Season 49, Game 22
San Antonio 119, Philadelphia 68
18-4, 2nd in the West

51.

I could probably end my recap right there. When a team beats another team by 51 points, there’s not much analysis necessary. The two teams really aren’t even playing the same sport.

In the NBA, there’s a thing known as a ‘schedule loss’. That’s when a team basically writes off a game as a loss because of the vagaries of the schedule. Maybe it’s a back-to-back with crazy travel in between. Maybe it’s a 4th game in 5 nights. Maybe a 5th game in 7 nights while the other team has had 4  days off. You get the idea. Sometimes a coach just knows a loss is coming.

The 76ers right now are the only ‘schedule win’ in the league. (Unless you’re the Lakers. Haha.) You look at the schedule, see Philadelphia, and pencil that one in as a win. Hell, most teams can probably use the permanent marker.

Okafor-Aldridge-Bonner-20151207

No Kawhi. No Tim. No Manu. Tony only played the first half. LaMarcus got a short run in the second half before shutting it down. Hell, even Patty Mills only saw 12 minutes of action. There isn’t a bench deep enough for Pop to go to to have made this a more fair fight. The Spurs had a 36 point lead at half time (a franchise record), and still outscored the 76ers by 15 in the second half while essentially actively trying not to embarrass them. In most blowouts, the final margin gets a bit tighter as the losing team plays a little harder in garbage time. Not this night. Philly played hard, but it didn’t really matter; the Spurs won the 4th quarter 23-16.

The real star of the night was Boban. I know the San Antonio crowd loves him, but he even won over the Philadelphia crowd (a notoriously ornery fan base). It sounded like a packed house when he dunked the ball a few times, or when he made a shot clock buzzer beater under a minute left by totally juking out Okafor. Everybody loves Boban.

Tonight he showed that Pop and company might soon love him, too. His size is just formidable, and he moves well with such a large body. What’s really impressive is how much touch and vision he has. He has a nice little jumper with a soft bounce. And you can tell he just loves making plays for his teammates, always looking for the backdoor pass or to set up his teammates.

If there’s any value in a game like this, it’s for extended minutes for players like Boban, Simmons, Anderson, even vets like McCallum and Butler as they attempt to really learn the Spurs system, ingraining it in their bones.

And of course, the extended rest for the starters and primary bench players. The Spurs play in Toronto on Wednesday, and that game serves to be a real gauge as to where this team is at about a quarter into the season. Toronto is a solid team; it should be a great game.

Go Spurs Go.