Two Behind
2016 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 4
Check the Rhime - Just before Thanksgiving last year, while back home visiting family and friends in Texas, I returned to the AT&T Center for the first time since the San Antonio Spurs fifth championship banner had been hung in the rafters. This was also my first time back in San Antonio since my wife and I moved to Denver, Colorado a few short weeks after our beloved Spurs had won the 2014 title. It was Monday, November 23rd, 2015 to be precise and the Spurs defeated the Phoenix Suns 98-84 on that particular night. As it turns out, witnessing the five banners in person stood out to me more than anything that happened during the game (I can't even remember who was the high scorer for the Spurs that night). I do remember, however, that I was super excited to head over to the H-E-B Fan Zone and snap a great photo of the five banners to keep as a reminder of my first time seeing them in person. As a diehard Spurs fan, there aren't a ton of images that I can think of that bring me as much joy as this one does. This image makes me happy and this image makes me proud. It also serves as a reassurance. It is reassuring because this image that makes me so happy and so proud could not exist if I didn't happen to be a fan of team that has a pretty good track record when it comes to overcoming adversity.
Two nights ago, the San Antonio Spurs played a disciplined and determined basketball game for 46 minutes which gave us an opportunity to win a third consecutive road playoff game in Oklahoma City. Then, unfortunately, something happened that tends to happen from time to time: one of the greatest basketball players on the planet hit some incredible shots down the stretch to ice a National Basketball Association game. Kevin Durant led the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 111-97 victory over San Antonio in Game 4 on Sunday night. Yep, unfortunately, the 2014 NBA MVP is impossible to guard when he's in the zone (see Rucker Park circa 2011). And this inconvenient fact was on full display the other night as he lit us up for eight points in final 2:26 (17 all together in the fourth quarter) of a close ball game to leave us in his dust. Game over. Series tied 2-2. When a player of Durant's caliber gets loose and starts making the types of shots he was making down the stretch, all you can do is tip your cap.
The player of the game was Boris Diaw. Bobo came up huge in Game 4 scoring 11 points on 5-8 shooting and grabbing three rebounds for good measure. Diaw's scoring came at crucial junctures in the game and his play was one of the biggest reasons why the Spurs were still within striking distance with two and half minutes left to play. A fantastic Game 4 contribution from Boris aside, in the end the Spurs should have expected that Kevin Durant was going to lead the Thunder to a home victory in this series with a performance like this. It is unrealistic to assume that a player that good can be held in check at home for an entire series. Hopefully, all of that In the Zone Kevin Durant shooting is now out of his system and remains that way for the duration of the series.
For any Spurs fans who are feeling those familiar dreadful feels about the possibility of impending doom, (while admittedly I am feeling some of those feels as well) let me give you a few reasons why I remain relatively calm and confident despite the circumstances. First, remember that the Spurs still have home court advantage in the now best of three Western Conference Semifinals and we have only lost TWICE at home the entire 2015-2016 season.Thinking back to the week of Thanksgiving when I was back in Texas, that seems like a really, really long time ago. Yeah, the Spurs have only lost TWICE in the AT&T Center since then. Secondly, the Spurs were only one point and one historically horribly officiated play away from being up 3-0 in this series prior Durant going all Durant in Game 4. Looking at things in those terms gives this series an entirely different complexion, doesn't it? The Spurs have outscored the Thunder by 21 points so far in this series. That is a pretty sizable cumulative scoring advantage for a series that is tied 2-2. Thirdly (and most importantly), the Spurs have players on our roster who have faced and overcome adversity in more playoff series than most NBA players would dare to dream of even playing in (much less winning). Once again, you don't get to raise five championship banners into the rafters without having a pretty good track record of overcoming adversity. Case in point, look at all of the times that the #BlackAndSilver have been in this exact same situation during the Tim Duncan era and persevered to raise a banner:
2003 First Round: Tied 2-2 against Phoenix Suns (Spurs win series 4-2).
2003 Western Conference Semifinals: Tied 2-2 against Los Angeles Lakers (Spurs win series 4-2).
2003 NBA Finals: Tied 2-2 against New Jersey Nets (Spurs win series 4-2).
2005 Western Conference Semifinals: Tied 2-2 against Seattle Supersonics (Spurs win series 4-2).
2005 NBA Finals: Tied 2-2 against Detroit Pistons (Spurs win series 4-3).
2007 Western Conference Semifinals: Tied 2-2 against Phoenix Suns (Spurs win series 4-2).
2014 First Round: Tied 2-2 against Dallas Mavericks (Spurs win series 4-3).
2014 Western Conference Finals: Tied 2-2 against Oklahoma City Thunder (Spurs win series 4-2).
The series now moves back to San Antonio tonight for Game 5. After the ball tips this evening, I will keep the image of those five banners in my mind as reassurance throughout the game and throughout the rest of this series. The banners are reassuring because they serve as a reminder of our proven ability to overcome adversity and persevere. Hopefully, when it's all said and done, those beautiful banners (and all they represent) will once again factor prominently in determining what separates us and them.
Featured Image Source: San Antonio Express-News
Ten Ahead
2016 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 3
Point of No Return - Well, that was not for the faint of heart. What a dogfight. I think it's safe to say we can add this one to the list of legendary playoff street brawls on the road that the Tim Duncan led Spurs always seem to find ourselves in year after year. Thankfully, somehow and someway, San Antonio escaped Chesapeake Energy Arena (one of the most hostile environments in the NBA) on Friday night with a narrow 100-96 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Oh, and by the way, in doing so we recaptured the ever important home court advantage that we had surrendered during Game 2's chaos. It may go without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway. This was a huge victory. It was absolutely critical against a team as talented as the Thunder that, after coughing away Game 2, the Spurs immediately reasserted our force of will and put the series advantage back in our favor. Having now secured this hard fought Game 3 win, we've hopefully demonstrated psychologically that Game 2 was an aberration (a momentary stumble) rather than the first cracks in a dam that is there for the breaking. Can you imagine the amount of swagger that the Thunder would have been bringing into the remainder of this series if they had been able to absorb Friday's counter punch and still figured out a way to win Game 3? We have a great deal of first hand playoff experience to remind us that swagger is a major ingredient in what makes this OKC squad a dangerous animal. Ever since the Thunder were first able to break through against San Antonio in Game 3 of the 2012 Western Conference Finals (defeating us 102-82 in OKC), we haven't seemed to have an answer for the lethal cocktail of talent and confidence Oklahoma City is able to serve up any time their swagger hits peak levels. That is why I can't emphasize enough how important it is that (when it was all said and done Friday night) we were able to capitalize on securing a victory that we spent a great deal of energy putting ourselves in a position to secure. If by doing so we've suppressed even a small amount of the swagger OKC has the potential for generating, we have done ourselves a huge favor moving forward in this series.
Even though the Spurs were playing from ahead most of the night, Friday's game certainly made sure that the faith of true believer Spurs fans was tested from start to finish. There was one thing in particular that was really testing my resolve throughout much of the night. Early on in the game, I noticed a disturbing trend that was occurring. A disturbing trend that, over the years, the Spurs have too frequently been snake bitten by in big playoff games (especially on the road). This trend, which was on display for much of the game, is one of the easiest ways for a team to snatch defeat from the claws of victory. What trend and I speaking of? Missed free throws. For much of the night, it felt like the Spurs were consistently stepping up to the free throw line and splitting each pair. Not taking advantage of free throw opportunities on the road in a tight playoff game is the equivalent of playing chicken with an oncoming train. It doesn't matter how skilled you believe you are at judging speed and distance, by not creating the biggest separation possible between you and the train, you are flirting with disaster. Over these past 27 seasons rooting for the Spurs in the playoffs, I've seen it more times than I care to count: missed free throws staring me in the face as the explanation for why we lost a close playoff game. And, sure enough, missed free throws was the thing that was on my mind through the first three and a half quarters of Game 3, challenging my faith as a true believer. Through those first three quarters of play, San Antonio was a combined 13-22 from the free throw line (shooting 59 percent). As a result, we carried a measly three point lead into the final frame. Had we simply just shot slightly better than 75 percent at the free throw line through the first three quarters, we could have carried a seven point advantage into the fourth. That could have made a huge difference. Indeed, when Russell Westbrook hit a ridiculous step back three pointer with 7:11 left in the game to give OKC an 81-77 four point lead, the nine missed free throws were all I could think about. I won't lie (because of all of our past experience with poor free throw shooting during close playoff losses), in the internal struggle between faith and doubt which had been taking place in the pit of my stomach throughout the game; doubt wasn't necessarily losing in that moment when the Spurs went down four points halfway through the fourth quarter. Then, after absorbing OKCs attempt at a knock out blow, thankfully we were able to maintain our composure, hang in the game, and (for whatever reason, perhaps all of the Spurs candles that were lighting up living rooms all across South Texas had something to do with it) miraculously we were able to flip a switch and get in rhythm at the foul line down the stretch. After Westbrook's dagger three, the Spurs shot 11-12 at the charity stipe in the guts of Friday's critical ball game. The 92 percent fourth quarter free throw shooting was capped by four cold as ice clutch free throws (two by Tony Parker and two by Kawhi Leonard) in the final 18 seconds of the game to seal the victory. If you need reassurance that the Spurs have what it takes to compete for this year's trophy, you should take heart in our precision fourth quarter free throw shooting in Game 3. Championship caliber teams figure out a way to ignore the pressure of the playoffs and the pandemonium of the opposing crowd and make free throws down the stretch of tight games in hostile environments on the road. While it's only a one game sample size, on Friday night the 2016 remixed Spurs showed that we are capable of passing that litmus test.
Naming a player of the game for Game 3 was an incredibly hard decision. Kawhi Leonard was every bit the beast on both ends of the court that I predicted he would be. He was spectacular. Leonard filled up the stat sheet like someone who just got to the all-you-can-eat buffet 10 minutes before closing time. Kawhi's stat line: 31 points (9-17 from the field, 3-4 from three, 10-14 from the line), 11 rebounds (including a game-saving rebound of the offensive variety), 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block. Yes indeed, it's safe to say that The Klaw rebounded excellently from his poor Game 2 performance. The offensive rebound that Kawhi secured up by two points with 23 seconds left in the game was the biggest play of the Spurs season thus far. It was a joy to watch the sheer determination in his eyes as he scurried into rebounding position while LaMarcus rose to shoot a jump shot and then went up over André Roberson and Serge Ibaka after LaMarcus missed and just got the damn ball. Sounds simple but in actuality it was the manifestation of a will to win that only champions seem to have the internal fortitude to muster in those situations. Spectacular. Even though there is no doubt that Kawhi made the play of the game, I'm giving player of the game honors to Tony Parker. Tony stepped up huge in Game 3 and showed glimpses of the dominant offensive weapon that he's been for us in years past. Tony's stat line: 19 points (7-14 from the field, 3-6 from three), 8 rebounds (where did that come from?), and 5 assists. One of the adjustments OKC had made in the series after getting annihilated by both LaMarcus and Kawhi in Game 1 is to play off of Tony and allow his man to help harass our two superstars by lingering nearer the places in the post that LaMarcus and Kawhi like to operate. The adjustment paid off (at least against Kawhi) in Game 2 as the Thunder's perimeter defenders were able to give each other the help needed to disrupt Kawhi into having a bad game. On Friday night, however, Tony Parker made them pay dearly for daring him to beat them over the top. Shooting 50 percent from the field on the night, Tony hit critical shot after critical shot all game long to punish the Thunder for the tactical adjustment. In one comical second half example of the indifference OKC's defenders were demonstrating towards Tony as a scoring threat, he brought the ball down on the break and watched as four Thunder defenders all pointed at him while he dribbled past the three point line. Since none of the four defenders that were pointing actually jumped out to guard him, Tony casually drained a 20 footer. Tony's ability to relentlessly punish the Thunder by draining the shots that OKC's game plan had calculated they could live with him taking is the reason that Tony earned player of the game honors over Kawhi. Bottom line, the Spurs would not have won the game if Tony hadn't made shots. Hopefully he can remain aggressive for the duration of this series because we're going to continue to need his offense.
After Friday night's nail biter, one would hope that we could get a couple of days to catch our breath. Unfortunately there's no rest for the weary as Round Two is now coming at us fast and furiously every other day. Tonight, the #BlackAndSilver have an excellent opportunity to replicate the concentration, determination, and team play that resulted in a Game 3 road victory. It won't be easy. The Thunder are now a wounded animal who will be treating tonight's game like an elimination game. Durant and Westbrook are going to try to establish themselves early and will keep attacking us all night long. There is no question that tonight's game will be decided by our defensive intensity. Are we going to be able to maintain the concentration and maintain the defensive determination of two nights ago when we were the desperate team? If we are even the least bit satisfied with reclaiming home court advantage in Game 3 and let up even a little bit on the defensive side of the ball, we will get eaten alive and find ourselves heading home in a 2-2 series. Yo, check it tho. If, instead, the Spurs bring the Back to Black championship level defense that we are capable of tonight and leave every ounce of it out there on the floor, we will be victorious in Game 4. Check the rhime.
Featured Image Source: XXL
Headline Image Source: CBS Sports
One Behind
2016 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 2
Something in the Way - It's funny what a difference 48 hours can make for a tribe of true believers who are in the middle of a noble quest to recapture basketball nirvana. For two weeks, we had been on top of the world. Invincible. Food never tasted better. The sun never shined brighter. Ordinary, day-to-day problems didn't seem so bad. How could they if the Spurs are undefeated in the playoffs? Life was good. Until all of a sudden, it wasn't. On Monday night, we had a very hard time putting a big orange ball through the thing that a certain Canadian born former candidate for the presidency of the United States apparently calls a basketball ring. (Ted Cruz aka Mr. Basketball U.S.A was busTED after using the phrase while trying to pander to voters in the Hoosier State last week. James Naismith, fellow Canadian and inventor of basketball, must've been rolling over in his grave. But whatever, I guess Senator Cruz is back to being my native state of Texas' problem now that he's suspended his campaign. My condolences to my friends and family who are still residing in the Lone Star State but also...so long, Teddy.) And as a result now, for the second straight year, we've unfortunately given away our second home game of a playoff series after dominating the first (San Antonio lost Game 4 at home to the Clippers 114-105 last year after destroying them 100-73 in Game 3). On Monday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder came into the AT&T Center (after getting humiliated in Game 1 in the Alamo City 124-92) and became only the second team all season to defeat the San Antonio Spurs in our building (Golden State won 92-86 in SA on April 10th). After leading most of the night, OKC hung on to steal home court advantage away from the good guys (at least temporarily) winning 98-97 after a wild (and controversial) final play of the game.
Before we get into the bizarre final sequence, I want to make two unrelated observations. Observation #1: The predictable letdown from a fantastic Game 1 shooting performance, of course, reared its ugly head in Game 2. The Spurs shot a lackluster 42.6 percent from the floor and 26.1 percent from three in Game 2. Most notably, Tim Duncan was 1-8, Patty Mills was 2-9, and Kawhi Leonard was 7-18 from the field. If you remove player of the game (for the third consecutive game) LaMarcus Aldridge's 15-21 shooting (71 percent) and 41 points from the equation, the rest of the Spurs shot a combined 25-73 (34.2 percent) and put a meager 56 points up on the scoreboard. When you look at how poorly we shot the basketball overall as a team (I mean, we missed 12 of our first 13 shots for Pete's sake), you start wondering how we were even in the game (oh, that's right...Aldridge). Even with LA going bananas for the second consecutive game, since the two OKC superstars responded how superstars are supposed to respond to an embarrassing loss and lit us up for 57 points on 22-44 shooting (50 percent), we could not afford for Leonard to have a poor performance if we hoped to offset the fire power of Durant and Westbrook. Unfortunately, Kawhi had his worst game of the 2016 playoffs (perhaps his worst game of the 2015-16 season) scoring a pedestrian 14 points. Not to add insult to injury, but Kawhi also missed two free throws in a game that the Spurs lost by one point.
Observation #2: The Thunder out-rebounded the Spurs 48-37 and we gave up an unforgivable 17 rebounds to Steven Adams. More than blown calls or even poor shooting, second chance points killed the Spurs. It seemed like every time we were getting some momentum and moving into position to go on the run that would give us the lead, OKC was able to secure a backbreaking offensive rebound that led to a momentum killing basket. Adams in particular was a monster, not only on the boards but in setting a physicality tone for the game. What the rebound disparity and our opponent's physicality tells me is that the Oklahoma City Thunder played harder and wanted the game more than we did. On second thought, I don't need to look at the rebounding totals in the box score to make this observation. It was evident with what my own two eyes were seeing as I watched the game on Monday night. OKC played with a noticeably greater sense of urgency. Between the focused offensive effort of Durant and Westbrook and the defensive intensity of Adams and Serge Ibaka (even if they couldn't slow down Aldridge, they fought him for 48 minutes), the Thunder were the better team on this particular night and they deserved to win.
Okay, now about the bizarre final play of the game. It's always frustrating when the referees screw something up in a way that alters the outcome of a game, especially a playoff game. Had the referees either called the foul on Dion Waiters for elbowing Manu Ginobili before inbounding the ball or if they had called a foul on Serge Ibaka for holding LaMarcus' jersey as he attempted to put back Patty Mills' air ball, sure, we might have escaped with a lucky win. Sure, Spurs fans wouldn't have had to spend the past four days tormented by the "what ifs" of all the things that could have gone differently to result in that win (and of course a painful loss at the buzzer had to happen in a game that preceded an unusually long break in the series providing us more time to stew in our misery). So yes, we wouldn't have had to spend this extended time off reliving all of the pain and agony of .4, or the foul on Dirk, or the Brent Barry non-foul, or the Ray Allen shot, or last year's Chris Paul dagger. It's tempting to think that this bizarre finish could become another tragic Spurs playoff moment to add to that list. I continue to feel really confident, to the contrary, that this will instead be the wake up call that brings us together as a team and sharpens our resolve. I see this bizarre Game 2 ending as having the same feeling as the Stephon Marbury buzzer beater in 2003 or the Vince Carter buzzer beater in 2014. The reason I see what will now infamously be known as the unfortunate Waiters incident this way is because it happened early in the series just like the Marbury and Carter game winners. All of the moments on the list of all-time Spurs playoff tear jerkers happened late in those series. Because this stroke of bad luck happened early in this series, I see it as the teachable moment for the 2016 remixed version of the Spurs reminding us that we cannot have bad nights in the playoffs. We have to be ready to bring it every single time we enter the arena. I am supremely confident that the #BlackAndSilver will take that lesson to heart, play Spurs basketball and leave Chesapeake Energy tonight after snatching home court advantage and control of the series back with a convincing victory. I expect Kawhi Leonard, in particular, to come back with a ferocious performance on both ends of the court. If we can get that and also keep LaMarcus red hot, I think we will be okay (even in an environment as hostile as Oklahoma City). Despite all of the heartache and nightmares the Game 2 loss has engendered for Spurs die hards, we must continue to remember that this remixed Spurs is one of the greatest basketball teams ever assembled. Teams that set a franchise record for wins don't come along every year, especially for five time champions. We have the talent, experience, and the depth to climb out of the hole we've dug for ourselves. It's time to leave that one behind and come together in pursuit of that which we know is possible. In other words, tonight is a night to light your Spurs candles if you've got 'em. They don't call us true believers for nothing. Tonight, we've got to keep the faith. With all due respect to the fantastic talent of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook on the other side of the court, we did not embark on a journey that's destination is a second round playoff exit. Rather, as stated previously, we have embarked on a noble quest to recapture basketball nirvana. And this is the point of no return.
Featured Image Source: SB Nation
Headline Image Source: Texas Public Radio
Eleven Ahead
2016 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 1
Gotta Lotta - Every available player entered the game for the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of our Western Conference Semifinals series against the Oklahoma City Thunder last night. Not only did all thirteen players enter the game, but impressively, all thirteen players scored at least one field goal during the contest. When it was all said and done, the Spurs had compiled a combined 51 made field goals in the dominating 124-92 Game 1 victory over the Thunder. Considering that Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili (the greatest trio in NBA history) only scored 16 of the 124 points that we put up last night, I think it's safe to say that we've gotta lotta weapons. Indeed, it was an all around impressive performance as the #BlackAndSilver combined to shoot 60.8 percent from the field while holding OKC to 41.2 percent shooting. As overwhelming as our depth proved to be on Saturday night, there was also a pleasant surprise that helps explain how San Antonio separated ourselves so dramatically (leading by as many as 43 points) from Oklahoma City in Game 1. That pleasant surprise was the extent to which our dynamic duo outshined the Thunder's dynamic duo throughout the night. There's no other way to spin it. Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge looked like bigger superstars (granted for one game) than Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Kawhi and LA combined for 68 points on 28-36 shooting while Durant and Westbrook combined for 30 points on 11-34 shooting. In other words, Kawhi and LaMarcus generated 38 more points on two more shot attempts than the two OKC superstars. It was a masterful display of locked in basketball that Leonard and Aldridge served up for the frenzied AT&T Center crowd. From the opening tip until both players were relieved from duty in the third quarter, you could see form the concentration in their faces. These two stars came to play. Take the Spurs' first possession, for example. Now this is how you set the tone for a playoff series.
Having a lot of weapons means you're often burdened because you've gotta lotta candidates for player of the game. When the Spurs have a night like last night, it can be conflicting to choose. (Yes, I hear the groans coming from fans in the twenty something NBA markets that don't seem to have this problem. But trust me, Sacramento fans, these player of the game decisions are hard when you've got seven or eight players that are capable of balling on the same level as Boogie Cousins on any given night.) I mean, last night Tony Parker was amazing. He only took three shots in 27 minutes but he ran the offense (and specifically the pick and roll with Aldridge) masterfully, tallying a healthy 12 assists in the process. Also, Danny Green showed up in a big way. Danny rained down bombs all night from beyond the arc, shooting 5-6 on three pointers (6-7 overall) for 18 points. Oh by the way, on the other end of the court he drew the main defensive assignment on Kevin Durant and harassed OKC's best player into a 6-15 shooting night. This was the type of Danny Green playoff performance we'd come to take for granted during previous Finals runs (and the type we're going to need to see regularly to get where we want to go this year). Of course, there's also Kawhi Leonard. Ho hum, Kawhi went for 25 points (on 10-13 shooting) in only 22 minutes. That's ridiculous efficiency. And, as we discussed earlier in the post, he redefined the meaning of a tone setter with his dunk to open the game. Also, you guessed it, on the other side of the ball the Defensive Player of the Year disrupted much of what superstar Russell Westbrook wanted to accomplish, shaking him into a 5-19 shooting night. But, alas, on a night where we gotta lotta star performances, there was one of the lotta who stood out above the rest. LaMarcus Aldridge was simply off the charts spectacular last night and has thus earned player of the game honors for the second consecutive contest. Marv Albert, who announced the game for TNT, described LA's performance by saying it was like watching him play a game of Pop-A-Shot. Albert's observation wasn't far from accurate. LaMarcus dropped what felt like a hundred shots from all over the court. In actuality, he went 18-23 from the field (including his first three of the season) in only 30 minutes of action. LA was able to get whatever he wanted against OKC's formidable defensive front court tandem of Serge Ibaka and Steven Adams. This was, hands down, LaMarcus Aldridge's best performance in a San Antonio uniform. And we're going to need him to continue this type of dominating play throughout the rest of this series. As convincing as the Spurs' Game 1 performance was, we have to keep perspective and remember that it's just one game. We don't get to take a 32 point lead into the start of Game 2 tomorrow night. To paraphrase Coach Pop, last night was just one of those nights where our shots went in and OKC's shots didn't which is something that happens in the NBA. The Thunder have proven in past series that they are capable of taking a whooping from the Spurs, making the necessary adjustments and finding a way to get the win that shifts momentum back in their favor. I don't care if we had won Game 1 by 100 points; if we stop fearing a team that rolls out Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook every night, we do so at our own peril. Hopefully the Spurs will come out tomorrow night with the same focus and sense of purpose that was on display last night. Game 2 is a huge opportunity for us to protect home court and take another step ahead in this season's journey to land in that place where the musical notes necessary to remix The Beautiful Game are uncovered. Just as much as before the series began, the Oklahoma City Thunder are an obstacle in completing that journey and rediscovering basketball perfected. Just as much as before the series began, OKC is something in the way.
Featured Image Source: Rap Basement
Headline Image Source: Pop-A-Shot
Video Source: NBA, playoff 2016 on YouTube
Twelve Ahead
2016 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 4
The Background - It was the Fourth of July around 10:00 am when I heard the news. My wife and I were getting ready to head up into the mountains to visit with family and celebrate the holiday. Despite the fact that we were running late, as soon as the texts started popping up on my phone I had to stop packing my bag and investigate for myself. Sure enough, I was immediately able to confirm what multiple friends had already been texting to me. On his Twitter account (which is currently deactivated), LaMarcus Aldridge aka the top free agent available on the 2015 open market wrote, "I'm happy to say I'm going home to Texas and will be a Spur!! I'm excited to join the team and be close to my family and friends." Bam, just like that with this one simple tweet, the San Antonio Spurs' championship window was yanked back to being more wide open than a refrigerator in the Inside the NBA break room thirty seconds after the show wraps. Wait a second, I'm understating the magnitude of LaMarcus' tweet. Not only was the Spurs' proverbial championship window reopened, but the screen and glass were completely removed from it so that the winds of triumph could continue to flow freely into the AT&T Center for the next four seasons to come. Indeed, this one simple tweet paved the way in allowing a transition for Tim Duncan aka Time's Father (the greatest winner in the modern NBA) to move quietly into the background this year (along with perennial running mates Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker) while LaMarcus and Kawhi Leonard took over center stage in putting together what would later prove to be the winningest season in franchise history. Given that I had been tempering my optimism about our chances of landing LaMarcus during the free agency courting period (the Spurs had never signed a free agent of Aldridge's caliber in franchise history), that moment on the Fourth of July where I heard the good news engendered a simply amazing feeling. It was a grand mixture of disbelief, excitement, and of course (being that it was Independence Day) patriotism. Yep, it's safe to say that I was bouncing off the walls elated that morning. The Spurs were back. Granted, this would be a new remixed version of my beloved team, but we were definitely back. As my wife and I finished packing and got on the road, I couldn't wait to get up into the mountains so that our elevation would match my mood. When we finally reached our destination, I got out of the car and breathed in a deep breath of the crisp mountain air and coupled it with the world class fireworks show that was popping off in my chest. Cloud nine. Man, what an amazing morning that was. Oh, and the phenomenal barbecue feast we had up in those mountains later that evening wasn't too shabby, either. God bless America.
LaMarcus Aldridge to sign with the San Antonio Spurs. God bless America! #LAtoSApic.twitter.com/npBk0VU2Pj
— Ted James (@tedjames) July 4, 2015
This past Sunday, LaMarcus and Kawhi indeed took center stage as the San Antonio Spurs completed a sweep of the depleted Memphis Grizzlies at the FedExForum in Memphis. After a competitive first half, the Spurs made quick work of the Grizzlies in the second half and won the game and series going away 116 to 95. The karmic powers that be in Tennessee (yep, that rhymes) must have seen the writing on the wall because they attempted to turn the lights out on the Grizzlies season a couple of hours too early. LaMarcus and Kawhi (the one-two punch of the remixed Spurs) amassed 36 points and 17 rebounds in only 54 minutes of combined game action while securing the victory as well as the welcomed six days of rest that came with it. Considering that we are the oldest team in the field, completing a sweep in Memphis and becoming the first team to advance to the second round (giving us more rest at this point than any of our potential opponents) could prove to work to our advantage in the coming weeks as the competition gets stiffer. While LaMarcus and Kawhi had equally dominant outings closing things out at The Grind House in Game 4, LaMarcus edges out Kawhi to earn his first ever Black & Silver player of the game honors. LA earns the honors not only for his Game 4 double-double (15 points, 10 rebounds) but also in recognition of the stellar defense he played the entire series on Zach Randolph. LaMarcus' length frustrated the Grizzlies best available player and prevented him from being able to put together a signature performance in any of the four games. While everyone has been focused the entire season on how LaMarcus Aldridge fits into our offense, it is the way that LA has seamlessly plugged into our defense that has probably been his biggest contribution in helping to transform the #BlackAndSilver into a 67 win juggernaut. Sure, no one would have labeled LaMarcus a defensive stalwart back in his Portland Trail Blazers days. He was certainly a serviceable, but no one was mistaking him for the second coming of Hakeem Olajuwon (or Tim Duncan for that matter). However, when you put his length and quickness next to Timmy and a certain Defensive Player of the Year named Kawhi Leonard, all of a sudden you have one of the most formidable defensive front courts in NBA history. The numbers bare it out. San Antonio league best defense was not only vastly better than the next best defense in the league this year, it was historically great. Back to LaMarcus' offense for a second. With less touches and less minutes this season, a lot has been made of the slippage in LaMarcus' offensive numbers playing for the Spurs. Numbers can be deceiving. A lot of that slippage had to do with LaMarcus learning how to find his spots in the Spurs offensive system early in the season. A lot more of it has to do with him adjusting to our "good to great" unselfishness as a group. Make no mistake about it, though. LaMarcus Aldridge is still one of the most dangerous post weapons in the entire NBA. His ability to get buckets in the low block and on put backs is a huge safety net that we did not have last year.
After the Memphis Grizzlies were dispatched last Sunday in what proved to be a record-breaking ninth sweep for head coach Gregg Popovich, the Spurs returned home to get some rest and also to prepare for our good friends Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Starting tonight, the two teams will square off in the playoffs for the third time in the past five seasons. With the Thunder taking the 2012 Western Conference Finals and the Spurs returning the favor to win the 2014 Western Conference Finals (both series ending in six games), it's fitting that we are being treated to this postseason rubber match. Fitting, but considering that OKC boasts two of the leagues six or seven best players (yes Mark Cuban, Russell Westbrook is a superstar and tests confirm that Kevin Durant is correct, you're an idiot), this is a very scary second round matchup. It is going to take the Spurs playing disciplined, focused basketball to take care of business in this series. We need to limit OKC's fast break attempts and force them into half court sets as much as possible. Whether Scott Brooks or now Billy Donovan, the Thunder are not known for picking teams apart through complicated half court offensive wizardry. That is why limiting OKC's opportunities to use Durant and Westbrook's speed and athleticism as a way to push the tempo will be crucial to our game plan. Sure, the Thunder are bringing two incredible weapons into the AT&T Center this evening but one of our biggest advantages in this series is that, overall, we boast a much deeper arsenal. Depth is a huge advantage for us against OKC. Players three through ten on the Spurs' depth chart include future hall-of-famers Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili. Once you get past Durant and Westbrook, the Thunder simply can't match our firepower. On July Fourth, the San Antonio Spurs landed a major weapon in LaMarcus Aldridge. What made the signing so spectacular, however, was placing LA in the mix with the incredible arsenal of weapons we were already stockpiling deep in the heart of Titletown, TX. It's true that we are facing an incredible challenge in this series because of the scope of the two huge guns our northern neighbors will be deploying in the Alamo City tonight, but hopefully the Spurs will prevail in this series because, when it comes to weapons, we don't have to just rely on LaMarcus and Kawhi. When it comes to weapons, we've gotta lotta.
Featured Image Source: The Morning Call
Thirteen Ahead
2016 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 3
Thieves in the Temple - Friday was Earth Day. One day after the passing of Prince, the world was still blanketing itself in purple showers. A resplendent purple Earth. At least that's how I imagined our beautiful planet might have looked on Friday from outer space. I spent a fair amount of my day that day thinking about that sort of thing. Thinking about the precious gift that is our natural habitat and how heartbreaking it is that we are destroying it while also thinking about the music of a prince and the color purple. On Friday evening, as I was taking a light rail train to Denver International Airport during RTD's grand opening of Train to the Plane, I looked off towards the mountains as the sun was setting to witness some spectacular purples in the sky. Many other passengers on the train were looking over at the sunset as well. Some were taking pictures of it on their phones. There was a communal feel to the moment. On that train we were a group of strangers, yet the desire to discover beauty that is part of our common humanity fortified a bond, admittedly fleeting, but one that gave each of us common inspiration to carry on the airplanes that would leave DIA and disperse us from a singular group of people who had captured a glimpse of beauty together on a train's passenger car in Denver, Colorado to our varied and unique destinations around the world. Sure, the idea of a purple earth is metaphorical. But to me, the communal experience of discovering beauty with a group of people that then disperse apart and consequently spread the inspiration carried from that shared discovery of beauty across the globe is how and why our planet was purple on Earth Day 2016. We, the passengers of that compartment of that train, took in a little light together while watching the sun rest in purple behind the mountains of the Denver sky and then we traveled into the night to spread our individual flicker of purplish joy around the world.
Around the same time that purple hues were lighting up the Denver sky, the San Antonio Spurs were in Memphis tipping off a game of basketball against the Grizzlies. I must admit, while I was absorbing in the beauty of a magnificent Denver sunset, I was doing so with WatchESPN streaming Game 3 of a certain Western Conference First Round series on the iPhone in my hands. (Hey, just because you're a deep thinker with a profound appreciation for artistic beauty doesn't preclude you from having the ability to multitask. Particularly during a Spurs playoff game.) To say I was multitasking on my now infamous RTD voyage to the airport is an understatement. Not only was I taking in the sunset and streaming the game, but I was also reviewing the transcript from a piece of audio collected by one of theLeftAhead's field reporters earlier on Friday in the Memphis hotel that the Spurs were staying at. Since our resources are very modest here at theLeftAhead, rather than hire a full time sports writer to cover the Spurs playoff run in person, I sent Ken Adams (our Pop Culture writer and currently my only full time employee) to Memphis to cover the series. Ken had to amazing good fortune to somehow get the room right next to Gregg Popovich's room at the hotel in Memphis where the team was staying. Around 2:00 pm on Friday, Ken also had the amazing good fortune to realize that the walls in this hotel were incredibly thin and he could hear everything that was being said next door in Coach Pop's room. Being the smart reporter that Ken is, after realizing his good fortune, he immediately hooked up a USB microphone to his computer, put it up against his shared wall with Coach Pop's room, and started recording audio. The following is a transcript of what he captured on the recording:
-- Begin Transcript of Recording --
Coach Pop: Okay Darryl, yeah I know it would mean a lot to you but no, I'm not going to do it. I don't care how badly you think you need this. (pause) Trust me, nobody is going to buy a 54 year old making a comeback to pitch in the Majors. If I give you the beans so that you can try to make a comeback with the Mets, our cover will be blown. It's too big a risk to national security for me to allow it. (pause) Sorry Darryl. (loud banging). Okay Darryl...I've got to get off the phone. There's someone at my door. (pause) Let me know what you find out about the Vladimir Putin operation. (pause) Okay, talk to you later. (pause) Come in.
Kawhi: (barely audible) Hey coach.
Coach Pop: Hey Kawhi, I'm a little busy, what's up?
Kawhi: (again barely audible) I just wanted to let you know that my shot felt really off at shoot around this morning. In fact, this is the worst I've ever felt about my shot in my career heading into a playoff game. I know winning this Game 3 is really important so that we can get Timmy, Manu, and Tony some extra rest. I was talking to Danny after shoot around and telling him how my shot felt off and he told me to come and ask you if I could have some magic "irrational confidence" beans?
Coach Pop: Dammit, Kawhi. You're currently one of the three best basketball players on the [bleeping] planet. There is absolutely nothing about your confidence that is irrational. No, you can't have any mother [bleeping] beans. Go out there tonight and just let it fly.
Kawhi: (still, barely audible) Okay, thanks Coach. I feel better already.
Coach Pop: Okay, good. Get the hell out of here.
Kawhi: (you guessed it...barely audible) Hey Coach, why is there a painting of Vladimir Putin hanging in your hotel room?
Coach Pop: Mind your business, Kawhi. (Door shutting) [Bleepity bleep bleep].
-- End Transcript of Recording --
Kawhi Leonard was red hot on Friday night, shooting 6 for 9 on threes and scoring 32 points (matching his playoff career high) to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 96-87 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies. When you factor in the 5 blocks and 4 steals that Kawhi registered on the defensive side of the ball, this easily ranks as one of his best playoff performances to date and earns him player of the game honors in the tough nosed, street brawl that was Game 3 of our First Round series. By going into the Grindhouse temple, absorbing haymaker after haymaker from our undermanned opponent, yet still thieving a victory, the #BlackAndSilver now have a commanding 3-0 lead in the series. Today's game begins in just a few minutes and we can expect the same type of physical, desperate opponent this afternoon that we faced on Friday night. Despite being undermanned, the healthy Grizzlies players still have a great deal of pride and will do everything in their power to avoid having the city of Memphis face the embarrassment of getting swept out of the 2016 playoffs. It is going to take a focused, disciplined effort but if we play Spurs basketball the way we have all season long, in a few hours (like the purple hues behind the mountains of a Denver sunset) we can put this First Round series in the background.
Fourteen Ahead
2016 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 2
Idioteque - Ice age coming, ice age coming. Let me play both sides, let me play both sides. The NBA has been put on notice. The Spurs are coming. Not only are we coming, but (over this past season) our starting small forward completed his mutation from an ordinary White Walker into the best two-way player in the game. It has been quite a transformation for the quiet, humble kid from Riverside, California. To put it mildly, The Klaw is a beast. It's safe to say that Kawhi Leonard is now grown. During the 2015-16 season, his game undoubtedly demonstrated most of its growth on the offensive side of the ball where he averaged 21.2 points per game to lead the Spurs in scoring for the second consecutive season (a 4.7 points per game improvement, however, over the 16.5 he averaged during the 2014-15 season). Boasting one of the most complete offensive games in the NBA is what's new. What we already knew was reaffirmed this past Monday as Kawhi solidified his reputation as the best defensive player in the world by earning his second consecutive Defensive Player of the Year award. Congratulations are in order to Kawhi. With a NBA Finals MVP, two DPOY awards, and having made his first All-Star team this past February, Mr. Leonard seems to be locking down awards these days with the same ferocity that he puts on display while locking down the likes of LeBron James and Kevin Durant. Kawhi's transcendence from a player chosen outside of the lottery to the franchise player of the most successful NBA team to lace 'em up over the past 20 years is one of the biggest reasons the Spurs were able to post a franchise best 67 wins this season. If asked about why he put in all of the extra work it must have taken to transform from quiet Riverside kid into Kawhi Leonard: NBA Superstar, I can only speculate that his answer would probably be, Manu made me do it.
On Tuesday, Kawhi, Manu, and the rest of the Spurs had the challenge of not allowing complacency to set in after a dominating Game 1 performance over a depleted First Round opponent. Luckily, the Spurs have an anti-complacency device that is omnipresent in the locker room and its name is Gregg Popovich. True to form, the #BlackAndSilver responded to whatever crotchety pre-game message Coach Pop delivered and eliminated any possibility that we would fall victim to complacency by playing suffocating defense once again against the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night at the AT&T Center. By all objective accounts, we Grit & Grinded our poor challengers down to sawdust and when all was said and done and the dust had cleared, the Spurs had once again defeated the Grizzlies. This time, by a score of 94-68 in front of 18,418 raucous fans. In Game 1, San Antonio held Memphis to 39.2 percent shooting. In Game 2, we ratcheted the defensive intensity up another notch to hold the Grizzlies to a torturous 32.6 percent shooting. So far in this series, the Grizz are so overmatched that it just doesn't seem fair. Nonetheless, the Spurs must continue to resist complacency's temptation and go into Game 3 in Memphis tonight with the appropriate fear necessary to take a 3-0 series lead. While a sweep is never easy against any playoff opponent, if the Spurs can find a way to pull one off against the undermanned Grizzlies, we could give ourselves an added rest advantage over potential future playoff opponents Oklahoma City and Golden State (who have both already lost one game in their First Round series). Our Game 2 player of the game is Patty Mills. Patty was throwing mad shrimp on the barbie Tuesday night, shooting a blistering 4-6 from deep en route to 16 points off the bench. Good on ya, mate. That type of shooting from our back-up point guard is a critical ingredient to the formula necessary for the Spurs to make the type of deep playoff run we're all hoping for this season.
Let me conclude my thoughts by mentioning that it was hard to write yesterday after hearing the news about Prince. I was hoping to complete this post and check it off my to do list yesterday, but after hearing the news I knew that that would be a futile endeavor. I find as an artist, when the light of one of the greats is extinguished in its physical form, rather than create, I'm drawn to basking in the light of the art itself, at least at first. Prince was a genius. Yesterday was not a day for creating. Yesterday was a day for walking outside and submitting to the showers of majestic purple that were lighting up skies around the world and allowing them to rain down upon you. In the inaugural installment of the Black & Silver blog series, the genius of Prince inspired to serve as the theme for one of my 2013 Finals posts. Funny that the 1999 themed Fourteen Down just so happened to be the most creative post of the series to date. I encourage you to go back and read the delightfully hilarious fictitious account of what led the Spurs to achieve one of the greatest three point shooting performances in NBA Finals history during Game 3 of the 2013 Finals. For the life of me, I don't know what possessed me to write that post. It was a total deviation from everything that I had written prior in the blog series. Perhaps the mere act of choosing a Prince song as the theme of the post and then listening to it a few times in preparation played a role in the spectacular down pouring of creativity that washed over me that night when I sat down at my computer to write. After hearing yesterday's heartbreaking news, at least I'd like to think so. That's one of the magical things about the few among us who fall into the category of creative genius. Their creativity is infectious. Without question, Prince infected millions upon millions of people with his creativity for the better part of 40 years and the world is a better place because of the music he showered us with. Tonight, purple rain will continue to pour down from above. Also tonight, a band of black and silver outlaws will enter the FedEx forum in Memphis and attempt to steal a victory like thieves in the temple. Rest in peace, sweet prince.
Fifteen Ahead
2016 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 1
Ignition (Remix) - Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines a remix as "a variant of an original recording (as of a song) made by rearranging or adding to the original." As a musician, I love remixes because they have a funny way of making things you've heard dozens (or even hundreds) of times before feel fresh and exciting. When we parted ways this past July, I left with this feeling that I get when I first hear a remix to one of my favorite songs. While the third installment of this blog series had undoubtedly ended in abrupt, disappointing fashion, there's also no question that it ended by striking a chord that (despite the agony of defeat) made things feel fresh and exciting. I had this overwhelming sense of anticipation because, as we parted ways this past July, we did so with the knowledge that our beloved San Antonio Spurs had landed LaMarcus Aldridge, the biggest free agent signing in franchise history. Combine that with having a young Defensive Player of the Year on a trajectory that the league hasn't witnessed in a very long time (perhaps since the emergence of Scottie Pippen), a trajectory that's ascendence is only heading toward's one place: Kawhi Leonard: NBA Superstar. Oh, and throw in that same old, same old of three hall of fame players and a hall of fame coach. Ladies and gentleman, as we parted ways last July, we had our selves the potential to turn the 2015-16 NBA season into a serious recording session. As expected, our remixed Spurs did not disappoint and were phenomenal in the regular season en route to amassing a franchise record 67 wins. Throughout the course of this installment of the Black & Silver blog series, we will dive deep into all of the nooks and crannies of the 2015-16 San Antonio Spurs spectacular season. Nevertheless, it's my intention to ease our way into this playoff run. We're going to slowly build some speed in order to make sure this mack truck is barreling down the highway by the time May rolls around in a couple of weeks. Still wanting just a little bit more? Now usually I don't do this, but go ahead and break 'em off with a little preview of the remix.
On Sunday night in front of a lively Fiesta crowd at the AT&T Center, the #BlackAndSilver obliterated the Memphis Grizzlies 106-74 to take a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference, First Round series. The poor, undermanned Grizzlies didn't stand a chance against a team that had just tied the 1985-86 Boston Celtics' NBA record of only yielding one home defeat all season to finish 40-1 at home. It's bad enough for any team to go up against the biggest home court advantage in NBA history but let's face it, with Marc Gasol and Mike Conely (arguably the Grizzlies two best players) unavailable for the postseason due to season-ending injuries, the task of repeating their 2011 magic and upsetting the Spurs seems dangerously close to hopeless. The remixed Spurs sure made it seem so in Game 1. Using a well rounded attack (five players in double figures), the Spurs carved the Grizzlies defense apart to shoot 51.9 percent from the the field and hold Memphis to 39.2 percent shooting. Kawhi Leonard takes home our player of the game honors for his work on both ends of the court. The Klaw poured in 20 points (8-13 shooting) on offense and paired that with four steals and three blocks on the defensive side of the ball. It was quite the stellar performance, indeed. One fitting of the magical first weekend of Fiesta. There is no better time of year and no better place to be than San Antonio during Fiesta to witness the Spurs home playoff opener and soak in all that Fiesta Oyster Bake has to offer. On a side note, happy 100th anniversary to Oyster Bake. While I couldn't be in San Antonio myself to take in the festivities, I can imagine that the beer was flowing and the turkey legs were plentiful. Speaking of turkey legs, a wise sage named Russel Westbrook once said, "The Spurs are coming." I'm happy to report that it once again, it feels that way down in Titletown, TX. It feels the same, but also fresh and new. Look out NBA, the Spurs are definitely coming. Idioteque.
Featured Image Source: Slate
Headline Image Source: NBA Passion
Four Back
2015 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 7
A Sky Full of Stars - Give hime credit. Chris Paul hit the shot of his life. The ball left his hand and passed by Tim Duncan's finger tips (as the greatest active basketball player on the planet was closing quickly to block it) by the width of a piece of paper, but somehow it got by. The rejection of not only a basketball shot but also of Chris Paul as a clutch playoff performer was avoided as the ball amazingly slipped by Duncan's fingers. It floated softly towards the backboard, bounced off, and dropped down through the net. One home cooked scorer's table error and one Hail Mary inbounds attempt later, our season was over. Yes, the Spurs should have never been in that position. (We should have closed out at home in six.) Yes, San Antonio should have played smarter basketball down the stretch. (We should have protected our precious lead better late in the fourth quarter.) Yes, the Clippers's scorers table screwed us out of running the play that could have gotten one of our shooters a final look at a three pointer to win the series. (If we get a clean look at a three in the final second, we would have buried it and the Clippers along with it.) Yes, two of the best four teams in the league should have never been playing in the first round to begin with. (If we had played an easier first round opponent, we probably would have been sharper and healthier by the time we met an opponent of the Clippers caliber in the conference semi-finals.) But give him credit. Chris Paul hit the shot of his life.
Unfortunately, this meant that (when I first started writing this three months ago) I was begrudgingly tasked with needing to report that the Los Angeles Clippers had advanced past the San Antonio Spurs. In typical Black & Silver fashion, (rather than simply ripping the band-aid off) I once again elected to take my precious, sweet time in finishing the last post of the season. Despite the fact that it is still hard to wrap my brain around twelve weeks later, the Clippers did indeed outlast the Spurs 111-109 in Game 7 of the Western Conference First Round series. The player of the game for the Spurs was the incomparable Tim Duncan who (at 39 years old) came up huge in a big playoff game for the billionth time in his career. Timmy amassed 27 points and 11 rebounds to put the Spurs one possession away from winning a second Game 7 on the road against a Chris Paul led opponent (they beat the New Orleans Hornets in Game 7 of the 2008 Western Conference Semi-Finals in New Orleans). In 117 Game 7s played in NBA history prior to this series, the road team has won only 24 times (21 percent). The Spurs faced a tall order attempting to do it for a second time in eight seasons. It makes it that much more painful to swallow when considering that we came so close but couldn't finish off becoming the 25th team to climb that mountain. Oh, and did we ever have our chances? With 5:28 left in the game, San Antonio had a five point lead. This possession in the game is burned into my permanent memory. Chris Paul missed an 18 foot jumper and Tony Parker came up with the long rebound and sprinted down to get a fast break layup with only Chris Paul to beat. A healthy Tony easily extends the lead to seven in that situation but unfortunately that was not the player that was pushing a one man fast break in the guts of the biggest game of the season. The hobbled Tony that was playing that night lost the ball out of bounds and within 28 seconds, the Clippers had scored five straight to tie the game. It was a dogfight from there. Had Tony pulled back in that moment, ran some clock, and set up an offensive set, perhaps the outcome of the series would have been different. And there it is...the tortuous dissection of what could have been. After a year's reprieve, Spurs fans like myself had once again been sentenced to a summer of what ifs with the ghosts of another playoff run cut short haunting our waking life and our dreams alike. Down the rabbit hole we go.
Were the Spurs good enough to win a championship this year? I think so. I know that the Golden State Warriors were counting their blessings when the Clippers ensured that Dub Nation would not have to face the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals. San Antonio was the only team in the league to win the season series with Golden State and in my opinion they were the team best equipped to upset the Warriors in the 2015 playoffs. There is not a perimeter defensive tandem in the league that had more capacity to lock up Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson than Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green. These two perimeter defenders are special as a tandem. With a few more years playing together, they could very easily prove to be the best defensive duo at the shooting guard and small forward position to play together since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Should Danny and Kawhi have gotten their shot to go up against Curry and Thompson in the Western Conference Finals, even with all the other injuries the Spurs were playing through I believe that we would have had a 50/50 chance to win the series. Had the Spurs had had the opportunity to defend their championship healthy, there is no doubt in my mind that the Warriors would not have had the necessary experience to dethrone us. Nonetheless, San Antonio was not healthy and did not hold up our end of the bargain. Perhaps we will get our shot at the Golden State Warriors in next season's playoffs, but until then...they are the champs. Despite my strong feelings on how a hypothetical Spurs vs. Warriors 2015 Western Conference Finals would have turned out, I take nothing away from Dub Nation. Golden State earned their championship and should be congratulated.
They should enjoy it too. Steph Curry, Steve Kerr and company will soon find that defending an NBA title is an entirely different proposition than winning the first one. Repeating is never easy, but it seems it will be unusually difficult next year when you peer out over this summer's post-free agency NBA landscape. Cleveland will be better than last year just by getting healthy and also by adding back court depth with their Mo Williams signing. The Clippers have improved by adding Paul Pierce and Lance Stephenson and because the organization collectively sent DeAndre Jordan a Check Yes or No note to ask him to freeze out his new girlfriend, Mark Cuban, and meet up in the middle school cafeteria to get back together. Memphis is still Memphis, ever present...lurking in the weeds. Houston kept most of its core together to remain a fringe contender. And then there is the #BlackAndSilver. I spent the first part of my summer hoping that the greatest shot of Chris Paul's life wouldn't turn out to be the final sentence in the final chapter of one of the greatest storybook runs in the history of professional sports. My fear that the Big Four (Gregg Popovich, Time Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili) had participated in their final NBA basketball game together was not only terrifying but it was also legitimate. Worst case scenario: Pop, Timmy, and Manu retire leaving Tony and probably Kawhi to lead a (Danny Green-less) fringe playoff squad coached by Ettore Messina.In full disclosure, I wasn't actually worried about this doomsday scenario. I was fairly confident that Coach Pop and Tim Duncan were coming back but I was petrified that the Big Four era would end upon the announcement of Manu's retirement. Under this scenario, even if we had re-signed Danny, the Spurs would have been a lock for a playoff spot but probably not a championship contender. Another likely scenario is that the Spurs could have brought the 2014 title team back together for one more run since injuries derailed our title defense last season. Had this happened we would have still been a fringe title contender but probably not one of the favorites. There was also a dream scenario for this off-season. A scenario so rapturous, it seemed preposterous to even contemplate. Therefore, I dared not even fantasize about the perfect off-season during May and June, but then July rolled around. Sometimes life is but a dream, because (and pinch me if this isn't real and I need to wake up) this actually happened...
Yahoo Sources: Kawhi Leonard, Spurs agree to framework of a maximum contract extension. http://t.co/f1738GRRli
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 1, 2015
Looks like I'm back for four more years SA!!! #210
— Danny Green (@DGreen_14) July 1, 2015
Straight from Tim Duncan: "I'll be on the court next year" ... story coming soon on http://t.co/LMDPrVQ6z4
— Mike Monroe (@Monroe_SA) July 2, 2015
I'm happy to say I'm going home to Texas and will be a Spur!! I'm excited to join the team and be close to my family and friends.
— Lamarcus Aldridge (@aldridge_12) July 4, 2015
ESPN sources say that Gregg Popovich, as of now, is intent on coaching out his entire five-year contract that he signed last summer
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) July 4, 2015
Happy to announce that I'm coming back next season. #gospursgo#TDwouldvemissedmetoomuch.
— Manu Ginobili (@manuginobili) July 6, 2015
Free agent forward David West has agreed to terms with the Spurs, per league sources.
— David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) July 6, 2015
You've gotta love summertime. The addition of LaMarcus Aldridge and David West combined with the resigning of Timmy, Manu, Kawhi, and Danny plus the commitment of Pop to keep coaching equals the execution of an offseason perfected. It is almost not fair. Almost. Not only are we still title contenders but the Spurs perfect offseason has elevated Black & Silver: Reloaded to title favorites. With Aldridge and West, San Antonio won on the free agency market for the first time in franchise history. As important as it is to build a bridge to the post-Duncan era, I am most excited that these signings have added fire power for The Big Four to write another chapter in fairy tale that refuses to end. These historic figures still have one extraordinary epilogue in them which they will collaborate to write. There is no question that Gregg Popovich, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker have at least one more run left in them as a group. SIX in SIX-teen has a mighty fine ring to it, don't you think? Thankfully, in the end, Chris Paul's shot has proven to have just ruined a season rather than killed a dynasty. I'll be spending the rest of my summer counting my blessings that we got all four back. And then some.
Featured Image Source: Mustark on Tumblr
Headline Image Source: Sports Illustrated
Three Back
2015 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 6
Dreamcatcher - On Thursday nights, the Los Angeles Clippers defeated the San Antonio Spurs 102-96 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio to tie the best-of-seven Western Conference First Round series at three games apiece. The decisive game seven will be played at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in about two hours. The player of the game for the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night was Marco Belinelli. Marco scored 23 points (with a spectacular 6-7 from downtown) to help keep the Spurs close in a game that we (as a group) did not display the necessary effort to eliminate a team as talented and hungry as this year's Clippers. The Game 6 debacle was an uncharacteristically disappointing effort by a Spurs team who has been historically dominant in close out games at home. Rather than dwell on what might have been the other night, I have spent the entire day today making good on a promise to myself and my readers to complete one of the most arduous undertakings of my entire career as a writer and as an artist thus far. About fifteen minutes ago, I posted the final chapter of the last year's edition of the Black & Silver blog series in its entirety. It is my profound pleasure to present to you....
It will be my distinct honor should you decide to find some time later to read it. As for now, I could not be more confident in the #BlackAndSilver to win tonight's decisive Game 7 on the road and advance to the 2015 Western Conference Semi-Finals. I fully expect to see the Spurs finally put The Beautiful Game band back together tonight and play our toughest, most inspired game of the season. Back-to-back championships has been an elusive dream, but I still believe that this year's Spurs squad is a dreamcatcher.
Tonight, the defending NBA champions will remind the world of the power that is unleashed when a team (that was built for its whole to be greater than the sum of its parts) is firing on all cylinders. Tonight, the defending NBA champions will light up Los Angeles like a sky full of stars.
Featured Image Source: Hooped Up
Three Forward
2015 Western Conference First Round, Game 5
Over - I'm living life right now, man, and this what I'mma do 'til it's over...'til it's over. It's far from over. In One Back (my first blog post of these 2015 playoffs), I predicted that "there are going to be moments of panic and moments of doubt for Spurs fans" during this title defense journey. Man, I wasn't lying. Last night was intense. I have never been to Disneyland, but somehow I feel like I've become a regular visitor after enduring a second roller coaster ride out in Los Angeles in less than a week. My emotions swung back and forth so many times last night that I'm not entirely convinced in the accuracy of what I'm about to report, but somehow, someway the San Antonio Spurs outlasted the Los Angeles Clippers 111-107 at the Staples Center yesterday in Game 5 of the Western Conference First Round series to take a 3-2 lead and put the Clips on the brink of elimination. They say that football is a game of inches. Apparently basketball can be a game of millimeters. There is no question that Bill Kennedy and crew made the correct call in disallowing the tip-in by DeAndre Jordan of a Blake Griffin shot as the ball hung above the cylinder during an opportunity for the Clippers to take a 109-108 lead with 4.7 seconds left in the game, but let's be honest...that was a lucky break for the Spurs. Both teams played determined, focused basketball and both teams were equally brilliant in last night's game. We could just as easily have been the team to catch a bad bounce that would have resulted in us being the ones feeling the heartbreak that comes with facing elimination in a close series. Luck was certainly on our side last night. Having said that, we have absolutely nothing to apologize for. Luck is a part of the equation when two evenly-matched opponents square off. It always has been and it always will be. In the end, luck has a funny way of gravitating to the more deserving team. After squandering the home court advantage that we stole on our last trip to Cali in an uninspired Game 4 performance, the Spurs regrouped and earned the opportunity to be in a position for luck to help us steal it right back in last night's gritty Game 5 escape. It takes remarkable composure to play that well in that environment in that situation. We earned the victory and we earned the opportunity to finish off this series at home. On Thursday night, let's hope we are ready to capitalize on the remarkable opportunity that we earned last night (more on that later).
Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today. It's coooold out there every day. The player of the game last night was Tim Duncan. What else is there to say about the old man? He never ceases to amaze. Timmy (continuing to upstage Bill Murray in his ongoing portrayal of the Phil Connors character from Groundhog Day) came up huge with a monster 21 points (8-13 from the field, 5-6 from the line), 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and an enormous blocked shot in the guts of the game. With 59 seconds remaining and San Antonio clinging to a 107-105 lead, Blake Griffin got to one of his sweet spots to launch an eight foot leaner (the type of shot that he has been making routinely throughout the series). He was met at the summit by Duncan, who again stripped Griffin after Blake recovered the blocked shot and attempted to reload for another. Boris Diaw snatched the ball after Timmy's strip and J.J. Redick subsequently fouled out of the game trying to subdue Tony Parker. Tony hit one of his two free throws to put the Spurs up three, which proved to be huge in keeping the Spurs at an advantage once clock management became a factor in determining the outcome of the game. It can't be overstated how consequential Timmy's block was in giving us a 3-2 series lead. In the biggest moment of another huge postseason game, the greatest NBA player since Michael Jordan came through in the clutch...again. Groundhog Day.
As we start preparing for Game 6 tomorrow night back home in the comfy confines of the AT&T Center, let us have the wisdom to remember the horrendous effort we put forth in Game 4 and use it as a teachable moment. Our blowout Game 3 victory baited us into assuming that we had broken the spirit of the Los Angeles Clippers. That assumption proved to be disastrous. We didn't break their spirit then (after winning Game 2) and we haven't broken their spirit now (after winning Game 5). The Clippers are not only capable of coming right back and taking Game 6 in San Antonio, I'm certain that their mindset is such that they intend to do exactly that. Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and company will not play themselves out of the 2015 NBA Playoffs tomorrow night, we have to go out and execute our most focused basketball of the season for 48 minutes and eliminate them. The assumption that we can just show up and we will win because we are at home and we're the Spurs is as ludicrous as Doc Rivers' assumption that every single member of the basketball viewing public didn't simultaneously roll our eyes last night during his post game press conference when he stated, "I don't complain much." The dream of back-to-back Spurs championships has been a torturously elusive one. Each and every Spurs title defense prior to this year has gone down in flames in heartbreaking fashion. From losing Timmy for the playoffs in 2000, to .04 in 2004, to Manu's foul on Dirk in 2006, to the league admission of a missed foul call on Brent Barry in 2008, San Antonio fans know that we are far from out of the woods when it comes to an opponent as talented as our current one. Tomorrow night, we cannot face the Clippers as a team that we have gotten the better of over the past five games. We must face them as the gatekeepers standing in between a city and its pursuit of a dream. The #BlackAndSilver have a dream to catch for the Alamo City and as deserving as Los Angeles is of taking the next step as a franchise, if we play with one goal and one mind tomorrow night, the Clippers' evolution will have to wait for at least one more year. If the Spurs can channel The Beautiful Game and come together for a single purpose in Game 6, then the Clippers faithful will wake up on Friday and have to come to grips with the fact that they simply just had the dumb luck of running into a dreamcatcher in the first round. Tomorrow, we need to forget about merely chasing this elusive dream. Tomorrow, we need to go out there and start our sprint to catch it.
Featured Image Source: The Hype Factor
Headline Image Source: Yahoo Sports
Two Back
2015 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 4
Pompeii - Against my better angels, I did it. I'll admit it. I know better, but somehow it still happened. I've been to this rodeo way too many times and yet I still couldn't help myself. How does the proverb go? As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. Yep, that about sums it up. I allowed myself to get overconfident after the 27 point blowout victory in Game 3, so I let my guard down for Game 4 and then bam. Just like that, the Clippers hit us right back like a mack truck. So long, euphoria. Hello, misery. In what felt like the blink of an eye this afternoon, a lethargic crowd at the AT&T Center watched a lethargic San Antonio Spurs squad get out worked by the Los Angeles Clippers and lose 114-105 to squander an opportunity to put a stranglehold on this Western Conference First Round series. After the incredible effort put forth to "get the one we needed" in California last Wednesday night, we've now allowed ourselves to fall back into a position where we need to get yet another victory in La La Land in order to win the series. Chris Paul (coming off the worst playoff game of his career) matched his spectacular Game 1 play with 34 points and 7 assists. Blake was a beast again too with 20 points and 19 rebounds. Finally, give the Clippers bench credit. They wouldn't have been in such a strong position heading down the stretch in the fourth quarter had it not been for excellent play from Jamal Crawford and Austin Rivers (yes, I know...I couldn't believe it either) giving them a boost every time the Spurs looked poised to go on a run. On our side, the player of the game was once again Kawhi Leonard. Whi posted 26 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists in the losing effort.
So how concerned am I over the squandered opportunity? I am concerned but not panicked. This had all of the makings of a grind-it-out series from the get go. When we went up two games to one in dominating fashion, it seemed like the Clippers might break if we had had the wherewithal to jump on them early today. And perhaps they would have but unfortunately, we'll never know because (give them credit) they came ready to play this afternoon. We never had an opportunity to set the tone. In the end, the visions of an easy five game series running all over Cliff Paul and the State Farm Assist Team were just that...visions. Demented little visions, tempting me all weekend and successfully baiting me into overconfidence. Well, you were able to momentarily dupe me once again (you hideous demented little visions) but my lesson learned. Overconfidence has officially left my psyche for the rest of the 2015 playoff run. So yes, I'm concerned but not panicked. The Spurs have been in this position before. Home, away, first round, NBA Finals, it doesn't matter. We've seen it all and faced every difficult scenario imaginable. More often than not, the #BlackAndSilver respond excellently following a disappointing loss in the playoffs. We have the necessary experience to regroup from this poor showing, respond with a vengeance in Game 5, and snatch home court advantage back just in time to force Los Angeles into playing a road elimination game. You don't have to worry about me either. Come Tuesday night, I will be cheering with the appropriate level of fear. I'm over overconfidence. But confidence? That's far from over.
Featured Image Source: Mashable
Two Forward
2015 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 3
Deliver - ¡Viva la Fiesta! Going into the AT&T Center in San Antonio as the road team and winning a playoff game is a difficult proposition. Going into the AT&T Center as the road team and winning a playoff game during Fiesta? There are few things harder in the NBA. Obviously, it is not impossible. Last year, the Dallas Mavericks came into our home during Fiesta and stole Game 2 of the 2014 Western Conference First Round series in convincing fashion winning 113-92. The Mavericks, however, had experience on their side. Dallas had been playing road playoff games in San Antonio during Fiesta for years. They knew what to expect. Last night, the same could not be said for the Los Angeles Clippers. Unfortunately for the Clips, not only was last night a road playoff game in San Antonio during Fiesta, but it was a road playoff game in San Antonio on the 2nd Friday of Fiesta and a young Spurs superstar was accepting the Defensive Player of the Year trophy from the greatest player in franchise history before the game. Poor L.A. never stood a chance. The San Antonio Spurs annihilated the Los Angeles Clippers 100-73 in front of 18,582 Fiesta-rowdy Spurs fans last night at the AT&T Center. The entire team seemed to feed off of the energy of Tim Duncan presenting Kawhi Leonard with the DPOY trophy before the tip-off. It was a spectacular team defensive performance. The Spurs held the Clippers to 34.1 percent shooting for the game (29-85) and bottled up Chris Paul (7 points [3-11], 6 turnovers) and Blake Griffin (14 points [6-15], 3 turnovers). It was a complete dismantling of the best offense in the NBA and the fewest points scored by LAC in a playoff game in franchise history.
The Defensive Player of the Year was determined to make sure and remind us that he plays both sides of the court. Forget Bruce Bowen and move over Scottie Pippen because last night the Claw was trying to reincarnate the way a young Michael Jordan played both sides of the ball early in his career with the Chicago Bulls. Kawhi was sensational on the offensive end, scoring a career high 32 points (13-18 from the field). He added 4 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks for good measure. It wasn't just the scoring proclivity or efficiency, it was the types of shots Kawhi was taking to score the basketball that harkened back to his Airness in his prime. Leonard destroyed the Clippers on multiple occasions with turn-around fade away jumpers over the double team. Who else in today's NBA has that patented Michael Jordan weapon in their offensive arsenal? Kobe Bryant, and that's pretty much it. It was a strange site to see. A young superstar playing the game of basketball like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant in a San Antonio uniform and while staying within the flow of the Spurs' offensive system, no less. Utterly incredible. Not only was the player of the game being like Mike with the fade-away mid-range jumpers, but he went 3-5 from deep (Bulls vs. Blazers, 1992 Finals anyone?), oh... and this happened.
Because of the spectacularly embarrassing performance last night, the Clippers could prove to be an extremely dangerous wounded animal come tomorrow afternoon. I fully expect the same type of bounce-back performance from Los Angeles in Game 4 as San Antonio put together for Game 2. If the #BlackAndSilver are prepared for the desperation that is sure to come from our opponent and we are able to play the same type of focused team ball tomorrow that we played last night, I'm hard pressed to see how the Clippers (as a team) could play at a level that could add their names to the short list of teams who have come into the AT&T Center and beaten the Spurs in the playoffs during Fiesta. Chris Paul and Blake Griffin can play at the necessary level, but who else can join them at that level on the road? While it is hard to see the scenario where DeAndre Jordan, J.J. Redick, and Jamal Crawford all play at the necessary level tomorrow to beat the champs in our building, I'm certainly not ruling it out. As I've said before, there is no doubt that the Clippers are a talented and dangerous group. Even after last night's performance, I'm still sticking to the notion that this is the best first round opponent the Spurs have faced in the Gregg Popovich/Tim Duncan era. We must come out tomorrow afternoon with a sense of desperation and play like we are the team in this series that is playing from the 1-2 hole on the road. But with Kawhi Leonard's superstardom currently feeding off of the energy of Fiesta and erupting like Mount Vesuvius to rain scorching lava down on the NBA city of Pompeii...I mean L.A., I think I like our chances in Game 4.
Featured Image Source: Street Khemistry
Headline Image Source: San Antonio Express-News
One Forward
2015 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 2
Ready or Not - Whew. Let me catch my breath. It's been almost 48 hours, but I'm still feeling the effects of all the nervous energy it took to watch the most entertaining game of the 2015 NBA Playoffs thus far. That was big. On the verge of falling into a disastrous 0-2 hole on Wednesday night in Los Angeles at the Staples Center, the defending champion San Antonio Spurs edged out the Los Angeles Clippers in overtime 111-107 in Game 2 of the Western Conference First Round to tie the series at one game apiece. Clippers winning streak snapped. Home-court advantage snatched. Now that we've escaped, sleepwalkers awake. All of the pressure in this series has shifted to the third seeded Clippers and their superstar point guard who is desperately hoping to silence his critics by making the first deep playoff run of his 10 year NBA career. Chris Paul did all he could in Game 2. Blake Griffin, his sidekick, also played phenomenally once again save for one costly turnover in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter with a two point lead. That turnover allowed Patty Mills to streak down the court, get fouled, and sink two clutch free throws that tied the game, sending it into overtime, and gave new life to the Spurs in the process.Up 10 points after a spectacular Kawhi Leonard fade-away jumper with 6:41 left in the fourth quarter, San Antonio seemed poised to bully our way into a comfortable road playoff win. But a combination of Hack-A-Jordan, mindless Spurs turnovers, and going cold from the field at an inopportune time allowed L.A. to claw their way back into the game over the final few minutes and take the aforementioned two point lead. There was a terrible sinking feeling in my gut as we squandered away the lead that harkened back to some of the Spurs' playoff road meltdowns against the Shaq and Kobe Lakers in the early part of the previous decade. While the contest on Wednesday took place in that same building, this time we stayed the course, kept the faith, and persevered. Patty was spectacular. Playing heavy minutes to help fill a gaping hole caused by losing Tony Parker to an injury and compounded by losing Manu Ginobili on an uncharacteristically boneheaded choice to stop a fast break with a foul when he already had five at the 3:51 mark in the fourth quarter, Mills went 5-9 from the field and a potential season-saving 6-6 from the free throw line for 18 points.
The player of the game, however, was none other than Time's Father himself, Tim Duncan. Timmy just keeps adding to the legend, earning his 100th career post season double-double with 28 points (14-23) and 11 rebounds. He added 4 assists, two steals, and a block to boot. Duncan set the tone early which allowed the Spurs to play with a lead for most of the game. He also helped get San Antonio over the hump in OT with a vintage runner right in DeAndre Jordan's eye to put us up 101-98 with about three minutes left.Patty hit four more clutch free throws down the stretch in OT to seal the game. My heart was pounding on each one. This victory was huge for the #BlackAndSilver because now, if we can take care of business at home, we have the inside track to defeat the toughest first round opponent of the Gregg Popovich/Tim Duncan era. I'm looking forward to our first opportunity to defend our home court tonight back in the cozy confines of the AT&T Center. I'm getting ready to get in my zone and make sure we deliver. But before I do, one more thing. Yesterday, Kawhi Leonard was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year. While he seemed like a dark horse candidate given that he had missed 18 games due to injury, the honor is well-deserved because at this point there is absolutely no doubt. The man is the greatest defensive basketball player on the planet, hands down. If you don't think so, you're either fooling yourself or you're simply not watching. Congratulations, Whi. Spurs fans everywhere will be hoping you bring your defensive A game tonight. Against this talented opponent, we're going to need it.
Featured Image Source: Smash the Club
Headline Image Source: Sportal
One Back
2015 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 1
What's Up? - As my good friend and bombastic pop culture writer, Ken Adams, might say: howdy boys and girls. Welcome to the third installment of the Black & Silver blog series. I'm thrilled to be embarking on yet another San Antonio Spurs playoff run with all of you, the loyal readers. What an exciting time. It's spring, it's Fiesta back home in San Antonio, and the Spurs are defending an NBA Championship. I love this time of year in San Antonio. Unfortunately, I will be observing the show from afar this time around. About a month after the Spurs won the title last summer, my wife and I moved to Denver, Colorado. Geography, however, has not deterred me from continuing to be one of the biggest Spurs fans on the planet and over the next couple of months, I intend to prove it to you. So let’s get right down to business. First things first. I know. I know, I know, I know. I feel terrible, but yes...as of the writing of this first post in the third edition of Black & Silver, Sixteen Down is still incomplete. While it would be easy for me to make excuses for not finishing the sequel before starting the third leg of a trilogy (and while you can probably make a guess at sizing up the colossal challenge to finishing such a piece given last year's theme), I'm not going to make excuses. Let me just say that Sixteen Down has been worked on all year long. It is already close to 10,000 words and in a nutshell… it is my blogging masterpiece so I don't want to publish the final version until it is perfect. You have my solemn word, though, that I will complete it during the course of this playoff run and you will not be disappointed despite the obnoxiously long wait.
Now that that is out of the way, I wish I could turn to breaking down the Spurs first playoff victory of 2015 but unfortunately, that was put off (for at least a couple of days) by an impressive showing by the artists formerly known as Lob City. On Sunday night (practically Monday morning on the east coast), the Los Angeles Clippers shellacked the San Antonio Spurs 107-92 at the Staples Center in L.A. While the Clippers punched us squarely in the nose in Game 1 of this "first round" series, there is absolutely no reason to panic. After dropping the last game of the regular season to a desperate New Orleans Pelicans team and falling from the 2nd seed to the 6th seed in the Western Conference, we knew that this series was going to be a dog fight. My takeaway from Game 1 was that L.A. played about as well as they could possibly play and we played about as poorly as we could possible play. If the Spurs had made half of the wide open jump shots and free throws that we missed on Sunday night, it would have been a completely different ball game. More importantly to the trajectory of this series, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and the rest of the Clippers top 6 players had to expend a noticeably excessive amount of energy during the game in order to play at that level. It was to the point that Chris Paul could barely stay on his feet as the final buzzer sounded. Are the Clippers top 6 players good enough to beat the Spurs on any given night? Absolutely. We just witnessed the evidence of that. Are the Clippers top 6 players physically capable of expending the energy it will take to beat the Spurs four times in two weeks? I hate to break it to our good friends in La La Land, but probably not. In other words, I wouldn't bet on it. The difference in this series will prove to be the Spurs' depth. The Spurs are twelve deep and the Clippers are only six deep and boast one of the worst benches in NBA history (I'll save my Austin Rivers jokes for later in the series). If the NBA still had the best-of-five format for the first round, I would be much more worried about our chances in this series. But asking 6 players to play roughly 280 minutes of playoff basketball at the level it would take to eliminate the defending champions is probably too tall of an order. So, in a nutshell, I still like our chances.
The player of the game was Kawhi Leonard. While less than spectacular given his recent heroics, Kawhi put together an efficient 18 points (7-12 shooting), 6 rebounds, 4 steals, and 3 assists. If the #BlackAndSilver can come out with a sense of urgency and a little bit of desperation and channel it into a playoff road win tonight in Game 2, all of the pressure in the series will shift to the Clippers. I fully expect this to happen and I fully expect that pressure to be more than the fragile albeit talented team from Los Angeles is capable of handling. There is no question, however, that because the Spurs are going to have to potentially win three straight road series in order to make a third straight trip to the NBA Finals, there are going to be moments of panic and moments of doubt for Spurs fans. In those moments and throughout this playoff run, I want you to keep the following quote in your mind, your heart, your soul...
Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion. - Rudy Tomjanovich (Coach of the 1995 6th seeded defending NBA champions)
History sometimes has a funny way of repeating itself. I'm looking forward to the journey to see if this is one of those times. Ready or not, here I come.
The San Antonio Spurs Visit the White House
President Obama honors the 2014 NBA Champions and commends “the beautiful game.”
On Monday, January 12, 2015, the San Antonio Spurs were invited to the White House by President Barack Obama for a ceremony in the East Room honoring the team's 2014 NBA Championship. This is the fifth White House ceremony for the Spurs as an organization spanning 15 years and three U.S. presidents. Head coach Gregg Popovich and power forward Tim Duncan, having been in those roles for all five championships, have now participated in ceremonies hosted by Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. This was President Obama's first time honoring the Spurs and he used the opportunity to praise the team's ability to help players succeed, stating that "they find folks who didn’t have a chance someplace else and suddenly they figure out a way to make them shine as part of a team. And in that sense, they’re a great metaphor for what America should be all about." President Obama also spoke about the role the Spurs have played in globalizing NBA basketball as well as their commitment to selfless team play. He observed that, "this is an international team. It's the U.N. of basketball teams. And it shows the way that this wonderful sport has become an international sport. Some people have, rightfully, started calling it -- the Spur’s style of basketball “the beautiful game.” And when you look at the passing and guys back-cutting the hoop and sharing the basketball, you see basketball the way it should be played. And I was telling these guys you can now see everybody around the league actually stealing, first of all, assistant coaches who then become coaches and then start applying that style of play all around the league. And it's made the game better." You can watch the video of the entire White House ceremony below.
Source: The White House on YouTube
Spurs Special Forces
"This show is about the truth: the San Antonio Spurs are actually a team of covert international commandos."
A new and exciting vehicle for expressing adoration for the professional basketball franchise located in San Antonio, TX has emerged on the blogosphere over the past couple of years. What, you ask, is this new phenomenon that I'm referring to? I guess I would most accurately describe it as Spurs Fan Fiction. It is, indeed, a quite recent phenomenon thats arrival I would best pin point to the summer of 2013 during the team's march back to the NBA Finals for the first time since wining the championship in 2007. In the beginning, much of the fan fiction seemed to have been centered around bloggers using their creativity to poke fun at Coach Gregg Popovich's cantankerous and sometimes mysterious persona. It seems to have branched out from there to draw inspiration from some of the idiosyncarcies of the Spurs' Big Three; legends Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili. We here at theLeftAhead have even dabbled in some Spurs Fan Fiction, most prominently with Fourteen Down. The genre seems to be gaining tremendous steam and we couldn't be happier about it. The latest contribution to this emerging subculture hit the web yesterday and has been turning a few heads. The premise is spectacular. Quoting the video description on YouTube, "This show is about the truth: the San Antonio Spurs are actually a team of covert international commandos." After reading that, I couldn't have been more excited about pressing play. But after watching it, I felt that the plot fell a little flat but I'll let you judge for yourself. It appears this might become a recurring series so, if that is the case, I'm not going to worry too much about the story line of this "pilot" not being able to match a promising premise and solid animation. I'm still sold. So check it out and see if you're sold too. Should this, in fact, become a recurring series, I'll add the subsequent videos in the comments section of this post. Until next time.
Source: Matt Hill on YouTube
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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