Easter Sunday night, the Spurs lost at home to the defending champion Heat, on a late 3-point basket by Chris Bosh. Miami's lineup missed Mario Chalmers, Dwyane Wade and this James guy. San Antonio didn't have the services of Manu Ginobli.
Ginobli is still dealing with a strained right hamstring. The Spurs being the Spurs, they find ways to plug other productive guys in the lineup. Coach Gregg Popovich is one of the few coaches in the Association who can expect consistent execution and teamwork from his roster. For basketball purists who like watching five guys working in concert, the Spurs are a joy to watch.
One thing that jumps out at me is how they play heads-up offense. Regardless of the set, you rarely see an offensive player dribbling mindlessly with his back to his teammates. The Spurs share the ball, they pass the ball, and they make opposing defenses work. Against Miami, they had 26 assists on 35 field goals.
Looking further at the Miami box score, a couple of things caught my eye. One, each of the Spurs' starting front court had double figure rebounds (and each had at least 3 offensive rebounds). Two, four of the five starters had between 13 and 15 field goal attempts. Looks to me like guys are making effort on both ends AND sharing the basketball.
Here's my rant about the NBA - I hate the "first option/supporting cast" mentality in the Association. When your so-called first option is missing shots on a particular night, and keeps shooting, are you going to win? Can your first option help the team win in other ways? Are the supporting cast guys just standing around, watching the first option dribble the shot clock away?
I love how the Spurs go about their business.
Monday in Memphis, these teams match up again, in what (for Memphis fans at least), is looked at as a rivalry. I don't think the Spurs see it the same way, but there you have it. Memphis fans still remember the first round of the 2011 playoffs, where the eighth-seeded Grizzlies took down the top seed Spurs in six games. Since then, Memphis fans a) respect the fact that San Antonio is a consistently excellent team, and 2) Memphis matches up well with the Spurs.
For this game, Memphis must account for each Spur on each end in half-court situations and in transition. The Grizzlies must focus for all forty-eight minutes. The home fans will be fired up for this one, but emotion can only take you so far, especially late in the regular season.
My guess: San Antonio 92, Memphis 90. There will be screaming and foot-stomping at FedEx Forum. Both teams will trade runs, trade leads and trade funny faces (Tim Duncan and Marc Gasol are both notorious for incredulous expressions towards referees for perceived slights). It should be fun to watch, closely-contested from start to finish, but it will come down to late-game execution. If Bayless is on the floor in the last two minutes of regulation, he will either take an ill-advised shot or make a careless ball-handling mistake that will allow San Antonio to escape with a close road victory.
As always, my guess work isn't for gaming or April's Fools silliness, but for personal entertainment.
After the Game: (Disclosure: I had to pick up a friend from the airport, so I didn't see the game. Saw a few highlights, and looked at the box score.)
Memphis 92, San Antonio 90. Conley hit a layup with 0.6 for the winning basket. Tony Parker attempted a shot, but the release came after the final buzzer.
Memphis had 36 field goals, 15 assists, 10 turnovers and 9 steals. Conley scored 23, with 2 assists and 4 turnovers. Bayless had 17, with 3 assists and 1 turnover. Gasol had 16, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. Eleven guys played, and all contributed. The back court took many shots, and made them. Can they keep up consistent production down the stretch?
It was Memphis' 12 straight home victory, a team record. The Grizzlies also hit the 50-win total for the season. They are percentage points behind Denver for 4th place in conference.
San Antonio had 36 field goals, 21 assists, 16 turnovers and 8 steals. What the Spurs didn't have was Duncan, Ginobli and Leonard (all injured). Any team missing three starters and playing the back end of back-to-backs could expect a dropoff, but San Antonio fought on.
Parker led his team with 25 points, and added 4 assists and 3 turnovers. Tiago Splitter had 13 points and 11 rebounds. Stephen Jackson started for Leonard, and added 12 points.
It was close throughout, and free throws may have been the difference. San Antonio was 10/11 FT/A, but Memphis was 18/24 FT/A.
It was a needed win, as they all are this time of year. Next up for Memphis is a three-game western road trip. The Grizzlies are at Portland (Wednesday night), the Lakers (Friday night) and Sacramento (Sunday night). Can we say Memphis needs all three wins? We can say it. Can they get them? Let's see, shall we?
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