Category: Featured (Page 19 of 78)

Season 48, Game 65
San Antonio 123, Minnesota 97
41-24, 5th in the West

(Photo by D. Clarke Evans/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Spurs beat the Wolves by 26 points, and it wasn’t really that close.

After a sluggish first half, the lead topped out at 39 before the inevitable garbage time run by Minnesota cut the final deficit. A win was mostly inevitable against this Wolves squad sitting Garnett, Rubio, and Pekovic, and only dressing 8 players. Fresh bodies alone could have won this game. Throw in the Spurs’ overwhelming chemistry, talent, and desire to win, and it was a no-brainer.

Still, the Spurs started the first half as if showing up would be enough. Leonard, in particular, seemed out of focus and half-asleep in the first half, letting Wiggins get the better of their match-up. As has been noted by Pop (and others), the next step for Leonard to take is to bring his all-around excellent game every night, to be able to dominate Minnesota on a Sunday evening as well as he does Cleveland on a Thursday night marquee TNT game.

As if immediately answering our question, Leonard started the 2nd half with a quick 5 points, and it just ballooned from there. He started gobbling up rebounds, had an impressive block on Wiggins, getting steals (at least 3 by my count in about a 5 minutes stretch), and causing chaos on both ends. His defense, as usual, led to quick and easy offense. It’s no coincidence that a woken up Kawhi turned a 10-point game into a 30-point game in 12 minutes, and that the Spurs outscored the Wolves 33-13 in the 3rd quarter.

There’s a real possibility that Kawhi is the best defender in the NBA. Not in the hyperbolic sense that people talk about ‘the best’ player or ‘a top 10’ player, but end up listing 15-30 names. Literally, the best defender in the NBA. What makes his defense so superlative is that it so often leads to easy points. So he’s not only preventing 2-3 points, but he’s helping to add 2-3 points the other way. His defensive plays are often worth 4-6 point swings in games. And it’s not uncommon to see 2-3 of these plays in the span of just a few minutes. That’s a subtle 12-18 point swing (as subtle as 12-18 point swings can be).

The other story of this game was the Manu injury. It looked really bad in real time, mostly from Ginobili’s reaction. The initial report is that it is a sprain, and he will be out 7-10 days. Given how bad the news could have been, this should be greeted with a sigh of relief. Manu’s importance diminishes each season, but he’s still a vital part of the team, particularly his orchestration of the second unit.

The Spurs stretch over the next week starts easy then gets tough in a hurry. The team heads to New York to face the Knicks on Tuesday (as ‘gimme’ a game as exists in the NBA right now) and a quick turnaround against Milwaukee on Wednesday. The Bucks are a tough team (and gave us fits in San Antonio last month), but that’s a doable back-to-back, especially given how well the team has been playing of late. The Celtics come to town Friday night, which should be a win, even though Boston is also playing quite well right now. But that’s a game this team should win.

After that, the schedule gets real tricky. The next 5 games are at Atlanta, at Dallas, home for Oklahoma City, home for Dallas, and home for Memphis. That’s a tough stretch, so these next three games are actually pretty important.

The way the team is playing right now, I trust them to take care of business. They finished the home stretch 5-1, and have won 7 of their last 8. With the win tonight, they jumped over Dallas and the Clippers (who lost earlier in the day to Houston) to claim 5th in the West. The 2 through 7 seeds in the West is going to be a fight to the finish, and the way the match-ups play out will be really interesting. For now, let’s just keep winning games.

Season 48, Game 63
San Antonio 117, Toronto 107
40-23, 6th in the West

It’s easy to watch the last 16 minutes of this game and be really frustrated that the Spurs let the Raptors back into this game. There’s nothing worse than watching a 26 point lead get cut to 20, then 15, then 12, then 10, then 8…. It’s why Pop hates huge first half leads so much. The NBA game is long and its teams too talented; there’s always a run lurking.

It’s human nature to let up just a tiny bit when the lead surges to 26. Often, the team on the short end will acquiesce and play out the game. But the Raptors really turned up their energy in the middle of the 3rd quarter, and the Spurs were caught cruising a bit, and it took them a long time to catch up and match the Raps energy. Suddenly Toronto was crashing the offensive glass and getting 2-3 shots per possession; DeRozan and Lowry and Lou Williams started making 3s; and Toronto really pushed the pace and got 5-6 easy dunks in transition.

All frustrating. But if we focus on the first 32 minutes, we see the reason why the Raptors had to play so hard even to get within spitting distance of thinking about making this a game. It was probably one of the most impressive first halves the Spurs have played all season, dominating the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. Once again, Leonard was a one-man defense, completely wiping DeRozan out of the offense, getting steals, and owning the glass. On offense, Parker continued to look renewed, using his burst not only to get to the rim, but also to break down the Toronto defense and get easy looks for everybody else. And for the first time possibly ever, the Spurs just dominated the offensive glass. Particularly Kawhi, who decided that every loose ball was his, and was more or less proven right.

Big picture, the best thing that has come out of this recent winning streak is the play of Parker and Leonard. This is now 3 consecutive games when those two have been the absolute best players on the team and the reason the team was able to win so convincingly. But more impressive is seeing each of the players find their own personal groove within the context of the team, and also learning how to run the team together. Leonard is the future and Parker is the present (and somewhat the future), and these last 3 games is a hint of what this team could look like post-Duncan and post-Manu, with Parker still the engine and Leonard the super charged nitro fuel.

(Photo by D. Clarke Evans/NBAE via Getty Images)

All of the early season force-feeding offense to Kawhi seems to be paying off, as well. It’s like a flip switched once Pop said it was time to start passing again, and he looks like he’s been the focal point of this offense for years. Funny enough, once Parker and Leonard started clicking, the role players started finding and filling their roles again. Danny and Marco are hitting 3s again; Splitter is rebounding and playing solid D; Mills is providing feisty energy (and his shot is slowly coming around); Joseph is providing necessary spot defense; and Baynes is the gentle bruiser. This team is a joy to watch right now.

The six-game win streak has been nice. And with the Mavs’ loss tonight, the Spurs have finally climbed a spot in the West standings. Realistically, though, I was expecting no worse than 5-1 in this stretch. It’s tough to truly gauge where the team is. Beating the teams in front of you convincingly is a good start, but the schedule is about to get a lot tougher as the Cavs come to town Thursday night. I can’t wait to see Kawhi on LeBron and how the Spurs stack up against a Cleveland team that has been rolling for a few months now.

Let’s hope Duncan is ok and that the Spurs are able to get win #41.