In Focus, Out Of Hand

Season 48, Game 65
San Antonio 123, Minnesota 97
41-24, 5th in the West

(Photo by D. Clarke Evans/NBAE via Getty Images)

(Photo by D. Clarke Evans/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Spurs beat the Wolves by 26 points, and it wasn’t really that close.

After a sluggish first half, the lead topped out at 39 before the inevitable garbage time run by Minnesota cut the final deficit. A win was mostly inevitable against this Wolves squad sitting Garnett, Rubio, and Pekovic, and only dressing 8 players. Fresh bodies alone could have won this game. Throw in the Spurs’ overwhelming chemistry, talent, and desire to win, and it was a no-brainer.

Still, the Spurs started the first half as if showing up would be enough. Leonard, in particular, seemed out of focus and half-asleep in the first half, letting Wiggins get the better of their match-up. As has been noted by Pop (and others), the next step for Leonard to take is to bring his all-around excellent game every night, to be able to dominate Minnesota on a Sunday evening as well as he does Cleveland on a Thursday night marquee TNT game.

As if immediately answering our question, Leonard started the 2nd half with a quick 5 points, and it just ballooned from there. He started gobbling up rebounds, had an impressive block on Wiggins, getting steals (at least 3 by my count in about a 5 minutes stretch), and causing chaos on both ends. His defense, as usual, led to quick and easy offense. It’s no coincidence that a woken up Kawhi turned a 10-point game into a 30-point game in 12 minutes, and that the Spurs outscored the Wolves 33-13 in the 3rd quarter.

There’s a real possibility that Kawhi is the best defender in the NBA. Not in the hyperbolic sense that people talk about ‘the best’ player or ‘a top 10’ player, but end up listing 15-30 names. Literally, the best defender in the NBA. What makes his defense so superlative is that it so often leads to easy points. So he’s not only preventing 2-3 points, but he’s helping to add 2-3 points the other way. His defensive plays are often worth 4-6 point swings in games. And it’s not uncommon to see 2-3 of these plays in the span of just a few minutes. That’s a subtle 12-18 point swing (as subtle as 12-18 point swings can be).

The other story of this game was the Manu injury. It looked really bad in real time, mostly from Ginobili’s reaction. The initial report is that it is a sprain, and he will be out 7-10 days. Given how bad the news could have been, this should be greeted with a sigh of relief. Manu’s importance diminishes each season, but he’s still a vital part of the team, particularly his orchestration of the second unit.

The Spurs stretch over the next week starts easy then gets tough in a hurry. The team heads to New York to face the Knicks on Tuesday (as ‘gimme’ a game as exists in the NBA right now) and a quick turnaround against Milwaukee on Wednesday. The Bucks are a tough team (and gave us fits in San Antonio last month), but that’s a doable back-to-back, especially given how well the team has been playing of late. The Celtics come to town Friday night, which should be a win, even though Boston is also playing quite well right now. But that’s a game this team should win.

After that, the schedule gets real tricky. The next 5 games are at Atlanta, at Dallas, home for Oklahoma City, home for Dallas, and home for Memphis. That’s a tough stretch, so these next three games are actually pretty important.

The way the team is playing right now, I trust them to take care of business. They finished the home stretch 5-1, and have won 7 of their last 8. With the win tonight, they jumped over Dallas and the Clippers (who lost earlier in the day to Houston) to claim 5th in the West. The 2 through 7 seeds in the West is going to be a fight to the finish, and the way the match-ups play out will be really interesting. For now, let’s just keep winning games.

1 Comment

  1. Dan

    Great recap!