Season 48, Game 67
San Antonio 114, Milwaukee 103
42-25, 7th in the West
That’s more like it.
A night after a lifeless and disinterested team lost somewhat disastrously in NYC, the Spurs rebounded nicely with a good road win in Milwaukee.
The NBA is a funny thing, and with 30 teams playing 82 games over the course of 5 1/2 months, odd results are bound to occur. The Spurs barely scratched 90 points in regulation against a horrible defense on Tuesday; Wednesday night they had 91 points after 3 quarters against the NBA’s second best rated defense. Go figure.
It took about half of a quarter for the Knicks hangover to wear off, but once it did, the ball was moving again, the players were cutting again, and there was a sense of urgency and what Pop likes to call “appropriate fear”. As Green said afterwards, they respected the game and the opponent. They played with energy and life.
It was encouraging to see so many well-rounded performances from the squad. This was perhaps the best Diaw game of the season, which means that it must almost be April and he is waking from his regular season hibernation. There are few players quite like Boris, who have such a stark difference between their “good” setting and their “average” setting. A disengaged Bobo is a hindrance; an engaged Bobo is a championship difference maker. If we get the attacking, passing, engaged Boris for the last month of the regular season and playoffs, we’ll be in good shape.
Green also played a terrific game. His defense was solid as ever, and his shot is in a “hot” phase. What was more impressive was how well he was attacking the rim off the dribble, making plays with the pass, and generally showing a well-rounded offensive floor game. I still hold my breath when he dribbles into traffic, but more and more I exhale with excitement rather than screaming obscenities. Danny and Boris were sneakily our two best players last night, and that’s really exciting.
Splitter continued to play inspired and aggressive. Over the last week or so, we’re seeing an energy from Tiago that I’m not used to seeing. He’s always been an invested player, but it’s almost like he’s fed up with something or out to prove something. I love it. His post game is improving, he’s deadly running the floor in transition, and his pick and roll and passing skills are as solid as ever.
(AP Photo/Darren Hauck)
Duncan was also great. It’s amazing that he is almost 39 years old and there are still a good chunk of teams that don’t have a big man that can guard him in the post.
On the negative side of the ledger, Leonard didn’t have a very good game, and this is two nights in a row that he has been subpar (by our lofty standards). It’s hard to remember sometimes that he is still so young and still figuring things out. I’m not worried about him, but the team can’t afford too many nights when he is off his game.
One thing I am starting to worry about is the back-up PG position. Ironically, as Parker has gotten better, both Mills and Joseph have struggled. I think Cory, being pushed down the rotation and not getting regular minutes, is just forcing too much and trying to make as much happen as he can when he is in because he doesn’t know when minutes are coming. This is understandable, but he is definitely not performing to the level he was at the beginning of the season. Mills struggle is mostly one thing: his outside shot. The energy is there, the peskiness is there, the flow with the second unit is there, he just needs to start hitting his 3s again. The threat of that shot is where most of his value derives from. Let’s hope it starts coming around.
While last night’s win doesn’t erase the bad taste of the Knicks loss, it does mitigate it a bit. One of the things I was most upset about after Tuesday night was the concern that putting so much energy into that Knicks game and then losing might have also cost the team the Bucks game.
We absolutely had to get one of these two wins. Most thought the Knicks was a gimme. Had the Spurs won, there is a decent chance that Pop might have rested players Wednesday night, or that the sense of urgency wouldn’t have been there. The team very well could have lost last night after winning Tuesday.
I tend to look at the schedule in 3-6 game chunks. We had the 6-game homestand, and I wanted 5-1 or 6-0. We got 5-1. Does it matter which of those games we lost? In the aggregate, not really.
I put the next 3 games into a block: at the Knicks, at the Bucks, home for the Celtics. I thought 3-0 was possible, but given the back-to-back and the travel, I was content with 2-1. The team still has a chance for that. The Boston game was always the most critical to me, as they are playing very well and present a good challenge to the Spurs. But it’s still a game the team should absolutely win.
They’ll get their chance Friday night.
