Season 50, Game 24
San Antonio 130, Brooklyn 101
19-5, 2nd in the West

If you ever need to feel good about yourself, playing the Brooklyn Nets at home is probably the best remedy.

I follow the NBA closely, and I think I’d maybe heard of three of their players. Some of the names sounded familiar in that “oh yeah” kind of way, but mostly it was Brook Lopez and a bunch of unknowns.

Maybe Pop knew this when he criticized the team Thursday night. It’s easy to “respond” and do your job when the only real opponent is yourself and you’ve got something to prove. To their credit, the Nets play hard and they shoot a lot of 3s, a high variance strategy that can keep bad teams in a game… or shoot them right out of it. On this night, the Spurs shot 14-of-26 to Brooklyn’s 7-of-27. Ball game.

Of course, you could look at just about any statistic from the game and reach the same conclusion. The Spurs shot 53% overall to the Nets 41%; the Spurs made 50 FGs (a season high, I believe) to the Nets 36; 38 assists (another season high) to 21; 11 steals and 7 blocks to 6 and 2 the other way. And the biggest one of all, 130 (yet another season high) to 101.

The offense certainly looked better tonight. The ball was moving, the cuts were sharp, and the team played with force and for each other. It was what we have come to know as “Spurs basketball”. It helps when the outside jumpers are falling, which can simply be a make-or-miss proposition. But those outside jumpers have a tendency to fall more when the offense is humming along and the shots are wide open.

And when the team needed it, there were bouts of individual greatness. Kawhi seemed to decide he wanted the 4th quarter off, so he took over the game in the early parts of the third on both ends. He also kept the team afloat in the latter half of the second quarter when things seemed to bog down just a bit.

And Patty Mills had perhaps the best three minutes of his career, putting up 8 points (with 2 steals) in the blink of an eye, effectively salting the game away. With his energy, he is a joy to watch. When that shot is falling, he makes the Spurs deadly.

So the team gets a feel-good win going into three days off. Not bad. Beating the Nets is no great feat, but beating any team by 29-points with that level of precision and efficiency is impressive, no matter the name on the other jersey. After Thursday’s offensive egg, it’s nice to see the team back to its old ways.

Boston comes to town Wednesday night. The Celtics will be looking for some measure of revenge after the Spurs took one in Boston a few weeks ago. This will be a good test for the Spurs. The Celtics are a really good team, but this is a game the Spurs should win on their home court.

Go Spurs Go.

Season 50, Game 23
San Antonio 91, Chicago 95
18-5, 2nd in the West

After the Bulls snapped the Spurs 13-game road winning streak, Pop had a nice little rant when asked about his team’s motivation. To paraphrase, he said: these are grown men and professionals; they get paid to do their jobs.

The Spurs inability to play a full 48 minutes finally caught up to them, as they were unable to overcome yet another double-digit point deficit (18 in this game). Once again, they started flat, only scraping out 32 points in the first half.

Unlike the past few wins, the usual second half burst and Kawhi Leonard heroics were not enough. They got close, and threatened to make the game interesting. But every time it looked like the worm might turn, there was a careless turnover leading to an easy Bulls basket; or a missed wide-open jumper followed up by a silly foul. These miniature 4-point swings add up in a game, and they are even more deadly when you’re trying to battle out of a (self-inflicted) huge hole.

When you get down by 18 points in the 3rd quarter, I think you lose the ability to complain about the end of game. There were some dubious calls, to be sure, but if the team had played with a lick of force in the first half, it probably wouldn’t have mattered.

It’s not to say they played poorly. They didn’t. They just played flat. The offense wasn’t bad. It just lacked the energy necessary to generate great shots, too often settling at good or good enough. It feels like the Spurs are too often playing as if they are not all on the same page, not all sure what the best course of action is in the offense.

When they’ve made their comebacks, it’s usually because Kawhi decides he is the best course of action. Which is often the case. But we can’t expect Kawhi to always play the hero, nor is that the kind of basketball Pop really wants. Kawhi is more efficient and more effective when he is a threat to pass and a threat to score. In the 4th quarter against the Bulls, he did a great job breaking down the defense and finding open teammates. If there’s one bright spot to take from this game, it’s this.

I don’t know if Pop’s comment was meant for any single player, or just the team in general. The Spurs are usually nothing if not professional, but the slow starts are troubling. Maybe it’s just that time in the season when he needs to kick them in the ass a little bit.

Whatever the case, there is too much offensive talent on this team to routinely score in the low teens in quarters.

Now that we’ve gotten the grousing out of the way, let’s remind ourselves that the Spurs are 18-5, have the second best record in the entire league, are 13-1 on the road, and are doing this all while integrating seven new players, adjusting to the loss of their cornerstone player, and still figuring out exactly how they want to play.

Translation: the Spurs are good with plenty of room to get a whole lot better. Losing a road game in Chicago in December is pretty unremarkable on its face. That it’s the first road loss of the season isn’t. 13 straight road wins to start the season is damn impressive. So impressive, in fact, that it’s only been bested once in the entire history of the NBA.

The Spurs are fine. There’s still plenty to work out and fix, but that’s the fun of the season, right?

If nothing else, Pop’s choice words should spark a strong performance tonight at home against the Nets. Poor Nets.

Go Spurs Go.