December’s Over for Spurs, but Winter Continues
The horrors of December may be over for the Spurs, but the month’s coldest experiences – the agonizingly close games, the lingering injuries – have found a way to stick around.
After the release the team surely felt ending December with an overtime win against the Pelicans, January was supposed to be an opportunity for the team to right the ship. But after a convincing win against the Wizards, the Spurs have looked sloppy to start the new year. Friday night against the Suns looked eerily similar to the Spurs’ stunning loss to the Pistons, as San Antonio jumped to an early, sizable lead, only to cough it up in the third quarter and enter the final frame in a fight from behind. Worse, Manu Ginobili was sidelined for most of the game with back spasms. The Spurs struggled to find their offense, posting a hilariously bad 10 points – yes, you read that right – in the third quarter, and the Suns completely flipped the script of the first half, dominating in the paint and crushing the Spurs on the boards.
Popovich, having abandoned the hockey style substitutions of recent games, stuck with a Joseph, Belinelli, Green, Bonner, and Ayres lineup to start a possible comeback in the game’s closing moments. Somehow, it worked, as a cold Bonner left the bench to hit a few threes. Later, Patty Mills joined him, scoring thirteen of his fifteen points in the final frame. The team dropped 41 points on the Suns in the final quarter to secure the win, without a minute of playing time in the comeback from San Antonio’s Big Three. Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker, who has been struggling since his return, watched as the rest of the team battled to take over the game.
Despite the injury news – Manu Ginobili’s back spasms will keep him out at least another game – the Spurs showed some promise in Friday’s game. Patty Mills’ return is no small thing for a struggling offense, and the team is 4-2 since his return. As Aron Baynes continues to sit out with neck spasms, Jeff Ayres has played admirably in his absence, leading the team in +/- the last two games, due in no small part to him being the team’s best free throw shooter. And though the game came down to the wire, the Spurs managed to avoid repeating the same mistakes that cost them against the Pistons.
They’ll need to build off Friday’s game if they hope to win tonight’s back-to-back against Minnesota. Though the Timberwolves, themselves decimated this season by key injuries, look like an easy matchup, the Spurs are at a point where the lighter parts of their schedule have become must wins if they hope to attain home court advantage for any rounds in the playoffs. Circumstances have forced them to concentrate so intently on the immediate, on every game and each bounce. For a team known and occasionally lampooned for focusing so hard on the long game, that’s a cruel irony. Winter continues.
