“We’ll do it this time," said Tim Duncan after winning the Western conference finals and earning the right to play the Miami heat in the finals. That quote made a lot of news because that pretty much qualifies as vulgar trash talking coming from the choir boys of San Antonio, especially Timmy. That was the ultimate indicator of how much the spurs were hurting from last year's disastrous defeat. We knew that last year's loss was a depressing and devastating punch to their gut, but the spurs are not the kind that wears their emotions on their sleeves or verbalizes them. But when Timmy spoke after the western conference finals, you could tell they were very driven to take back the gift they had given to the heat last year. Not only did they want to make it back to the finals and win it all this time, they wanted the heat and only the heat. And they got them. The spurs were not careful what they wished for and they didn't care.
Spurs knew they were better than the heat last year and were confident they have improved a bit this year. More than getting better, the loss last year was motivating and driving them everyday. The heat, on the other hand, had gotten slightly worse and couldn't even land the best record in the putrid eastern conference. LeBron had gotten better as always, but Wade had taken another couple of steps back in his accelerated journey "over the hill". Is he the oldest 32 year-old ever? He is just four months older than Tony Parker, but plays like he is four years older than Tim Duncan. He is still good, but the drop-off from his peak is surprising and just too rapid for somebody who has not really been through devastating injuries. Wade was once considered MJ to LeBron's Scottie. Now, LeBron is carrying him every trip down the floor along with the other Miami scrubs.
The first two games of the series were close and Miami even won one. The series went back to Miami and suddenly, the offensive floodgates were open for the spurs. They carved up the vaunted Miami defense almost every trip down the floor. The adjustment from last year was to move the ball swiftly and precisely to thwart Miami's swarming defense. Miami had no counter adjustment to offer. They did have some success stealing some of the passes in the first two games, but the spurs fixed that soon. Miami was done once Kawhi Leonard woke up from his two game slumber at the start of the series. The big three of the spurs didn't have to do much more than the next three - Kawhi Leonard, Boris Diaw, and Danny Green as everybody was pitching in on offense. Diaw brought me back memories of his time with the Phoenix suns.
The suns should have been winning championships eight years back with Diaw's skills surrounded by a team of passing, cutting, and shooting wizards. Diaw was working the same concepts in this series but with the wrong team. He got it done and so did the spurs as a team. Huge win for coach Greg Popovich, who deservedly won the coach of the year this season. The offensive flow was spectacular and Pop's defense never disappoints. His flexibility in transforming a Duncan centric post-up offense to a cutting, moving, 3-point shooting masterpiece deserves a lot of credit. So does his leadership in guiding the team past a devastating loss last year. It was a collective failure last year with Ginobli missing free throws, Pop pulling Duncan out at the wrong moments of game 6, and Duncan missing easy shots in game 7. They responded with a collective, team success this year. Congrats to everybody in the Spurs organization. They have sent LeBron into another summer of confusion and should keep us fans entertained.
2 comments:
Great post!
While LeBron and the Heat are confused, the Spurs seem poised to make yet another run next year. Who's going to stop them? They say Father Time is undefeated but Tim Duncan & Co. are mounting a strong case against that cliche. Pop is a genius considering he's never played anyone more than 30 minutes per game this season (a big reason why they haven't had as many injuries as you might expect for a team their age) and still came out on top of the brutal western conference. Credit also to good team management and ownership (who've made some genius off-season decisions lately) to make that happen.
I keep expecting their run to end sooner or later but through reinvention and youth infusion they're squeezing more and more juice out of an orange that looks bone-dry to the rest of us. They've transformed from a low scoring defensive team that put on a snooze-fest in the 2005 NBA Finals against Detroit to a team that puts on an offensive clinic night after night that's fun to watch. I'm sure James Naismith is perfectly still (or doing cartwheels) in his grave!
I know it's a cliche but they really do do things the right way in San Antonio land. No scandals or locker room drama that I have heard off and they largely let their play do their talking (Tim's Finals guarantee notwithstanding). Not only do they have great chemistry with each other on the floor but they've also put their money where their mouths are off the floor. Each one of them has made some kind of financial sacrifice for the greater good and it's paid off with the ultimate prize. It seems like everyone in that organization has done something that contributed to this championship and they've provided the best counter-example I can think of to the (yet another) cliche that nice guys finish last.
As a Laker fan the Spurs have been my team's nemesis for a very long time but a small part of me is happy for them. It'll be a sad day when Duncan & Pop retire and their magical run comes to an end. That will end it, right??
Well said! They are a special team and Pop is probably one of the best coaches ever. It is very interesting how he has extended Tim's career by managing his minutes. I do think their run will end when Timmy retires, but I am not sure if he will take Pop with him though :-)
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