theLeftAhead

A Sky Full of Stars – Give hime credit. Chris Paul hit the shot of his life. The ball left his hand and passed by Tim Duncan’s finger tips (as the greatest active basketball player on the planet was closing quickly to block it) by the width of a piece of paper, but somehow it got by. The rejection of not only a basketball shot but also of Chris Paul…

Dreamcatcher – On Thursday nights, the Los Anegeles Clippers defeated the San Antonio Spurs 102-96 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio to tie the best-of-seven Western Conference First Round series at three games apiece. The decisive game seven will be played at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in about two hours. The player of the game for the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night was Marco Belinelli. Marco…

Over – I’m living life right now, man, and this what I’mma do ’til it’s over…’til it’s over. It’s far from over. In One Back (my first blog post of these 2015 playoffs), I predicted that “there are going to be moments of panic and moments of doubt for Spurs fans” during this title defense journey. Man, I wasn’t lying. Last night was intense. I have never been to Disneyland,…

Pompeii – Against my better angels, I did it. I’ll admit it. I know better, but somehow it still happened. I’ve been to this rodeo way too many times and yet I still couldn’t help myself. How does the proverb go? As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. Yep, that about sums it up. I allowed myself to get overconfident after the 27 point…

Deliver – ¡Viva la Fiesta! Going into the AT&T Center in San Antonio as the road team and winning a playoff game is a difficult proposition. Going into the AT&T Center as the road team and winning a playoff game during Fiesta? There are few things harder in the NBA. Obviously, it is not impossible. Last year, the Dallas Mavericks came into our home during Fiesta and stole Game 2…

Ready or Not – Whew. Let me catch my breath. It’s been almost 48 hours, but I’m still feeling the effects of all the nervous energy it took to watch the most entertaining game of the 2015 NBA Playoffs thus far. That was big. On the verge of falling into a disastrous 0-2 hole on Wednesday night in Los Angeles at the Staples Center, the defending champion San Antonio Spurs…

What’s Up? – As my good friend and bombastic pop culture writer, Ken Adams, might say: howdy boys and girls. Welcome to the third installment of the Black & Silver blog series. I’m thrilled to be embarking on yet another San Antonio Spurs playoff run with all of you, the loyal readers. What an exciting time. It’s spring, it’s Fiesta back home in San Antonio, and the Spurs are defending…

Yesterday afternoon, with three minutes and 14 seconds left in Game 3 of the second round playoff series between the LA Clippers and San Antonio, the Spurs were protecting a 13 point advantage when Spurs Coach, Gregg Popovich, decided to implement the Hack-A-Shaq defensive strategy on Clipper forward, Reggie Evans. The Spurs proceeded to intentionally foul Evans, who is a notoriously poor free throw shooter, in hopes of stifling the…