Season 48, Game 42
San Antonio 89, Utah 69
26-16, 7th in the West

If last Wednesday’s win against Charlotte was a “hatewatch”, Sunday’s win against the Jazz was a “lovewatch”. While stretches of this game were offensively offensive, there’s still an aesthetic beauty to this team that wasn’t present a week ago. (Author’s note: due to blackout restrictions, I still haven’t seen the Blazers game, but will recap it as soon as it becomes available on NBA League Pass Broadband.) The only difference between then and now: Kawhi Leonard.

Oh boy, what a treat to have him back. He does so much for this team on both ends of the floor, many of which are nearly unquantifiable. He just makes everything fit, puts everything in its right place. Along with Duncan, he is the lynchpin of the defense, being both the team’s best on-ball defender and best passing lane gambler. Because of his defense, we get steals and fast break points. Remember those? His presence on defense also makes that starting unit one of the best defensive units in the league, with 4 players that are all well above average at their position.

kWh also loosens up the offense, as he is one of the few players on the team who can actively create his own shot and a high percentage look outside of the framework or the offense. Even Parker can’t always do that. But Kawhi in the post is becoming a legitimate threat, and often leads to a very good look from him, or an open look somewhere else as the defense collapses.

Basically, this team needed Kawhi, and all the numbers bear that out. None more than the one that matters the most: wins and losses. The Spurs are basically a .500 team without Kawhi, and an elite championship squad with him.

But this love fest is also about getting Tiago back, who does every little thing a big man should do. And getting Patty back, who flies around the court like a pest and stretches defenses to their breaking point with just the threat of his 3-point shot. (For as great as Cory has been playing, it’s this fact alone that makes Patty more valuable to the squad.) It’s about the team starting to look like last year’s squad.

I like defensive games like this. The Jazz have perhaps the scariest rim protecting big man in the league in Rudy Gobert. This kid is going to be a monster player. While he was on the court, I think he affected nearly every shot the Spurs took. Even layups that he didn’t get a hand on were affected just by the shooter adjusting his shot from the mere thought of his presence perhaps being there. It’s partially why you saw so many easy misses at the rim for the Spurs.

The Spurs created a pretty significant margin for error with the tremendous defense they played. Yes, a lot of this was just the Jazz missing shots. (This is partly why defense is so hard to measure, because even unguarded, so many shots are going to be missed.) But the defense was stout and active. Most every shot was contested, fast break points were limited, as were second chance points. The Jazz, in particular, have really good big men that rebound offensively very well; the Spurs were able to limit them to only 12 offensive boards (and grab 11 of their own). Splitter and Baynes were particularly solid, and the rest of the team gang rebounded and deflected balls out of the paint to waiting teammates.

It was only a matter of time before the Spurs put this away, and a flurry of 3-pointers (3 from Danny Green) put this game out of reach early in the 4th. Even as the offense struggled, it was a solid win against a good young team. A few weeks ago, this game might have gone down to the final buzzer. Not tonight.

And because it didn’t, we were able to get a glimpse of the Spurs newest player: JaMychal Green. The team had to waive Austin Daye to sign him, which alone makes me happy. But Green was the player I was hoping the Spurs would call up from the Austin Spurs, where he has been playing tremendously well all season. I wrote a bit about him here, and I think it still holds true. We didn’t get to see much from him in this game, which is often true of a player’s first game with the team. But he’s been playing in the system in Austin and with a few more games, I think we’d get to see some of the exciting play he is capable of.

The Spurs next head to Denver to take on the Nuggets Tuesday night.