Season 49, Game 43
San Antonio 117, Phoenix 89
37-6, Second in the West

That was the least fun 28-point win I can remember watching.

The undermanned and under-talented Phoenix Suns stayed surprisingly close with the sleepwalking San Antonio Spurs for most of the night. It was a tight 10-point game at the end of the 3rd quarter. The Spurs outscored the Suns by 18 in the 4th, and order was restored to the universe.

It was not an impressive showing from the Spurs, and it’s hard to know if the game is just an anomaly or a harbinger of cracks starting to show. I’m more inclined to call it a fluke born of 3 days off (an eternity in the NBA) throwing off rhythm; the absence of Parker and Duncan throwing off the rotation; Pop playing mad scientist and tinkering like crazy (he had a garbage time lineup playing crucial minutes at the end of the 2nd quarter in a relatively close game, almost daring his team to lose); and the team not showing the appropriate fear for the depleted Suns.

So for now I won’t worry about another slow 1st quarter start. And I won’t worry about Boban and Simmons showing their inexperience and limitations in the first half (before both finishing with very nice games by the end). And I won’t concern myself with Mills’ continued shooting woes gumming up the second unit. (Speaking of the second unit, you have to read this, confirming what we’ve all known for years.) And I won’t worry that the team will have to rely on big minutes from McCallum–who still needs about a year to fully figure out his role on the team–at some point in the future. And I won’t worry that the defense looked completely porous at times, and the rim protection absent. And I won’t think about the 30 point quarter that we surrendered to an 8-man Suns team whose best player is a sweet-shooting 19-year-old rookie.

No, I’ll just think about the final 28-point margin and assume (hope) that the Spurs will just continue to know how to do it.

Of course, the real exciting news from the night was Kawhi Leonard being voted into his very first All-Star game as a starter. Any semi-conscious NBA fan knows that Leonard is more than deserving of being an All-Star, but I am shocked that he got voted in as a starter by the fans. Spurs fans have a lot more power and twitter savvy than I expected. Over the final 4 days he made up nearly 68,000 votes to surpass Draymond Green (who is also deserving).

So good job, Spurs fans! I’m of the opinion that, because of the fan vote, being voted in a starter is less honorific than it should be, and less a mark of greatness and more of popularity and marketability. The inclusion of Kawhi helps assuage some of that cynicism.

We al know how special Kawhi is, and the rest of the NBA world is starting to figure it out. Still, none of us knew he would become this: a superstar and foundational piece of an entire franchise. Along with a smart front office, Kawhi’s ascendence has propped open the Spurs’ championship window indefinitely. Hell, at this point we might as well just call it what it is: a giant hole in the wall.

Congratulations, Kawhi. And thank you. I didn’t know how I’d feel about this team post-Duncan and post-“Big Three”. But now I love this team more than ever, in large part because of our quiet #2.

The Spurs finish off a back to back Friday night in Los Angeles. The Lakers are quietly playing just a little bit better lately, and this has the potential to be a trap game, especially in anticipation of Monday’s big showdown against the Warriors. Let’s hope the Spurs take care of business and get the easy win.

Go Spurs Go.