Adrian Wojnarowski writes for Yahoo! Sports (“Spurs’ fall arriving sooner than expected”):
Everyone’s eyes can see the truth unfolding on the floor, and yes, the crumbling of the San Antonio Spurs’ dynasty is a jarring spectacle. Fading fast now, a proud, old champion has struggled to stay with the talented bodies, young legs and hungry hearts out of Memphis.
The Grizzlies deliberately tanked the regular season’s final weeks to make sure they would get San Antonio in the opening round and Tony Allen called out Manu Gionbili for faking an elbow injury. The Spurs tried to turn those slights into fuel, but it hasn’t mattered. Whatever the Grizzlies want to do, they do. There’s dignity to a dynasty dying in basketball, no ceremony. Holt always said he would go down with Duncan, and just maybe that’s the case now for the Spurs. Through it all, your heart still tells you there’s a final stand in the Alamo City on Wednesday night, a celebration of the black and silver that won’t allow them to go down so easily to an eighth seed.
These playoffs have been different, and the Spurs know it. The Grizzlies are exploiting matchups everywhere on the floor. No one should declare the Spurs dead and gone because that franchise operates with too much pride, too much belief. Only, everyone’s eyes are telling them the story of this opening-round series. Yes, it’s jarring to watch a dynasty go down so suddenly, so hard.
Sad!