Two Starboard
2019 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 4
Who Gon Stop Me - Give them credit. The Nuggets played outstanding basketball in Game 4. When you make 15 threes shooting 48.4 percent on 31 attempts while taking care of your possession to the tune of only committing seven turnovers, you are probably going to win. When you do these things in a hostile environment on the road down 2-1 in a playoff series, you probably have no intention of going away quietly. Anyone who thought we had control of this inexperienced two-seed from Denver better check the time. My clock says it’s Easter Sunday and this series is tied up at two games a piece. Home court advantage: Nuggets. Last night, in what has become a trend in recent years (2015-Clippers, 2016-Thunder, 2017-Grizzlies & Rockets), up two games to one, the Spurs failed to put a stranglehold on a series this time losing 117-103 to the Denver Nuggets at home at the AT&T Center. With the victory, Denver snapped a 14-game losing streak in San Antonio dating back to 2012. Now in order to avoid back-to-back first round exits for the first time in our 22-straight playoff appearances under Coach Pop, we have to go back and win a second time in the Pepsi Center, a building where the visiting teams are 8-35 on the season. And since we fully intend to advance, that's exactly what we're going to doPerhaps I will have the opportunity to bear witness. When my wife and I purchased our tickets to Game 5, we were obviously hoping the Spurs would be arriving back in our hometown of Denver with a 3-1 advantage and an opportunity to win the series. Since the good guys fell flat yesterday afternoon, those hopes have evaporated along with the hard-fought home court advantage that we established with our Game 1 victory. Now, while attending our first-ever Spurs road playoff game, we will be forced to suffer through all of the excruciating anxiety that is unavoidable in the pivotal Game 5 of a series that's tied at two games apiece and we will be doing this surrounded by thousands of impassioned Nuggets fans. Anxiety aside, I am really looking forward to attending Game 5. There's nothing like the intensity of being at an NBA playoff game and it's definitely been a few years since I've had the experience. So, while I'm bummed about yesterday's loss, I'm going to show up at the Pepsi Center fired up and fully decked out in Spurs gear on Tuesday and while behind enemy lines, I'm going to focus on enjoying the ride because no matter what happens on Tuesday, the Spurs have another home game on Thursday and therefore a good chance to win this series in either six or seven games.
The Game 4 player of the game was LaMarcus Aldridge. Our 2019 all-star quietly put together a solid performance with 24 points on an efficient 10-18 shooting, nine rebounds, two steals, one assist, and one block. DeMar and Derrick were solid again as well but DeMar allowed frustration to get the best of him when he thew the ball in the direction of referee Scott Foster after hew was called for a charge with 5 minutes and one second remaining in the fourth quarter. Double D was ejected and subsequently fined $25,000. The Spurs were down 18 points at the time of DeMar's ejection so it wasn't disastrous, the game was almost certainly already out of reach at that point. DeMar finished his abbreviated night with 19 points, five rebounds, and five assists. Derrick White, meanwhile, took an expected step backwards from his 36 point Game 3 break out masterpiece but still played another impressive floor game. He was limited to only eight points but he also contributed five assists, four rebounds, and a block. It's safe to say that Jamal Murray rose to the challenge of getting embarrassed by Derrick in Game 3. Murray had 24 points, six assists, and two rebounds in Game 4. If series trends continue, Game 5 will once again be Derrick's turn to come out angry about Murray getting the better of the matchup in the previous game (just as Murray responded in Game 4, Derrick in Game 3, and Murray in Game 2) and play aggressive, dominating basketball on both sides of the ball. Derrick once again winning the matchup in another "odd" game of the series is absolutely critical to our hopes to steal back home court advantage on Tuesday night.
While Denver played at a high level in Game 4 up and down the roster, not surprisingly, the player that hurt us the most in Game 4 and, for that matter, throughout this series is the Nuggets all-star starting center, Nikola Jokic. The Joker was unbelievable last night putting together a stat line of 29 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists. Jacob and LaMarcus are doing a decent job of checking Jokic in this series, he is simply playing at a bonafide superstar level. Considering he's playing in his first-ever playoff series, his (damn-near) triple double series averages of 20.5 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 9.3 assists are flat out impressive. If there were a defensive scheme that could slow this man down, I guarantee that Pop would've implemented it three games ago. Since one doesn't seem to exists, unfortunately for us, chances are that the Joker is going to keep beasting for the duration of the series. The good news for us is if we can tough our way to keeping Murray and Gary Harris in check and figure out a way to get back to taking away the Nugget's role players' open three-point looks, Jokic, as good as he is, can't win this series without getting the type of help he received in the fourth quarter of Game 2 and in the final three quarters of Game 4. It's a little frustrating that the Nuggets have only gotten the better of us in four out of the 16 quarters played thus far, yet the series is tied 2-2. In the other 12 quarters, it was largely all Jokic and that has proven not to be enough to keep up with us. Since we've outplayed the Nuggets 75 percent of the time in this series so far but only have 50 percent of the victories, if we are able to continue the trend, hopefully The Law of Manu will start kicking in in Game 5 and the number of victories in the series per quarters won will start regressing to the mean.
Speaking of role players, one thing we haven't gotten in the series thus far is one of those games (that we saw so often in the regular season) in which Patty Mills, Marco Belinelli, and Davis Bertans all shoot the lights out from distance. The Law of Manu should also apply here. We are overdue for one of those games and we desperately need Tuesday to be one of them if we want to counterpunch the Nuggets and immediately regain control of the series. The Nuggets shooters had their break out game in Game 4...and they did it in our building. Much like Derrick White in his back-and-fourth matchup with Jamal Murray, hopefully the Spurs bench sharpshooters are taking what the Nuggets bench did in Game 4 personally and are getting mentally prepared to return the favor on Tuesday in the Pepsi Center. Patty, Marco, and Davis, we absolutely need your shooting in order to win this series. There's no more margin for error. We need all three of you to get hot and start draining three-point daggers.
When a series is tied 2-2, having home court advantage in the remaining three games is an important edge, especially for a team that’s as dominant at home as Denver. There’s no way to sugarcoat it, we went from front-running in this series to playing for our playoff lives with one lackadaisical performance on Saturday afternoon. What’s more important than home court advantage in a 2-2 series, however, is knowing that the series is there for the taking to the team that wants it more and having the internal fortitude to be the team that goes and takes it. In a 2-2 series, winning becomes much more about breaking the other team’s will through effort and toughness rather than talent and skill. The Spurs have a massive advantage in this department having five players (Aldridge, DeRozan, Mills, Gay, and Belenelli) that have been through enough 2-2 playoff battles to know how deeply you need to dig to get into the necessary frame of mind to do what it’s going to take to break the other team’s will. Denver can only put one player on the court (Millsap) with prior 2-2 playoff experience. If we use our experience to our advantage and focus on bringing more effort and more toughness to the last two or thee games of this series than our opponents, we will advance to the Western Conference Semifinals. It starts Tuesday in a hostile environment. We need to come out after the opening tip and punch the Nuggets in the mouth with our effort and toughness. We need to remind them from the jump that they don’t have a frame of reference for late-series playoff basketball, but we do. Luckily, that hostile environment will be a tiny bit less hostile than usual since I know of at least two diehard Spurs fans that will be cheering our lungs out to help the #BlackAndSilver break on through to the other side. 2-2 series? Game 5? First ever Spurs road playoff game? Man, I can't wait.
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Cuatro Derrotas
2017 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 4
All We Got - Condolences to Patrick Beverley and his family. The Rockets shooting guard found out about the passing of his grandfather an hour before the tip of Game 4. He proceeded to hit the first shot of the game, a three from the elbow, and set the tone for the entire night. In a game that was eerily similar to Game 1 in San Antonio, the Houston Rockets defeated the Spurs 125-104 in Game 4 at the Toyota Center last night and tied the Western Conference Finals at two games apiece. First, the good. The player of the game was Jonathon Simmons whose performance was the only bright spot in an otherwise abysmal showing. The Juice had 17 points (6-12 shooting), four rebounds, and two steals last night in 23 minutes. He was also the only Spur to play more than 20 minutes and also have a positive plus/minus rating (+2). The Rockets are a good matchup for Simmons and (in the absence of Tony Parker) he should be entrusted with more minutes this week as we try to closeout out this toughly contested series. Now the bad. The Spurs committed 14 turnovers, missed nine free throws (9-18 overall), and gave up 19 three pointers to the Rockets (44.2 percent on 43 attempts). All of these shortcomings are unacceptable for any team interested in winning an NBA playoff game on the road. Of particular concern to Gregg Popovich was our transition defense. In fact, in his postgame press conference, Coach Pop observed, "If you had seen clips of our transition D, you would have traded all the players and fired me by the end of the game. It was that bad." I think Pop has earned a little more job security than that but, at the same time, there's no sugar coating this one: it was a very disappointing performance. Back in the same situation as last year's Semifinal series in Game 4, the Spurs once again failed to find the killer instinct to be greedy, step on the Rockets' collective throats, and put a stranglehold on the series. We must now regroup because, luckily, we still have another game available to us to use as an opportunity to correct the mistakes of last year's series against Oklahoma City. Redemption for last year's collapse can still be ours if we come ready to protect home court on Tuesday night in a now must-win Game 5 (something we failed to do last year). The war for Texas has now become a best-of-three series but, with home court advantage and championship pedigree, I still love our chances to cash in. Tomorrow night, the game is Texas Roulette and as the saying goes, always bet on #BlackAndSilver because when we get knocked down in the city of San Antonio...we're always there to pick each other right back up.
“We view ourselves on the eve of battle. We are nerved for the contest, and must conquer or perish. It is vain to look for present aid: none is at hand. We must now act or abandon all hope!” - Sam Houston
City of the Year
War for Texas tied.
Keep the faith. Where are we from?
City of the year.
Written May 2017 in San Antonio, Texas (at heart) by Ted James
City of the year, city of the year
That's where I'm from
City of the year, city of the year
They don't want none
City of the year, city of the year
H-Town can't come
Go hard or go home
I'm turnt up in the #GoSpursGo zone
City of the year
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Three Up
2013 NBA Finals, Game 2
All of the Lights - Shane Battier put a three up from 25 feet out with 18 seconds left in the game (5 seconds left on the shot clock) and with the Miami Heat ahead of the San Antonio Spurs by 18 points. Battier would probably say, if asked, that his motivation was simply to try to put up one more attempt to see if he could get himself out of a terrible shooting slump. But deep down, being of Duke pedigree, he probably knows that it was ill advised because fans of the opponent could perceive it as an attempt to run up the score and deem it bad sportsmanship. Further eroding the soundness of the decision to put the three up, Battier has inadvertently given Tim, Tony, and Manu a tiny little present to store away in their vast reservoirs that normal human beings call memory banks. And even though these reservoirs overflow with countless disrespectfully premature celebrations by would be conquering rivals, they always seem to have room for one more juicy nugget. The proper play for Battier in that situation, the one that Mike Krzyzewski surely taught his Blue Devils, would have been to hold the ball for the remaining 5 seconds and then hoist a halfhearted attempt as the shot clock expired. Another acceptable option, and the classy choice I would have expected out of a former Dukee, would have been to simply hold the ball and then hand it to the referee after taking the 24 second violation so that San Antonio could run out the remainder of the game clock. There must be something in the water down there on South Beach because Shane Battier is one of the last players that I would have guessed would try to embarrass an opponent by running up the score. That's okay, the San Antonio Spurs always take these sorts of matters in stride. More often than not, San Antonio is able to draw back upon these seemingly benign little slights and use them as a little extra shot of fuel to help us persevere and ensure that in the end we are the last ones laughing. The difference is, we do our laughing behind closed doors. If you believe in basketball karma, which I do, then you could argue that Battier has tempted the basketball gods to frown down ever so slightly every time a Miami three point attempt is in the air at the AT&T Center over the coming week. Furthermore, if you put stock in the law of averages (which I also do) and observe the entire series as a singular statistical sample (i.e. the number of threes Miami can make in the series is finite), then you could argue that Battier has wasted a precious made three point basket on tomfoolery in a blow out victory that Miami might come to desperately need later in the series if it remains close. Win by 19 or win by 4, Miami and San Antonio are now tied at one victory a piece after the Heat averted disaster by defeating the Spurs last night 103-91 in their gym. Nonetheless, the two teams are now heading to Texas after San Antonio has already done enough in Florida to earn an opportunity to show that we are better at protecting our home court than the defending champions. If the #BlackAndSilver are successful, then that disrespectful "turd sandwich" of a three pointer that Shane Battier launched in garbage time of Game 2 will be the last Heat points at American Airlines Arena this season.
The Spurs will have to play 144 minutes of focused and determined basketball at home in order to accomplish the arduous task of preventing Gloria Estefan, Rick Ross, Flo Rida, Justin Bieber, David Beckham, and Jimmy Buffett from having plans for a week from tomorrow on South Beach. I mentioned in Thirteen Down that the only way that the Heat will win this series comfortably is if the Spurs commit the cardinal sin of repeatedly turning the ball over, especially in ways that ignite the Miami fast break. The Miami break is too dangerous of a weapon to tempt into action not only because LeBron James and company finish like maniacs at the rim but also because the confidence level of every single player on that squad, one through thirteen, is transformed by the team getting a couple of easy, highlight worthy baskets in transition. Miami's pedestrian role players are transformed into sharp shooting savants and Wade and James get an extra spring in their step when a moment of swarming defensive pressure ignites the most devastating up-tempo offense in the league. It was clearly evident last night that once those flood gates were opened, there was no shutting them off. The most frustrating part of Game 2 was that those proverbial flood gates were so close to never opening in the first place. San Antonio was only down two with 3 minutes left in the third quarter of a grind-it-out, heavy weight slug fest which seemed like a replay of Game 1 when disaster struck. A nightmare that we had been waiting to haunt our small, humble community throughout the duration of this playoff run finally came seeping through the cracks in our living room window sills to spoil our dreams of watching the Spurs steal another close game on the road. That's right, Joey Crawford swallowed his whistle at a pivotal moment to the detriment of the Spurs. Remember Joey Crawford? You guessed it, Joey (Expletive Deleted) Crawford has struck again. With a little under 3 minutes left in the third quarter and the Spurs down two, Manu Ginobili drove the ball to the basket, got raked across the arm, the ball popped loose, Joey Crawford (the closest official to the play) held his whistle, Miami stole the ball, LeBron spotted Mario Chalmers in the left corner in transition, Chalmers kicked to a wide open Ray Allen for an elbow three. Bucket, 5 point swing, Miami is off to the races, ball game. In fairness, the Spurs had been undefeated this postseason with Joey Crawford working the game but part of me wonders if the reason for that is that he had just been patiently biding his time so he would have an opportunity to stick his finger in our eyes during the NBA Finals. Of course, I know it is unreasonable to argue that one blown call towards the end of the third quarter cost a team a ball game that they lost by 19. But then again, if the foul call is made and Manu earns two free throws, he potentially reties the game. Miami is then forced to run a half court set on their next possession, the run never gets started, this never happens, and perhaps Tony Parker has an opportunity to work his fourth quarter magic once again. I concede that, based on the law of averages, the probability was such that Miami would have taken Game 2 even without their huge run. After all, Tim, Tony, and Manu were a combined 10 for 33 from the field and their Spurs committed 16 turnovers, four times as many as we did in Game 1. So hats off to the champs, they played an excellent ball game and deserved the victory.
The player of the game was Danny Green which was a pleasant surprise. I assumed that in every road game during the NBA Finals that it would be either Duncan, Parker, or Ginobili that would earn this honor. Clearly, none of them were worthy last night but Danny was spectacular going 6-6 from the field (5-5 from downtown) for 17 points. Danny is now 9-14 from the arc in the series and if he can keep shooting lights out coming home to the AT&T Center, San Antonio will likely put ourselves in a position to return the favor and win at least one of the next three games in blow out fashion. Given the evenness of the match up, I anticipate that the other two home games will be gut wrenching contests of will and execution similar to Game 1. The Spurs will have to play our best basketball of the season over the course of the next week to have a chance at hoisting a trophy on our home court. Despite the fact that Miami has likely gained confidence from the decisiveness of last night's victory, the Spurs won't be rattled and we are capable of a resounding response. We have recovered from bigger beat downs than this to win the NBA championship. Even though the task at hand is unquestionably difficult, San Antonio is still in the drivers seat in this series. We went down to Florida and accomplished everything that was reasonably realistic, we forced the defending champions to relinquish home court advantage in the series. Now we must defend it with everything that we've got. It starts tomorrow night. The city must come together and cheer louder and harder than we did when we were in this position for the first time while our players execute more brilliantly on offense and lock down more aggressively on defense than we did in our most dominating championship run. Tomorrow night, we've gotta party like it's 1999.
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