Tag: In the News

Spurs embarrassed the right amount

Column by Buck Harvey

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Thunder plugged into energy, desperation, and a man named Thabo.

James Harden stared at Tiago Splitter, and the Spurs stared at the floor. About the time Patty Mills checked in, the winning streak looked so wobbly, it needed one of Tim Duncan’s knee braces for support.

The flow of energy is sometimes mysterious in the NBA, but sometimes it is predictable, too. And while Thursday it was the Thunder’s turn, the Spurs got what they wanted from their first loss in 50 days.

Getting embarrassed can be a good thing.

All of it is new to the Spurs, who forgot how these things feel. But this wasn’t the streak of Wooden’s UCLA that was broken Thursday. It was an NBA streak, and they never last too long.

They never last long, either, when the energy divide is as severe as it was. And something Scott Brooks said afterward told of that.

“That was as well,” he said, “as you can play against the best team in basketball.”

The best team in basketball? The Thunder wanted to prove that wasn’t true.

“We never thought these guys had an advantage over us,” Kevin Durant said Thursday, “even though we lost a few.”

It’s an attitude based on more than bravado. The Thunder played well in the opener, taking a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter, then made Game 2 interesting with a late surge.

The Thunder are exactly what the Spurs coaches thought they were before the series began — scary good. And scarier for the Spurs is to let this series become tied heading back to San Antonio for a Game 5.

But the Spurs, no matter how hard they tried, couldn’t create this same kind of fear in their locker room, not after 20 straight wins. Maybe, too, they began to believe this best-team-in-basketball stuff.

So they were overwhelmed, and Gregg Popovich summed up how it happened. “I think they played smarter than we did,” he said of the Thunder, “and I think they played harder than we did.”

Smarter and harder usually wins, and sloppy never does. The Thunder ended with just seven turnovers, and one of those came at the end when Derek Fisher dribbled out the clock to be sportsmanlike.

The Spurs? They are supposed to be the smart, veteran team, and they looked closer to a team that had lost 20 in a row, with 21 turnovers.

A signpost of how much this series had reversed itself came in the third quarter. Then, Manu Ginobili made a slick behind-the-back pass to Tony Parker, who hit a three. The same sequence happened in Game 2, also in the third quarter, also with a behind-the-back pass for a Parker three.

The difference: The three put the Spurs up by 20 on Tuesday, and after this one, the Spurs trailed by 19.

Brooks moving Thabo Sefolosha to Parker helped OKC, and Sefolosha thought his length bothered Parker. But Parker has been defended by taller players before, and Brooks didn’t see that as the difference.

“I thought Thabo did a good job,” Brooks said, “but I thought the biggest adjustment — we played better.”

It’s that simple? Sometimes, in the NBA, it is. At home, where they hadn’t lost this postseason, facing a 0-3 deficit if they had lost, shouldn’t the Thunder have been breathing fire?

The Spurs couldn’t recreate that, no matter how many I-want-some-nasty speeches Popovich gave. And so now comes a telling moment in the series.

The Spurs lost only one game, but it felt like more than that. The Thunder so swarmed them, so took them out of what they do, that the Spurs were emotionally slapped.

This is what Popovich is leaning on: After Harden was staring and Patty playing, the energy for Game 4 should be equal.

bharvey@express-news.net
Twitter: @Buck_SA

SPURS VS. THUNDER
Western Conference finals
(Spurs lead best-of-7 series 2-1)

Game 1:

Game 2:

Game 3:

Game 4: Saturday – Spurs @ Thunder, 7:30 p.m. TNT

Game 5: Monday – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 6: Wednesday – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 7: Friday – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

– All times Central
*If necessary

Spurs made believers out of … themselves

By Mike Monroe

LOS ANGELES – No team in NBA playoff history ever had recovered from a deficit as large as the Spurs faced at the end of the first quarter of Saturday’s Game 3 at Staples Center: Clippers 33, Spurs 11.

As if this weren’t discouraging enough, L.A.’s lead grew to 24 points in the first three minutes of the second quarter, the red-clad crowd howling approval.

It was a situation so daunting even the most competitive of Spurs believed the third victory of the Western Conference semifinals series would have to wait for another day?

“At one point,” Manu Ginobili said, “I thought there was no chance. (The Clippers) were playing so well and making every shot and we couldn’t even shoot. We were turning the ball over and they were playing great. We were not ready. We looked like we were still in bed.”

If Ginobili feared all was lost he never let it show, and what ultimately got the Spurs out of such a deep hole was the calm, calculated approach to chipping away at the Clippers’ big lead, one possession at a time. It helped that Ginobili, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker had seen nearly every playoff situation imaginable, though none quite so daunting so early in a game.

“Their experience lets them know you’ve just got to stay in the system and work it, and it will either work out, or it won’t,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “And that’s that.”

After the Clippers lead reached 24 the goal was to cut it to 10 by halftime. When they headed to the halftime break trailing, 53-43, optimism reigned.

“Once we made a little run and were down 16, 18, we were really talking about cutting the lead to 10 at halftime,” Ginobili said. “It happened, and then the starters in the third quarter were great. They just moved the ball well. They played easy and played great defense and when we went up eight (in the third) we knew it was going to be very hard for them to overcome that change of game.

“Being up 24, and then being down six, eight is very hard to overcome.”

Confidence is Popovich: When the Clippers sliced a 12-point Spurs lead to seven with 9:13 left in the game Popovich called a time out and drew up a play intended to get Gary Neal open for a 3-point attempt.

Coming from the baseline to the 3-point line off two screens, Neal took a pass from Tony Parker and nailed the long-distance shot to push the lead back to double digits.

“Coach Pop drew that play up out of a timeout,” Neal said. “It was great execution. I got two great screens from the bigs and I came up. Mo (Williams) shot the gap and I was wide open. I’m glad it went in.”

Duncan said Popovich’s skill in drawing up plays during timeouts helps the Spurs execute his plays.

“Obviously, we’ve all kind of been through this with him and he’s one of the best in the league at drawing plays up in timeouts and having them work,” he said. “He did it again.

“I don’t know how to explain it but he understands that if we’re able to execute and move the ball and find shooters good things are going to happen.”

Defying history: The Clippers are well aware no team in NBA history has overcome a 3-0 deficit to win a seven-game series.

“We have to keep fighting,” point guard Chris Paul said. “It’s never been done before in history.”

Guard Nick Young, who looked ready for a fashion runway as he exited the Clippers locker room, said the team knows precisely how to approach tonight’s game.

“We have to look at this like we did in Game 7 (vs. Memphis). Nobody wants to be in this situation. We made it hard on ourselves. We’re desperate now. It’s win or go home.”

mikemonroe@express-news.net

SPURS VS. CLIPPERS
(Spurs lead best-of-seven series 2-0)

Game 1:

Game 2:

Game 3:

Game 4: Sunday, @Clippers, 9:30 p.m., TNT

* Game 5: Tuesday, @Spurs, TBA, TNT

* Game 6: Friday, @Clippers, TBA, ESPN

* Game 7: May 27, @Spurs, TBA, TNT

* If necessary

Up 2-0, Spurs on edge despite favorable history

By Jeff McDonald

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Spurs departed San Antonio International Airport on Wednesday afternoon, a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals in their pocket and the past on their side.

Throughout the Spurs’ postseason history, such a deficit has been hemlock to playoff opponents. Find yourself facing it, and summer vacation soon follows.

One player on the Oklahoma City roster knows better.

“I think we can beat this team,” Derek Fisher said.

What might otherwise be dismissed as a show of unwarranted bravado from a 38-year-old backup guard comes with a side of been there, done that.

When it comes to winning a best-of-7 series after taking a 2-0 lead, the Spurs are 18-1 all-time. Fisher was there for that one time.

In the 2004 conference semifinals against the Lakers, the Spurs carried a 2-0 edge into Los Angeles before coming undone. Eight years later, Fisher’s miracle 18-footer in Game 5, launched with 0.4 seconds left, remains the signature moment of one of the Spurs’ most disappointing playoff collapses.

As the Spurs prepare for Game 3 against Oklahoma City tonight at Chesapeake Energy Arena, Fisher’s shot — much like the shot-maker himself — is ancient history.

“That happened like 30 years ago,” Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said.

Yet the lesson it imparted endures in those who lived it. A series is not over until one team wins four times.

The Spurs take the floor in Oklahoma City with numerous reasons to feel confident. Their franchise-best winning streak of 20 is climbing the charts, equaled or surpassed by only three teams in NBA history.

They haven’t lost in roughly the length of a Kim Kardashian marriage (50 days) and have won 10 in a row to start the playoffs, one victory shy of the NBA record.

“It’s pretty incredible what they’ve done,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “To win a game is hard. To win 20 in a row and 10 of them in the playoffs, it’s quite an accomplishment.”

To wary Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, the series could just as easily be 2-0 in Oklahoma City’s favor.

In Game 1, the Spurs trailed by nine heading into the fourth quarter before exploding for 39 points and a 101-98 win. Two nights later, they squandered nearly all of a 22-point lead before locking up a 120-111 victory in the final minutes.

In Game 2, the Spurs survived an 88-point eruption from the OKC trio of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, in part thanks to 34 points from Tony Parker and the team’s highest-scoring playoff game in six years.

“Our offense saved us,” Popovich said. “We scored, and that’s the only reason we won. Because our defense wasn’t very good.”

Oklahoma City would kill for such problems now. In order to avoid elimination, the Thunder must win four out of the next five against a team that has beaten them eight out of the last 10.

Then there’s this: Only three teams in NBA history have fallen into a 2-0 hole in the conference finals and recovered to win the series.

“What we’ve done up to this point doesn’t matter,” Spurs forward Stephen Jackson said. “If we lose tomorrow, it all goes down the drain.”

If the Spurs ever had any doubt about the fragility of a winning streak or playoff edge, Fisher stands as a living reminder.

In 2004, the Spurs had won 17 in a row heading into Los Angeles, matching their longest winning streak until this season. A 2-0 series lead quickly became 2-2, and 0.4 seconds followed in Game 5.

Two nights later, the Spurs’ season was over.

“We did not assume that we’d win four games in a row, which is basically what we ended up doing,” Fisher recalled. “We just focused on winning Game 3.”

Beginning tonight, Fisher hopes to play Sherpa on another such climb. The Spurs aim to keep that part of history from repeating.

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

SPURS VS. THUNDER
Western Conference finals
(Spurs lead best-of-7 series 2-0)

Game 1:

Game 2:

Game 3: Thursday – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

Game 4: Saturday – Spurs @ Thunder, 7:30 p.m. TNT

*Game 5: Monday – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 6: Wednesday – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 7: Friday June 8 – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

– All times Central
*If necessary