Season 48, Game 18
Brooklyn 95, San Antonio 93 (OT)
13-5, 6th in the West

The Spurs shot a chilly 35.6% in Brooklyn. Everything was missing. 3s were in and out; layups were bouncing around and out; 2nd and 3rd shot opportunities, clang, clang. The team put up an unfathomable 101 shots in such a low scoring game. I don’t know if rims can actually be tight or not, but tonight’s rims would be Patient Zero. It was almost comical. Duncan: 5-18. Leonard: 4-16. Diaw: 0-6. Bonner: 3-10.

Brooklyn didn’t shoot much better (41%), but they made timely 3s and were able to work the ball inside and get the best kind of shot one can reasonably hope for on a night like this: 1-foot shots. The first half was a slog, with both teams playing lax and uninspired. The Nets made a push and opened the game up in the 3rd quarter. The Spurs seemed content to roll over.

And here is why I love Pop: down 13 in the 3rd, with his stars and starters giving him nothing, he pulled them all. Sat them on the bench. Didn’t even say a word to them. He put in Joseph, Green (Manu was the 2-guard on the naughty list), Belinelli, Baynes, and Bonner. And they played hard. They pushed the ball, they played energetic defense. The ball was still clanging all around the rim, but they worked hard to get good shots.

They changed the dynamic and energy of the game. By the time Pop went back to his starters midway through the 4th, the lead had only been trimmed by 3 points, but the timbre of the game had turned upside down, even if it wasn’t entirely noticeable yet.

Yet another reason why I love Pop: the starters still weren’t giving him the juice he wanted, so he pulled the two Frenchman off of the floor and put Green and Joseph back in. (Lest you think Parker was pulled because of his bruised ribs, think otherwise.) Suddenly, a spark. The team came to life and cut the lead in a matter of minutes. Danny Green got hot.

And here is where basketball is a cruel game. We know what happened: the Spurs sent it to OT only to lose. Is it better to lose big? Or lose close? Would we feel better about this game if the Nets had just won going away, and we could chalk it up to low energy and the off nights that are certain to come in such a long season? Do we take pride in fighting back, only to fall at the buzzer?

Are we the eternal optimist, or the cynic hiding behind the label of “realist”? I tend to be the optimist, but it’s hard to walk away from a game like this and not remember the missed layups by Leonard and Duncan in regulation and Green in OT, all of which could have given the Spurs their first late lead. Or Manu’s crazy pull-up 3 in transition with about a minute left in OT that left Pop exasperated. Or Leonard’s drive on the next possession that was forced and clumsy (tonight was a rough one for Leading Man Kawhi), while the red hot Green was wide open somewhere. So many moments pivoting between triumph and disappointment.

The Spurs let a golden opportunity slip away; the Spurs didn’t play well enough to deserve to win. Both are true, both are frustrating. Luckily, we don’t have to think about either for too long.

The Spurs close out their road trip with a big game in Memphis on Friday night. I am very excited to see Memphis up close for the first time this season and use it as an early litmus test for the Spurs.