Season 48, Game 07
San Antonio 113, Golden State 100
4-3, 8th in the West
Before the Spurs landed in L.A. on Monday, they looked completely out of sorts and their 2-3 record reflected it.
The fact that they were about to play the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors, the #5 and #1 teams in the latest Power Rankings, on back-to-back nights no less, made it seem inevitable that things would get worse before they would get better.
Wow, what a difference two nights makes.
The Spurs came from behind to beat the Clippers on Monday night, led by a dominant Kawhi Leonard (26 points, 10 rebounds).
Then they beat the Warriors decisively on Tuesday night.
Suffice to say, the Spurs are beginning to look more like last year’s Championship team. Not quite there yet, but closer, day-by-day.
“Michael Jordan told me the best: ‘You’re going to be shocked at how different your same players are,’ ” Rivers said. “ ‘It will take half the year to get them back into their same roles.’ ”
Half the year?!? Half. This team isn’t even 10% into the season yet.
But the Spurs are already getting better.
Even without three guys who played pivotal roles last year — Tiago Splitter, Patty Mills and Marco Belinelli.
Even with their new marquee player still recovering from an eye infection.
On the other hand, after racking up 45 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals and 1 block in two nights, against two of the better teams in the better of the two conferences, Kawhi looks fully recovered to me.
But what do I know?
And the Spurs will get even better still. Everyone knows that, right?
I was fortunate to attend the game in Oakland. You’ll never guess who I ran into: our old friend and former contributor, Michael Erler, aka Aaron Stampler of Pounding the Rock’s Stampland.
Michael is now living in San Antonio and covering the Spurs as a beat reporter. If you haven’t read his stuff lately, here’s a good place to start: “Why I’m retiring as a Spurs fan.”
Anyway, on my way to and from Oracle Arena, I listened to the Warriors pre- and post-game shows on AM radio.
Before the game, the talking heads’ moods were light and optimistic. The Warriors are young and were undefeated at home. The Spurs are old and were playing in a SEGABABA. Rumor had it that Tim and Manu would be playing limited minutes, or none at all.
After the game, the word I kept hearing on the radio was “clinic,” as in: the Spurs put on a clinic tonight.
Yes. They. Did.
The Spurs outscored the Warriors in each of four quarters. They seemed to pick up where they left off in the fourth quarter of the Clippers contest the night before, when it felt like something finally clicked with the team.
Suddenly Parker looked more like his old self and Kawhi didn’t seem to be struggling with blurred vision.
But those 12 minutes in Los Angeles didn’t prepare me for how dominant both men would appear Tuesday night against one of the best teams so far in this young NBA season.
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Parker went off for 28 points and dished out 7 assists, reminding anyone who might have forgotten that he’s still one of the premier guards in the league.
Leonard scored 19, but seemed to have his freakishly large hands in every play, on both ends of the court.
Old Man Riverwalk had a ho-hum 12 points and 13 rebounds. Still, Duncan played well enough that Warriors coach Steve Kerr ended up benching his starting center for most of the fourth quarter. Andrew Bogut was a liability playing against Tim.
Manu led the second unit in outscoring the Warriors bench 40-20. This led the gentlemen sitting next to me, attending the game with his young son, to mutter “crap” everytime Manu re-entered the game.
Another stat line that jumped out last night: the Spurs had 8 offensive rebounds to the Warriors 1. That’s not a misprint.
That partially explains why the Spurs shot 23 more shots than the Warriors did. Even if only 40% of those go in, the Spurs win.
Clinic, indeed.
At one point during last night’s game, it occurred to me: Warriors Coach Steve Kerr played with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili and won two rings as a Spur. He was 37 years old in his last season as a player, the same age Ginobili is now and a year younger than Tim Duncan. Man, our guys defy their age every time they set foot on the court.
After the game, Bramlet and I had an interesting conversation with our friends Fredric Paul and Jake Widman, who are both big basketball fans. Here it is, for your reading pleasure:
BRAMLET: I’m not particularly motivated to spend money and travel time on what is likely to be a loss, and quite possibly an ugly one… second night of a road back-to-back, with Mills, Splitter, Belinelli, Duncan, and Ginobili all probably out on top of that. I don’t think we’ll see a repeat of those classic, championship-foreshadowing back-to-back road wins (despite several key injuries) against the Clippers and Warriors in 2005… too early in the season. Oh, and this Warriors team is not that Warriors team.
12 hours later…
BRAMLET: Man, I love it when I doubt the Spurs and they prove me wrong. You’re welcome for the clutch reverse jinx, Dan.
By the way, I didn’t mean to sound like I’m only willing to come out for a Spurs/Warriors game if the Spurs are a mortal lock to win and the Warriors fan contingent has to take the loss. It’s just that since I have to strictly ration my nights out, I’d rather spend them on games the Spurs at least have a good chance to win. But I forgot: they always have a good chance to win.
Anyway, the Warriors have looked great for the most part this season, and I’m sure they’ll get revenge at some point. I just hope it isn’t in the playoffs.
FREDRIC: Boy, the Warriors didn’t look good last night.
Got crushed on pick and roll defense — I can’t count the number of times Curry got sent sprawling trying to get around a pick. And they took 20+ fewer shots than the Spurs. Plus Steph couldn’t hit a 3 (made some great interior shots, but 0-7 from deep).
And the one moment when they might have mounted a challenge, with about 4 or 5 minutes left, Timmy bulldozed Green (who had a terrible game) and somehow came away with 2 free throws instead of a turnover. And the game was over.
The Oracle crowd was pretty subdued all evening. The Spurs looked crisp, though Jake wasn’t quite right. Not pass, pass, pass, score. More like pass, pick, wing jumper, score. And a lot of layups too. Not sure why Bogut didn’t play late, in favor of Speights (Ezeli was not effective).
JAKE: When the Spurs play like that, no opponent looks good. 12 more turnovers + 8 fewer offensive rebounds = 20 fewer shots. This was a game where Lee would have helped.
The announcers said Bogut wasn’t playing because the Spurs pulled him too far away from the basket — Timmy doesn’t play the same game DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard do. Speights can roam better, but obviously he’s not the defensive presence (or smarts) Bogut is. He did have a decent offensive game, though.
I didn’t see Ezeli (I found a stream for the last quarter and a half), but his line doesn’t look bad for what they need from him–3 points, 5 rebounds, 1 block in 10 minutes. The real question I keep hearing this morning is, what’s up with Iguodala? Only 6 shot attempts (made 1) in the last 2 games and a generally tentative look.
FREDRIC: Festus (love saying that name) looked lost on more than one occasion, and had a couple of bad turnovers very far from the basket. And he wasn’t that effective protecting the rim.
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
I thought Bogut did a really good job covering Timmy 1-on-1, but then I guess he wasn’t near the rim. Mo added some scoring and hustle for a few minutes, then not so much, and Tim went right at him.
In fact, I thought Pop did a great job of isolating match-ups he liked and then pounding them. And Kerr didn’t really respond (It seemed obvious to switch Thompson onto Parker, but Kerr didn’t really do it).
Iggy was strangely quiet, and didn’t seem to get around screens much better than Steph. Manu torched him. I’m not a huge fan of Thompson or Barnes, but they looked sharper than anyone else. Which isn’t saying that much…
All in all, glad I went, but not the level of excitement I was hoping for. “Roaracle” wasn’t.
(Soobum Im, USA TODAY Sports)
