should be in the conversation for best basketball player in the world. In the fourth quarter of Game 1, Tony backed up my argument scoring 10 points including two of which that came on one of the most memorable game clinching shots in NBA Finals history. Parker finished the game with 21 points, 6 assists, and 2 steals and his fourth quarter performance on the road in a hostile setting was just about as great as anyone could ask for out of a basketball player. The Spurs were fortunate throughout the night to minimize their turnovers in order to put themselves in a position for Tony to take over the game and once again Tony came through in the clutch.
Asked during the post-game press conference if San Antonio did anything special during the preparation for the game to limit turnovers, Coach Pop responded, "Sometimes you have turnovers, sometimes you don't...we don't do 'no turnover' drills, I don't know what those are." Even if Coach Pop’s game plan didn’t include a strategy for tying an NBA Finals record for fewest turnovers in a game, it was clearly effective. Possession after possession down the stretch, Erik Spoelstra's players looked less prepared and over matched as the Spurs got into our sets quickly and executed the plays that we wanted to while the Heat seemed erratic and indecisive under the pressure of the Spur's formidable defensive scheming. Even though the Spurs also missed a lot of shots down the stretch, our ball movement allowed for players to be in the proper positions to capitalize on second chance opportunities. There is no doubt that Eric Spoelstra and his staff will have the defending champions better prepared to execute down the stretch in the next game, but in a series that could prove to be offering us two of the most evenly matched teams in Finals history, losing a winnable game at home because the opponent was better prepared to execute their game plan might prove costly. Consequently, the Spurs have put Miami in a position where the pressure is squarely on the Heat as they face as close to a must-win scenario for Game 2 as a team could possibly face in a non-close out game. The pressure is greater than normal because of the 2-3-2 format of the NBA Finals. Should a group of 13 San Antonians heist another victory in South Florida after spending an extended weekend near the ocean, the Spurs will come home needing to only win two out of three of the games in our humble little city in order to win an NBA championship. That scenario is a world of hurt that Miami wants no part of. Therefore, we can clearly expect a brilliant performance from the defending champions tomorrow evening. There is no reason why the Spurs can’t match that brilliance and put ourselves back in a position to be within striking distance in the fourth quarter to steal another game and come home to San Antonio squarely in the driver's seat. Should the Spurs find that that opportunity presents itself, I am happy to take my chances that Tony Parker’s decision making in the guts of the game can be greater than the decision making of LeBron James. No matter what adjustments the Heat make on defending Parker, he has clearly demonstrated that he has the ability to counter and quite literally only needs 1/10th of a second to read the defense and make the proper play. No one has made more cold blooded reads during these 2013 NBA playoffs than Tony Parker and hopefully he can continue to showcase his greatness by coming up clutch throughout the duration of the NBA Finals and under all of the lights.
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