How the Clippers Sunk the Spurs

by Matthew Tynan

There is no singular reason to point toward when asked to explain how the Spurs fell from the postseason in the opening round.

The ‘relentless’ Clippers — a motto emblazoned on every shirt draped over Staples Center seats throughout the series — appeared too much for the Spurs’ banged-up legs. Tony Parker and Tiago Splitter were shells of themselves, beaten from the wear and tear of injury-plagued seasons. Chris Paul was just spectacular, even after his hamstring pull, rolling in full Point-God mode few others at the position can achieve. Blake Griffin was untouchable, even against a front-court that’s troubled him in past years.

People tend to assign blame for the loss on a few things in particular. The shooting was not good. (No, it wasn’t great. The fourth-best spot-up team in the league dropped from 1.044 to .981 points per possession. But if you’re counting on a Finals-like blizzard of 3-pointers going in, you’re probably shit out of luck. Also, that team is really good at finding ways to win when they don’t shoot well.) Hack-a-Shaq-ing Jordan backfired. (I think a lot of you who hated this so much were overstating the negative impact it had. No, I KNOW you were.) Tony Parker is washed up and should’ve been benched for Patty Mills. (First of all, Parker shot the ball poorly, but he wasn’t as awful as he was made out to be. The Spurs were still in the positives when he was on the floor, which is not something you can say about the majority of the team, and Patty’s not a dude you can roll out for 30 minutes per night. Even when Tony is struggling, his penetration causes so many problems for a defense, as Doc Rivers mentioned at one point during the series.) Manu Ginobili was horrible. (*sigh* This one just makes me sad, because it’s true, and I think he might be done. At least he hit some big shots in Game 7, right? He was always good at making important shots.)

Side note (thanks to commenter for bringing it up): Free throws certainly were an issue. Those hurt. But, as Popovich mentioned at one of the post-game pressers, how do you fix that? Just tell the guys to shoot better? That’s a tough one. A frustrating one to be sure, but a tough one to just fix.

The reality? San Antonio’s defense — a top-three unit for the entire season — got torched.The Spurs gave up just 99.6 points per 100 possessions (pp100p) during the regular season, only to watch that number swan dive to 104.4 against the Clippers. That’s the difference between the No. 3 defense and No. 22 overall. You can’t win a playoff series with that.

Los Angeles pick-and-rolled San Antonio to death, a method of execution with which the Spurs have vanquished foes for years. Without a healthy Splitter, the back line of defense was incomplete, and the team that found its groove shortly after the Rodeo Road Trip was suddenly playing with a handicap. Not even the Defensive Player of the Year could make the kind of game-changing impact we’d seen in the months prior.

San Antonio tried a few different things, and was there until the end because of adjustments. It switched regularly on said pick-and-rolls, electing to thwart the threat of the Clippers’ roll men running toward the rim, and instead cutting Paul off and daring him to beat them with his mid-range jumper. He did. Paul hit 47.6 percent of his shots from that area, a mark 7.5 percent better than league average, per NBA.com’s shot-charting.

But it wasn’t just his shooting. Los Angeles ball-handlers scored .898 points per possession out of the pick-and-roll during the regular season, which was tops in the league according to Synergy data provided to 48 Minutes of Hell. That number ballooned to 1.031 in the postseason.

In the 18 games between Splitter’s return to the starting lineup and the center re-injuring his constantly balky calf, the Spurs were beating opponents by an average of 14.2 pp100p — the starting group of Splitter, Tim Duncan, Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, and Tony Parker were running people out the gym by 28.2 pp100p when on the floor together. San Antonio would keep its roll going up until the final night of the regular season, when the New Orleans Pelicans ended the team’s bid at a No. 2 seed.

But that starting group was unable to mask its deficiencies once the start of the postseason rolled around. Without a healthy Splitter, a five-man unit that was bludgeoning opponents in the very recent past was being outdone by 5.2 pp100p.

Once Splitter went down with his late-season injury, all the momentum San Antonio had gained in those previous 18 games began to circle the drain.

Via friend of the program Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News from Gregg Popovich’s exit interview on Monday:

“We were healthy and made that run down the stretch and then (Splitter) got hurt again and went down. Then we didn’t get him back until the beginning of the playoffs and I thought that really hurt us, rotation-wise and health-wise.

“To go all the way a lot of things have to go in your favor. It could be a ref’s call. It could be an injury, it could be somebody having a great night. It’s very difficult to do.”

Splitter is a bit misunderstood by a lot of fans, even after years of evidence displaying his value. The interior load on Duncan’s shoulders increases dramatically when Tiago is absent or banged up; and let’s be honest, his injuries seem chronic. Many don’t readily consider him to be one of the team’s best five players, but the impact he has on the court when healthy is worth every penny he’s being paid.

The times he’s not right, though? Well, you saw it in that series. When Paul wasn’t picking the Spurs out of his teeth, Griffin was bulldozing lanes to the rim like a freckled freight train, piling up bodies in his wake. The Spurs were helpless against it.

To make matters worse — and this is maybe the one thing you can’t let happen against that team — the Clippers not only increased the number of transition opportunities they created per game, but they scored more per possession — 1.218 points per possession, up from 1.191 during the regular season. That’s death against Los Angeles. If you can’t stop them in the half-court, you sure as hell better get back in transition.

It’s a good reminder of how important it was in this Spurs resurgence that they reworked their defense two offseasons ago. It’s also a good reminder of how fragile an NBA season can be.

The 2014-15 season was a really ugly year for injuries. Just look at the all the teams affected by injuries to star players, not just during the regular season, but the playoffs, too. Hell, CP3 somehow hobbled his way through Game 7, only to be forced to the bench in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. The Clippers still won because the Rockets resorted to that awful game plan of chucking away when things go badly (i.e. James Harden being terrible), but the point remains.

San Antonio’s most recent run has gone conference finals, finals, finals — historically speaking, hardly anyone reaches the end of the line in four straight seasons. Yeah, they were beat up, but that may have been because they were exhausted. Another thing Pop mentioned in his exit interview, and I agree: I’m not sure how much longer that team would’ve lasted had they won Game 7. There was a point after Game 4 where I realized this isn’t the Spurs.

That team would’ve twisted the knife after that Game 3 blowout. That team would’ve knocked the lights out in Game 6 after stealing the Clippers’ hearts from their chests in Game 5. That team would’ve smelled blood in the water after Paul injured his hamstring in Game 7.

And in a way, those final seven games of their season were indicative of the way their title defense unfolded.

Every time the Spurs began to rev up over the last six months, the engine backfired.

And hey, maybe that’s a sign a change is needed. The second-oldest team in the NBA was outlasted by a group of younger legs (even though that Clippers team has one of the worst benches you’ll ever see), and the rest of the West isn’t going anywhere. The league’s burgeoning young flock of players is here to stay, and it’s now up to the Spurs to adjust.

They know this, too. Just as the timing of San Antonio’s 2014 title run couldn’t have been more perfect, its roster management has created a large bubble of flexibility at just the right time. But for a franchise we don’t normally associate with change, things might look quite a bit different next year as 10 players are facing contract negotiations come July 1.

Whether Duncan, Ginobili, and Popovich — not to mention Leonard (he’ll be back), Green, and Marco Belinelli — are part of things going forward remains to be seen, but there will be a chance to reload. Remember, the last time the Spurs fell in the first round, they found a way to snag a young small forward from San Diego State; this summer, they’ll have their best pick in the draft since then, a potentially large amount of money (we’ll get to the team’s cap situation soon), and a new silent star with which to lure another big name to the fold.

The basketball may have ended sooner than you’d hoped, but I promise, there’s much more drama right around the corner.

Stats courtesy of NBA.com and Synergy Sports.

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