Season 48, Game 37
San Antonio 100, Phoenix 95
22-15, 7th in the West

That was a sight for sore eyes.

The Spurs (mostly) hit their free throws down the stretch. (Cory missed 3 of 4 in one critical stretch, but Green hit 4 in a row and Joseph hit 2 late to seal it.)

The Spurs (kind of) executed offensively down the stretch, running their sets crisply, moving the ball well, and actually get good looks.

And the Spurs (for the most part) played solid defense, rebounded well, and held a high-scoring offense in  check in the 4th quarter. (The final score of the 4th was 41-26, which is pretty darn good.)

At this point in this snake-bitten season, “mostly”, “kind of”, and “for the most part” are God sends, particularly when the end result in a much needed victory against a Western Conference foe. The race near the bottom of the West Playoff Picture has gotten very interesting. It’s no longer a foregone conclusion that the Spurs will get in, as crazy as that sounds. Phoenix and San Antonio are (now) only a game apart, with the Clippers slowly coming into view for both teams. But Oklahoma City–you know, the team with both Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook–remain in 10th, 3 games back from Phoenix. Oh, and New Orleans–with some player named Anthony Davis–are currently in 9th, 2 1/2 games out from Phoenix. LA Clippers, San Antonio, Phoenix, New Orleans, and Oklahoma City: two of these teams are going to miss the playoffs. Two.

So even though it’s just game 37, this was a big win to get some breathing room at the bottom of the West, and maybe even a little momentum to move up a spot or two.

As for the game itself, it was reminiscent of the Detroit game. The team looked great early, faltered a bit near the end of the first half, played like garbage in the third, and rallied in the fourth. Unlike the Detroit game, there was no critical late game error from the Spurs and a heartbreaking shot from Brandon Jennings.

Which leaves us in the position to look at these last two games from two different perspectives: One, the team is still great in stretches, but has too many lulls that are way too long and let teams hang around and even beat us; Two, we’re a missed Brandon Jennings’ circus layup away from being on a 4-game win streak and people talking about how we’re ‘making our move’. Funny the difference a few bounces here and there can make. Patty Mills catches that inbounds pass against Detroit….

The truth, as usual, is probably in the middle. Things probably aren’t quite as bad as they seem, but they’re certainly not great. Yet.

The biggest factor is obviously Kawhi. He might not be our best player yet (there’s that word again), but he is certainly our most important player. His presence on the court just makes everything fit, makes the offense and defense make sense, and he also transcends both the offense and defense, one of the few Spurs players who can make things happen outside of the system on his own without compromising the system. The Spurs are tremendously better when he is on the court, and will naturally struggle when he isn’t. He has missed 13 games in this stretch (the last 12, plus the Lakers game before completely shutting it down), and the Spurs are 5-8 in those games. With him, they are 17-7, a 71% win percentage, which would be 3rd in the West right now.

Having him back is important.

More distressing is Parker’s continued absence. Oh, he played last night? I don’t know who that #9 was running around on the court, but it certainly didn’t look like our Tony Parker. To quote my notes in the 3rd quarter of the game: “TP is killing us.” He was horrible last night. There will be some bumps as he gets himself back into game shape and back into the flow of games. But right now, he is just completely out of sync with the team and unable to do what he can usually do on his own. Joseph and Mills are much better options at this point, and it’s not surprising that those two were on the court in the 4th. Pop can say he is being cautious with Tony’s minutes, which I’m sure is true; but it’s also true that the team is currently better when he sits.

The best stretch of the last night’s game was focused around a line-up of Joseph, Mills, and Green, with Bonner, Splitter, and Ayres mostly filling in the two big spots. Mills started to look like himself, causing havoc on defense and making defense-breaking 3s. Cory did his best Tony impersonation, which is better than real Tony right now. And Green was the team’s leading scorer and continues to be the team’s second most reliable player.

The real joy of this game (and last game, though it was tainted by the finish) was watching Jeff Ayres play really important minutes and play them well. Jeff will never be a star, and his (stone) hands will always limit him. But as a 4th, 5th, or even 6th big off the bench? He’s really solid. He plays with tremendous energy and fight, and in games like these, he infuses the entire team with passion and energy and plays his butt off in his limited minutes. He wasn’t the star, but he was instrumental in swinging last night’s game in the 4th quarter.

The team plays in Minnesota tonight against a struggling Timberwolves team. This is another pivot game: either a chance to start building some momentum and banking some wins, or another night to wonder what’s wrong with this team.