2015 Western Conference Playoffs First Round
San Antonio 100, Los Angeles Clippers 73
Spurs lead series 2-1
Prior to Game 3, Tim Duncan presented Kawhi Leonard with his Defensive Player of the Year Trophy at Center Court before a raucous crowd. Kawhi then proceeded to hand Tim Duncan the best birthday present he could possibly ask for: not only a dominating performance and decisive win, but a bridge from past to future, a passing of the torch, an emphatic “I got this”. Only the biggest and strongest hands in the NBA could be trusted with this team and this legacy, and Duncan and Pop has found them.
One problem with writing about the same collection of people over and over and over again is that narratives tend to stay stagnant and the same storylines keep coming up time and time again. Duncan is a living legend and still probably a tiny bit under appreciated; Parker is the engine of the team; Manu is the heart of the team, a competitive firecracker who will do anything to win a game; Pop is the mad genius behind it all, at equal times obstinate and completely mutable.
The growing story this season (really, from the finale of the 2014 NBA Finals) has been the maturation of Kawhi Leonard as the next star player of this team and this league. Spurs fans know how great he can be, how great he will be. But his season started slowly and he was derailed with injuries. It took until the final 20 games or so before we saw what we had all been waiting for, a glimpse of what this team could be this year and moving forward.
And that was Game 3. Peak Leonard. Defensive Player of the Year. Offensive powder keg. Unstoppable force. Best player on the floor by a wide margin. Future MVP Candidate?
In Game 1, the Clippers had the 3 best players on the floor. In Game 2, Duncan and Leonard neutralized that a bit, but Blake was still great, Paul was good, and Parker and Manu were so bad as to effectively be a net-minus. By Game 3, Leonard was not only the best player on the floor, he more or less erased all the goodness from the Clippers, as well.
We have precedent for this. Game 3 was the magical turning point of the Finals, as well, when Kawhi put it together and went toe-to-toe with the best player on the planet and came out on top. (Maybe he just needs two games in a series to figure it out before taking over.) With that in mind, it seems unlikely we’ll see anything less than “awesome Kawhi” the rest of the way.
Do the Clippers have an answer? Surely Griffin and Paul will play better, but will that be enough? It’s not just Leonard, the whole Spurs team seems to be turning a corner, similar to Game 7 against Dallas last year. (Thank God they didn’t wait as long this post-season.) The offense is figuring things out: the Spurs scored 100 points and led by 30+ at one point, and they still only played a good offensive game. They’re getting the wide open looks they want, but not hitting them at the rate they should. The offense is completely taking apart the Clippers defense, which looks tired and a step behind. While the numbers aren’t there, Parker’s continued aggression and attacking has been a big part of this.
The defense has been even better. Superb. The Clippers basically set franchise career-lows in most important offensive categories in Game 3. The Spurs are denying the Clippers their favorite tendencies and plays and forcing them into uncomfortable and unknown places. In Game 3 they finally made the switch I was hoping for: Danny Green guarding Chris Paul. Green knows how to harass Paul without fouling, and keeping his length in front of him to cut off passing and driving lanes. This frees up Kawhi to cover Redick and not allow him to get going.
The Spurs are surging; are the Clippers sagging? The heavy minutes and heavy burden seems to be weighing on the starters, who are asked to do so much for this team. They look tired, and they know they have to play near-perfect because the bench is ineffective at best. The pressure of perfection rarely allows for it.
Everything seems to be going the Spurs way. And yet, all it takes is one game to flip the series on its head one more time. Despite being up 2-1 and in control, it’s important for the Spurs to win Game 4 at home and be on the verge of closing out. The recipe for winning a series as the lower seed is to stay perfect at home and steal one on the road. The Spurs can ill afford to give back what they won in Game 2.
Luckily, the Spurs have been a great home team this year. If they can jump on the Clippers early, what fight will they have left in them?
Game 4 is Sunday afternoon.
Go Spurs Go.
