Season 48, Game 58
San Antonio 107, Sacramento 96
35-23, 7th in the West
It wasn’t the longest losing streak of the Pop-Duncan era in terms of games (though not far off), but it might have been in terms of actual duration.
With the All-Star Break giving the team over a week off, the Spurs last won on February 11th, making it a full 16 days without a win. For this franchise, that’s nearly two full lifetimes.
It’s no wonder the fans and media were starting to get restless, signaling the annual tradition of the “Is It Time To Write Off the Spurs?” game that everybody enjoys playing so much. While a win against the Boogie-less Kings doesn’t do much in way of answering that question, it was still nice to get a win and to see the team compete hard and play well, especially in that 4th quarter.
The team actually played pretty great defense outside of the first six minutes. After six, the Kings had 24 points. Over the remaining 42, they scored 72, which would average out to about an 83 point game. On top of that, a lot of the points the Kings scored were on long jump shots early in the shot clock or well-contested long jump shots after the defense mostly neutralized the offense. That’s the shot you want them taking. If the Kings get lucky and make enough to win the game that way, so be it.
For three quarters, that was the story of the game: the Kings make a 21 foot pull up in transition with the defense back; the Spurs miss a lay-up at point blank range. The Spurs hung in with the aforementioned tough defense, and having just a bit more talent than the Kings.
Through those three quarters, though, it was not a pretty game. To call the offense a hot mess is a bit offensive to hot messes, because a hot mess is at least interesting. I’ve been thinking a lot about the Spurs’ offense lately, trying to figure out what is wrong with it. But that’s the wrong way to look at it. For most of this season, it just hasn’t been the Spurs’ offense. The passing is not there; the cutting is not there. It’s like the team lacks the energy to fully commit to playing that way. Too often, the path of least resistance is chosen.
This has been really driven home watching the Hawks and Warriors over the last few weeks, and seeing the way the ball flings around the court, the way the players cut for each other and anticipate holes in the offense. That was the Spurs last season! But not this season. Watching the Spurs offense this season is like watching a completely different team, some middle of the pack Eastern Conference team playing without pace or movement. It’s, dare I say, boring.
Some of this is related to Parker, as we all know. But some of it is also related to Kawhi, and putting more of the offensive responsibility in his hands. He’s still learning, and a lot of his learning requires him to have the ball, to work in isolation, and to slow down the offense to figure things out. The motion almost necessarily has to stop in order for him to learn. This is probably the right play long-term, but it is fair to ask if it’s hurting the team too much this season. (It also hurts doubly when Kawhi is in a shooting slump.)
Also as discussed previously, the depressed shooting numbers team-wide have really hurt. Sometimes it’s a culprit in losses; but more often than not, it’s more subtle. It’s what prevents the Spurs from really pulling away in games that should be easy wins, from having any ability to separate. Given the way the team was playing defense tonight, even slightly better than average shooting would have put this game out of reach late in the third. Instead, the Spurs carried a meager 2-point lead into the 4th.
Then a strange thing happened: things started to look “normal”. Parker showed some burst and got a couple of layups the classic Parker way. He also canned a couple of jumpers from his sweet spot. Manu played like a man possessed on both ends of the floor, creating havoc on D and spurring the O with his energy and drives. Kawhi and Danny turned pesky D into easy O. It almost looked like a Spurs team I love and recognize.
Almost. There’s still quite a ways to go. And beating Sacramento without Boogie should be nothing to celebrate. It was a near must-win, and it took the team about 40 minutes to really get it going.
But damn, after 16 days, I’ll take any win.
The team finished off the Rodeo Road Trip Saturday night in Phoenix.
