Four Saṃsāra
2018 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 5
All Night - In his late-14th Century poem “Troilus and Criseyde,” Geoffrey Chaucer penned the phrase, “All good things must come to an end.” The poem is about the tragic love story of Troilus and Criseyde and is set against the Siege of Troy as a backdrop. As with every good thing that has come before, one could assume the love affair between the city of San Antonio and winning at the highest level in the NBA has finally come to an end against the backdrop of the Siege of Uncle Dennis. Coming into the 2018-19 season, many of the so-called experts were salivating with delight to make this assumption. There was a healthy trend among the handsomely paid prognosticator lot to pick the San Antonio Spurs to finish 9th, 10th, or even 11th in the Western Conference standings for the 2018-19 season. After all, more than a few of these so-called experts have already been predicting our demise for going on a decade or more now. You might think that year after year of being proven wrong time and time again might humble these so-called experts and perhaps even push them to feel the human emotions that we, the self-aware Homo sapiens, call embarrassment and shame. Unfortunately, should you think this, you'd eventually come to discover that our NBA prognosticator friends are callously devoid of these human emotions. As it turns out, being a so-called NBA expert requires one to suffer from a quite vicious personality disorder: talking-out-of-your-assicissism. Every season, something in the so-called NBA expert's gut tells him or her that this will be the year that the San Antonio Spurs run of sustained excellence will end and his or her ego implores him or her to make this prediction as loudly and flamboyantly as possible, evidence be damned. Isn't it funny how we never (ever ever ever) hear an acknowledgment of getting it wrong from the so-called NBA expert when the season ends and the Spurs have qualified for the postseason once again? In fairness, who has time to admit a mistake when you've got a busy schedule of cashing your lucrative "expert" checks and polishing your precious talking points so they're ready to be recycled for the next season. It is a little known fact that in every broadcast journalism program in the country a class is offered called "How to Be an NBA Expert For Dummies 101." In this class, future prognosticators are taught by their esteemed instructor Jeff Van Lundy (it's an online class, so yes, JVG teaches it everywhere) to take a lesson from the saying that Austrian writer Marie von Ebner-Eshenback is credited with penning: even a broken clock is right twice a day. This is surely sound advice for almost every NBA prognostication a future so-called expert will be asked to make during his or her career. Unfortunately for Van Gundy's students, there is one glaring exception. When it comes to the San Antonio Spurs run of sustained excellence and the so-called experts who cover us, the broken clocks are never right.If you're reading this and asking in your head, "But Ted, what about last season? The Spurs were merely first-round fodder for the eventual-champions. How does that count towards sustained excellence?" Of course we all remember when on April 25th of last year, the San Antonio Spurs were eliminated by the "gluttony of more" Golden State Warriors 99-91 in Game 5 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals. (The player of the game was LaMarcus Aldridge with a workman's 30 points, 12 rebounds, and four assists.) I would argue that the defeat came with a huge asterisks. For the first time since the Spurs drafted David Robinson in 1987, a Spurs franchise player put himself ahead of the team. And not only did this player put himself ahead of the team, make no mistake about it, he flat out quit on the team in mid-March. Setting aside for a moment the fact that Kawhi Leonard abandoned the franchise that helped develop him from a raw wing-defending prospect into an NBA superstar, San Antonio still won 47 games and entered the postseason with a roster (on paper) that was equipped to compete for a championship. Keep in mind that Stephen Curry was injured and ruled out for our first-round series against his Warriors. Now pick back up that Kawhi thing. Had the medically-cleared-to-play Leonard possessed the integrity and competitive spirit to set his aside his ego and instead earn his paycheck, the Spurs / Curry-less Warriors first round matchup would've been a toss up. Trust me, had Leonard played, there would've been a googolplex of Silicon Valley tech geeks sweating through their Kevin Durant Warriors jerseys so profusely, you'd've been able to see the purple bleeding through from the Kobe Bryant Lakers t-shirts they wear underneath. (Yes, this is descriptive writing calling out Warriors fans for being bandwagon converted Kobe-era Lakers fans.) The bottom-line? Had even a rusty Leonard chosen to play in the first round matchup with the Curry-less defending champion Warriors, I believe the Spurs win the series in 6. Last season's inability on the part of the Spurs to overcome being ghosted by Kawhi Leonard and consequently bowing out in the first round to the defending champs in five games is simply a bad luck break. When you field a championship-caliber roster every single damn season, you're going to have a few of those seasons end because of bad breaks. 2018 was no different than 2009 (when Manu was out for the playoffs due to injury) or 2000 (when Timmy was out for the playoffs due to injury). Sure, in this case, we were dealing with a pampered star who could've played and chose not to whereas those other players were stars because they were willing to give their left nut (in Manu's case, literally) for the opportunity to compete for a championship. But in the end, it's nearly impossible to legitimately compete for a ring when one of your best players misses the playoffs and effectively, that truth is what sealed our 2018 fate. This, friends, brings me full circle to my original point. SCORE BOARD ALERT: The San Antonio Spurs have been in title contention for over two decades and have booked the following results:
1998: 56 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
1999: 37 wins, NBA Champions
2000: 53 wins, Western Conference Quarterfinalists
2001: 58 wins, Western Conference Finalists
2002: 58 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
2003: 60 wins, NBA Champions
2004: 57 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
2005: 59 wins, NBA Champions
2006: 63 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
2007: 58 wins, NBA Champions
2008: 56 wins, Western Conference Finalists
2009: 54 wins, Western Conference Quarterfinalists
2010: 50 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
2011: 61 wins, Western Conference Quarterfinalists
2012: 50 wins, Western Conference Finalists
2013: 58 wins, NBA Finalists
2014: 62 wins, NBA Champions
2015: 55 wins, Western Conference Quarterfinalists
2016: 67 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
2017: 61 wins, Western Conference Finalists
2018: 47 wins, Western Conference Quarterfinalists
2019: 48 wins, To be determined...
Somehow, we continue to defy Marie von Ebner-Eshenback's logic (which just so happens to be backed by the scientific laws of physics) that even a broken clock is right twice a day. The so-called NBA experts predict our demise year over year and year over year Coach Pop leads the Spurs back to the playoffs and makes them look foolish. With all deference to the wisdom in the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, all good things mustn't come to an end. One good thing continues to persevere. The Spurs enter the 2019 NBA playoffs with a roster equipped and in position to make another deep postseason run. To tie a bow on this thought, I see the writings of Ebner-Eshenback and Chaucer and raise you the writings of the incomparable Mark Twain. Paraphrasing Twain, reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated.
* * *
Hello, Mr. Leonard. Can I call you Mr. Leonard? I know I used to call you Kawhi. But I used to think we were (Spurs) family. I also used to think you were the Chosen One. I used to believe in you so much, you're tagged in the Black & Silver blog series more times than Tim Duncan for Pop's sake. But that was then and this is now. Given what’s transpired, I feel much more comfortable calling you Mr. Leonard, if it’s all the same to you. Oh, and I fully plan to rectify the tagged-more-times-than-Timmy problem before the completion of the 2019 installment.
Think whatever you want about the way the Spurs handled your injury, the bottom line is that you quit on the team. As far as I’m concerned, your choice to abandon your team during the 2018 playoffs is a black mark on your career that will permanently be a part of your legacy. As far as I’m concerned, you can now never earn a place in the history books among the fiercest competitors, best players, or greatest champions. No matter how many accolades you rack or how much adulation is showered upon you moving forward by Raptors fans, or Clippers fans, or Lakers fans, you will always be remembered in my book as Kawhi Leonard: Quitter or Kawhitter for short. I know last time we spoke during the Golden State series, I defended your choice to err on the side of caution with your injury and sit out. What I’ve come to understand is that by late-March of 2018, I was already in the grieving process for coping with your betrayal but at the time of the Golden State series (late-April 2018), I did not know it yet because I was smack dab in the middle of the denial phase.I always knew that the Big Three era of Spurs basketball would eventually come to an end. But your decision to put yourself ahead of the team sure did have a way of ensuring that the end came with guillotine precision. Four-time Champion Tony Parker: signed to the Charlotte Hornets. Four-time champion Manu Ginobili: retired. God damn, Mr. Leonard. What, did you stop by and egg Tim Duncan’s house on your way out of town too?
There was so much I wanted to say to you after the trade last July. I was filled with so much anger, hurt, confusion over your betrayal I was ready to write a novel about it. Frankly, after reflecting on things for eight months now, I no longer feel you're worth the energy it would take me to spend 10,000 words excoriating you. Look, we have an NBA regular season of separation now from the divorce. Time and distance really do make a difference. I don’t know if I’ll ever really know your reasons for asking for the divorce and for as long as I live, I know I’ll occasionally circle back to ponder what might have been, what should have been had Zaza Pachulia not wrecklessy ended your 2016-17 season in Game 1 of the 2017 Western Conference Finals and set into motion this “Back to the Future Part II” alternate reality that has you playing the role of pampered superstar for another NBA franchise instead of continuing to accept the challenge of replacing Tim Duncan as the Black & Silver face of the franchise and raising more banners into the AT&T Center rafters. But time and distance have allowed me to really appreciate the fact that I get to watch DeMar DeRozan every single night. DeMar is one of the most electrifying scorers and playmakers to ever take the court in a Spurs uniform. From an entertainment standpoint, give me DeMar's silky-smooth 360 spin move to the rack that results in an improbable kick out to a wide-open shooter in the corner over your methodical, deliberate, tunnel-vision turnaround jumper every single day of the week. Of course Demar is not the defensive player that you were for us. I'm okay with that, though, because Derrick White and DeJounte Murray have the potential to be and when both of them finally have the opportunity to take the court together alongside DeMar, Aldridge, and Poeltl I'm happy with our chances to once-again field an elite defensive lineup for the 2019-20 season.
Anyway, I guess that's it, Mr. Leonard. I don't want to keep you. I'm sure Uncle Dennis has a New Balance commercial shoot he needs you to bring your personality-less personality and creepy Grandpa laugh to as soon as we wrap up. Oh wait, there he is now pulling back into the parking lot in his new 2020 limited-edition Mercedes Coattails 500. Man, that's a nice ride. He deserves it, though. He's put it a lot of long, hard, laborious hours converting you to the Dark Side of the Force. Closure really is a wonderful thing, isn't it, Mr. Leonard? You see how closure is allowing us to joke again? Look, you're even smiling. As much as I appreciate your smile...wait, please don't laugh. Save it for the New Balance commercial. Whew, that was a close call. In all seriousness, Mr. Leonard, thank you for your contribution to the San Antonio Spurs. Thanks for your role in raising that fifth championship banner into the AT&T Center rafters. I wish you nothing but the best of luck with the rest of your career (except against the San Antonio). Please tell Danny we miss him.
* * *
Tim Duncan had brief flirtation with the Orlando Magic in the summer of 2000. I remember in my heart at the time, I didn’t think he would leave. Don’t get me wrong, I remember being scared shitless and a nervous wreck for several weeks, but deep down I believed unequivocally in his loyalty to my team and city. The day it was announced he was re-signing with San Antonio, I remember thinking, “there is no longer any doubt that he will be a Spur his entire career.” And, as it turned out, I never once had to go back and question that thought during the final sixteen years of Timmy's career.
There was a brief 48-hour period during the summer of 2016, when ex-Spurs assistant coach Brett Brown and his Philadelphia 76ers made a strong play to acquire Manu Ginobili with a massive two-year $30 million contract offer, that I was forced to entertain the idea that the most beloved Spur of all-time might not play his entire NBA career for the franchise. I remember not having to dig as deep as I did during Timmy’s 2000 free-agency to find the confidence to believe in Manu’s loyalty. In the end, as I expected, the Spurs ponied up some overdue extra cash to a legend who had been underpaid the previous year (a measly 2.8 million) and re-signed #20 to a one-year $14 million contract putting the uncomfortable contemplation of having to see Manu in another jersey to bed quickly. 48 hours of minimal doubt over the span of a 16-year career ain’t bad. You couldn’t ask for less discomfort.
Of the Spurs legendary “Big Three,” Tony Parker was the only one that forced me to regularly contemplate the idea of him taking the floor at the AT&T Center as a visitor at some point in his career. The “Tony Parker might not re-sign” rumors started as early as 2009. After losing in five games during the first round as the three-seed in the 09 Playoffs to the sixth seeded and rival Dallas Mavericks, Tony Parker started giving quotes about how the Spurs were no longer at a championship-caliber level. For the next three years, rumors swirled on San Antonio’s local sports talk radio about Tony jumping ship. From his initial comments until the unraveling of his marriage to actress Eva Longoria, the specific rumor was that Tony would eventually leave the Spurs to go play with Kobe Bryant out in Los Angeles for another hated-rival, the Lakers. Once he was divorced from Longoria and the Hollywood lifestyle, that rumor slowly faded but Tony continued to talk openly about eventually leaving the Spurs for another NBA club until the Spurs were rebuilt to go on another three-year-long championship hunt from 2012-14. After the Spurs were bounced in the first round of the 2015 playoffs in a hard-fought seven game slugfest of a series with the L.A. Clippers, Tony restarted public contemplation of ending his career for another NBA team and added a new wrinkle. He threw in the possibility of finishing his career playing professionally in his native France for the EuroLeague club he owns, Villeurbanne. Suffice it to say, of the Spurs’ “Big Thee,” Tony Parker is the one who, in regards to his legacy, seemed the least concerned about playing his entire career in Black & Silver.
The announcement on July 7th, 2018 that Tony Parker would sign a two-year $10 million deal with the Charlotte Hornets was not shocking, but it was still surprising and it coupled as utterly gut-wrenching. After 17 seasons at the helm of our ship, it was hard to imagine TP in another uniform. So yes, it was weird when the first photos of TP wearing Purple and Teal surfaced on Twitter. And yes, it was uncomfortable to watch him come off the bench at the Amway Center in Orlando on October 19th, 2018 and lay a goose egg on 0-5 shooting in 16 minutes for the Charlotte Hornets in his first NBA game not playing for San Antonio (he did have six assists, though). And, of course, it was flat-out weird to watch Tony return to the AT&T Center on January 14th to help his Hornets defeat our Spurs 108-93 with eight points and four assists in 19 minutes off the bench. All of this was tough. All of this was weird. But given the history of Tony speaking openly for a decade about the possibility of leaving the Spurs that's documented above, none of it was shocking.
As we struggled with the weirdness of Tony toiling away as a mentor and role player for a middling squad in the Eastern Conference, thankfully there was closure to be had and it came late in the season in the form of Manu Ginobili's jersey retirement ceremony. As luck would have it (or perhaps this was intentionally planned), the Spurs play the Hornets in Charlotte the game before Manu's jersey retirement night. With permission from the Hornets, Tony flew back to San Antonio from Charlotte on the Spurs' team plane to attend the ceremony. During the game, he was spotted sitting next to Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili in the stands. By the time Tony delivered his hilarious and fitting tribute to Manu during the ceremony, it felt as if he never left. In that moment, not only did I get closure from the weirdness of Tony Parker: Charlotte Hornets Back-Up Point Guard, I realized the deeper context driving the closure. TP's new identity as a journeyman is a technicality. Tony Parker is a Spur for life.In thinking about the quintessential Tony Parker moment, I remember too many dagger pull-up jumpers to seal a playoff win to name or count. The one play that seems to stand out was from Game One of the 2013 NBA Finals. Even though we ultimately did not win that series, the play epitomizes the craftiness, fearlessness, resilience, and perseverance that Parker played with throughout his entire 17-year Spurs career. I'm just going to leave the clip of that shot right here and end these reflections by saying, #MerciTony.
* * *
It was about this time of year. I remember feeling hyped for the postseason. We were heading into the playoffs as the three seed but that was of no matter. After all, we had just one the title two years earlier from the very same position as a three seed. I got up on an early-April morning daydreaming about how we were about to be going on a tear back to the NBA Finals (and getting some Western Conference Finals revenge on the Los Angeles Lakers in the process) when I checked my phone only to discover that the top headline in the San Antonio Express-News was that Manu Ginobili would miss the playoffs due to injury. In an instant, right then and there, I knew we would not be making that tear back to the Finals. For all intents and purposes, the season was over. Sure enough, we were upset by the Dallas Mavericks in five games in the first round.If I could sum up Manu Ginobili in one word, it would be hope. As long as Manu Ginobili was suiting up for the San Antonio Spurs, I had hope that the last game of each season would end with the Black & Silver hoisting a trophy. Only the fiercest of the fierce competitors genuinely illicit hope on that level. The Larry Birds. The Michael Jordans. The Kobe Bryants. Manu Ginobili belongs right alongside these players on the pantheon of the NBA’s greatest competitors. Coach Pop expressed this exact sentiment in a video tribute that was played during Manu's jersey retirement ceremony on March 28th. No matter what the situation, no matter how big the odds stacked against us, as long as there was time left on the clock and Number 20 was on the court, Spurs fans could always bask in the eternal warmth of hope. There was always a chance because of Manu Ginobili's competitiveness.
I'll be honest, I'm feeling overwhelmed trying to write this Ginobili retirement piece and put into words what Manu has meant to me as a life-long Spurs fan. I summed Manu (the player) up in one word: hope. I'll respectively sum up my experience as a fan watching his entire NBA career in one word as well: joy. The competitiveness, the creativity, the basketball intellect, the relentless will to win; all such a joy to watch night after night, year after year. Reflecting on the fact that I no longer get to watch the most beloved Spur of all-time play basketball doesn't make me sad. I set out into my reflection thinking that it will but the instant a vision of Manu Euro-stepping through traffic to finish at the rim or Manu throwing a bounce pass to a cutter between his defender's legs appears in my mind, I become consumed with joy. There's no way around it. Every memory that I have of Manu playing basketball makes me happy. The way he played the game was so joyous, even in the past-tense there is simply no room for sadness. Every season. Every game. Every moment bring a smile to my face. None so more than this:
I watched the aforementioned Manu Ginobii retirement ceremony from my hotel room at the Rome Cavalieri. I think there was something poetic and fitting about me getting to watch Number 20 go up into the AT&T Center rafters from Italy, the country Ginobili left (after playing two seasons's of professional basketball for Basket Viola Reggio Calabria) when he moved to San Antonio, Texas in 2002 to begin his NBA career. It was cool to celebrate the end of Manu's NBA journey from the place in which it began. I imagine Italy danced through Manu's mind more than a few times during that ceremony. When reflecting back upon a journey, it's only natural to think of its origin. The idea that Manu was peering back to Italy that night, peering back to the beginning, and I was able to experience Italy peering forward and back around the globe to reflect with him in San Antonio makes the notion of Manu's career cyclical and renders beginnings and ends obsolete. In other words, Manu's career is timeless and to be celebrated as a living, breathing fierce part of the present in perpetuity.
The game started at 1:30 am local time, so by the time the post-game retirement ceremony had concluded, it was almost time for the sun to rise over Rome. I figured Alba di Roma was something worth putting off a little extra sleep in order to experience so I decided to stay awake for it. I waited out on the terrace of my hotel room and watched as the colors slowly started rising from the silhouettes of the mountains behind the city. Out on that terrace, I watched the sun rise in all of its newness and spectacular beauty with my mind still on Manu and his career. I thought about the timelessness of Manu Ginobili the basketball player and how I will continue to experience his career body of work it in all of its newness and spectacular beauty for as long as I breathe (and probably beyond).Revisiting that terrace in Rome as I write these words todays brings me comfort and relieves me of the burden of feeling overwhelmed in writing this piece. I have forever to get my thoughts down on paper regarding Manu Ginboili's retirement and what his career meant to me and since all good things mustn't come to an end and the Spurs will continue making the playoffs forever, I'll have endless opportunities to revise these thoughts as part of the Black & Silver blog series. That being the case, let me end with this: #GraciasManu. It was an absolute privilege to watch you play basketball for my San Antonio Spurs de principio a fin.
* * *
Alotta the so-called experts predicted the #BlackAndSilver to miss the playoffs. They never learn. The irony? Even if the "experts' pooled their money, bought the team, got rid of the current roster and made themselves the replacements, so long as Coach Pop is still manning the bench, he would still drag them to the playoffs. As I'm putting the finishing touches on this, one of the most important Black & Silver posts to-date, the San Antonio Spurs are preparing for Game 1 of our first round matchup for the 2019 NBA Playoffs, our NBA record-tying 22nd consecutive appearance in the postseason. More on that tomorrow. For now, it's clear that a lot of things have changed in San Antonio since I wrote One Nirvana 355 days ago. A lot has changed but one thing remains the same. The San Antonio Spurs are in the playoffs and (broken clocks beware) are a threat to win the title. Much like the sunrise or the brilliance of Manu Ginobili's career, the sustained excellence of the San Antonio Spurs is eternal. We've merely experiencing a Black & Silver: Reincarnation. All good things mustn't come to an end. Reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated.
Video Source: NBA on YouTube
One Nirvana
2018 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 4
Pray - I mean, it's basically stupid at this point. How many Is This Real Life moments can one individual, singular, unitary player of basketball have? Just when you think he's reached the Tip Your Cap And Call It A Day bitter end and he can't possibly continue to pull more of that handkerchief out of his pocket, his eye twinkles as he slips you a little wink and then proceeds to seduce you with a devious grin which draws your attention away from the fact that he is also continuing to pull that handkerchief out of his pocket. Yesterday afternoon, Manu Ginobili sold out the premiere of This Is 40: Part Two like it was Black Panther. I must say, it was mighty kind of him to select the AT&T Center as the venue for the premiere. The ageless one went so classic, he lit up Fiesta 2018 and the San Antonio skyline for a vintage fourth quarter performance that held the Warriors at bay and kept the #BlackAndSilver season alive. Manu scored 10 points in the fourth (including the final five points of the game) to help the San Antonio Spurs defeat the Golden State Warriors 103-98. Manu's fourth quarter heroics included two breathtaking three pointers and an improbable You Want To Stop Me Bad But I Want To Score On You Worse turnaround push shot over reigning defensive player of the year Draymond Green. Overall, Ginobili finished the night with 16 points (5-10) shooting and five assists. Suffice it to say, the future-hall-of-famer was the player of the game. The victory had the further significance of making Manu and Tony Parker the winningest teammates in NBA Playoff history with 132 playoff victories together. Who, you might ask, did they surpass to secure this prestigious anecdote in NBA history? Only Tony Parker and a little-know retired Spur named Tim Duncan. That pair previously held the record with 131 NBA playoff victories as teammates. Sorry for the loss of your record, TD. But hey, you and Tony are still No. 2. Oh and bye the bye. You're also No. 3. Timmy and Manu as teammates just so happen to be hold that third slot with their combined 126 playoff victories as teammates. In case you were wondering, Kobe Bryant and Derrick Fisher (123) and Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen (117) round out the top five sets of most winningest teammates.
We can now officially say that the San Antonio Spurs have not only qualified for the playoffs but won at least one playoff game for twenty-one consecutive seasons. For those of you keeping score at home, that's Tim Duncan years in a row. For those of you who are really keeping score at home that's 172 playoff victories in 21 years. And for those who are JAY-Z counting at home, THAT'S AN 8.2 PLAYOFF VICTORIES EVERY DAMN SEASON AVERAGE. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not a betting man but I would be comfortable in betting the farm that that is an NBA record that will not only stand for my lifetime, and not only for my unborn child's lifetime, but it will also stand for my unborn child's child's lifetime. As much fun as it is to add more armory to the impenetrable fortress that is the sustained streak of excellence that the San Antonio Spurs have enjoyed these past two decades and change, I can't lie...no matter what else happens this series, it felt so good yesterday to get a W. It felt Exhale A Well-Deserved Sigh Of Relief good to get a playoff W against that team during the most trying season in franchise history. Props to Ettore Messina. He did and excellent job in Coach Pop's absence. (It's really cool that a coach who helped develop Manu as a 21 year-old over in Europe also got to coach him during an NBA playoff victory as a 40 year old legend.). Props also to our reliable All-NBA power forward. LaMarcus Aldridge battled the Warriors inside for the entire afternoon yesterday to deliver a rugged 22 points (7-19 shooting) and 10 rebounds. Incredibly three of those seven made field goals just so happened to be three pointers. LA was perfect from beyond the stripe including a SUPER LIT bank three with roughly four minutes left in the game and the Spurs clinging to a four point lead which, like Manu's clutch push shot, just so happened to be over reigning DPOY Draymond Green. So once again, I leave you (as I did in the last post) with no prognostications or expectations on what is going to happen tomorrow night in Game 5 back in Silicon Valley. All I know is that 30 something hours after that beautiful Game 4 victory, I'm still all warm and fuzzy inside with such a happy #GSG feeling. I know that feeling will be there when I wake up tomorrow morning but, much like a Fiesta party that spontaneously pops off in a neighbor's backyard in the early afternoon, I'm trying to keep it going all night.
Three Saṃsāra
2018 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 3
I Won't Back Down - Don't worry. I'm not gonna to do what you all think I'm gonna do, which is, you know, FLIP OUT AND PREDICT WE'RE GONNA COMEBACK AND WIN THE SERIES. Can I be Phoebe Buffay's little brother? Can I be Frank? Frankly, I don't have the energy. It's been a long, long week and there's no other way to put it, I'm tired. And as I said to close Two Saṃsāra, our purpose here "seems embarrassingly trivial now when juxtaposed against humanity and mortality in such an acute, piercing way." As a devoted Spurs fan, my focus is not on what happened in Game 3 or what is going to happen in Game 4. My focus continues to be on Coach Pop, his family, and the journey that they were enjoined to begin on Wednesday. Grief is a difficult peregrination. My heartfelt advice during moments like these? When we walk, we walk towards our memories.
The player of Game 3 was Tony Parker. Not for the 16 points (6-12 shooting) in 17 minutes that Tony contributed during his best on-court performance in weeks. But rather for his off-the-court performance leading the team through tragedy and during a period of mourning. Even though the Golden State Warriors defeated the San Antonio Spurs 110-97 on Thursday night in the AT&T Center, the grace through exceptional heartbreak that Tony Parker and his teammates demonstrated was an incredible victory. I think as a #SpursFamily, we all knew that we'd be measuring success differently this postseason, but even that has taken on new meaning since Wednesday evening. When asked during the Game 3 postgame press conference about the normally embarrassing prospect of getting swept on our homecourt, Tony said, "It's hard to think about that for me personally right now because there's other stuff bigger than basketball."
Amen, Tony. And while I'd have felt comfortable ending this post with that sentiment, for historical purposes, I'd be remiss if I didn't at least acknowledge that once again tomorrow, as we had to last year in Game 4 of our series against the Warriors, we must brace for the possibility that Manu Ginobili is playing his last game. Having now pointed that out, I'll close by allowing the other leader of the #BlackAndSilver to provide even more clarity for the moment we're in. Manu said this morning that this is "a very unique situation. I've never been through something like this. You know, how important Pop is, not only for us players, the whole organization, the whole NBA, and seeing or feeling the way he should be feeling at this point, it hurts. We are struggling a little bit." So no, today I'm not gonna do what you all think I'm gonna do and predict the first 0-3 comeback in NBA history. Today, I'm going to pray.
Featured Image Source: WOAI
Headline Image Source: Basketball Fever
Two Saṃsāra
2018 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 2
Wonderwall - Dear Kawhi, isn't it funny how so many of these so-called experts and insiders have filled your silence with so much noise? I'll be honest. As a die-hard fan, it's been a really hard year. Knowing your competitive spirit, I can't even begin to try to imagine how hard the year has been for you. But as a die-hard fan, believe me, I'm trying to imagine it. I'm trying to imagine your frustration and your uncertainty. I'm trying to imagine your isolation and your pain. I'm trying really hard to imagine what you must be experiencing to be deciding to stay away from the game and your team when the organization has medically cleared you to play. I say this not with judgement or condemnation but with utter bafflement because, knowing what I know about you, I simply can't imagine what you're experiencing to need to be in New York right now instead of San Antonio. I'm trying hard to imagine, but I just can't seem to fill the vacuum that is your silence. Even though I can't fill the void in my own mind, knowing what I know about you, one thing I can say is that most of this noise coming from the pundits to fill the void is laughable. You and I know that these noise-makers, these so-called experts aren't interested in knowing what's in your head right now. They're interested in figuring out what they can say about what's in your head right now that will generate clicks and traffic. In other words, they're not interested, given your quiet nature and your consistency in avoiding the media like the plague throughout your nine-year history as a public person, in taking your March statements at face value. They're interested in generating profits through sensationalism. Silence is boring but speculation sells. A hundred trade scenarios dissected by a thousand blog boys will generate a million clicks and voilà...everybody is making money off of your silence (including the moms who provide their blog boy sons with basements). You and I both know this that his is how the internet works in 2018 and that is why I return time and time again to your March statements as my quiet place to try to block out the noise. I'm not panicking because I know you too well to believe any of this hype. The so-called experts would have Spurs fans believe that they have miraculously established in 2018 some secret back channel (that has never, ever existed before this season) and have penetrated the Fort Knox vault that is the Spurs organization's inner-circle to get the inside scoop on what is happening between you and the team. Sure. We both know that the pundits' conspiracy theories on you are faker than Donald Trump's conspiracy theories concerning illegal voter fraud during the 2016 election. You and I both know that the notion you're sitting out the 2018 playoffs and foregoing one of the precious few chances you'll get to compete for a championship in this fleeting thing we call an NBA career because you're worried about jeopardizing a super-max contract offer this summer is such a joke, it's actually insulting. We both know you don't play the game for money. You play the game for the love. You play the game to win. You play the game to be the best. You and I also know that the notion that you're sitting out right now because your relationship with your team's front office is so broken, you're angling to force a trade during this offseason is equally ridiculous. We both know that you put the game of basketball before the business of basketball. We both know you would never pass up the opportunity to force Kevin Durant into a live ball turnover so that you could take the opportunity to force R.C. Buford into turning over his franchise cornerstone during the offseason. You and I further know that the notion that you're sitting out right now because of a players' only meeting or because of something that Gregg Popovich, or Tony Parker, or Manu Ginobili said about your injury to the media is the biggest whopper of them all. You spilled blood, sweat, and tears together with these men for six years. You died together in Game 6. You were resurrected together a year later. You've been in the trenches with this general and these brothers through all of the battles and all of the wars but the so-called experts would have us believe that you're sitting out because of hurt feelings? Because the most professional, tight-nit locker room in modern American sports has inexplicably deteriorated this season into a junior high lunch room? You and I know know that's not how the Spurs were built and it's certainly not how you're wired. I don't blame you for not dignifying these so-called experts and their overloaded wheel barrels of horse manure speculation with answers. Having said that, what about us Kawhi? What about the die-hard fans? I mean no disrespect but now that we're in the playoffs, don't we deserve a press conference? A statement? Don't we deserve to know whi our 2018 championship dreams are likely shattered? Can you imagine our frustration and uncertainty? Can you imagine our isolation and pain? Don't we, the die-hard fans who have allowed you to go about your craft quietly in our city in a way you would never have been allowed to do in Los Angeles, or New York, or Boston, or Philadelphia at least deserve a sentence from you regarding your playoff status? I have been a die-hard Spurs fan since David Robinson's rookie season in 1989 or since about 20 months before you were born and I've gotta tell you, I've endured more anxiety as a Spurs fan this season over the uncertainty surrounding your injury and the delicate state in which it has left our championship aspirations than I have in the previous 29 years combined. Sure, the 1996-97 season was tough, but that year was propped up by the hope that landing a franchise cornerstone from the Virgin Islands could be on the horizon. This year, our season has been haunted by the dark cloud of terror of losing a franchise cornerstone from Los Angeles, CA could be on the horizon. Even though I return day after day, week after week to your March statements as my quiet place and my shelter from this dark cloud of terror, the noise has become impossible to block out because you have chosen to remain silent since the playoffs have begun. So here's a simple, humble request to you, Kawhi, from a die-hard fan (and when I say die-hard fan I mean of both yours and the special, special little South Texas basketball powerhouse for which you have the privilege of playing): consider coming back to help us win this championship, this year. And if that is not possible, let us, the die-hard fans know whi. Because I don't believe the so-called experts' speculation that is now churning at a fever pitch speed and continues to increase each pitch, I think it's fair for me to give you my best guess as to whi you remain out even though the organization has medically cleared you to play. My guess is that you don't want to become Bill Walton, Grant Hill, Isaiah Thomas. My guess is that you are such a fierce competitor and your love for the game is so strong that, as much as it hurts to sacrifice this season, that pain pails in comparison to the pain you would feel to lose the prime of your career to a chronic injury and you're simply not willing to take that risk. When Zaza Pachulia stepped on your foot in Game 1 of last year's Western Conference Finals, I believed, without qualification, that you had ascended to the mountaintop and grabbed the title of best basketball player on the planet. My guess is that you're dying to get back to that level and you are not willing to take any amount of risk that this injury will rob you of your opportunity to climb that mountain again. If I'm guessing correctly, that is completely understandable. Die-hard Spurs fans will understand. All you have to do is let us know. Even if you choose to keep your silence all the way into the offseason, I may be baffled but I won't be angry. I will continue to support you because that's what die-hards do and until you break your silence, I will continue to try to block out the noise. Another thing die-hards do? Hope. As long as our 2017-18 season and this playoff run are alive, I will continue to hope for your return to the court as starting small forward for the #BlackAndSilver. Whi?
Because maybe you're gonna be the one that saves me.
* * *
We played well enough to win. We made every single adjustment we needed to make. We lured the Warriors into 15 turnovers while only committing nine ourselves. Our defense was ferocious and our intensity exceeded our opponents. Most importantly, LaMarcus Aldridge was a beast. The player of the game punished Golden State with 34 points (11-21 from the field, 12-12 from the stripe) and 12 rebounds. We led by six at halftime. We led by one with 4:44 left in the third. We were right there. Sometimes you can do everything you need to do and it's still not enough. Asterix Champion Kevin Durant and Proven Champion Klay Thompson combined for 63 points on 22-39 shooting. The Warriors as a team went a sharp 15-31 from deep while we went a putrid 4-28. Sometimes shots don't fall and you simply can't win in the playoffs (especially against the champs) shooting the basketball like that. What're you gonna do? Back in Silicon Valley at Oracle on Monday night, the San Antonio Spurs fell once again to the Gluttony of More Golden State Warriors 116-101 to fall into an 0-2 hole in our Western Conference First Round series.
The bottom line is that if we had hit more of our wide-open threes in Game 2 and if Bryn Forbes hadn't committed that bone-headed "clear path" foul that set Klay Thompson off on his own personal 6-0 run early in the fourth quarter, the Spurs would've won Game 2 and the entire complexion of this series would be looking entirely different right about now. As far as I'm concerned this is a relatively evenly matched series. Both teams are missing a superstar. LaMarcus is playing at such a high-level right now, he basically cancels out Durant. Is Klay better than anything we have as a second option? Sure, but I'll put the collective experience of Coach Pop, Parker, Ginobili, Gasol, Mills, and Danny Green up against Steve Kerr, Thompson, Draymond Green, Andre Iguadola, Sean Livingston, and David West and really like our chances. We are a really good home team so if we can figure out a way to take care of business down in the Alamo City tomorrow and Sunday (while Fiesta is conveniently popping off with Oyster Bake), all of the pressure shifts back to Golden State for Game 5. What part of die-hard don't you understand? I will never stop believing. I will never give in. I won't back down.
* * *
I was in the final stages of editing this post when the news broke of Erin Popovich's passing. This is such devastating news. Coach Pop kept his family life extremely private but from all that I've read and heard over the years, Erin was remarkable person. I want you, the readers, to know that everything I had previously written for this post (the Kawhi letter, the Game 2 analysis, the unwavering confidence in our chances to turn the series around) seems embarrassingly trivial now when juxtaposed against humanity and mortality in such an acute, piercing way. This has been such a tough week. Already this week I've been reflecting upon the passing of a close family friend in Texas, a colleague of mine in Germany, and former First Lady Barbara Bush. It is only Wednesday. Rest in peace, dear Erin Popovich. My heart goes out to you and your family, Coach Pop. May the outpouring of support from the NBA community and your #SpursFamily bring you some comfort.
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Headline Image Source: Pounding the Rock
One Saṃsāra
2018 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 1
Rebirth - It wasn’t supposed to be this way. How did we get here? This is the kind of thing that just doesn't happen to the little basketball powerhouse who calls South Texas home. It feels like Biff has stolen the Spurs Retirement Vehicle at some point in the future after time travel has been invented and the SRV has been converted into a time machine and then travelled back to some point after the Spurs closed out the Houston Rockets last May to do something nefarious that resulted in sending our reality on a shocking tangent into an alternative 2017-18 NBA Season. (Why would Biff do this? I mean, everybody knows that he's a Spurs-hating former Kobe Bryant-era Lakers fan who has shamelessly switched in recent years to being a fair weather Golden State Warriors fan.) But exactly what point in time did Biff visit to send the Spurs into this alternative reality? What was the exact event that brought us to this place we are at today; this place that is so terrifying, we could have previously never imagined? Trust me, my mind has been to a million different dark places toiling for the answer to this question. I can’t help but return time and time again to the play that robbed us of our opportunity to capture the 2017 NBA Title. Time and time again, I return back to The Closeout.
There have been multiple infamous plays that have robbed the San Antonio Spurs of opportunities to capture championships. As a Spurs fan, I fully understand that I am part of the luckiest fan base in American professional sports. I do not take our five titles and our 21 straight playoff appearances for granted. Having said that, we have had some really bad luck that has cost us multiple titles. There's no question that the San Antonio Spurs are painfully familiar with near misses. (Even though we’ve covered this topic extensively, I think it bares repeating here to provide background for where we’re headed in examining The Closeout.) We as Spurs fans are lucky but the team itself is anything but. If the team were lucky, we could easily be talking about the Nine-Time NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs. If Derrick Fisher’s point four has been disallowed in 2004 and if Manu had pulled his hand back and not fouled Dirk Nowitzki in 2006, we could’ve won five straight championships from 2003 through 2007. (We were also a Manu injury in the 2008 Western Conference Finals away from being right there again but I’m not even counting that one among the nine. Marching to a 10-0 start to the 2012 playoffs before losing four straight to OKC is another close call that I'm not going to count.) Of course the closest we ever came to winning a championship before bad luck snatched it away was the Ray Allen shot in 2013. (Another close call that I won't count came in Tim Duncan's final playoff run in 2016.) All of this is to say that last year, we were on our way to winning the title before bad luck snatched it away. You may scoff at this notion but there is a level the Spurs get to and an edge we play with when we are on a title-run. I've been watching this team long enough to know when we've gotten there and last year, up 25 in Game 1 against Golden State...we were there. Trust me, we were on our way to winning the title before bad luck snatched it away in the form of Zaza Pachulia and his dirty, wreckless, no good, very bad closeout.
At the time, this just seemed like another near-miss that the perennial-contending San Antonio Spurs and Spurs fans have grown accustomed to experiencing. It seemed like another bad luck play that was going to cost us another chance at capturing another championship. Without our best player, we soldiered on through the rest of the Western Conference Finals but, after giving back the 25 point Game 1 lead, we succumbed to the eventual champion Gluttony of More Warriors in a sweep. Chalk it up as another bad luck year that kept the could be Nine-Time NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs as the Five-Time NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs. Bummer but no big deal, right? We headed into a summer where we thought we would be making a run at Chris Paul and (whether we landed him or not) after that we would embark on another season as a top-five team and title contender. But when the 2017-18 NBA season began and our best player was not ready to go, The Closeout began to feel like something other than another championship-costing bad luck playoff moment. And throughout the year, that feeling steadily intensified. What started out as a slightly annoying minor headache at the beginning of the season steadily progressed into a full-blown blistering migraine by the time this year's squad failed to continue our 18-year streak of winning 50 or more games. What started out as a minor bump in the road at the beginning of the season steadily progressed into an existential threat to the continued existence of our beloved Spurs Culture by the time this year's squad limped into the playoffs as the Western Conference's Seventh Seed. The Closeout, which started out appearing to be another point four, Manu fouls dirk or Ray Allen shot at the beginning of the season has proven to be something more nefarious. The Closeout has proven to be the point in time that Biff traveled back to in the SRV and the event he engineered to send the San Antonio Spurs and Spurs fans into the sinister alternate reality that was our 2017-18 NBA Season. Whether or not Marty and the Doc will ultimately reclaim the SRV and travel back in time themselves to restore the San Antonio Spurs back to our normal reality remains to be seen. It appears we might not have an answer on that one until this summer.Sinister alternate reality or not, we can't wait until the summer to find answers. We must live in the moment and embrace the opportunity at hand. As fate would have it, dropping into the Seventh Seed has matched us up against a familiar foe and given us a golden opportunity to shock the world by upsetting the Steph Curry-less defending champion Gluttony of More Golden State Warriors.
If that is going to happen, it is going to have to start tonight because on Saturday afternoon, the Golden State Warriors unceremoniously defeated the San Antonio Spurs 113-92 in Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round. The player of the game was Rudy Gay, who led the Spurs in scoring in his first playoff game in six years with 15 points (on 5-12 shooting) and chipped in six rebounds, two assists, and two steals for good measure. Manu Ginobili also got loose in the first day of shooting on his own personal sequel to This Is 40. In this, his 15th playoff campaign, Manu hit the Warriors with a sharp nine points and three steals (2-2 from deep) at Oracle on Saturday. Nonetheless, the Warriors showed that two-time NBA MVP Steph Curry was a luxury that they did not need in making easy work of the Spurs in Game 1. Klay Thompson had a monster 27 point game on 11-13 shooting. Kevin Durant, the one this Blog Boy is dubbing Asterix Champion for this series, also had a big game with 24 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, and two steals. Asterix Champion aka Captain Path of Least Resistance aka KD picked up in his second campaign as a hired gun where he left off his first campaign as 2017 NBA Finals MVP.
Even though we got spanked in Game 1, it’s a different feeling this year. For the first time since 2010, we've arrived at the First Round a bonafide underdog. In this series, all of the pressure is on Golden State. And that is why this series is going to be so much fun. We have the rare opportunity to play loose and try to seize on this lack of expectations to send the defending champions wandering in the wilderness this summer through our rebirth. Perhaps we don't need to wait on Marty and the Doc recapturing the SRV at some point in the future to restore our reality, perhaps we can make the most of the opportunity in front of us in this, our alternate reality. Whether we like it or not, this is the moment our reincarnation has brought us to and we need to live and embrace this moment. That is what transformation is about. This series, not this summer, is our opportunity at rebirth. The last time the Spurs were the Seventh Seed was eight years ago in 2010. At the time, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony had a hit single called Rebirth and what did we do with the rare opportunity to play underdog? We upset the Second Seeded Dallas Mavericks in the First Round of the 2010 NBA Playoffs. History has a funny way of repeating itself and to quote Doc Brown, "Your future hasn't been written yet. No one's has. Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one." With or without our wonderwall, Game Two is tonight and I believe that the #BlackAndSilver will live in the moment and begin our rebirth by making this chance to steal home court advantage away from the champs a good one.
Featured Image Source: Big Think
Ocho Derrotas
2017 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 4
digging for windows - Déjà vu. It seemed eerily similar to the ending of last season. Swallowing the suddenness of the end to a season is hard enough without having to deal with the nervousness that you may also be watching a basketball icon leave the hardwood for the very last time. Having an abundance of basketball icons on one roster is certainly a good problem to have but it doesn't make it easier that, in San Antonio, the prospect of having to say goodbye to one is now a perennial occurrence. But so it goes, and so it was on a balmy 78 degree evening in the Alamo City late last spring. With his left arm lifted, hand open, fingers separated like a truck driver feeling the breeze whisk through a wave suspended firmly outside an open window, Manu Ginobili scurried sheepishly off the court and towards the tunnel in the last game of his fifteenth season in #BlackAndSilver. It was as if the roaring adulation of the fans, chanting in unison "Manu, Manu, Manu," was that wind whisking through his wave. As the Paul Bunyan of hoops (a player so magical, I carry his theatrics deep in my soul in a place reserved for sacred memories) disappeared into the tunnel, I won't lie…I thought that was it. Like Number 21 a year earlier, I thought Number 20 was gone forever. After all, conventional wisdom suggested that at 39 years of age and after 15 consecutive years of squaring off against the likes of the Shaq-Kobe Lakers, Steve Nash and the Seven Seconds or Less Suns, Chauncey Billups and the Bad Boys 2.0 Pistons, LeBron James and the Heatles, the KD-Westbrook Thunder, and most recently the Curry-Thompson-Green-KD (what?) Gluttony of More Warriors in playoff war after playoff war, the greatest player in Argentinian basketball history had nothing left in the tank. After witnessing close to every single minute of his San Antonio Spurs basketball career, shame on me for not recognizing that (when it comes to Manu Ginobili) we can throw conventional wisdom straight out of the metaphorical truck window his hand was waving from as he walked off of the court last May after playing his heart out in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals against Golden State. Shame on me for not remembering that this all-time great player is an all-time great player because he's unconventional and full of surprises. On July 19th, Manu Ginobili announced on his Twitter account that, at the age of 40, he would be returning to the San Antonio Spurs for his 16th NBA season. In the end, Manu's wave was not a wave goodbye (or proof that sending franchise icons to the rafters has become a yearly tradition in San Antonio) but instead it was a wave of invitation for all of us to see what surprises he still has in store for us as he attempts to climb the mountain once again in 2017-18. I can't wait.
Having Manu back in the fold for another title run softens the disappointment over how last season ended but it doesn't completely take away those pesky What if questions. It's hard not to wonder how a healthy Spurs squad would have faired against Golden State and Cleveland. While, sure, it would have been extremely difficult to win a title without Tony Parker, given what we know from the small sample we were afforded in the Western Conference Finals with Kawhi Leonard, the Spurs outscored the Warriors by 23 before The Klaw succumbed to his season-ending Zaza Pachulia take down (err... I mean, injury). Taking into consideration the dominating start to the series (and the fact that to a man the Warriors acknowledge that the Spurs would have won Game 1 had Kawhi remained healthy), would we have won that series with Kahwi available? I can't say for sure but I can say I would have been scared to my very core if I were a Warriors fan. There is one thing that I know for certain. Based on the way we were playing to start Game 1, had we had both Kawhi Leonard and Tony Parker playing at the level they had been playing at prior to their 2017 playoff injuries, the San Antonio Spurs would have won the 2017 NBA Championship. There is no doubt in my mind.
But What ifs are What ifs for a reason. The reality is that on May 22nd, the Gluttony of More Golden State Warriors defeated the San Antonio Spurs 129-115 at the AT&T Center to win the 2017 Western Conference Finals in a sweep. And benefiting from former league MVP and current "path of least resistance" emperor Kevin Durant's inexplicable decision to join the team that had ripped his heart out in the 2016 Western Conference Finals, Dub City went on to capture the 2017 NBA Championship, defeating LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games. Anecdotally, in an all-time example of the unfortunate reality that selling out sometimes pays off, Kevin Durant was named MVP of the 2017 Finals. Manu's 15 point, seven assists, and three steals not withstanding, the Game 4 player of this game was Kyle Anderson. In the very last game of his third season in the league, Slow Mo notched his first ever Black & Silver POTG honors with a 20 point, seven rebound, four steal, and two assist performance that show much promise that Kyle can fill an even bigger role on the squad in Year Four.
Fast forwarding to the summer, on top of the most heartwarming news (our aforementioned re-signing of Manu Ginobili) there was a great deal of transactional headlines being made on an almost daily basis in the National Basketball Association. Every contender in the league went nuts during this offseason to try to keep pace with the Warriors. The Rockets acquired Chris Paul to pair with James Harden. The Timberwolves acquired Jimmy Butler to lead their young talented combo of Andrew Wiggins and Karl Anthony Towns. The Celtics acquired Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward to put alongside Al Horford and a plethora of young talent. (Tough blow, Boston. Speedy recovery, Gordon Hayward.) The Thunder acquired Paul George and Carmelo Anthony to arm reigning league MVP Russell Westbrook with elite weapons. The Cavaliers acquired former MVP Derrick Rose, Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, and (maybe most importantly) former Finals MVP and three-time champion Dwyane Wade (getting the band back together) to bring reinforcements for Kevin Love and basketball's greatest active player, LeBron James. There was, however, one contender that didn't join the NBA's arms race. You guessed it. Our San Antonio Spurs decided to get back to basics and spend the summer building from within. By all accounts, our young talent (Dejounte Murray, Bryn Forbes, and Davis Bertans) worked their tails off in the summer to get better. Tony Parker and Kahwi Leonard (while not available tonight) are expected to make full recoveries from their injuries. Tony played like the champion he is during last season's playoffs and if he can spend the next six months preparing to replicate that performance again this spring, everything he gives us during this regular season becomes simply icing on the cake. Kawhi has improved astronomically as a basketball player each and every offseason of his career. So much so that by the 2017 playoffs, he was the best basketball player in the world, in my opinion. Regardless of the injury, I expect his game to have taken the same leap this summer that it has every summer past and if it did, look out. If Kawhi made the same year-to-year leap again this offseason, his status as best basketball player in the world won't merely be my opinion, it will be an objective fact.
And that brings me to another reason I'm hopeful for our 2017-18 prospects: the remarkable developments in the marriage between LaMarcus Aldridge and the San Antonio Spurs during this preseason. After facing criticism for failing to carry the team to even one win over the Warriors during his first trip to the Western Conference Finals, LaMarcus spent a good part of this summer dealing with constant trade rumors swirling around his head. According to reports, the Spurs pushed hard to move on from LA in order to put more young talent around Kawhi but a trade never materialized. As training camp approached, it became evident that LaMarcus was going to start the season in a San Antonio uniform and I think most of assumed that R.C. Buford would try to trade him again before the midseason deadline. Then something interesting happened. Reports started leaking that prior to training camp, LaMarcus Aldridge approached Gregg Popovich for a heart-to-heart to discuss his unhappiness about his role on the team. Unsurprisingly, connecting with Coach Pop in an intimate way yielded spectacular results with Aldridge coming out the other side of it feeling much better about his place in the Spurs family. He backed it up on the court during the preseason putting up all-star (per 36 minute) numbers. Then yesterday, in a move that seemed to come completely out of the blue, the San Antonio Spurs signed LA to a longterm contract extension through the 2020-21 season. I find this move to be remarkable because it almost certainly guarantees that LaMarcus Aldridge is going to be Kawhi Leonard's primary sidekick as he moves through the prime of his career. While many Spurs fans might be uneasy about locking ourselves into this pairing, I think it's fantastic. Keep in mind that with Leonard and Aldridge as our one-two punch the San Antonio Spurs are averaging 64 wins per season. There is nothing broken about that. Also, remember...this is who we are as a team. As stated earlier, we build from within. If LaMarcus Aldridge isn't fitting perfectly into our system, our solution shouldn't be to trade him. Our solution should be to rework the system, make him comfortable, and figure out a way to fully utilize a player that is still easily one of the ten best "bigs" in the league. It's funny to me that because of his struggles in the Warriors series everyone seems to have forgotten that in Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals, LA went bananas to the tune of 34 points and 12 rebounds to close out James Harden and the Houston Rockets. If connecting on a human level with Coach Pop has finally allowed LaMarcus to feel comfortable in our system, I expect to see that beast-mode Rocket-dominating Aldridge on a nightly basis this season. And, man, I’m excited about it. To summarize, since it's better to say things late than never... Welcome to the Spurs family, LaMarcus.
And then there's Coach Pop, himself. What did Coach Pop do during his summer vacation? Oh you know, he just spent the offseason repeatedly excoriating the so-called Leader of the Free World. If you've been living under a rock these past 48 hours, here's what he said when he called up The Nation reporter Dave Zirin unsolicited on Monday to unload on Donald J. Trump:
I’ve been amazed and disappointed by so much of what this president had said, and his approach to running this country, which seems to be one of just a never ending divisiveness. But his comments today about those who have lost loved ones in times of war and his lies that previous presidents Obama and Bush never contacted their families are so beyond the pale, I almost don’t have the words.This man in the Oval Office is a soulless coward who thinks that he can only become large by belittling others. This has of course been a common practice of his, but to do it in this manner—and to lie about how previous presidents responded to the deaths of soldiers—is as low as it gets. We have a pathological liar in the White House, unfit intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically to hold this office, and the whole world knows it, especially those around him every day. The people who work with this president should be ashamed, because they know better than anyone just how unfit he is, and yet they choose to do nothing about it. This is their shame most of all.
Man, I love it when Pop goes (off on) the weasel! That being the case, what brings me the most hope of all that the San Antonio Spurs will capture the 2017-18 NBA Championship? You guessed it. Our coach. I can't say enough about how proud I am of the moral clarity Gregg Popovich has brought to our national political conversation since the 45th President of the United States of America was sworn in on January 20th. It is truly making a difference. His commentary on Donald J. Trump is resonating with leaders of the resistance movements in a remarkable way. Pop is speaking out and (whether we all want to admit it or not) the entire country is listening. Go Pop Go! While I'm proud of Pop's patriotism, obviously his political speech is not reason enough to believe, against all of the predictions of the so-called experts, that we will capture our sixth Larry O'Brien trophy next June. Pop's political convictions, however, are a reflection of a man, a team, an organization that knows who we are and knows what it takes to win. We've seen this movie before. You know, the one where the so-called experts overreact when other contenders load up on talent during the offseason to form allegedly unbeatable super teams while down in little 'ole San Antonio, the Spurs are quietly going about the business of developing players and building a a team who's sum is greater than its parts. Pop and the Spurs pound the rock day after day, week after week, month after month, until we've transformed ourselves into a well-oiled "super team" slaying machine. Pop's developed a winning formula for building from within that can transform an ordinary roster capable of beating any amount of talent that is put together by our competitors. Had we stayed healthy, he would have proven that his formula works again last year. That's okay (injuries are a part of the game). After staying pat this offseason, tonight he starts working on revising the script. This movie already has four sequels and with any luck in the injury department, we're about to film the fifth. Now wiser than ever, Gregg Popovich is getting ready to Alfred Hitchcock the NBA once again. Get your popcorn ready because he might not only take down the defending champion Golden State Warriors in 2018 but perhaps a sitting U.S. president, as well. One thing is for sure. Manu Ginobili is back and will be right there alongside Pop for the former and should the latter happen...Manu will most certainly be waiving goodbye this time, but at least as Donald J. Trump is also shown the door.
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Portrait Image Source: San Antonio Express-News
The Kawhi Question
His offense or his defense? Could Kawhi get buckets on Kawhi?
His offense or his defense? Could Kawhi get buckets on Kawhi?
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Featured Image Source: jumpman23 on Instagram
Siete Derrotas
2017 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 3
Carry On - It's well documented that no team in NBA history has ever come back to win a playoff series after trailing 0-3. The "experts" will tell you it's impossible in basketball. The thing is, according to the "experts" it used to be impossible in baseball as well. Until it wasn't. The 2004 Boston Red Sox changed what is possible in baseball. Eventually, a team will change what is possible in basketball. Why not now? Why not us? I've been spending the better part of these past 40 hours (since Golden State defeated San Antonio 120-108 in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals to take a 3-0 lead) talking my fellow Spurs fan friends off of the ledge. It pains me to say it, but after we were pushed on Saturday night passed to brink of what's currently possible in basketball, most every Spurs fan I know lost hope. I guess I don't blame them. The task ahead is daunting. Particularly daunting when you factor in the overwhelming likelihood that Kawhi Leonard won't play in Game 4. Add to that, we are facing a talented, healthy team who will now be playing with the confidence that comes with being certain you are advancing to the NBA Finals. Guess what? I don't care. I still believe we are winning tonight. I still believe we can win this series. I will never stop believing so long as there is basketball left in our season yet to be played. Call me crazy if you want, but my hope is based on more than just praying for miracles. It's funny how everyone has so quickly forgotten that we beat the fourth best team in the league by 39 points on the road without Kawhi and Tony just eleven days ago. If we were capable of that, I know we have the heart and pride to beat the Golden State Warriors by at least one point for one night at home without Kawhi and Tony. Never underestimate the heart of a champion.
Don't get it twisted. Even without Kawhi, Tony, and now David Lee, we will be suiting up a roster with a combined eight championship rings against a Golden State roster with a combined six championship rings (including James Michael McAdoo's who logged a whopping one minute in the 2015 NBA Finals). By the way, all six of the rings on the Warriors' side were collected in 2015 when Golden State benefited from having little to no adversity while every single playoff opponent they faced that year was dealing with significant losses due to injury. When you throw a ringless Kevin Durant into this mix, these Warriors are not a battle-tested championship team. The #BlackAndSilver, on the other hand, are and we are not going to simply lay down to this cupcake Dub City squad because they will be rolling out more talent than us. Let me reiterate. I fully expect to win tonight no matter who we suit up.
Once the immediate goal of not getting swept is accomplished, I know we can go back to Silicon Valley on Wednesday and start chipping away at Golden State's certainty. Despite the outward projection of invincibility, because of their lack of experience overcoming adversity, this Golden State Warriors team is vulnerable. They can be gotten to and broken mentally. I can smell it on them. They reek of being vulnerable to falling apart mentally once adversity hits. I smelled it on them last year too and sure enough, they blew a 3-1 lead in the 2016 NBA Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers and a true champion named LeBron James. The fact remains that Draymond Green can't be trusted not to cost his team with his extracurricular mental breakdowns, Steph Curry misses when the pressure is at its greatest, and Kevin Durant would never ever have even been a Warrior in the first place if he wasn't severely and chronically vitamin-deficient in the mental toughness department. I know these Warriors can be broken mentally. We just need to keep pounding the rock and if we finally catch a break or two...I know we can still be the team to break them. It just takes one to get this thing going. If we can get our "heart of a champion" pride win tonight and Kawhi is able to return for Game 5, who's to say we can't figure out a way to finish the job that we set out to do in Game 1 by winning a road game at Oracle on Wednesday night? Come Friday, we could be in the driver's seat to win this series at 2-3, with all the momentum and staring at a home game. Channeling my inner-Kevin Garnett...ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. Anything is especially possible when you have the best coach in basketball and still have a player who can do this...
Manu was fantastic in Game 3. The player of the game poured in 21 points (7-9 from the field, 2-3 from deep, 5-8 from the line). Watching the 39 year old four-time NBA champion bring that type of effort in a game and series that will have little impact on his already cemented legacy was an utter joy. God, I love watching this man play the game of basketball. In my opinion, he's the greatest magician this game has seen since Pete Maravich and something tells me, working in collaboration with Coach Pop, he still has a thing or two left up his sleeve for tonight and the duration of this series. I know that most readers who have gotten this far into my "shock the world" post already think I'm crazy to continue believing the Spurs will win this series. I know that most are ready to declare 2016-17 a good Spurs season that was ruined by the bad luck of having injuries render us unable to compete during the Western Conference Finals. I cannot even begin to explain to you how little I care. I do not believe tonight will be the end of the journey, I believe tonight will be the beginning of something historic. I believe we are on the precipice of Gregg Popovich and Manu Ginobili's finest hour as a tandem. I believe the ex-military operative from Indiana and the past-his-prime magician from Argentina are in the dark crevices of the AT&T Center at this very moment concocting a "shock and awe" campaign to make the impossible possible, to make the Warriors certain trip to the 2017 NBA Finals vanish into thin air... As I stated earlier, eventually a team will comeback from an 0-3 deficit to win an NBA playoff series. It is not a matter of if but rather a matter of when will it happen. In 100 years, when future NBA fans look back on the first time a team came back from 0-3 down to win a playoff series, if they read that that team was the San Antonio Spurs and that Gregg Popovich and Manu Ginobili were involved in forevermore changing what is considered possible in basketball...these future NBA fans will shrug and say, "Well, that makes sense." You may think I'm crazy and that's fine. I think that I'm one of the last Spurs fans left that sees things clearly. Tonight, I believe that we're going to start the process of changing what is possible in basketball. Tonight, I believe we're going to softly gain a rhythm that will crescendo into the loudest "Go Spurs Go" chant in San Antonio history next Sunday. Tonight, I believe we're going to start the countdown to shocking the world with the most explosive counterattack in the history of the sport. Tonight, I believe we're going to pick ourselves up from the rubble of a season blown up and nearly destroyed by injuries, grin a grin that strikes fear into the hearts of our cupcake opponent, and start digging for windows.
Seis Derrotas
2017 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 2
Everyday People - Kawhi Leonard still drives a beat up 1997 Chevy Tahoe that he's had since high school. Last year, the season after signing a $94,343,126 five-year contract, the All-NBA small forward was asked why he keeps a beater that he once nicknamed Gas Guzzler. His response? "It runs and it's paid off." I think it's safe to say the San Antonio Spurs' newest franchise cornerstone is as down to earth as our last one. Put another way, he's an Everyday People superstar. Until disaster struck last Sunday, Kawhi was forcefully (albeit quietly) going about establishing himself as the best basketball player in the world. It's hard to argue against anointing him the 2017 NBA Playoff MVP. While LeBron James (basketball's greatest active player) has been putting up similar and arguably better numbers than The Klaw during the 2017 playoffs, Kawhi has been getting his numbers against unquestionably stiffer competition than King James (and in roughly seven fewer minutes per game). As I wrote in Cinco Derrotas, there has been no clearer evidence of Kawhi's ascension to the top of his craft than the way he was utterly dominating the Golden State Warriors' four All-Stars during Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals before succumbing to injury in the third quarter. With Kawhi in this series, the Spurs have outscored Dub City 78-55 (+23). Without him, including Tuesday night's 136-100 Game 2 drubbing, we've been outscored by the Warriors 194-133 (-61).
I think it's safe to say that the little Everyday People basketball proletariat that resides in South Texas would be well-served to have our quiet, humble leader back in order to defend our historic River Walk against the gentrification of Silicon Valley's Golden State basketball bourgeoisie in Game 3 on Saturday night. The player of the game (for the Game 2 massacre) was Jonathon Simmons. Sadly, Juice was the only Spurs starter that brought the proper energy and intensity necessary to compete on Tuesday night. When you're Everyday People enough to have had to pay a $150 registration fee for a D-League tryout in 2013 (and cashed that opportunity in to the tune of making yourself into a starting small forward in the Western Conference Finals four years later), the proof is in the pudding. You have only one mode: hungry. In an admirable performance filling in for Kawhi, Jonathon put up 22 points (8-18 from the field, 4-5 from deep), three rebounds and three assists in 26 minutes of work.
Unfortunately, Juice didn't get much help from the three former champions (Gasol, Green, Mills) or the five-time All-Star (Aldridge) that joined him in the lineup. As the defacto first option, LaMarcus was particularly disappointing. He finished the contest with only eight points (4-11 from the field) and four rebounds in 27 timid minutes. Immediately after Steph Curry drained a 27 foot three pointer to double up the Spurs 20-10, Coach Pop pulled LA for David Lee having seen no signs of life from his featured scorer in the opening frame. Having the very same player who, five days earlier, had delivered a massive game to close out the Rockets look utterly flustered by the Warriors defensive schemes on Tuesday was too big an issue for the wounded Spurs to overcome. The writing was on the wall. In other words, eight minutes into the game...you could already see the white flag sticking out of Pop's pocket.
With the second half devolving quickly into an extended garbage time free-for-all, our other noticeable bright spot was the play of Davis Bertans in the latter stages of the game. Once a throw in the infamous Kawhi Leonard for George Hill draft day trade in 2011, the Latvian rookie (who's previous worldly Everyday People basketball stops include Riga, Union Olimpija, Partizan Belgrade, and Laboral Kutxa Baskonia) shot a perfect 4-4 from the field (3-3 behind the arc) to collect his 13 points in 17 minutes. He collected four rebounds, an assist, a steal, and a block for good measure. I don't have much else to say about Game 2 except that the result was not surprising. There is a high risk for this type of result - a blowout loss - in the game immediately following a heartbreaking playoff defeat. Considering that we coughed up a 25 point lead in the preceding game to find ourselves in a 0-1 hole and came into Tuesday's game knowing we would be going to battle without the best player in the world (not to mention our starting point guard, Tony Parker, as well), in the end it was fool's gold to think Game 2 could be got. Whatever, let it be.
Thankfully by the time Game 3 tips tomorrow evening, we will have had four days to regroup and get ready to defend our house and the dignity of Everyday People against the excesses of the Gluttony of More Warriors. I still believe that the #BlackAndSilver are going to win this series if we get Kawhi back healthy. If we don't get Kawhi back, clearly it's going to take a few breaks going our way for once in order to win the series but I'll keep hope alive no matter what the circumstances. (By the way, I believe we're winning Game 3 whether Kawhi plays or not.) Despite all of the odds that feel stacked against us (just one short week after feeling invincible upon closing out the Rockets), I know one thing. We have more championship heart on our side than the Warriors do on theirs. That can go a very long way to offset a deficiency of talent. Anyone who can turn down the noise coming from the "experts" long enough to understand this also understands the series is far from over. San Antonio does not go down without a fight. Period.
I also can't help but assume that the Basketball Gods aren't through weighing in on this series. As I was watching Golden State's All-Star quartet obnoxiously celebrate on Tuesday night each time they mercilessly battered our wounded heroes with another backdoor cut for a layup or long-range bomb, I couldn't help but wonder, what is the freaking point of this exercise? Nobody gains anything from it. If Kevin Durant wins an NBA Finals with this Warriors squad, in the minds of many including me, he's still not a champion. Champions don't take the path of least resistance to win their first title. Champions pick themselves back up when they've been knocked down and persevere. What Kevin Durant did last summer is the basketball equivalent of joining forces with the Russians to get elected president. On the other side of the equation, if the Warriors win another NBA Finals now...they're no longer the homegrown group of underdogs that developed into champions together only to set their designs on becoming a dynasty. They're now just a one-time champion that needed to add Kevin Durant in order to make it back to the top. As a basketball historian and purist, I find the whole thing an exercise in futility. If you value the right things like handwork and integrity, the marriage between Durant and Dub City is a no-win. Of course, you may not be surprised to learn that they have different values over there in Silicon Valley. They value things like instant gratification and flashy new toys. You know, the types of things us Everyday People can't afford to value.
Perhaps, in the end, we will discover that the Kawhi Leonard injury was not a curse but actually a gift from the Basketball Gods to further build up our championship pedigree - to further refine our ability to pick ourselves back up and persevere. Perhaps, in the end, the Basketball Gods will also deliver us the greatest gift an organized proletariat can receive: the gift of an overconfident and entitled opponent. The Golden State Warriors haven't faced one-twentieth of the adversity that the San Antonio Spurs have faced in the 2017 playoffs. As a consequence, we are much better prepared than they for the champion-making trials and tribulations still to come in this series. On Tuesday, we got knocked down once again. Tomorrow, we carry on.
Featured Image Source: Fadeaway World
Headline Image Source: NY Daily News
Cinco Derrotas
2017 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 1
Until the End of Time - In their hearts, they know. Not to say that they care (vultures rarely do) but they know. The Golden State Warriors (the boastful sports ambassadors for a sinister darkness that has taken root in American culture, an epidemic that from here on I'll refer to as the Gluttony of More) know that if Kawhi Leonard had not been injured...they would be peering up today from an 0-1 hole in the Western Conference Finals while nursing the hangover of having the facade of their precious inevitability shattered. Sure, down 20 points, the Warriors came out of the locker room for the second half of Game 1 with noticeable purpose and played phenomenal basketball. They weren't going to let themselves get embarrassed at home under any scenario, there's no question. Even with a healthy Kawhi, this game would have found its way to competitive. Make no mistake about it, though. No Kawhi Leonard injury, no historic Warriors comeback. Period. Kawhi was simply too in control of the game to allow it to happen. Nobody knows this better than the Warriors. Already down our second most recent Finals MVP (Tony Parker) for the remainder of the playoffs, through two quarters and change of our first game against the Chosen Ones aka the Invincible Super Team aka Kevin Durant's Cupcake Factory, it was clear as day: as long as we still had our most recent Finals MVP (Kawhi Leonard) healthy, we were going to beat them.
Why was it clear as day? Let's call a spade a spade. Our one 2017 NBA All-Star was single-handedly outshining Golden State's four 2017 NBA All-Stars combined. Kawhi Leonard was conducting the game with such precision, he had the Warriors quartet sucking wind. In other words, he was kicking their brass. There is only one player comparison to make in regards to the way Kawhi was dominating Sunday's matinee before being sidelined. Michael Jordan. It was simply breathtaking. To be able to do what he was doing in Game 1 to a team that features two former NBA MVPs and four perennial All-Stars, Kawhi has officially become His Airness-level dominant. When the player of the game limped to the locker room at the 7:52 mark of the third quarter (after 24 minutes of action), he had 26 points (7-13 from the field, 11-11 from the line), eight rebounds, three assists, and one steal. Oh...and the #BlackAndSilver were beating the consensus title favorites in their building by 23. After Kawhi left, the Warriors immediately went on an 18-0 run and, despite the heroic effort of our remaining players, ended up outlasting the Spurs by two points to win Game 1, 113-11. (We'll choose not to talk about Kevin Durant's blatantly obvious double-dribble that wasn't called and gave his Thunder...err, I mean Stephen Curry's Warriors an undeserved final--margin-difference-making bucket.) Congratulations on your "historic" comeback, Golden State. It certainly did become easier to beat the Chicago Bulls too when Michael Jordan "retired" from basketball to pursue his passion for whiffing at minor league curve balls.
Before moving on, I want to address the elephant in the room. What the hell is Kevin Durant doing playing in a Warriors-Spurs Western Conference Finals series? You will not talk me off of this corner. Durant's decision to join the Golden State Warriors last summer (the very same team who just beat his former team in a hard-fought seven game series to earn a trip to the 2016 NBA Finals) was disgraceful. Save me the "he should have the freedom to make the best decision for himself and his family" rationalization. Of course he should and he clearly exercised said freedom. More power to him for it but it doesn't change the fact that, in making this particular decision, the man cheated the game of basketball. This isn't a generational new school versus old school thing either (another talking point). Just because Durant is of the coddled millennial generation doesn't mean he gets a pass for taking the easy way out. Conforming to the adage If You Can't Beat 'Em Join 'Em is perennially a cop out, a coward's move, a slap in the face of every other franchise player who battles for titles but ultimately comes up short. Kevin Durant's decision to join the Warriors was, in my opinion, the equivalent of taking a Golden Piss on the sanctity of the game.
Of course, I'm sure it's easy to write this off as the rantings of a diehard Spurs fan who is hating on KD because my beloved squad just so happened to be eliminated by Durant's last season. In actuality, the appropriate place to file my complaint is in the tough love department. As a former Texas Longhorn (my hometown college team), Kevin Durant was always one of my favorite non-Spurs players in the NBA. After OKC beat us in last year's semis, I was rooting my ass off for him to win the 2016 title. By the way, I feel bad for the Oklahoma City Thunder fans for the way Durant's free agency played out (when their title run fell short last season) but this rant isn't about them or being made for their benefit. I would not have been outraged had Durant left the Thunder and signed anywhere else but Golden State. This is 100 percent strictly about the manner in which Durant's decision violated the spirit of competition. Competitors don't join the team that just cut their heart out the year before. They just don't. If Kevin Durant was dead set on playing basketball alongside Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green, he would have had my blessing should he have waited to join them under different circumstances than joining them during a summer after they had just beat him. While I won't waver from the opinion that had Kevin Durant led OKC to even one championship (a la Dirk Nowitzki leading the Mavericks to the 2011 title) it would have meant more for cementing his legacy than winning multiple titles elsewhere, any amount of titles that Durant now wins with the Warriors after joining them under these circumstances is forever tainted. The same holds true for the team he joined. Because the signing violates the spirit of competition, Golden State forfeited something special by joining forces with Durant. They were a championship team of homegrown talent in the San Antonio-mold prior to this season. Now, any more championships that the Splash Brothers / Draymond Green Warriors win after adding KD will forever be viewed through a less impressive lens. Karma is a very powerful thing and may very well forever doom the prospects of these Golden State Warriors, as currently constructed, but let me reiterate: any NBA championships that Kevin Durant and Dub City win together (should there be any) are as hollow and empty as the soul of a venture capitalist.
That being said, the Kevin Durant signing made all of the different in the world for propelling Sunday's comeback. KD came up huge in helping Steph Curry rally their team back. No matter how hot Steph gets in the second half, last year's three All-Star Warriors team probably gets beat by the Spurs under the same circumstances (including Kawhi's injury) considering how poorly Klay and Draymond played. Durant clearly helped put them over the top in Game 1 sans Kawhi but, as stated earlier, the Warriors know that even with their four All-Stars (two of them former NBA MVPs), the only reason they were able to comeback and win Game 1 was because they benefited from how hard starting center Zaza Pachulia plays the game, err...I mean the injury and sidelining of the best player in the world. I'll let Gregg Popovich's feelings on the matter speak for themselves without commentary but let's put it this way...my biggest takeaway from Game 1 is that the invincible Gluttony of More Golden State Warriors have now been exposed. The 2017 Western Conference Finals were never going to be the formality that the "experts" expected. The Next Man Up San Antonio Spurs are here to compete and (regardless of whether or not we are fortunate enough to get a healthy Kawhi for the remainder of this series), the Warriors appear to have more questions than $20 Million Per Year answers. Considering that their four All-Stars played the better part of the second half against a team competing without it's two best players, they've got to be thinking that the final margin of Game 1 was a little too close for comfort. It's too bad the Warriors didn't think to sign LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul as well this summer in order to ensure that the bourgeois has enough firepower to outgun San Antonio's proletariat. After all, as venture capitalist and head vulture...err, I mean team owner Joe Lacob knows all too well from his day job, there is no embarrassment of riches too embarrassing for those attempting to buy their way to the top.
Welcome to Trump's America where the ultra rich buy presidential elections so why not NBA championships too? Make no mistake about it. Appropriately located in Silicon Valley (home to a wealth inequality driving, grossly out-of-touch class of neoliberal tech billionaires), the 2016-2017 Golden State Warriors (a team by, of, and for the one percent) are in the closing weeks of a yearlong campaign to buy the 2017 NBA title. Lacob and company are employing vast resources to impart the corrosive values of the Gluttony of More on the National Basketball Association in a sinister attempt to impose their bourgeois dynasty on the rest of us. Ladies and gentleman, the San Antonio Spurs are the last, best hope for America's working class of NBA fans. Our hobbled and battered proletariat heroes are storming the castle in a heroic attempt to resist tyranny. Win or lose, I'm proud of what the Next Man Up are fighting for and the the manner in which they are representing the city of San Antonio to the rest of the basketball world. The missed Game 1 opportunity was a tough blow, but I believe it to be only a temporary setback. I still have faith (regardless of Kawhi's status) that if we play the Back to Black championship defense that we're capable of and avoid the types of costly turnovers that lead to Golden State transition point by protecting the basketball on offense, we can win this series. Go Spurs Go is no longer simply a famous San Antonio Spurs chant. In the tradition of Remember the Alamo, it is now the battlecry for a basketball revolución. History teaches us that the biggest weakness of the bourgeois is that they become so fat and happy, they believe they are entitled to their good fortune and eventually let their guard down. If we are united, patient, and strategic, the proletariat can use strength in numbers (not merely as a slogan) but as a tactic for leveling the playing field. Never ever underestimate the extraordinary things that can be accomplished by a group of organized everyday people.
Featured Image Source: NBA
Headline Image Source: The Undefeated
Ocho Triunfos
2017 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 6
Faith - The "experts" were utterly dumbfounded. But why wouldn't they have been? In their minds, what they had witnessed was impossible. After they found out that Kawhi Leonard had been scratched prior to Thursday's matchup, the consensus among their ranks was that the Rockets would certainly force a Game 7. I mean, it was as close to a sure thing as comes around in the business of sports prognostication. Nevermind the fact that Mike D'Antoni was 5-19 against Gregg Popovich head-to-head in the playoffs and had never forced a Game 7 in any of the four previous match-ups (much less beaten him). It takes research to be able to factor things of this such into one's predictions. And what more should an "expert" be expected to do in order to form an opinion other than read the Vegas lines and do a side-by-side comparison of star power? Research? Come on, let's be civilized. After all, research takes time away from preparing to look good in front of the television cameras. Makeup, beard and neck trims, manicures...there is a lot of dressing room time that goes into becoming an "expert." Anyone willing to risk not looking good in front of the television camera because they sacrificed that time to do research wouldn't hack it in this field so we needn't overcomplicate things. Vegas has the Spurs in Game 6 as 8.5 point dogs, the second-largest underdog they've ever been in the 268 playoff games that Gregg Popovich has coached the team, so of course Houston is going to win and there is going to be a Game 7. Duh, it's plain as day. Kawhi Leonard is out, Tony Parker is out for the year, and Tim Duncan is probably somewhere down in South America on a motorcycle enjoying retirement. Clearly the Spurs don't have the star-power to matchup with the presumptive NBA MVP, James Harden - an MVP who, along with Russell Westbrook, is so brilliant on offense it's given the "experts" carte blanche to spend an entire season ignoring what Kawhi (and LeBron James, for that matter) bring to the table on both sides of the basketball. Throw in the fact that Houston is at home against the overmatched Spurs junior varsity team and there is no way this could turn out any other way than a Rockets victory. By the way, since all of the Houston in 6 picks that the "experts" made went out the window after San Antonio's miraculous Game 5 victory there is much face-saving to be gained by the Rockets extending the series. So there's got to at least be a Game 7, right? I mean, the "experts' could still look pretty smart if the Rockets pulled this series out in 7. What's one little game? Kawhi Leonard going down was just the gift the experts needed to avoid embarrassment. Surely now they wouldn't have to eat the crow of The Bearded One and the architect of Seven Seconds or Less crashing and burning in 6. All of the chips are stacked against the Spurs. Pop figuring out a way to win under these circumstances at the Toyota Center would obviously make the "experts" look foolish. He's the best coach in the league but even he's not that good. It's hopeless, impossible, never going to happen. Right? 🤷♂️
On Thursday night in Houston, Gregg Popovich danced all over the arrogant windbag presumptions of basketball pundits everywhere and utterly obliterated conventional wisdom by coaching up his undermanned Spurs team to a 114-75, 39 point beat down of the Rockets to eliminate our in-state rival on their own home court. It was a masterful performance that perplexed the opinion-makers whose job it is to inform the greater basketball-viewing public of what is supposed to happen. I won't lie, I enjoyed watching postgame analysis on multiple outlets that featured "experts" who were literally gawking with their mouths open trying to find an explanation for what they had just witnessed. The obvious thing to point to (so obvious, even the most-pretigious of "experts" could identify it) is the performance of player of the game LaMarcus Aldridge. Playing as the first option, LA had a masterful performance. He pumped in 34 points (16-26 shooting) and 12 rebounds and went a long way towards silencing his rapidly-growing chorus of critics (which unfortunately included many a Spurs fan). As an aside, for those Spurs fans who had planted a flag in the LaMarcus-bashing camp at some point during these playoffs...it's too bad that you don't get too fully bask in the glory of his performance in this victory because, as a diehard fan who has stuck with LA through both his good times and bad ones as a member of the #BlackAndSilver, I can gladly report that it felt amazing to be able to whole-heartedly celebrate with him when he came through in the biggest way during the most critical game of his tenure here in San Antonio. LaMarcus Aldridge was, is, and will always be a bad ass. I mean, seriously. He's the only player in Spurs history whose number was retired prior to him even suiting up for the team.
Moving on, the not so obvious thing to point to for why the Spurs destroyed the Rockets on Thursday night, cuts right to the heart of why the "experts" got this thing so wrong. Yes, to be sure, Pop is a brilliant in-game strategist. The thing, however, that separates him from every other coach in the league is the way he develops players year after year, day after day, minute after minute. The reason the Spurs did something on Thursday night that the "experts" thought was impossible (eliminate a quality opponent on the road by 39 without our two best players) is because while everyone else is deciding what's impossible, Coach Pop is developing the possible. Pop knew that Jonathon Simmons was capable of stepping in for Kawhi Leonard and contributing to winning basketball because he's given him the opportunities over the past nine months to develop into a player that's capable of stepping in for an MVP candidate and contributing to winning basketball. If you'd watched every Spurs game this season (something clearly beneath the "experts") you'd have known it too because Pop has been showing his cards all year. Simmons, Kyle Anderson, Dejounte Murray, Davis Bertans, even Bryn Forbes. They're all ready to step into any situation and contribute to winning basketball because Pop has given them the opportunities to develop. There is no misdirection or sleight of hand involved in what Pop has done here. It's been obvious to any and everyone who's watched the 2016-17 Spurs religiously and why Thursday's 39 point demolition of the Rockets was a pleasant surprise but not a shock to diehard Spurs fans.
Now the "experts" are giving us next to no chance to beat our Western Conference Finals opponent, the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors are an amazingly-talented team and present a monumental challenge for us in the next round. I intend to devote a great deal of time talking about them over the next two weeks, but they are irrelevant to what I want to say today. The Spurs have faced tremendous adversity so far this postseason and we have persevered. Over the past month, every time that Coach Pop and the #BlackAndSilver have been met with a challenge, we have answered the bell. Finding ways to tap into the character-building desire it takes to still be standing when facing this degree of adversity makes us a serious threat to win this year's title no matter who our competition is and no matter what the "experts" think. In the last game, Vegas had us as 8.5 point dogs and the "experts" said it was an impossible game for us to win. We won by 39. For Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals this afternoon at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Vegas has us as 10.5 point underdogs and the "experts" are giving us no chance to win the series. I guess we have the "experts" right where we want them. They'll keep prognosticating against us and we'll keep proving them wrong. In San Antonio...the more things change, the more they stay the same. Bring on the next challenge and the latest tsunami of doubters. We'll just keep pounding the rock, until the end of time.
Video Source: ESPN on YouTube
Featured Image Source: Genius
Siete Triunfos
2017 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 5
City of the Year - That was freaking insane. (No, I'm not talking about President Trump firing F.B.I. Director James Comey on Tuesday. While that was the desperate attempt of an unstable leader to cover up the high crimes and misdemeanors that could prove his illegitimacy and was unquestionably insane, luckily for the former reality show star who currently occupies the White House, this is a basketball blog series so, for our purposes, a reference to 45 most likely refers to Michael Jordan's post-retirment bad luck jersey number.) Of course, the insanity that I'm referring to is the madness that took place at the AT&T Center down in San Antonio on Tuesday evening or what will henceforth always be known simply as Game 5. Where to begin? I guess the obvious. Reaching deep down for my inner-Charles Barkley, "GINBOILI!" 36 hours later, I can't get enough. I've been replaying the block over and over again in my mind. The basketball IQ required to be able to anticipate from behind the play (after getting beat) the exact place where James Harden is going to shoot the ball, jump before he goes into the shot, and meet him in the air at the perfect time to block it clean as a whistle is through the stratosphere. No other basketball player that I've seen it my life could/can tap into the combination of intangibles it takes to make that play. None. What a special, special player. (Hey Brian, I know you were smiling down on your favorite player for that one.) I mean, come on. Not only the anticipation, but the utter fearlessness to even go for it. Keep in mind, with Manu, these types of things don't always work out. More than any other player in the history of the NBA, his game exemplifies the saying, "live by the sword, die by the sword." Remember, Manu cost us a series (and probably a title) when he fouled Dirk Nowitzki going for an irrational block. That foul allowed the Dallas Mavericks to tie Game 7 of the 2006 Western Conference Semifinals and send the game into overtime (where they outlasted us en route to the NBA Finals). Manu's block attempt on Tuesday night carried with it the same inherent risk. If he had come up with arm on that attempt, James Harden would have been at the line shooting three free throws and would have likely sent the game into double overtime. But alas, the combination of Manu's unequaled anticipation and fearlessness paid off on Tuesday and this time, the #BlackAndSilver lived by the sword. We lived by the sword in a big way...
Oh, by the way...reminiscent of Game 5 of the 2014 NBA Finals, Manu also had a huge dunk in the second quarter of this game to help the San Antonio Spurs hang on in overtime to defeat the Houston Rockets 110-107 in Tuesday's pivotal Game 5 and take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference Semifinals. While Manu's Game 5 heroics were deservedly headline grabbing, the player of the game was Danny Green. With Kawhi Leonard sidelined with knee and ankle injuries, Danny single-handedly outscored the Rockets in overtime 7-6 hitting the two biggest shots of the series so far, a deep clutch three and a driving layup plus the foul (both times after the Rockets had threes of their own to take the lead). Danny finished the game with 16 points (4-8 behind the arc), five rebounds, three assists, and one legendary playoff performance now added to be counted among the upper-echelon of legendary Spurs playoff performances. I'll be honest, with Kawhi sidelined and LaMarcus Aldridge once again out of sorts, things weren't looking good three minutes into the overtime period. The Spurs were scoreless and seemed dead in the water after Patrick Beverley dropped a three pointer to give the Rockets the lead. Luckily, Jonathan Simmons got himself the free throw line with 1:28 left to close the gap to one point and that was enough "juice" to give the Spurs a spark so that Danny Green cold take over and bring us home. I could spend several hours writing a detailed recap of this game but unfortunately there simply isn't any time. Due to work and travel commitments, I've had precious little time over the past 36 hours to get anything down on paper and have instead been relegated simply to basking in the glory of this historic win by replaying Manu's block and Danny's clutch shots in my mind. As of the completion of this post, it is still unknown whether Coach Pop will allow Kawhi to play tonight. If it's meant to be and Kawhi takes to court at the Toyota Center in Houston, I have full confidence that he will continue accepting the passing of the torch from Tim Duncan that we talked about in Tres Triunfos by channeling TD circa 2003 with another franchise cornerstone performance to close out another hard-fought playoff series on the road in six. If, for some reason, it's not meant to be and Kawhi can't go...well, his teammates proved in overtime on Tuesday that we can still get this thing done as a team. It's easy to say "next man up" but in order to execute it to the degree that the Spurs have so far in this series, losing Tony Parker and now possibly Kawhi, it takes something more than words. It takes something that doesn't come simply from the players, or the coaches, or the franchise. It takes something that comes from the entire city. The type of thing that allows a city to keep believing even when your two best players are sidelined with injury and you've gone three and a half minutes into an overtime period without scoring a single point. You know, a certain little something that earns said community the title, City of the Year. In order to have overcome all of the adversity we've faced during this playoff series and put ourselves in a position to close out our in-state rival tonight, it has taken all of us believing whole-heartedly in what we can accomplish together. Tonight, the city of San Antonio's greatest weapon to accomplish the goal of closing out the Rockets is our faith.
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Cuatro Derrotas
2017 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 4
All We Got - Condolences to Patrick Beverley and his family. The Rockets shooting guard found out about the passing of his grandfather an hour before the tip of Game 4. He proceeded to hit the first shot of the game, a three from the elbow, and set the tone for the entire night. In a game that was eerily similar to Game 1 in San Antonio, the Houston Rockets defeated the Spurs 125-104 in Game 4 at the Toyota Center last night and tied the Western Conference Finals at two games apiece. First, the good. The player of the game was Jonathon Simmons whose performance was the only bright spot in an otherwise abysmal showing. The Juice had 17 points (6-12 shooting), four rebounds, and two steals last night in 23 minutes. He was also the only Spur to play more than 20 minutes and also have a positive plus/minus rating (+2). The Rockets are a good matchup for Simmons and (in the absence of Tony Parker) he should be entrusted with more minutes this week as we try to closeout out this toughly contested series. Now the bad. The Spurs committed 14 turnovers, missed nine free throws (9-18 overall), and gave up 19 three pointers to the Rockets (44.2 percent on 43 attempts). All of these shortcomings are unacceptable for any team interested in winning an NBA playoff game on the road. Of particular concern to Gregg Popovich was our transition defense. In fact, in his postgame press conference, Coach Pop observed, "If you had seen clips of our transition D, you would have traded all the players and fired me by the end of the game. It was that bad." I think Pop has earned a little more job security than that but, at the same time, there's no sugar coating this one: it was a very disappointing performance. Back in the same situation as last year's Semifinal series in Game 4, the Spurs once again failed to find the killer instinct to be greedy, step on the Rockets' collective throats, and put a stranglehold on the series. We must now regroup because, luckily, we still have another game available to us to use as an opportunity to correct the mistakes of last year's series against Oklahoma City. Redemption for last year's collapse can still be ours if we come ready to protect home court on Tuesday night in a now must-win Game 5 (something we failed to do last year). The war for Texas has now become a best-of-three series but, with home court advantage and championship pedigree, I still love our chances to cash in. Tomorrow night, the game is Texas Roulette and as the saying goes, always bet on #BlackAndSilver because when we get knocked down in the city of San Antonio...we're always there to pick each other right back up.
“We view ourselves on the eve of battle. We are nerved for the contest, and must conquer or perish. It is vain to look for present aid: none is at hand. We must now act or abandon all hope!” - Sam Houston
City of the Year
War for Texas tied.
Keep the faith. Where are we from?
City of the year.
Written May 2017 in San Antonio, Texas (at heart) by Ted James
City of the year, city of the year
That's where I'm from
City of the year, city of the year
They don't want none
City of the year, city of the year
H-Town can't come
Go hard or go home
I'm turnt up in the #GoSpursGo zone
City of the year
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Seis Triunfos
2017 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 3
Guess Who's Back - Face it y'all, y'all Rockets playing basic-ball. We're on the block like we're eight feet tall. [Friday Afternoon] Yeah, I did it. Guilty as charged, Your Honor. There's no denying it. Yes, I used a Scarface song against the city of Houston for the Game 3 theme of my San Antonio Spurs blog series. I'm not even sorry about it. Judge, I refer you back to Exhibit D. This powerful piece of evidence shows Houston Rockets fans' obnoxious, contemptible and clearly premature outpouring of vile overconfidence on social media. While I will certainly apologize directly to Houston's greatest all-time rapper for my actions, I think (after a careful examination of the facts) it's plain to see that Rockets fans did this to themselves. The defense rests to await your Game 3 verdict. [Saturday Afternoon] Last night in the Court of Karma, I was found "Not Guilty by Reason of Self-Defense" for using a local treasure against his own city when the San Antonio Spurs went into the Toyota Center in Houston, TX and defeated the Rockets 103-92 to take a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference Semifinals. Home court advantage...regained. In another Only Coach in the League with the Stones to Do It move, Gregg Popovich started rookie point guard Dejounte Murray to replace the injured Tony Parker in the Spurs starting lineup. It's been nine days shy of fifteen years since the Spurs last started a rookie at point guard in a playoff game. On May 14th, 2002, (you guessed it) Tony Parker made the tenth playoff start of his rookie season in Game 5 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers won that game 93-87 to eliminate the Spurs (Tony had 14 points and six assists in the losing effort). Last night, Tony's heir apparent didn't do much on the stat sheet (two points and one steal in 14 minutes) but gained some valuable experience that will be important for him and the team moving forward. Interestingly, despite his lack of production, Dejounte had the highest plus/minus on the team (+11) in his 14 minutes of action last night. This is especially surprising considering he had two lackadaisical turnovers bringing the ball up the court (Patrick Beverly straight ripped the ball from him both times). Fortunately, the Rockets only scored three points off of those two turnovers (and zero directly off of the steals) but mistakes like these often make the difference between winning and losing a close playoff game and for that reason are inexcusable. As long as Dejounte can learn from it and concentrate on protecting the ball moving forward, I trust that he is capable of continuing in the new role of San Antonio Spurs staring point guard for the rest of the 2017 NBA playoffs. After all, Pop clearly trusts him enough to make such a high stakes bold move and I learned a long time ago to live by the phrase, "In Pop We Trust." Tony Parker's NBA record of 221 consecutive playoff games played may have ended last night but one thing is clear; the San Antonio Spurs 2017 title hopes didn't end with it. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Dejounte Murray-era.
One of the keys to last night's victory was our ability to carry over the suffocating Back to Black championship-caliber defense that we played in Game 2. The Spurs held the Rockets to 36.4 percent shooting (32-88) and 30.8 percent behind the three point line (12-39) in Game 3. As a result, for the first time since Mike D'Antoni took over as head coach, the Houston Rockets were held under 100 points in consecutive games. Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green put on a "how to" clinic in perimeter defense by repeatedly disrupting Houston's planned attacked and forcing them into uncharacteristic midrange shots off of the second and third option. One of the noticeable takeaways from Pop's brilliant defensive game plan was the way that Kawhi and Danny intentionally guarded James Harden with their hands already up during the pick-and-roll (before Harden made his move) in order to minimize the risk of The Bearded One tricking the referees into calling garbage fouls on three point attempts. The tactic paid off as Harden took several ill-advised threes and became increasingly frustrated that the officials were requiring him to play basketball rather than continue his Hollywood acting career. Word of advice to the likely 2017 NBA MVP, you can't fool the referees into continuing to greenlight your acting projects now that Coach Pop, Danny, and Kawhi have backed out of helping to produce them. Stop treating these playoffs as your personal casting room to audition for the role of Keyser Söze in a remake of The Usual Suspects and use your abundant talent to play the game instead.
Moving on, the tandem of LaMarcus Aldridge and Pau Gasol were equally impressive to their wing counterparts on the defensive side of the ball. The pair combined for 16 rebounds and six blocked shots (while also disrupting Houston into missing many more of their attempts in the paint). In fact, because their stellar interior defense was backed up on the other end of the court with brilliant post play, Pau and LaMarcus are my two leading candidates for player of the game. Pau takes the runner up spot with 12 points (on 4-8 shooting) and four assists (on some sick interior passing to L.A. and David Lee) to go along with his nine rebounds and two blocks. Had his second-half offensive production kept pace with what he gave us in the first half, Pau might have grabbed his first ever player of the game honor as a member of the Spurs but that will have to wait for now because LaMarcus Aldridge was brilliant for his entire 38 minutes of work last night. As an unwavering defender of the value that this five-time all-star brings to our team (through good times and bad), it brings me great pleasure to declare in no uncertain terms, guess who's back. LaMarcus Aldridge had his best game of the 2017 playoffs, racking up 26 points (12-20 from the field) and two assists to go with his seven rebounds and four blocked shots. Guess who's back, indeed. Having just absorbed the devastating blow of losing Tony Parker, it could have not come at a better time. LaMarcus said after the game, "I know without TP, I have to be even better so I was trying to make things happen tonight." Job well done, LaMarcus. If you can continue to be a dominant second-option for the remainder of these playoffs, not only will the Spurs title hopes not have ended with Tony's injury, they may vary well begin growing exponentially. Of course, that remains a very big "if" after only the first game of seeing Aldridge return to all-star form. Consistency is the key. If LaMarcus can back it up with another dominant performance tomorrow night, we will have an excellent chance at doing what Houston failed to do in San Antonio: ward off complacency and greedily steal both road games. A 3-1 lead heading home has got to be our mindset for tomorrow night because this series is far from over. The Houston Rockets remain an extremely dangerous opponent. If we allow complacency to set in and fail to bring the same defensive intensity we had in Games 2 & 3, Houston will even this rivalry series and throw the pressure squarely back on us for Game 5. In last year's Western Conference Semifinals against the Oklahoma City Thunder we were in the exact same situation after three games. With a chance to go up 3-1 and snuff out the Durant-Westbrook tandem once and for all, we failed to bring the necessary focus and instead lost a tough road game in Game 4. It didn't seem like the end of the world at the time because we still had home court advantage in the series but after losing another brutally close game back at the AT&T Center in Game 5, our season (and Tim Duncan's career) were over in a Game 6 catastrophe in Oklahoma City before you could blink. We have to learn from last year's experience and play Game 4 tomorrow night in Houston like it's an elimination game. Tomorrow night, the #BlackAndSilver have to march right back into the Toyota Center with the mindset of breaking the Rockets' collective spirit. The San Antonio Spurs have never defeated the Houston Rockets in a playoff series (0-3 all-time). Considering that they are our in-state rival and we pride ourselves on being the NBA's best franchise, I think it's high time we start correcting that small blemish on our impressive resume. Indeed, we have history that needs rewriting and that can start by going on the road again tomorrow, playing Spurs basketball and giving the Rockets all we got.
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Cinco Triunfos
2017 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 2
Rocket Man - And I think it's going to be a long, long time till touchdown brings me around again to find I'm not the man they think I am at home. I mean, come on. This is insanity. Kahwi Leonard just obliterated James Harden and in so doing...the way the "experts" framed this year's NBA MVP race. You need to take your "best two-way player in the game but..." ball and go home. Kawhi is the best player in the game, no qualifiers needed. Not only is he the current best player in basketball, he's playing at an historic level. How often have you seen a player guard the best offensive weapon in basketball for an entire playoff game, hold said best offensive weapon in basketball to 13 points (3-17 shooting from the field and 0-5 from the field with two turnovers while checking him as the primary defender) while getting seven rebounds, three steals and a block, and then on the other end of the floor score 34 points (13-16 from the field, 3-4 from range, 5-5 from the line) and dish out eight assists? The answer is not very often at all. I can only think of four other wing players in the history of the game that were/are capable of having a playoff game that ridiculous. Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James. That's the list. For what it's worth, the last time a player had at least 30 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds while shooting at least 80 percent from the the field in a playoff game was Michael Jordan in Game 2 of the 1991 NBA Finals. Considering that MJ is the GOAT, this tidbit isn't surprising but gives historical context to make Kawhi's game last night all the more impressive. To be clear, I'm not really sure that Larry, Kobe, or LeBron have ever had a playoff game as dominant on both sides of the ball as Leonard did last night, that's just the list of players who had/have the ability to potentially be that dominant on both ends of the court. All of this is to say that Kawhi Leonard has elevated himself into rarified air. Because we have the best player in basketball and because we got back to playing loose, unselfish, joyful team basketball, the San Antonio Spurs returned the favor and blew out the Houston Rockets 121-96 last night at the AT&T Center to knot our Western Conference Semifinal series at 1-1. Kawhi was prodigious, marvelous, superhuman but all things considered, the player of the game is Tony Parker. Tony had 18 points (8-13 from the field, 2-2 from range) and four assists. Unfortunately, it's no secret why I chose Tony for player of the game on a night that Kawhi Leonard put together one of the greatest two-way performances in NBA history. The longest-tenured Spur and the four-time NBA champion deserves the honor because his 2016-17 season is suddenly over.
* * *
Man. This really, really, really sucks. I can't remember ever feeling like this the day after a Spurs playoff win. Sure, there was the time - prior to the 2000 playoffs - the Spurs announced that Tim Duncan was unavailable for the first round with a torn lateral meniscus in his left knee. That sucked. It robbed us of a legitimate chance to defend our first title and allowed a talented Shaq-Kobe Lakers team an easier path to reach the NBA Finals and learn how to become champions themselves (without Duncan, the Spurs lost 3-1 to the fifth-seeded Phoenix Suns in the first round as the four-seed). There was also the time - prior to the 2009 playoffs - the team announced that Manu Ginobili was out for the playoffs with a fracture in his right distal fibula. This also sucked and, once again, an easier path was cleared for a Kobe Bryant-led Lakers team to get back to the NBA Finals and win another title (without Manu, the Spurs lost 4-1 to the sixth-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round as a four-seed). But, as unfortunate and costly as both of those injuries were, at least they happened prior to the playoffs where we had time to process them and reassess our expectations. I don't ever remember the Spurs losing a superstar player to injury in the middle of a deep playoff run much less on the night of an exhilarating rivalry win. I don't remember, because it hasn't happened (at least not since I started watching religiously in 1989-90, David Robinson's rookie season). Perhaps because for three decades straight we'd been blessed with the good fortune to not lose a superstar player mid-playoffs, I started off this process in denial. Last night, after the game, even though it looked bad...I was still hoping for the best. I kept telling myself, Kevin Durant's injury this season was originally feared to be worse than it ended up being. Also, just the other day - in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals series between the Boston and Washington - Wizards forward Markieff Morris went down with what was thought to be a devastating ankle sprain only to return in Game 2 and have his best game of these playoffs. Or did he? I won't lie, I went to bed mildly optimistic that we might be able to get our future Hall of Fame point guard back at some point in this series or at least at some point in this playoff run. Sadly, this morning around 10:00 am (MDT), I was reminded that The Nile is a river in Egypt. In other words, my worst fears were confirmed when the Spurs released the following statement...
I never even consider that this could happen to Tony. In his exemplary 16-year NBA career, TP has never missed a playoff game. Lamentably, tomorrow night will be the first one ever. The last time the San Antonio Spurs played a playoff game without Tony Parker was on May 2nd, 2000 (more than 17 years ago) in the aforementioned series against Phoenix that Tim Duncan missed due to injury. Since then, Tony Parker has played in 221 playoff games (most among active players, fifth-most all-time). He is ninth all-time in playoff points and fifth all-time in playoff assists. He joins long-time playoff rival LeBron James as the only two players in NBA history with more than 4,000 playoff points and 1,000 playoff assists. TP also holds the NBA record for most playoff games won by teammates with two of his. (I'm sure you can guess which two.) Tony Parker and Tim Duncan had the NBA record for most playoff wins by teammates with 131 wins. That is until, in some sort of ironic Big Three stroke of poetic symmetry, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili tied that record with last night's win. Man. This really, really, really sucks. I feel awful. I'm not sure if I felt worse on Tuesday after getting blown out at home by 27 points or today after returning the favor and blowing out the Rockets by 25. I think I feel worse today. I don't know what else to say about it except get well soon, Tony. May the fourth be with you.
There's no question this is a devastating blow to our title hopes but if there is any team that is equipped to carry the "next man up" mantra all the way into June it's a Gregg Popovich coached team. I still feel very confident that we can win this series with our in-state rival and even re-steal our home court advantage back tomorrow night. The Olajuwon-esque dismantling of the likely NBA MVP that Kawhi Leonard put together against James Harden last night cannot be understated. It was the type of undressing that can get in the receiver's head and ruin him psychologically for the rest of a series. I'm not predicting this will trigger a psychological meltdown from The Bearded One, but it's not outside the realm of possibility. Playoff series are about imposing will more than anything else. Last night, Kawhi reached a level of dominance that very few players reach. The type of dominance to conduct the game like classical music, orchestrating the movements of a superstar opponent in order to reduce that opponent into an operatic prop. Being that dominant is psychological warfare. Once it's in the opponent's head that you have that type of control over the game, their talent becomes meaningless. Of course, barring The Klaw already having a firm grip on James Harden's soul, we still have every reason to fear Houston that we did two days ago (plus the added one of losing a former NBA Finals MVP for the rest of the series). The Rockets are extremely dangerous and I have no doubt that they have the ability to bounce right back tomorrow night. That being said, with Kawhi looking more and more like Michael Jordan with every single passing game, I still like our chances to take care of the Rockets and I still believe we have a puncher's chance to win the title. By the way, Tony's injury may hurt my heart but it doesn't hurt my memory. Don't get it twisted. I can still remember two nights ago when Rockets fans were convinced they had already left the #BlackAndSilver for dead on the side of the road. You remember, right, H-Town? You were riding that bandwagon hard in order to try to keep pace with the hype because you thought your team was barreling down the highway in the Ferrari that is Mike D'Antoni's offensive system in search of the outer limits of seven seconds or less basketball nirvana. Two days ago, you were thinking...next stop, Western Conference Finals. I know you remember. Well, as painful of a night as last night was for the city of San Antonio, it was also a reminder to the city of Houston to stay in your lane.We have Kawhi Leonard and you don't. Guess who's back.
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Tres Derrotas
2017 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 1
Welcome to the Jungle - One of the great equalizers in military conflict is the element of surprise. Guerrilla tactics can often catch a superior army off guard to win a battle, especially in terrain as hostile as the jungle. Once the inferior army has successfully stunned the opponent through its initial guerrilla attack, it can use jungle terrain to its advantage to stay two steps ahead until the battle is won. Last night, the San Antonio Spurs foolishly attempted to provide a neighboring rival with a gentlemanly welcome to the jungle (playoff basketball at the AT&T Center) only to find out a few minutes too late that Houston was already in the building lurking in the shadows readying to welcome us to jungle warfare. Indeed, the Rockets made their three hour commute over to San Antonio on Interstate 10 and proceeded to punch us in the mouth in Game 1, destroying the Spurs 126-99 to instantly snatch home court advantage away from us in this suddenly desperate Western Conference Semifinals series. No sour grapes here. Give them credit. Considering that they slapped us with our largest halftime deficit in playoff history (30 points), the Rockets earned their first playoff victory in San Antonio during the Popovich-era. From the opening tip, we simply weren't ready for the speed of Houston after having just played the plodding Memphis Grizzlies for six straight games. By the time we adjusted to their speed, it was too late. The good news is that we've seen it now and there is no excuse for our defense not to be ready for it the rest of the series. While quite effective as a sneak attack, Houston's guerrilla tactics alone won't win the war. There will be a counter attack and eventually this, like every playoff series, will settle into being a test of each team's defensive armament. As for the use of guerrilla tactics in Game 1, the Rockets went 22-50 from the three point line. That's not a typo. These fools shot 50 threes. Amazing. I hope they shoot 50 more in Game 2. If Daryl Morey and Mike D'Antoni think they're going to knock the San Antonio Spurs out of the playoffs by shooting 50 threes a game, God bless them. I'm happy to take our chances with that. Please keep it up, Houston.
Having lived through dozens of best-of-seven series in these past 20 years, nobody knows better than Spurs fans that a playoff series is a marathon. Sure, you can overpower your opponent with hot three point shooting for one night. It is highly unlikely, however, that you will successfully overpower your opponent by expecting to rely on hot three point shooting for two weeks. By the beginning of the fourth quarter last night and with the outcome already determined, I was rooting for the Rockets to make threes. I'm a firm believer that each team only has a finite amount of "made threes" in its stockpile for a series. That being the case, I believe it’s not only bad form but also an injudicious squandering of resources to continue draining them during a game that's already in hand in an effort to pile on. Last night, the Houston Rockets went 7-13 from deep in the fourth quarter while leading by somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty points for most of the frame. We've seen this type of shortsightedness from this very same coach's teams in past playoff battles. Mike D'Antonio just can't seem to help himself. Two weeks is a long period of time and karma has a funny way of catching up. So thanks for wasting a bunch of "made threes" from your series stockpile in a meaningless quarter, Houston. Chances are that there will be a close game later in this series where Houston's shooters will tighten up and the Rockets are going to wish they had a few of the seven "made threes" (that they wasted in the fourth quarter of Game 1) back when they're watching a potential series-altering crucial one rim out at the most critical of moments.
While our good, dear friends over in the Rockets' fanbase were all over social media last night celebrating like Houston just won their third NBA championship, I'm not ready to panic yet. I still expect this to be a long series favoring the Spurs. My unflappable confidence aside, I'm sure the Rockets in 6 crowd is feeling quite emboldened today. Somewhere on ESPN television right now there's an "expert" writing the Spurs' obituary, then waxing poetic about the brilliance of James Harden and the Rockets' offense, and finally wrapping up the segment by prognosticating about Houston's chances to upset the Warriors. And the city of Houston is lapping it up by a spoon. It doesn't matter to Rockets fans that, at a company as loyal as ESPN, this very same "expert" has about as much job security as Sean Spicer and will likely be laid off before Game 2, I guarantee that they are eating up as much "Rockets have broken the Spurs" analyses as they can find, soaking it in as if it's being preached directly out of the Holy Bible. Everything must feel like unicorns and lollipops in H-Town today. Having often been on their side of Game 1 blowouts in series that we've eventually lost, I can't help but think about how much more it's going to hurt in the end, having experienced this type of exhilarating victory (and the false sense of security that comes along with it), if the Spurs comeback and eventually win the series (which I still fully expect). Sorry, Rockets fans. After the obnoxious display you put forward on social media last night, you won't get any pity from me if and when the #BlackAndSilver close you out.
Now, a little housekeeping. The player of the game was Kawhi Leonard. Honestly, I would have given it to anyone else, especially a role player, if anyone had done anything even remotely noteworthy. Sadly, Kawhi got absolutely no help in last night's contest and therefore his 21 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists in 32 minutes gets the recognition by default. This cannot continue. Kawhi needs help. Particularly from LaMarcus Aldridge. While I still believe that the Spurs are the better team and should still be favored to win the series, let me be crystal clear. The Rockets are dangerous and capable of going straight through us en route to the Western Conference Finals. If, for some reason, LaMarcus Aldridge's confidence is shot and he continues to play like he did last night (a shell of himself) for this entire series...Houston will win it easily. Let's hope that's not the case. Hopefully for LA, Tony, Manu, Danny, Pau, (and on down the line)...our supporting players just needed a wake up call that the competition just got a great deal stiffer. Houston was desperate for our attention and last night they got it. If, somehow, we didn't receive the message...we're going to be toast by the end of the week. That being said, tomorrow night presents an interesting test for the Spurs. We used to be a player in our locker room that provided a calming presence to help us regroup after a tough playoff loss. You know, a certain someone to lean on through adversity. That player is now retired and ladies and gentlemen...Matt Bonner is not walking through that door again. (Fooled you, of course I meant Tim Duncan.)
All kidding aside, last night's demoralizing defeat presents a great opportunity for Kawhi to start learning how to fill the void left by Timmy in the locker room the same way he's filling the void on the court. Also, speaking of Matt Bonner, we could use a little Red Rocket mojo from our supporting cast tomorrow in Game 2. While Kawhi Leonard's game is still ascending (into the stratosphere) as he continues his "best player in the world" journey, if last night has told us anything...it's that he can't beat Houston alone. For the first time since Hakeem Olajuwon, Houston has an MVP-caliber player surrounded by a supporting cast built to win. James Harden may very well be the most talented offensive weapon left in these playoffs. Sure, we know he can be more than offset by Kawhi Leonard's two-way brilliance but our new franchise cornerstone is probably thinking, "I got this but only with a little help from my friends." Superior contributions from Players Two through Thirteen is what the Spurs are going to have to get in order to take control back in this series. Houston has vastly improved their talent-base and I respect the hell out of the beatdown they laid on us last night but the fact remains that we are the deeper and better team. Tomorrow night, we just have to focus on going out and playing loose, unselfish, joyful team basketball; you know...the Spurs way. If we do that, I have every confidence that we'll start to get back on track. Houston used guerrilla tactics to catch us off guard and win the first battle. They have our attention and we're here now. Through playing for each other and as a team, we can still win the war...with the added bonus of getting to witness The Klaw outshine a Rocket Man.
Cuatro Triunfos
2017 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 6
Victory - We've been hot for a long time burning like a candle. Much like Newton's Laws of Motion, one would assume it safe scientific theory to postulate that if two basketball teams were to repeatedly play each other over and over again, it's a statistical inevitability that eventually one of the two teams will win a game on the road. In the 2016-17 NBA season, the Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs made an impressive run at turning any such theory on its head. Prior to Game 6 of our Western Conference Quarterfinal matchup, the two teams had faced each other nine times this season and in all nine contests, the home team had come away victorious. Heading into Thursday's game, it was beginning to look like statistical probability (and by extension science itself) was being rejected by these results. This was of grave concern. Not only because our series with Memphis was not playing out as we (as Spurs fans) had expected but also because in Trump's America, the last thing we (as intelligent lifeforms) need is to give the anti-intellectual crowd anything else to hang their science-rebuking hats on. On Thursday night, the San Antonio Spurs finally got around to celebrating Earth Day by doing something that we had fought valiantly but ultimately failed to do last Saturday in Game 4. Six nights after failing in overtime at a stellar defense of science on the actual holiday, we went back into Memphis on Thursday and belatedly participated in the March For Science by finally proving our scientific theory of statistical inevitability by way of winning a basketball game on the road. For the first time in one year and four days, and when it mattered most, the Spurs won a game in the FedExForum and, consequentially, are heading back the Western Conference Semifinals for the second consecutive year. Hurray, science! Our season series with Memphis was like one of those fantastic rallies in a tennis match in which both players want the point so desperately that a once athletic exhibition devolves into the equivalent of a staring contest; merely an exercise in who's will power can hold out the longest. For one nerve-racking, mentally-draining Thursday evening at the Grind House in Memphis, the city of San Antonio held on to our will power long enough to eventually heave at a seemingly out of reach passing shot and get enough racket on it loft it up in the air and back across the court with the minimal necessary velocity to have it ricochet off of the top of the net and favorably drop on the other side. Credit to Memphis. They were not an opponent intent on being broken. It took every single last available neuron of mental energy for the Spurs to somehow outlast a poised, rugged Grizzlies bunch 103-96 in Game 6 and eliminate our division rival from the 2017 NBA playoffs by finally winning on the road. Congratulations are in order to the Memphis Grizzlies and their bombastic rookie coach David Fizdale on an excellent season. With Mike Conley proving once and for all this season that he's one of the best players in the NBA, the future looks bright on Beale Street.
Newton's First Law
Every object persists in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it. With 6:28 to play in the fourth quarter of Thursday night's Game 6 against the San Antonio Spurs, the Memphis Grizzlies were trucking along in a state of uniform motion. Up seven points at 88-81, they were moving steadily towards forcing a Game 7 back in San Antonio on Saturday. Unfortunately for the Grizzlies and their fans, a force was impressed upon them that compelled them to change that state of motion. What exactly was this force that was impressed upon the city of Memphis? Kawhi Freaking Leonard. In Tres Triunfos, we talked about how (at six years in, roughly the same point as Tim Duncan in 2003) Kawhi, as the new franchise cornerstone, needed to start doing Tim Duncan-like things such as closing out hard-fought tough playoff series on the road. In Game 6 on Thursday night, The Klaw did exactly that. Down seven, 88-81, in the Grind House (about as hostile an environment as exists) with 6:28 to play and the Grizzlies playing for their playoff lives, Whi not take the game over? Leonard impressed his will in Memphis with such blunt force, the aftershocks are still resonating on Beale street four days later. After the Spurs had fallen behind by seven (and with Memphis building momentum in uniform motion), Kawhi countered with eight points, two rebounds, two assists, and a crucial steal down the stretch to lead the charge in closing out the Grizzlies. It was another masterful MVP performance by the Spurs' new franchise cornerstone that seemed eerily similar to the types of performances in closeout games that we routinely saw for years from the old one. Leonard finished his Game 6 chef d'oeuvre with 29 points (8-19 from the field and 12-13 from the line), nine rebounds, four assists, and three steals. The question now, heading into the Western Conference Semifinals, is, "Does a force exist in the NBA that can be impressed upon Kawhi to compel a slowdown of his uniform motion assent to 'best player in the world' status?" Based on the evidence that's been provided so far by the 2017 NBA playoffs, I wouldn't bet on it.
Newton's Second Law
Force is equal to the change in momentum per change in time. For a constant mass, force equals mass times acceleration. Heading into this year's playoffs, many of the "experts" predicted that 34 year old Tony Parker was washed up and that the oldest starting point guard in the Western Conference would be a limiting force on the Spurs' chances of making a deep postseason run. The assumption was that time and a depreciation of momentum during the regular season would prevent the 16 year veteran from being a force in these playoffs. Once again on Thursday night, the timeless Parker showed why opponents and "experts" alike who underestimate a four-time NBA champion simply because of his age, do so at their own peril. TP went off for 27 points (11-14 from the field, 1-2 from deep, 4-4 from the line), four assists, and two of the most cold blooded dagger jumpers you'd ever want to see en route to player of the game honors. Has time changed Tony's momentum? Of course but the reason he's still able to be a force when it matters most is that Coach Pop and the San Antonio Spurs understand the science of aging better than any other team in the NBA. The thing the "experts" couldn't understand when they made their naive predictions that Tony would be a liability for the #BlackAndSilver in these playoffs is that Tony's mental mastery of the game of basketball is a constant and Coach Pop knew exactly how to pace him physically during the regular season so that he could accelerate in these playoffs and return to being the force we're accustomed to him being as a playoff performer. In case the "experts" need reminding, Tony Parker is the active leader in playoff games played and 6th all-time at 219 games and counting. This man, better than anyone else in these playoffs, knows how to be a force on a title contender. Either that or in his free time, TP must moonlight as an airpot express shuttle driver based on the way he showed up at the Grizzlies door step and rushed them off to vacation with this shot...
Newton's Third Law
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So now it's on to battle the Rockets and guess what, Houston...you have a problem. Longtime Spurs fans have not forgotten. And rest assured we're still thirsty for revenge. That's right, we've been waiting patiently for 22 years to get a shot at redemption for the 1995 Western Conference Finals. Don't think for a second that this Spurs lifer has forgotten what it felt like to be a heart-broken 16 year old San Antonio fan after losing that series. To say I'm looking forward to a rematch that's been over two decades in the making would be an understatement. It is actually quite remarkable that the Rockets never played the Spurs in the playoffs once during the 19 year Tim Duncan-era. Of course, the Spurs won 35 playoff series during that span compared to the Rockets only winning three. Really, Houston? Only three measly playoff series won in 19 years? Suffice it to say, the Rockets didn't exactly hold up their end of the bargain in giving us the opportunity for a rematch during Timmy's career. It's a shame, too, because after unleashing Hakeem Olajuwon - the greatest player in Rockets' franchise history - on us in the 1995 series, the polite thing to do would have been to allow us the opportunity to return the favor by giving Tim Duncan - our greatest player in franchise history - at least one crack at them. But, unfortunately, like an overmatched boxer who landed one lucky knockout punch to grab the title from an historic heavy weight, Houston was no where to be found to grant the rematch during the entirety of Timmy's legendary career. For those who can remember, the storyline coming out of the 1995 Western Conference Finals, after Houston defeated San Antonio 4-2, was that Houston's Olajuwon had outplayed that year's league MVP (and Duncan's future teammate) David Robinson. In fact, the most iconic example of Hakeem's Dream Shake and probably the most replayed move of his career came against Robinson in that series. Houston may have been able to successfully duck and hide from Tim Duncan for 19 years but (as we learned earlier in this post) the science of statistical inevitability suggests that eventually the Rockets were going to have to allow the Spurs an opportunity to respond to the humiliating and humbling defeat handed to us by Dream and Clutch City in 1995. That opportunity finally begins tonight. The science that should have Rockets fans most fearful at the moment, however, is Newton's Third Law of Motion. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The stage is set for this series to play out as an equal and opposite reaction to the 1995 series. It is safe to assume that Rockets point guard James Harden is the frontrunner to win the 2017 NBA MVP. However, not only is Kawhi Leonard a better basketball player than Harden...I have no shortage of confidence that Leonard will prove it by outplaying Harden en route to defeating the Rockets in this series. So in essence, Kawhi outplaying and eliminating this year's likely MVP could prove be the Spurs equal and opposite reaction to Hakeem outplaying and eliminating Robinson during the Admiral's MVP season. Being a lifelong defender and practitioner of science, I'm just going where the evidence leads me. Of course, the "experts" have different designs on this series. The trendy "expert" prediction that's been popping up left and right on the internet these past few days is Rockets in 6. Unfortunately, while handsomely paid, these "experts" in the mainstream media never seem to learn their lesson when it comes to predicting a matchup between a Gregg Popovich coached Spurs team and a high octane offense / mediocre defense Mike D'Antoni coached team. Three times this has happened in the past and all three times the "experts" in the mainstream media were backtracking faster than Amar'e Stoudemire and our good friend Boris Diaw after a Robert Horry hip check. Coach Pop is a master at devising a game plan to disrupt the head of the snake in a D'Antoni offense during a playoff series. He did it three times to two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash and I expect nothing but the same for likely first-time MVP James Harden. So go ahead and make your Rockets in 6 predictions, "experts." I'll just continue laughing them off. In the end, science always wins the day even if it means you have to come to grips with the unfortunate reality that a part-time blogger (with an unrelated full-time career) may be able to do your job (on the side) as well or better than you do. My songs bump in Houston like Scarface produced 'em. You ain't gotta like me, you just mad cause I tell it how it is and you tell it how it might be. As for the Houston Rockets, tonight we will finally welcome you to the playoffs in San Antonio for the first time since Gregg Popovich took over as coach. We are no longer the feisty little brother that Hakeem Olajuwon easily brushed aside en route to Houston's second and last championship. In case you haven't noticed, we've raised five banners of our own since then. So, welcome to the playoffs in San Antonio for the first time in the AT&T Center, Houston. In other words, welcome to the playoffs in San Antonio for the first time since the Spurs became the Spurs. Welcome to Titletown, TX. Welcome to the jungle.
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Tres Triunfos
2017 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 5
Let It Be - When I find myself in times of trouble, Manu Ginobili comes to me, bringing that grandpa juice, let it be. Welcome to the 2017 NBA Playoffs, Manu. In all sincerity, it really just wasn't the same without you. I had a sneaking suspicion all day yesterday, as I nervously awaited tip off, that you would arrive in Game 5. Because of this hunch, there was no controversy in deciding which jersey to put on in preparation for the game. I grabbed my silver (home alternate) Number 20 jersey (my go-to jersey during the 2014 title run) and put your name on my back so that I could have yours. Immediately after you checked into the game, I knew that you were back (pun intended) when, on your first touch, you drove hard to the cup for a score plus the foul and then walked to the free throw line with The Look in your eyes. I've written extensively about The Look in the past but I've honestly never been more relieved to see it than I was last night. You finished the game with 10 points (on 4-6 shooting), three assists, three steals, two rebounds and a block in 18 minutes. More importantly, you provided what Patty Mills coined that grandpa juice in setting an emotional tone early in the game that gave the #BlackAndSilver the edge we desperately needed in order to regain control in this hard-fought series. So, for the umpteenth time in your fifteen year Spurs career...thank you for saving the day, Manu. Despite all of the noise coming from "expert" land (you know, like allegations that you're retiring before our eyes), I never doubted for a second that you would deliver in this series. In fact, I guaranteed in my previous post that you'd give us a signature Manu performance against the Grizzlies (guarantees are not something I take lightly). And for the umpteenth time in my seven years blogging about the Spurs, you made me look good. By the way, all of that noise coming from "expert" land got awfully quiet in a hurry after Game 5. Considering that a mob of these "experts" had gathered outside of the AT&T Center yesterday evening before the game and was waiting patiently to pick apart your carcass like a committee of vultures, it must feel pretty good to be back to your hall-of-fame magical best. Keep it up, Manu. Vamos a necesitar con el fin de lograr nuestro objetivo.
* * *
With Manu Ginobili serving as our emotional spark plug, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 116-103 in Game 5 of the Western Conference First Round series last night in front of 18,418 bloodthirsty fans at the AT&T Center. Now that's was I'm talking about when I talk about the ear-piercing noise generated by Spurs fans during the first home game of Fiesta. When Manu drove to the basket late in the first quarter and completed the And 1 for his first points of the series, I could hear the home crowd blowing the roof off of the building all the way from my apartment in Denver, Colorado. (Full disclosure: the fact that I have a phenomenal surround sound system may have had something to do with this.) Man, it pains me to be so far away from the city during this time of year. There's nothing like being drunk and in the building sipping cerveza during a Fiesta playoff win in San Antonio. Once it hits your lips, it's so good. Trust me, I have 13 years of experience. As a longtime San Antonian, I can't wait to get back and experience it again for myself (hopefully in the not too distant future) but for now, I'll settle for soaking in victories like last night's by living vicariously through the inebriation of my former friends and neighbors.
Capitalizing on the massive home court advantage afforded us by a rowdy Fiesta crowd, the Spurs are now back in front in this emotionally-exhausting series, leading three games to two. With all deference to Manu's inspirational performance, the player of the game was Patty Mills. After Memphis went on a terrifying run to cut the (once 18 point) Spurs lead down to four with 9:29 left, Mills went bonkers hitting four threes in the frame to reopen a double-digit lead en route to his playoff career high of 20 points. To quote Spurs play-by-play announcer, Bill Lamb, "Good on ya, Patty!" Besides Manu's and Patty's, there were several other huge performances up and down the Spurs roster in Game 5. Particularly of note: Tony Parker's 16 points and 6 assists, LaMarcus Aldridge's 12 points and 9 rebounds, and David Lee's 11 points and 8 rebounds. Unfortunately, we somehow got next to nothing out of Kawhi Leonard. Just kidding. The Klaw was his usual dominant self, inflicting another 28 points (on an efficient 9-16 from the field, 3-5 from downtown, and 7-8 from the stripe) and six assists upon the Grizzlies punch-drunk perimeter defenders. If something looks off to you about those shooting numbers it is probably because for the first time in the series, Kawhi Leonard missed a free throw. After entering the game a perfect 40-40 from the line this postseason, Kahwi went ice cold by missing one of his eight free throws last night, dropping his series free throw percentage to .979. Somehow, I don't think Coach Pop is going to be benching him any time soon.
Speaking of Kawhi and looking ahead to Game 6, Thursday presents an opportunity for our small forward to take the next step in solidifying his place as the best basketball player in the world. Since he's already more than comfortable in his role replacing Tim Duncan as the franchise cornerstone, it is time for Kawhi to start doing some Tim Duncan-like postseason things. Namely, it's time for Kawhi to start taking the lead role in closing out hard-fought playoff series on the road. In his sixth NBA season, Leonard is roughly in the same place in his NBA career as Duncan was in 2003 (his sixth year in the league). During the 2003 NBA Playoffs, Timmy (coming off of back-to-back NBA MVP seasons) was fully established as the best player in the world at the time. During the 2017 NBA Playoffs, Kawhi still has a lot of people who need convincing that he's really that good. Playing like the 2003 version of Tim Duncan tomorrow night will be a good way to start silencing the doubters. During the 2003 NBA Playoffs, TD led the Spurs to win three consecutive Game 6 closeouts on the road. In the first round, Timmy had a triple-double in Game 6 leading the Spurs past Phoenix in Phoenix 87-85 to eliminate the Suns 4-2 (TD: 15 points, 20 rebounds, and 10 assists). In the Western Conference Semifinals, Timmy dominated the three-time defending champions in Game 6 leading the Spurs past Los Angeles in Los Angeles 110-82 to eliminate the Shaq-Kobe Lakers 4-2 (TD: 37 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists). In the Western Conference Finals, Timmy overpowered an in-state rival in Game 6 leading the Spurs past Dallas in Dallas 90-78 to eliminate the Mavericks 4-2 (TD: 18 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks). The 2017 Memphis Grizzlies have proven to be a worthy adversary. They are completely capable of winning tomorrow night's contest at home and then coming back into our building on Saturday night with eyes on stealing the series. This is a perfect situation for Kawhi, like Tim Duncan before him, to gain the experience and accolades that come with battling through the adversity of a tough, emotional series only to rip the opponent's heart out in front of their home fans in the end (because that's what the great ones do).
While I haven't enjoyed the anxiety that this tough first round matchup with the Grit N' Grind Grizzlies has given me over the past two weeks, I'm really glad the Spurs did not sweep the first round of the playoffs. Why am I glad that we didn't get an easier first round opponent? The Spurs have never one a championship in a year where we swept the first round. 1999 (3-1 over Minnesota), 2003 (the aforementioned 4-2 over Phoenix), 2005 (4-1 over Denver), 2007 (4-1 over Denver again), and 2014 (4-3 over Dallas). Only through figuring out how to persevere through early playoff adversity did past Spurs teams (generally) and those teams' best player - Tim Duncan - (more specifically) achieve the mindset necessary to survive the later rounds and win a championship. In all five of the first round series mentioned above, the Spurs had to overcome the agony of losing a heartbreaker in the final minutes of an early series game (much like the Game 4 loss in this series on the Marc Gasol buzzer-beater) and dig deep within to find the necessary composure to right the ship. Kawhi Leonard and the 2017 San Antonio Spurs have an opportunity tomorrow night in Memphis, Tennessee to see another soul-wringing first round series through to it's completion. If Kawhi Leonard can deliver the same type of Game 6 road performance to close out a series that Tim Duncan was famous for (and that helped propel Number 21 to the upper echelons of basketball greatness), the Spurs could very well be off to the races in these 2017 playoffs. Easier said than done (Memphis is not going down without a fight) but if greatness was easy...every player would be Tim Duncan and every team would be the San Antonio Spurs. Kawhi Leonard has the talent to be the next Tim Duncan and these Spurs have the talent to be San Antonio's next championship team but the proof is in the pudding. Tomorrow night is going to be a dog fight. The challenge is right there in front of us and ripe for the taking. Tomorrow night, no matter how tough the conditions in the FedExForum and how resistant the opponent, all that matters is one playoff road closeout victory.
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Dos Derrotas
2017 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 4
Heroes - Congratulations are in order for the city of Memphis. What a hard fought victory. In particular, congratulations are in order for Marc Gasol. What an incredible shot. Put more succinctly, what a heroic shot. With the weight of the entire Grit-N-Grind era of Memphis Grizzlies basketball quite literally hanging in the balance, Pau's little bro aka Big Spain found the soft touch to deliver one of the biggest buckets of his career; a bucket so huge...it saved a series, a season, an era, and most importantly a city (at least for the moment). Gasol's miraculous shot defeated the Spurs 110-108 in OT of Game 4 of our first round matchup with the Grizz on Saturday night at the FedExForum in Memphis. Unfortunately for Spurs fans, the best playoff game of the year (to date) resulted in an L and equaled a series that we had earlier led 2-0 at two games apiece. As the most competitively played often do, this game turned into one of those contests where the team that had the ball last was going to win. Simply put, we weren't lucky enough to be that team. Even though both teams played phenomenal basketball and were deserving, there could only be one winner. So I guess, in the end, this night was just meant to belong to the home team and their fans.That being the case, let me just say without qualification, "Felicidades por una victoria muy reñida, Memphis."
Having now extended our congratulations to our opponents on a hard-fought and well-deserved victory, let's turn our attention to the question of the moment. Should we as Spurs fans be freaking out right now? In short, I think the answer is no. While obviously concerning, I don't think this disappointing loss gives us a reason to need to panic. After all, as unlucky as we were to lose this closest of closely contested contests in such heartbreaking fashion, the reverse holds true for the Grizzlies. Memphis is the luckiest basketball team on the planet right now to have miraculously won this closest of closely contested contests and in doing so to have avoided a 3-1 series hole that they would have had little to no hope of digging themselves out of. In other words, the Spurs were intimately close to, for all intents and purposes, ending the series on Saturday evening. When put in this context, Memphis, who is in a good position (technically tied with us now in this series) is (at the same time) also barely holding on for dear life. It bares mentioning that we have outscored the Grizzlies 409 to 379 in the series thus far. 30 points is a pretty sizable disparity for a series that is tied after four games. Thinking about things from the standpoint that we're winning the series by an average of 7.5 points per game should give us plenty to be confident about going into tomorrow night's pivotal Game 5. I still would much rather be us than them at this point in the series for several reasons. First, we have home court advantage in the now best two out of three series. Second, we have the more talented, deeper, and all-around more experienced team and coaching staff. Next, Manu Ginobili will make his imprint on this series. We all know that he's been held scoreless through four games but Manu's struggles thus far should, more than anything else, scare the living daylights out of Grizzlies fans that a signature Ginobili performance is forthcoming. In every single playoff series that Manu has played in during his illustrious NBA career, he has had at least one game where he played his hall-of-fame magical best. I guarantee that we will get a signature Manu game in this series and when we do, it's unlikely the Grizzlies will have the weapons to weather the storm on whichever night Manu decides to make his 2017 NBA playoff debut. Lastly, if all else fails, we have to best player in the series (and in the world). It should come as a surprise to no one that I like our chances tied 2-2 against anyone so long as Kawhi Leonard is suiting up for the #BlackAndSilver.
What more can I say about Kawhi? I know I've been beating the "he's the best player in the world" drum quite profusely during this series. I feel obligated to do so for one very simple reason. There's as much scientific certainty that neither Kawhi Leonard nor the San Antonio Spurs organization will ever campaign for such recognition as there is that human activities contribute to climate change. Because of the amazing culture established by the likes of David Robinson, Tim Duncan, and Coach Pop many moons ago, San Antonio does not promote individual success. Therefore, it's up to us, the Spurs fans, to scream it from the rooftops that Kawhi is not only the 2017 NBA MVP but also currently the best basketball player in the world because if we leave it up to our good friends the "experts" to come to the same conclusion, we may be waiting for a very long time given that their current infatuation with the James Hardens and Russell Westbrooks of the world doesn't seem likely to wane anytime soon. On second thought, if the Klaw keeps putting together performances like he did on Saturday night, it will be hard for even the most prestigious of these "experts" to continue denying him. In Game 4, Kawhi went bananas in the latter stages of the fourth quarter, doing everything in his power (on both ends of the floor) to try to single-handedly steal the game away from Memphis. Down eight and seemingly dead in the water with 3:51 left, Kawhi proceeded to score the Spurs next 16 points to lift us out of the hole and even build as much as a three point lead of our own before the game eventually found itself tied at 96 a piece with zeroes on the clock. (Go figure, I had just written about the Spurs playoff success in overtime against the Grizzlies in Uno Derrota. Of course I jinxed our overtime good fortune. My bad.) Kawhi went on to score another eight points in overtime including two miraculous three point shots, the latter (with 12 seconds left) tied the score at 108. We all know what happened next. (Man, that was a heroic shot by Marc Gasol.) Kawhi finished the game with a career-high 43 points (14-30 from the field, 7-10 on threes, 8-8 from the line), 8 rebounds, 6 steals, and 3 assists. With this incredible performance, Kawhi became the first player in NBA history to score at least 40 points while making at least five steals as well as five threes. Kawhi's performance was incredible, indeed. Put more succinctly, it was heroic. So heroic, in fact, is it even necessary to formally announce that he has earned player of the game honors for the third time in for games of this series? (I guess I just did). Honorable mention goes to Tony Parker. TP had quite the heroic performance of his own on Saturday night, carving up the Grizzlies defense for 22 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal. Coming off of the scoreless performance in Game 3, Parker answered the bell and continued the general trend of proving he's still got plenty left in the tank to quarterback another title run. Keep it up, Tony. Keep proving the doubters and naysayers wrong.
Oh, I almost forgot. There is one more reason, which I failed to mention earlier, why Spurs fans should be confident that tomorrow night at the AT&T Center (back home in good 'ole Titletown, TX) we will retake control of our 2017 NBA Playoff destiny. In case it hadn't occurred to you yet, Game 5 will be the first home playoff game for the Spurs during Fiesta 2017. If you're currently in San Antonio or have ever lived there, you understand the significance of what I just pointed out. If you do understand the significance of what I just pointed out, Happy Fiesta! For everyone else, let's just say that our home court advantage just got cranked up from somewhere in the seven range to an unmatchable eleven. The Memphis Grizzlies and their fans may not realized it yet, but when it comes to crowd noise and the home court advantage that comes with it, they're in for a world of hurt tomorrow night. While San Antonio fans aren't consistently the loudest in the NBA, we have the highest ceiling. It's not even close. If you think there is another basketball fan base or arena in the league (or in the world, for that matter) that can rival Spurs fans in the AT&T Center at it's loudest...I admire your innocence and find your naivety quite endearing. I probably shouldn't do it but I'm going to let all of the San Antonio outsiders who are reading this in on a little secret. The noise in the AT&T Center only gets cranked up to eleven (or louder than any other arena in the NBA can match) on two separate occasions. The first? Obviously when the Spurs are playing an NBA Finals game at home. (By the way, in Game 5 of the 2014 NBA Finals during the run when the Spurs overtook the Miami Heat, the noise level actually hit twelve. Being the only such incident of a twelve ever being recorded on Earth, Game 5 was the loudest gathering of people in the entirety of human history. No need to look it up. I verified it, trust me.) The second occasion when the noise level gets cranked up to eleven in the AT&T Center? Fiesta. More specifically, the first Spurs home playoff game after the start of Fiesta. Usually, the opening weekend of Fiesta coincides with the opening weekend of the NBA playoffs. And since the Spurs usually have home court advantage in our first round matchup, the first game of Fiesta usually coincides with the first game of the playoffs. This year, for whatever reason, the NBA playoffs started the weekend before the opening weekend of Fiesta. So guess what that means? The Memphis Grizzlies are coming back into town expecting to play their third straight road playoff game dealing with a noise level in the seven range. They have no idea what's about to hit 'em when our Fiesta crowd (who, by the way, will not only be drunk but will also be angry that the series is tied to begin with) blows the roof off of the building with the type of emphatic eleven that puts to shame the nines registered in Memphis over the past couple of ballgames. Sure, David Fizdale manufactured some extra noise out of his home fans with his now infamous "take that for data" rant. But manufacturing a gimmick can only get a team's noise so far. To belt out a ten, the fans' love for the team needs to be burning from deep within their souls. The ability to raise the noise level to a ten is cultivated through years of devotion, through triumph and heartbreak alike. Gimmicks can't manufacture tens. Tens are built by rallying behind your team over the course of decades, not over the course of press conferences. To belt out eleven in the first round of the playoffs? Well, unfortunately for everyone else, the team needs to be the Spurs, the arena needs to be the AT&T Center, and the scenario needs to be, "¡Viva la Fiesta!" This is why we should be confident tomorrow night. Nothing else matters. Yes, David Fizdale whined. Let it be. Yes, the Memphis scorers table screwed the Spurs in Game 4 by neglecting to reset the shot before Patty Mills launched that three. Let it be. Yes, the refs gave Memphis the lion share of the calls down the stretch of the fourth quarter and overtime in Game 4. Let it be. Tony's heroism was wasted. Let it be. Kawhi's heroism was wasted. Let it be. Mike Connely's heroism was rewarded. Let it be. Marc Gasol's miraculous shot made him (not Kahwi) the enduring hero of the game. Let it be. Bottom line, the Spurs are still the better basketball team and tomorrow night, we get another opportunity to let it be. We don't need to rely on our heroes to make heroic shots to win tomorrow's game. San Antonio is at its most heroic when we come together as a city and let it be. So, no. There's no need to panic. All our players need to do is lace 'em up, play suffocating Back to Black Spurs defense coupled with tantalizing Wild International Spurs offense, and let it be. Similarly, all we as a community need to do is celebrate Fiesta, crank the noise in the AT&T Center up to eleven, and let it be.
Featured Image Source: NBA.com
Headline Image Source: San Antonio Express-News
Uno Derrota
2017 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 3
HUMBLE. - If the last six months have taught us anything, it's that whining can take you a long way in Donald Trump's America. Case in point, Memphis Grizzlies head coach David Fizdale. Congratulations, Fizzy. Whining has now earned you a playoff victory against the San Antonio Spurs. In the least surprising development of the 2017 playoffs, to date, Memphis defeated San Antonio 105-94 on Thursday night to close the series deficit to 2-1 and place a nice, fuzzy bow on the city's obnoxious love affair with Fizdale's childish, classless, and unwarranted post-Game 2 rant. The fact that Memphis seized on the manufactured momentum to grab an emotional "backs against the wall" victory was the predictable outcome to Thursday night's contest. A Hollywood writers room couldn't have scripted it any better. There was more suspense in Thursday's new Game of Zones episode than there was in Spurs v. Grizzlies, Game 3. Note to Adam Silver: It's foolishness like this that provides fuel for conspiracy fodder that the NBA is just as scripted as WWE. Of course the team whose coach made an ass out of himself and his city (err, I mean stood up for his players) after going down two games to zero gets the vomit-inducing (err, I mean heart-warming) desperation win after returning back home a cult hero. Having already collected Fizdale's (err, I mean his players) $30K fine, why wouldn't the NBA do everything in it's power to make sure that the after-school special storyline of a coach who cares too much rallying his team to victory happens? That's just good television. I know the NBA is trying to angle it's way into the business of hosting award shows by putting on the NBA Awards this June but, come on. Usually in sports, awards are given for performance in competition, not for putting on an Oscar worthy performance for the media in the postgame press conference. But whatever, Fizzy is going to quickly learn that the award (a home playoff victory over the Spurs) which the NBA predictably bestowed on him for manufacturing a fake controversy is merely a participation trophy. Within the next week, David Fizdale is going to come to realize that he's still light years away from knowing how to coach on a level that earns real hardware, namely Larry O'Brien trophies.
Indeed...with his Monday night stunt, David Fizdale has already played his hand for this series. What a weak hand he was holding to feel compelled to so haphazardly play his cards two games into the 2017 Playoffs. The beautiful thing about Coach Pop is that his counter to Fizdale's loud, bombastic, desperate hand was quiet, stoic, and confident. Pop was so cool, calm, and collected on Thursday night, he almost made the Game of Zones White Walker caricature of him seem realistic. Pop's ice cold YIN to Fizzy's red hot YANG should provide startling evidence to every Memphis fan that their newly beloved coach is completely overmatched. The former (once again) did something that he's done several times before and something that no other coach in the history of the NBA has ever also had the stones to do. He waved the white flag and gave his opponent the victory with more than enough time left to mount a comeback. Pop did this in order to demonstrate to his players that their energy and focus to start the second half were completely unacceptable for a playoff game. In other words, he prematurely conceded the battle to help teach his soldiers how to win the war. Only down four after a relatively evenly played first half, the Spur came out after halftime and started the third quarter like we'd just been in the locker room celebrating 4/20. We committed two turnovers while the Grizzlies scored five points to start the frame. Carelessness like we displayed in the opening minute of the third is a telltale sign of littering and... so Pop rushed in like Jeff Sessions visiting Colorado and shut the whole thing down. He pulled Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge, Tony Parker, Danny Green, and Dwayne Dedmond one minute into the third quarter and replaced them with Pau Gasol, Patty Mills, David Lee, Kyle Anderson, and Jonathan Simmons because his starters had allowed Memphis to extend the lead from four to nine. There is not another NBA coach (current or former) that would have had the nerve to do that in a playoff game. In case you haven't noticed over these past 19 years, Gregg Popovich is playing chess. Unfortunately for Grizzlies fans, as much as they may have loved David Fizdale's fiery rant, such a weak hand is evidence that David Fizdale is playing checkers. On second thought, Pop hasn't even begun playing chess yet. This is still the first week of the first round, after all. Gregg Popovich is playing checkers like it's chess. David Fizdale, having gone all-in on his Monday night stunt, has already demonstrated he's playing checkers like it's Tic-tac-toe.
Here's the biggest misnomer about Game 3. The narrative is that Fizzy rallied his team to completely outplay the Spurs on Thursday night. That's true...but only if you reduce basketball to a free throw shooting contest. Fair warning: what I'm about to say is going to blow your mind. As much credit as the Grizzlies (and Fizzy in particular) were given for their Game 3 performance (and even despite Pop conceding the game early to teach our players a lesson), in actuality the Grizzlies didn't beat us in Game 3...we beat ourselves. The Spur were a horrendous 16-28 from the free throw line. Yep. We left 12 points on the board at the charity stripe in a game that we lost by 11. If we had made our free throws, which we're fully capable of doing (keep in mind, in Game 2, three nights earlier, we demonstrated it, going a ridiculous 31-32 from the line), despite everything else, we would have been right there at the end of the game with a chance to win. In all actuality, Memphis should be counting their lucky stars to have won Game 3. Had we shot that same percentage again on Thursday as we did on Monday, all Coach Fizdale's self-aggrandizing version of the Win One for the Gipper speech would've been able to muster is a shot for the Grizzlies to win Game 3 in overtime. It's kind of sad to think about the game in this context as a Fizzy-frenzied Grizzlies fan given that Pop threw in the towel with a quarter left to play. Also, knowing Pop, had the Spurs hit free throws in Game 3 allowing the bench to get the game to overtime, our plays checkers like chess coach would have awarded the bench players the overtime minutes and given them a chance to steal the game. By the way, Memphis does not have a good track record against the Spurs in overtime playoff games (having lost not one but two of them) in the 2013 Western Conference Finals. Don't get me wrong, Memphis fans should be thrilled to have finally snapped a ten game playoff losing streak to San Antonio. But being thrilled about it because you're buying the "Fizdale coached 'em up to dominate the game" narrative is delusional. Given all of this, you're probably not surprised that I am extremely confident in the #BlackAndSilver's chances to win Game 4 tonight in the FedExForum. By the way, the player of the game on Thursday was LaMarcus Aldridge. L.A. logged 16 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, and a block in 30 Game 3 minutes. We need him to keep up that type of production in Game 4. Combine it with a bounce back game from the backcourt tandem of Tony Parker and Maun Ginobili (who were both held scoreless on Thursday for the first time in the same playoff game in their illustrious careers playing together) as well as the type of dominance we've come to expect from Kawhi Leonard (aka the best player in the world) and the Spurs will have a fantastic shot to get the series back on track this evening. Gregg Popovich has played enough games of both checker and chess to not only know the difference between the two, but to also know that if we get back to playing focused, determined Spurs basketball in Game 4...we're going to be just fine. No need to panic yet. We just need our heroes to be heroes.
Featured Image Source: Yahoo Sports
Headline Image Source: San Antonio Express-News