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.
