Season 48, Game 52
San Antonio 95, Indiana 93
33-19, 7th in the West
If he couldn’t do it in front of the San Antonio crowd, it’s fitting that Pop would get his 1000th win in Indiana, where he was born and still has strong ties.
Given the nature of this season, it’s also fitting that the game was tight to the end, and took a pretty strong push from the Spurs over the final 5 minutes to even get back into the game. The Spurs have lost their fair share of close games, so it was nice that the basketball gods deemed it just for one to bounce our way on the occasion of Pop’s 1000th victory. (After all of those OT losses in December, we’re still not even on the ledger.)
The Spurs looked great early, especially Parker. He was moving well and getting to the basket, a positive sign. He even made some at the rim. I thought the team had plenty of chances to take firm control of the game in the first half, but they just couldn’t string together a big enough run. It was a seesaw game in the first half, each team putting together nice little runs.
The 3rd quarter was an outright disaster. Again. Outscored 34-18, the Spurs were just horrible. The Pacers looked like the Pacers on D and the Spurs on O, just getting everything they wanted on both ends. I’m not sure why the team struggles so much in 3rd quarters, but it is real. There were a lot of wide open misses, which is sadly becoming common this year.
The offense relies so much on having shooters that can make the wide-open 3; when nobody can hit a wide-open 3, the offense will look pretty bad. Right now, it seems as if every shooter is slightly worse from beyond the arc than they were last season. If it’s just one player, it is easy to overcome; but when each player is a little off, it becomes a team-wide epidemic. It will make the offense look much worse and prevent the Spurs from blowing games wide open. Boris looks off; Patty looks way off most of the time (a lot of his shots are still coming up short, as he’s probably still working himself into game shape); Green is in a huge slump; Manu takes too many ill-advised 3s; Cory is still scared to shoot them.
Enter Marco. We often regard Marco as an afterthought, and in many ways he is. Because he disappeared in the Finals, we forget how important he was to the team last season up until that point. And he’s been out with injury most of this season. But it was Marco (along with Cory and Baynes, to a lesser extent) that really turned the tide of this game in the 4th quarter. He was able to hit a couple of threes, get a couple more shots to fall, and he really sparked the offense. The bench was able to cut a 14-point lead to 8 for the starters.
And wouldn’t you know it, the starters (along with Baynes, who proved huge in the closing minutes) were able to get something done. The final minutes were frantic, and what the game lacked in execution and precision it made up for in energy and excitement. Green must have missed at least 47 wide open 3s. Neither team could buy a bucket. Leonard was guarding Hill, which was an ironically poetic match-up. Indiana went up 2, and had multiple chances to push it to 4, which, in this game, might have effectively ended it.
Finally, Baynes was able to put in an offensive rebound off a Kawhi miss (and boy, was it a bad miss). The Spurs got the ball back and did something they’ve never done before in an end-game situation: they gave the ball to Kawhi. I loved it. Let the young man learn what it’s like to have the ball in your hand with the game on the line. He played it beautifully. He had David West isolated on him out high. He played the clock perfectly, drove past West, and when the defense collapsed, he made the perfect read and pass to Marco in the corner, who buried the jump shot.
Baynes. Kawhi. Marco. Just how Pop envisioned his 1000th win.
One George Hill missed 3 later (also fitting, in a way) and Pop had his 1000th win. He is the ninth coach to reach the milestone, with only Phil Jackson reaching it with a better winning percentage. He is just the second coach to do it with one team, Jerry Sloan obviously being the other. And he is the only coach to do it with one team AND win the NBA Title. Five, to be exact. But who’s counting?
In a season that’s been hard to get a handle on, when the team continually goes 2 steps up and 1 step back, when any sense of momentum is impossible to come by, it’s nice to take a moment outside of the rush of the daily grind of the schedule and just reflect on 1000 wins, Pop, and how great this team has been under his watchful eye. We are a truly lucky fan base to experience such success. 1000 more seems unlikely, but here’s to as many more as you want for as long as you want, Pop.
The Spurs close out the Eastern leg of the Rodeo Road Trip and play their last game before the All-Star Break Wednesday in Detroit. We owe the Pistons for what they did to us in San Antonio.
