Season 48, Game 46
San Antonio 101, Milwaukee 95
29-17, 7th in the West

I think the Spurs have reversed the mantra “nothing easy”.

Usually it means that there should be nothing easy for the opponent, i.e., play stout and tenacious defense. But I think our boys have taken it to mean that no game–win or loss–should be easy. Every game seems to be coming down to the wire. The Spurs seem to be in every game, but gone are the easy wins.

The problem is: easy wins tend to be indicative of really good teams. Point differential has long been correlated to post-season success, meaning getting easy wins usually means you’ll do well in the playoffs. Right now the Spurs are starting to get wins, but they’re still not coming easy.

46 games into the season, it’s no longer too early to start asking ‘why’? The team is basically the same as last year, but nothing is happening like last year. Last year, when fully healthy, this team was nearly unbeatable. The offense hummed along, the defense was tenacious, and the wins came easily.

This year, the framework of the offense is still there, but everything seems a beat or two off. To paraphrase my colleague Stephen, it looks like the Spurs are trying to play like the Spurs, rather than just being the Spurs. You can see a ghost of what we saw last year, but it’s just not clicking. (If you want to see it click, watch Atlanta.) This season we’ve had more passed up open shots for worse shots, 3-second violations, cuts running into each other, passes just not quite in the right place or at the right time than I can ever remember.

Tonight’s game was perhaps the least easy ‘nothing easy’ win we’ve had this year. All Spurs not named ‘Tim Duncan’ were threatening to shoot the team out of the game. They just couldn’t buy a bucket, and the Bucks were hitting everything, and converting every Spurs turnover into easy transition baskets. Though the score never got out of hand, it really felt like Milwaukee was about to run away with the game.

But the Spurs scrapped and fought, and won with energetic defense in the second half (limiting the Bucks to 12 points in the 3rd quarter and just 40 in total), and converting a total of 14 offensive rebounds into 29 second chance points. Over a quarter of the team’s points came off second chances. When you can’t buy a basket, that’s what you need to do.

Credit Kawhi and Tim for 8 of those offensive boards. They were monsters on the boards on both ends. Kawhi, in particular, has become a rebounding machine. From here on out, I don’t think a 15 point / 12 rebound / 3 assist / 3 combined steals and blocks average is out of the question. That’s how good he is.

There’s one other reason the game turned: Tony Parker. More specifically, the absence of Parker. The Bucks went on a 20-2 run in the 1st quarter, but the second unit (with Patty and Manu) got the team back into the game. In the 3rd quarter, the Spurs’ surge started when Tony left the game and Cory and Manu took over. (Cory was fantastic in this game, bringing the defensive tenacity and offensive aggression that had been missing.) Parker has been very poor for a while now, and it might be time to start talking about him when we try to answer the aforementioned ‘why?’ question.

Tonight his shot wasn’t falling, and that will happen. But it’s clearly so much more than that. He just isn’t running the offense cleanly, he’s making his reads and passes too late or never at all, his defense isn’t that solid, and the team just isn’t sharp when he is on the floor. He’s still coming back from injury, and Pop has to give him time on the floor to get himself back. Without a fully healthy Tony, this team is going nowhere. But right now, the team is suffering without a fully healthy Tony.

Easy or no, the win was important tonight. The team is now 2-0 on this important homestand, with a few nights off before facing Charlotte on Wednesday. With two days off at home, the team should be well-prepared for this game.

Heck, it might even be an easy win. (Though I’m not holding my breath.)