Season 50, Game 41
San Antonio 122, Minnesota 114
32-9, 2nd in the West
This game seemed to follow a familiar script for the Spurs this season: a high-scoring first half (read: poor defense) followed by a tough, defensive-focused second half to secure the win.
That first half really was something. The teams combined to score 138 points and shoot 52 free throws. I thought the game might never end. Every Wolves possession ended in points or in foul shots (and then points). These poor defense-first coaches must have been frustrated beyond belief.
The good news this season is that the Spurs have the offensive firepower to keep up when these games become scoring exhibitions. While the team defense can still be tops in the league, the team no longer depends on that defense for survival. So while the Wolves scored an unseemly 71 points in that first half, the Spurs were right there with them at 67.
The second half looked a lot more like the Spurs we’ve accustomed to. Minnesota scored a mere 43 points (9 in the final 2 minutes when the game was mostly out of reach), only got 11 FTAs, and were outplayed and outworked in every facet. The Spurs’ offense still thrived, putting up 55 points and looking completely in sync.
Kawhi–as is becoming normal–put on a show. He scored 34 points, his 4th game in a row scoring over 30. Kawhi is anything but a natural scorer, to see his game evolve in this manner is exciting. He’ll never be a offensive freak of nature, like a Durant or Harden. To watch Leonard is to watch a student who has completely mastered a craft from thousands upon thousands of hours of study and practice.
There’s no shame in that. Wiggins serves as a natural foil for Leonard. Wiggins has all the natural athletic gifts to be a tremendous basketball player. (Kawhi is often a comp people like to make for his potential.) However, it is still undecided if he’ll ever reach those levels, despite starting from a better position than Kawhi. Wiggins, thus far, is a great scorer, and not much else. Kawhi, on the other hand, started with everything else, and turned himself into a great scorer.
The contrast is made even more stark because the two guard each other, and Kawhi more or less drinks his milkshake on both ends of the court. The Wolves only hope Wiggins develops into half the player that Kawhi has made himself into.
In a larger context, this game represents the overarching theme of the Spurs’ season: great skill, great potential, inconsistent performance. The team still struggles to play complete games. While they still win most of their games (duh), they often are closer in the end than they need to be.
So if we look on the bright side, the Spurs enter the midpoint of the season on pace for 64 wins and still with tremendous room for growth. The players are still figuring things out on the court, and the staff is still figuring out who fits where. This team has much more flexibility in years past with their roster. The second half of the season will be spent figuring out what the best combinations are and which players offer the best opportunities for victories on a nightly basis.
If I’d been told before the season that after 41 games, the Spurs would have 32 wins, I’d have been ecstatic. But like most of us, now I’m greedy. I love watching this team and I want to see them truly compete in the playoffs. Seasons like this–teams like this–are special. I want to squeeze every last drop out of it.
The Nuggets come to town Thursday night.
Go Spurs Go.
