Season 49, Game 41
San Antonio 99, Cleveland 95
35-6, 2nd in the West
Astute observers will notice that Thursday night’s thrilling win against the Cavs was the team’s 41st game, marking the halfway point of the regular season. What a way to ring in the second half of the season.
It looked as if the Cavs were going to run the Spurs off the court in the first half. Thanks mostly to Parker, San Antonio was able to keep in touch in the first half. I’m sure Pop politely asked the team to play a little bit harder at halftime, and the team respectfully obliged.
In honor of the team’s schizophrenic halves, it seems appropriate for another round of “Good Cop, Bad Cop”.
Good cop:
Oh man, is Tony Parker on a tear. To quote a cliche, rumors of his demise have been greatly exaggerated. His offensive game has been as great as ever. He perhaps isn’t as prolific as he once was, but he doesn’t need to be on this team. He runs the offense and tries to get everybody else going, knowing full well that he can take over when he needs to. What a luxury to have a PG who can score so easily but doesn’t need to for the team to be successful.
More impressively, though, is his defensive effort this season. He is just getting into guys, hounding them around the defensive end of the floor the same way he drags them around the offensive end of the floor. The National Media hasn’t really picked up on this yet, because the story of Parker is that he is a horrible defender. And he had mostly earned that. But this season is different.
PG on PG defense is the toughest to quantify. Most of these PGs are just too good, and can easily burn anybody in a one-on-one matchup. So it really comes down to team defense. But it starts with high defensive energy and IQ from the defending PG, and Parker is exhibiting both of those this season.
Bad cop:
I have nothing bad to say about Tony right now.
Good cop:
David West had himself quite a game. The team needed a jolt of toughness and energy, and he brought it. Helped by his numerous battles over the years against LeBron teams in the East, he seemed completely nonplussed by the level of physicality in the game. He had 13 points and 5 rebounds in 18 minutes, which are very solid numbers. More importantly, he helped stem the tide in the first half, and then turn the tide in the second half.
Every so often I’ll look at this roster, and it will dawn on me: David West is our 9th man! What the heck!?
Bad cop:
The rest of our bigs had a pretty disappointing game. Diaw did very little in only 10 minutes of playing time. Duncan seemed to force his offense a bit in the first half, trying to score over Kevin Love, rather than letting the offense flow. And Aldridge seemed a bit overwhelmed by the moment.
This was one of my concerns coming into the season with Aldridge: how will he show up on the big stage? Because honestly, he’s never been on a big stage. Yes, the Blazers have been in the playoffs. And yes, he had a couple of huge games against Houston in that first round series. But he’s never been in the later rounds, in the ‘Big Boy’ games. The closest he’s been is that second round against the Spurs. We all know how that went.
Last season he struggled in the first round against Memphis, though he seemed to also be playing through injury.
To be fair, this is why he came to the Spurs, so he clearly wants the challenge. The team will need more from him than he gave in this game.
Good cop:
Of course, Aldridge did get a huge offensive rebound on a Parker missed free throw that essentially sealed the game. And Duncan hit a huge bank shot over Love late in the game that also helped secure the win. And his defense was huge, as always, down the stretch.
Bad cop:
Danny Green had a pretty rough game. He only hit 1 shot, and missed really badly on a few others. It was his defense that got him yanked from the game, though. Early in the 3rd quarter he missed a defensive assignment which led to an easy J.R. Smith layup. Pop immediately got Simmons up and pulled Green at the next dead ball.
Throughout this season, Danny has had a pretty long offensive leash to work through his slump. That leeway, though, is granted only because of his defense. Once he makes a defensive mistake, Pop will yank him. The longer the offensive leash, the shorter the defensive one.
Good cop:
Both Simmons and Anderson had very short but very productive and encouraging stints in this game. They only played 14 minutes combined, and only scored 4 points (one basket each), but neither seemed afraid of the moment, and both used their unique (and vastly different) skills to impact the game while they were in.
As deep as this team is, they still need some fortification along the wing. If both Simmons and Anderson can provide meaningful contributions–even in small doses–that could be huge for this team.
Bad cop:
Kawhi still seems to be struggling with his shot a bit. There was some talk on Twitter that it might be a bit of fatigue, tired legs from carrying such a burden on both ends of the court. He did hit a few big shots eventually, but his shot in general does look a little flat.
Good cop:
Literally everything else about Kawhi’s game.
As expected, he got up for his defensive assignment against LeBron. Nobody will ever ‘shut down’ LeBron, but nobody makes life more difficult for him than Kawhi. He relentlessly stuck to him, allowing him almost no separation. He fought through every screen, allowing almost no switches. He recovered back quickly when he did get some separation, even blocking him from behind at the rim on one sequence. All the while, he still kept his head up and provided spectacular help defense when not involved in the play.
Offensively, despite his shot, he had a really impressive game. He was active and energetic. He led the fast break a few times, and got really nice assists to Parker, rather than barreling to the rim and possibly drawing an offensive foul. He had that huge putback dunk on a missed Green 3 from the corner, very reminiscent of the 2014 Finals.
Most impressively, as it has been his entire career, he seems totally unfazed by the moment. In fact, he always seems to play better the bigger the stage.
Bad cop:
While Kawhi was relentless in hounding James on defense in the half court, the team too easily got lulled into crossmatches and mismatches trying to recover in transition. This was particularly evident in the first half. The Cavs would be bringing the ball up, and you’d realize that Parker was guarding James, Duncan was on Smith, Kawhi was on Tristan Thompson. Transition defense is one of the foundational tenets of Spurs’ basketball, so it was disappointing to see the team get lost so often.
To wit, the Cavs scored 32 points in the first quarter, a season high for a Spurs’ opponent.
Good cop:
The Cavs only scored 63 points the rest of the game, which would pace out to only an 84 point game. After that first quarter, the defense really locked in. The Cavs only scored 2 points in the first 5 minutes of the 4th quarter, during which the Spurs surged to the lead and took final control of the game.
Bad cop:
Manu missed a couple of huge shots that would have been backbreakers.
Good cop:
Manu also played like a controlled maniac, the best possible Manu there is. His energy was infectious, and he helped to keep the team afloat in that first half when things didn’t look good. And of course, he hit a clutch, “classic” Manu layup over and around Kevin Love late in the game to keep the Cavs at arms length.
Bad cop:
The Warriors also won last night, keeping the Spurs at bay yet again.
Good cop:
The Spurs are 35-6 through the first half of the season! They are on pace for 70 wins. 70!! 70 has only been reached once in NBA history, and now two teams are on pace for it in the same season. This is a historically great season for both teams, and the Warriors success should in no way detract from what the Spurs are doing. If anything, we should thank them for allowing our team to fly under the radar, relatively speaking.
Bad cop:
The schedule does get a lot tougher from here on out. I don’t expect the Spurs to get to 70 wins…
Good cop:
…and we honestly shouldn’t care. It’s not about the regular season; it’s about the postseason. Only the ring matters.
The schedule needs to get tougher to help the team get better and prepare for the postseason. As much as it rattles my nerves to watch a game like this one, it does more for the team than blowing out the 76ers.
One half of the season is behind us. It was historically great. It means nothing, though, if the team doesn’t back it up in the second half and then into the playoffs.
The second half of the season starts Sunday when our old friends the Mavs come to town.
Go Spurs Go.
