Nailing The Triple Lindy

(Photo by Jerry Lara of the San Antonio Express-News)

As someone who’s been a die-hard San Antonio Spurs fan for almost 40 years, watching a fifth championship slip through their grasp in Game 6 – followed just two nights later by seeing it snatched away for good by the Miami Heat – was about as painful a sports-related experience I’ve ever gone through.  And thousands of my fellow Spurs fans share in this misery right now.

Feeling this way, it’s awfully tempting to focus on everything that went wrong.  Instead, I’ve decided to emphasize all of the many great superlatives we witnessed during The 2013 NBA Finals…

• The Best team of the past decade-and-a-half (the Spurs) – gave The Best team in the NBA (the Heat) all they could handle…and then some…and then a little more.
• The Best player in the league, LeBron James, played The Best game of this series in Game 7.
• The Best power forward of all time, Tim Duncan, was absolutely amazing the entire series, defying age, logic, and all odds to deliver a remarkable performance in all seven games.
• Tony Parker played so fantastically throughout the playoffs, he now has to be considered The Best point guard in the NBA right now, and should be applauded for fighting through his hamstring injury and extreme fatigue to give the Spurs everything he had.
• Despite having what may have been some of his worst moments during the late stages of Game 6, Gregg Popovich still remains The Best coach in the league.
• With all apologies to Tim Duncan, perhaps The Best player for the Spurs from the start of Game 1 through the end of Game 7 was Kawhi Leonard, who made a strong case to be included among The Best young forwards in the NBA, and who certainly has The Best future ahead of him out of all those who played in The 2013 Finals.
• While LeBron was clearly the MVP of The Finals and The Best player on the court in Game 7, the Heat ultimately would not have won this last game without an incredible long-range shooting performance from Shane Battier, who has to rank that among The Best games he’s ever played.
• Game 6 was arguably The Best game in NBA history, and a compelling argument could be made for this being The Best NBA Finals series ever played.

As disappointed as I am at the outcome of The Finals, I’m even more proud of the valiant effort put forth by the Spurs, who showed unbelievable heart playing their guts out with practically nothing whatsoever left in their collective tank.  To say they played Game 7 running on fumes would be an understatement, yet they stayed right there within striking distance until the very end.

You’ve got to beat The Best to be The Best, and that’s exactly what the Miami Heat did – they beat The Best…they beat my Spurs.

(Photos by Kin Man Hui & Edward A. Ornelas of the San Antonio Express-News)

Missed free throws. Missed rebounds. Missed three-pointers. Missed lay-ups. Missed defensive assignments. Missed put-backs. Missed opportunity after missed opportunity.

In what will likely go down as one of the greatest games in NBA history, and will absolutely be forever considered the most catastrophic loss in San Antonio Spurs history, the Miami Heat snatched victory from the jaws of an early offseason with a stunning 103-100 overtime win.

It was a game the Spurs seemingly had in full control most of the way, before ceding that control in the middle of the fourth quarter and then regaining control almost to the very end…when they gave it up for good. Miami didn’t just take control of Game 6, they now have the entire series in a deadly stranglehold from which the Spurs are highly unlikely to extricate themselves.

Everything started out so wonderfully for the Spurs, who staked themselves to a six-point halftime lead, which they stretched to 13 late in the third quarter. And they were able to do this on the broad shoulders of their franchise’s all-time greatest player, who was having one of his all-time greatest games.

Tim Duncan turned back the clock a full decade and absolutely dominated most of the game with a monster 30-point, 17-rebound performance, but his aging body eventually betrayed him as he ran out of gas down the stretch, being held scoreless in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Duncan wasn’t doing it all by himself, but it was damn close. Kawhi Leonard also came up huge – right until the very, very end of regulation – when he managed to completely eradicate the significance of his 22-point, 11-rebound effort with the most crucial missed free throw in franchise history.

The MVP of the Finals through the first five games of the series, sharpshooter Danny Green, was a complete no-show. He went 1-for-7 on the night, making just a single three-pointer in five attempts. Tony Parker seemed to be struggling with his injured hamstring, shooting an abysmal 6-for-23 on the night, although he made two HUGE shots late that could have – SHOULD HAVE – won the game and the title for the Spurs.

But as much as all that hurt, none of those guys – not even Leonard with his fatal missed free throw – are the true goat of the night. There were actually two goats who deserve the lion’s share of the blame for this cataclysmic loss: one on the floor, and one on the bench.

Manu Ginobili had his most outstanding game in years on Sunday in Game 5, after being reinserted into the starting lineup for the first time since 2012. It seemed he had found his long-lost mojo. But tragically for the Spurs, that reborn Manu was replaced in Game 6 by the putrid rotting corpse of what’s left of Ginobili’s waning career.

Ginobili wasn’t just bad in Game 6, he was a massive liability. A strong case could be made for him as Miami Heat MVP in Game 6. The Heat would not still be alive and kicking today if not for Ginobili’s eight – EIGHT – turnovers, each and every one of which was absolutely critical.

But just as big a goat than Ginobili – if not even bigger – is the supposed best coach in the NBA: Gregg Popovich. There is simply no justification whatsoever for the subsitutional decisions he made in the fourth quarter, both resting Duncan and Parker entirely too long early in the quarter when the Heat were erasing the Spurs’ lead, and for two absolutely crucial possessions late in regulation when Duncan was pulled and the Heat got a pair of game-changing second chances on offensive rebounds they likely wouldn’t have if #21 was on the floor.

While the Spurs certainly did more than enough – and then some – to blow this game down the stretch and in overtime, the Heat deserve just as much credit for placing their boot firmly on the Spurs’ neck when the opportunity presented itself. The Spurs epically collapsed AND the Heat spectacularly arose from the dead. But the game would not have ended in a Miami win had either of those things not happened – it took BOTH the Spurs’ collapse AND the Heat’s miraculous clutch effort for that final result.

The Spurs had a fifth championship almost completely within their grasp and let it slip away last night. We’ll find out on Thursday whether or not it slipped away forever.

(Photos by Jerry Lara, Kin Man Hui, & Edward A. Ornelas of the San Antonio Express-News)

Throughout the course of his lengthy career, Manu Ginobili has always saved his best for when it counts the most: the postseason. Ginobili’s playoff heroics are the stuff of legend, even winning over such non-Spur fans as TNT’s Charles Barkley, whose favorite thing to do not involving placing a bet is to yell Manu’s surname in that unmistakable Alabama drawl.

But this year has been different. Other than draining a huge game-winning three-pointer in double overtime of Game 1 against Golden State in the Western Conference Semifinals, Ginobili had not only failed to deliver any other heroic moments since then, he’d actually been quite terrible throughout. His shots haven’t been falling, and he’s been a turnover machine who’s looked like someone who totally forgot everything he ever learned about ball handling.

So entering Game 5, with the series knotted 2-2 and one last chance to play at home before The Finals conclude in Miami, the Spurs were in desperate need of Ginobili’s vintage postseason magic. And in an effort to get that magic jumpstarted, Gregg Popovich decided to go all in and insert Ginobili into the starting lineup. It was a huge gamble bordering on desperation, but it paid off big time.

Ginobili was his old self, slashing and dashing his way to 24 points, 10 assists, and a team-leading +/- of +19. He was absolutely magnificent, and while he was certainly the main reason the Spurs beat the Heat 114-104, he was by no means the only reason.

Danny Green continued his white-hot long-range shooting, shooting 6-for-10 from downtown en route to 26 points on the night, while breaking The Finals record for most three-pointers made in a series – and doing so against the man whose record he broke: Ray Allen.

Tony Parker was also fantastic, riding his sore hamstring to a game-high 26 points on an incredible 10-of-14 from the field. He has continued to show amazing grit and determination since suffering that injury in Game 3.

But even though the Spurs are in an advantageous position leading The Finals 3-2 and needing just one more victory to claim the championship, that win is going to be extremely difficult to claim. Miami came storming back late last night from a 20-point deficit, showing just how dangerous they are at all times.

If the Spurs are unable to significantly reduce their propensity for turnovers (they committed 19 for the second straight game), they will not have much of a chance to win in Miami. Ginobili’s return to glory was great – and hopefully not short-lived – but regardless of which Manu we’ll see in Miami, the Spurs absolutely must protect the ball to claim the title.

(Photos by Edward A. Ornelas of the San Antonio Express-News)

More than any of the previous three games, the story of Game 4 was told by the box score. The Heat beat the Spurs 109-93, and that 16-point margin of victory can be directly attributed to several key statistics:

• The Spurs committed 19 turnovers, leading to 23 Heat points, while only forcing 9 turnovers and generating just 8 points off of those – a point differential of 15.
• The Spurs only scored 38 points in the paint, compared to 50 for the Heat – a differential of 12 points.
• The Spurs’ starting five was outscored by the Heat’s starters 91-61 (a 30-point differential), with the Heat’s “Big 3” of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh scoring a whopping 85 points – more than DOUBLE the paltry 40 scored by the Spurs’ “Big 3” of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.

There were several other critical factors leading to the Miami win, such as seven blocked shots by the Heat, eight missed free throws by the Spurs, and the Heat outrebounding the Spurs 41-36.

The Spurs also committed countless defensive lapses throughout the game, and got an all-around atrocious effort from Tiago Splitter, who had as many turnovers as rebounds and shot 0-for-3 on the night.  He wasn’t just a non-factor, he was a full-blown liability.

Game 3 heroes Danny Green and Gary Neal – who scored 27 and 24 points respectively on Tuesday – were unable to match either of those numbers COMBINED in Game 4, scoring a total of just 23.

Tony Parker deserves credit for a real gutsy effort.  His availability for Game 4 was in doubt, due to a hamstring injury suffered in Game 3, but he came out like gangbusters in the first half by scoring 15 and almost single-handedly keeping the Spurs in the game.  It’s amazing the game was actually tied at the half, given how dominant the Heat had been during most of the first two quarters.

But ultimately, Parker was unable to sustain that level, going scoreless in the second half.  Given how well the Heat played – especially James and Wade – it’s hard to believe the final margin was only 16 points.  But the Spurs didn’t do themselves any favors with all of the turnovers, missed free throws, botched lay-ups, and repeated defensive lapses.

Game 5 looms huge, because the Spurs simply cannot afford to go back to Miami down 3-2 having to win both of the final two games on the road.  They have to play much more like they did in Game 3 than Game 4 to have a chance in Game 5.  Thanks to a break in the schedule, they have two days to figure it out.