Season 48, Game 21
Utah 100, San Antonio 96
15-6, 6th in the West

Tim Duncan was splendid on Tuesday night; the rest of the Spurs roster was decidedly un-splendid.

Utah has always been a tough place to play for the Spurs and the rest of the NBA. The high altitude and rabid fans create a rather hostile work environment, and even in down years, the Jazz typically perform well at home. And while this particular Jazz team isn’t great (tonight’s win snapped a 9-game losing streak for them), they’re not Philadelphia 76ers-level bad. Every player on the roster is an NBA player that could find a home on a playoff team. They are well-coached and efficiently managed, the organization having planted its roots with seeds from the Pop-Buford tree.

So while the Spurs should beat the Jazz on any given night, the Jazz are more than capable than beating the Spurs. Utah played with energy and passion and put themselves in the best position to compete.

And when the Spurs play like garbage and willingly give the Jazz every opportunity to win, they will take it.

23 points, 14 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, 4 blocks. That was Tim Duncan’s stat line on a random Tuesday night in December with his team playing poorly. At age 38. Marvel at that, because it deserves our wonder and respect. And because it’s the only thing worth marveling about from this game.

I don’t know where to begin with the putridness. Team-wide, there was a definitive lack of energy and aggression, as if showing up was enough to secure the win. The defense wasn’t bad in the first half, but the offense was just sputtering through the motions. It’s games like tonight when you realize that Cory Joseph is not Tony Parker nor Patty Mills. Unable to excel, the starting line-up was left with no playmakers and no offensive creativity.

Coming into the game, I thought the key match-up was Kawhi Leonard vs. Gordon Hayward. Both are young SFs with bright futures in the league. Hayward’s career has been more up and down, but he’s also been the primary focus of his team from Day 1, while Kawhi has been able to grow into his role. Still, most would argue that Kawhi is the better player. I expected Kawhi to control Hayward on defense and go at him on defense. Quite the opposite happened: Hayward had his way with Kawhi on offense, being the driving motor behind the Jazz’s attack all night, both scoring and playmaking (20 points, 4 assists). Defensively, Kawhi was never able to get going and had a rather frustrating game. It was a bad night all around for him.

Kawhi’s poor night was only overshadowed by Manu’s night. Holy heck, was he flashing “Bad Manu” everywhere tonight. His shot was off, his drives were wild, he tried to do too much with the ball, couldn’t finish at the rim, and was throwing the ball all over the court. Other than that, I suppose he had an OK night. With Parker out, the team really needs Manu to be the primary creator and ball handler on the team. Even an average night will do. But when he has a really bad night, it can just sink the entire offensive attack.

There’s not much more to say. Pop got himself thrown out at the end of the 3rd quarter to try and light a spark in the team. It might have worked if the Spurs hadn’t gifted the Jazz 6 free points in the final 14 seconds of the quarter. 2 on a dumb foul on an offensive board, 2 on another dumb foul on a defensive board, and 2 from Pop’s tech.

Of course they fought back to 80-81 early in the 4th. The Jazz responded with a very quick 6-0 run, pushing it to 80-87. And then both teams just completely shut down for a few minutes. By the time either team rediscovered offense, it was too late for the Spurs.

It’s a tough loss in a tough building against a young but talented team. It’ll happen. The West is so loaded and so tough this year, though, that each one of these games is going to matter. When the difference between the 1 seed and the 7 seed might be a matter of 4 or 5 games, these Tuesday nights in December will be remembered.

The Spurs travel back to San Antonio to face the New York Knicks Wednesday night.