Season 49, Game 42
San Antonio 112, Dallas 83
36-6, 2nd in the West
Eventually one of these slow starts is going to catch up to the Spurs.
Right?
A team as great as this Spurs team can’t continue to consistently put up sub-20 point first quarters, or fall into 10+ point deficits that early in the ball game. Even with a great defense that keeps them in every ball game, eventually it will cost the team a game, perhaps an important one in the playoffs.
To paraphrase the great Doug Collins: you can’t win the game in the first quarter, but you can definitely lose it.
It doesn’t seem to be a lineup issue: each one of the starters makes sense in their role, and they fit well together. It’s not a schematic thing. It’s not an energy thing. I can’t really pinpoint exactly what it is, it’s more a feeling, the sense that the team needs to “ease” into the ballgame.
Whatever the problem, more often that not it feels like it takes the insertion of the second unit to jump start the offense, and then the team is off to the races.
The slow starts makes what the team does in the last 3 quarters even more impressive. After scoring a mere 14 points in the first quarter against the Mavs, the team put up 98 over the final 3, outscoring Dallas by 31 points in the final 36 minutes. Imagine if they’d started the game that way?
And if we’re getting really particular, it wasn’t until about the 9-minute mark of the 2nd quarter that the team really got going, meaning they outscored the Mavs by roughly 30 points in 27 minutes. That’s…good.
The Mavs were kind enough to match our slow start: not every team will be so generous. In fact, there’s a certain team up near the bay that thrives on fast starts and burying teams in the first quarter.
The Spurs can’t mess around with them.
A few more thoughts from Sunday’s win against the Mavericks:
• I love how David West is fitting in with this team, getting more and more comfortable each game. And damn, that jumper is money. I think I trust his 18-footer the most on the team, which is high praise considering the competition in Aldridge and Leonard.
• Aldridge continues to get more and more comfortable, as well. I’ve been really impressed by how well he has integrated into the culture and the system, and really hasn’t forced his play or went hunting for his numbers. He’s played hard and down in the trenches.
And he’s starting to find his rhythm. He had a 13-point spurt in the 3rd quarter that essentially put the game out of reach. It looked like the Portland LaMarcus, but surrounded by the Championship Spurs. That’s a scary good combination.
Photo: Getty Images
• The secret master stroke of Pop’s work this season is how well he has integrated new (big) pieces, modified the style of play, seamlessly fit the roster together, AND really devoted time and resources to player development. We had no idea what the roster held after David West, and now it looks like we have at least 3 more legitimate playoff rotation pieces in Boban, Simmons, and Anderson.
Simmons, in particular, has been such a pleasant surprise. He brings such a unique and needed skill set to the team, but doesn’t sacrifice intelligence for pure athleticism. He’s a smart player and seems unafraid of the stage or the moment. He also takes coaching and is eager to fit into the team concept. It’s quite obvious that the coaches are telling him to shoot the open 3 more when it comes to him, rather than driving. And, voila, against the Mavs he hit back-to-back wide open 3s.
It’s a bit of a misnomer to call him a ‘rookie’, though. While technically true, it’s important to know that he is a 26 year old man, not a 19 year old fresh out of college. He has been fighting for his NBA career for half a decade, and nearly gave up before walking on to the Austin Spurs from an open tryout.
This is a ridiculously heartwarming story that will probably get a lot more attention if and when he starts playing more. Like Danny Green before him, he knows what he’s fighting for, and knows he is out of chances after this.
Just the kind of players the Spurs love.
The schedule gets a bit wonky. The team has 3 days off, before playing a Thursday-Friday back-to-back at the Suns and at the Lakers. Then they have two more days off before Monday’s showdown at Golden State that the entire league has been waiting months for.
Go Spurs Go.
