Pregaming: Spurs vs. Grizzlies Game 5
AT&T CENTER — It’s a lot sooner than expected, but the San Antonio Spurs face elimination tonight against the Memphis Grizzlies. It’s Game 5, and Memphis is in control. The Spurs will attempt to wrestle control away from them slowly, as there’s really no other way to do it. Around the AT&T Center, though, there doesn’t seem to be a feeling of desperation.
Maybe it’s good in that there will be less of a chance of players panicking, especially if the Spurs get down early. But it’s possibly a negative, perhaps what the Spurs need is some desperation. There seemed to be some during Game 2 when the Spurs were in danger of losing the first two games of the series at home, and that worked out alright.
Either way, here are a few notes for you from pregame:
- I was chatting with Wayne Vore of Spurs Planet during shootaround, and he told me he caught an interesting incident just before I got there. Gary Neal was warming up with Spurs Assistant Coach Chip Engelland on the San Antonio end of the floor, which is closest to the tunnel that the Grizzlies players come out of from the visiting locker room. Wayne said that Tony Allen emerged from the tunnel and walked right through the Spurs’ warm ups, preventing Chip from throwing a pass to Neal. Wayne said it looked like Allen said something to Neal as he passed through. Eventually, when Neal was finished warming up, he went through the tunnel closest to the Spurs end instead of going across the floor to where the Grizzlies were warming up to go to the locker room. These incidents are why the playoffs are fun, guys getting tired of playing each other game after game.
- I noticed an interesting thing when Tiago Splitter was getting his pregame work in. Splitter and Spurs Assistant Coach Chad Forcier were running pick-and-rolls from the top of the key and from the wings. Normally, this is not anything special. But what Forcier had Splitter doing on the pick-and-rolls was. Forcier would hit Splitter rolling to the basket and the Spurs big man was hitting assistant coaches standing in the corners from the middle of the lane. Who knows if this is a new wrinkle the Spurs are planning to try tonight to get open looks in the corners, hitting the big men rolling to the basket and hoping they’ll draw in the defenders from the corners, but it’s something to watch for.
- During his pregame press conference, Coach Pop talked about the lack of offense for the Spurs, framing that as the main problem for the team. “We’ve had too many people who have not performed well in that area,” he said. “There are enough [defensive] stops to win a playoff game out there.”
