Season 49, Game 66
San Antonio 93, Oklahoma City 85
56-10, 2nd in the West
The ball swung to Aldridge at the elbow extended. Westbrook, as is his wont, gambled off of his man in the corner in an attempt to blindside LaMarcus and get the steal. Aldridge pivoted, avoiding the steal, and darted the ball to the man in the corner, now as alone as a player could ever be on a basketball court.
The good news? That man was Danny Green, the Spurs 3-point specialist. The bad news? That man was Danny Green, mired in possibly the worst shooting slump of his career and looking completely out of sorts on his shot. To that point in the game he was 0 for 7, and had only connected on 2 in the entire month of March.
Still, the voice of Pop must have been in his ear: “Screw it, let ’em fly”.
Let if fly he did, and in it went, giving the Spurs their first lead since the second quarter, and one they would never relinquish. A few moments later, Kawhi connected on another 3, his first and only of the game. Screw it, let ’em fly. The Spurs built the margin they needed, and used lockdown defense the rest of the way to close out the game.
The full context of Pop’s quote is even more enjoyable and illuminating:
“There’s only two outcomes. It goes in or it doesn’t, but he still gets his paycheck, his family still loves him. So, screw it, let ’em fly.”
Never has this ethos been more tested than in this last week. Over the previous four games, the Spurs are shooting an ice cold 18 for 88 from behind the arc, an eye-popping 20%. (The number is only this high because of a ‘hot streak’ in the second half of the Bulls game, where they shot 4 for 7. Remove that, and the percentage drops to a frigid 17%.)
As bad as it sounds, it looks even worse. Half of these shots look off from the moment they leave the hand of the shooter. Green is so out of whack that his form and entire shooting motion looks different. He seems to be rushing his shot, his feet are rarely set, and he is doing this weird kicking thing with his legs after releasing the ball. Not the picture perfect form we are used to seeing.
We know that the long-range shooting has to come around in order to succeed in the playoffs, particularly to get past the Warriors. The only way this is going to happen, though, is to relax and just let them keep flying. Adding pressure doesn’t help a shot. Shooters are best when relaxed and fluid.
Pop’s quote shows us so much more about the Spurs, though. It’s a glimpse into the entire culture. As much as Pop’s reputation is built on being strict and enforcing a discipline on his team, what really allows the team to thrive is the culture of support and encouragement that has been built over the last two decades. The Spurs don’t look at players and see all of the things he can’t do; they see a player for his strengths, and find ways to fit those strengths into the overall system. Pop gets the most out of players because he puts them in positions to succeed while eliminating situations in which they will fail.
This is no more evident than in the ascension of Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi deserves all the credit in the world for lifting his game to this level, a level which nobody outside of the Leonard household imagined he could reach. But the Spurs deserve a ton of credit, too, for not only player development, but also for rolling it out at a pace that wouldn’t overwhelm the young man nor push him into failure.
Granted, Kawhi had the benefit of a row of future hall of famers in front of him. He could take his time and ease into his game. But if Kawhi had been asked to do too much too early, he might be seen as a bust right now. Instead, he’s a Top-5 player in the game with still a ton of potential in front of him.
There he was, in the final minutes of this game, and he was the go-to guy for the Spurs down the stretch. Not Duncan (who was on the bench), not Manu (ditto), not Parker, and not Aldridge. At one point, Parker had the ball near half court, settling the team into a set, and you could see Pop just on the other side of midcourt screaming and pointing, telling Tony to get the damn ball to Kawhi.
That’s his role now. Late game with the end result in the balance, get the damn ball into Kawhi’s hands. I know it’s where I feel most comfortable.
Finally, Pop’s quote speaks to something even deeper in this organization, an idea that Jeff Van Gundy spoke to directly during the broadcast after talking to Pop earlier in the day: empathy. This is something that’s been on my mind a lot lately with this team, and a reason why I think we all love them so much. The players and coaching staff have so much empathy for each other, and it really creates a supportive and winning culture. They don’t get down on each other when mistakes are made; rather, they lift each other up, they support each other, and they are there for each other.
This is embodied most fully in Duncan, who is such a natural leader and encourager of his teammates. It’s why I think he is probably one of the two or three greatest teammates of all-time in professional basketball.
And this is why Green–alone in the corner, having missed seven straight 3-pointers in the game–can catch that pass from LaMarcus and let it fly. He knows it’s his job, and he knows his team believes in him. If he misses, they’ll still believe in him and they’ll still love him.
And he loves them. So if he makes it, it won’t be for him. It’ll be for something larger: the team.
The Clippers come to town Tuesday night for another Western Conference showdown.
Go Spurs Go.
