Season 48, Game 48
Los Angeles Clippers 105, San Antonio 85
30-18, 7th in the West
That was a good ol’ fashioned thumping. No way around it.
Blake Griffin killed us. Chris Paul killed us. DeAndre Jordan killed us. Hell, Austin Rivers and J.J. Redick killed us. For crying out loud, Spencer Hawes killed us.
But all of this is a possible outcome when you play the Clippers. When you play them a night after they lost to an Anthony Davis-less Pelicans team, you can expect a certain amount of energy, focus, and aggression.
But you know who else killed us? Tony Parker. Manu Ginobili. Tiago Splitter. Boris Diaw. About the only player from the Spurs who we can say anything positive about is Kawhi Leonard.
It was just an atrocious game. There was no life, no energy, no sense of urgency. The Clippers just took it to us. They clobbered us in every facet of the game. Rebounding, shooting, execution, transition (oh, the “transition defense” being played tonight!), energy, all-around basic fundamental basketball principles. There’s no point in analyzing a game that requires no analyzation.
Parker continues to be worrisome. He couldn’t finish at the rim, couldn’t hit a shot, couldn’t orchestrate the offense. I’ve been banging this drum for a while now, and it’s quite apparent to the naked eye. Aaron McGuire over at GothicGinobili did a more analytical breakdown to show us what we can all see: Parker is a serious liability right now. It’s a double-edged sword, because the Spurs stink right now with him, but have no hope in the Playoffs without him. So Pop must continue to play him and hope that this is an aberrational blip that can turn around.
Sadly, the namesake of his sight is also having an up and down season. Ginobili still has classic Manu nights, but the lows are much lower. I will say this: he played really hard tonight. But it was mostly for naught. He was turning the ball over, missing shots, missing free throws (a common occurrence this season), and generally just mishandling the reins of the offense.
This gets to a larger point: we should all be incredibly grateful for last season…and the way the season before that ended. I’ve said it many times, but I don’t think we get last year’s title without losing the way we did in 2013. Basically, we were only getting one of those rings. And the way this season has played out shows the point: it’s incredibly hard to stay hungry and aggressive and attentive in the season after winning the title. Yes, the system and continuity help a lot. But last season’s incredible run and level of play was fueled with a purpose, of a title lost, of getting back to the top of that mountain.
This season, with all the same players in tact and the same system in place, the results have been lackluster (by our lofty standards). I thought this season would be a chance to perfect the system, to improve on last year’s beautiful style. Instead, it comes and fits and starts and never really looks the same. Many players seem content to wait until February or March or even April to turn it on. There are too many nights like tonight, where the team just gets outplayed severely. Hell, there are many nights when the Spurs get wins and still lose the energy and effort battle; they just have the talent to beat a lot of lesser teams regardless.
But a sense of energy and purpose has been conspicuously missing most of the season. And with it, a sense of joy. Perhaps that’s the biggest difference. Last year’s team was fun and fun to watch; this year’s team almost feels like a chore most of the time.
By 2 or by 20, it’s just one loss. Looking at the homestand, this was the game I had circled as the potential loss. I was hoping the Spurs would prove me wrong, but there hasn’t been a whole lot of that this season. Still, the Spurs have a very real chance of going 5-1 in this stretch, which would be an overall positive.
I just wish anybody could get excited about it.
