Spurs Salvage the Night for Gregg Popovich
Gregg Popovich’s 1,000th victory wasn’t like most of the other 999. It was just the third time in his illustrious career the Spurs have won a game in which they trailed by at least 14 points entering the fourth quarter, and on the clinching play, neither Tim Duncan nor Tony Parker touched the ball after it was inbounded. Manu Ginobili was in street clothes on the second night of a back-to-back.
Instead, Kawhi Leonard dished out the third game-winning assist in his career when he found Marco Belinelli in the corner — his first when isolated and asked to create the basket on his own. In a sense, it’s a reflection of the identity of Popovich’s tenure as the frontman of the Spurs. In those 19 years, 144 different players have seen their ways through San Antonio and been part of numerous changes in philosophy and style, and 41 of them have at least one NBA Championship ring. And it wasn’t one of his cornerstones who made the pass or hit the shot. Instead, it was a draft-day steal and an international NBA journeyman who connected to sink the Pacers.
So Spurs. Perfectly Popovich.
When the Pacers emerged from that final Spurs timeout with a two-big lineup featuring David West on Leonard, the Spurs took advantage of the mismatch. Duncan cleared out to the weak side of the floor, pulling Hibbert with him, and C.J. Miles and George Hill were sticking to Danny Green on the right wing and Parker in the right corner, his hot spot. This allowed Leonard an easy one-on-one situation against the bigger West, but once he beat him off the dribble, Hibbert rotated off Duncan to help. Kawhi had to find his way out of this situation (see below) to find Belinelli in the corner. Timmy was enough of a threat on the opposite block to force Rodney Stuckey to sink in and help, which caused Stuckey to scramble back in an effort to challenge Marco.
The setup worked exactly the way the Spurs had hoped, and Leonard executed as well as you can expect, especially considering it’s usually Ginobili or Parker in that role. But ya know, next man up and all that.
It was an appropriate way for Pop to achieve this milestone — a typically Spurs-y play that produced an atypical hero, long a common theme for this team. Adding to his legacy in this fashion was microcosmic of how San Antonio has won over the years, but it helped salvage another mostly pedestrian performance that’s been a crappy staple of the 2014-15 Spurs.
The third quarter has been something close to a train wreck in San Antonio for what’s going on three years now. Who the hell knows why? But it’s been particularly bad this season. The Spurs are beating opponents by an average of seven points per 100 possessions in the first, second, and fourth quarters; but in the third period, San Antonio is being outscored by 3.8 points per 100 possessions. That’s a 10.8-point swing from the average net rating of the other three quarters! For the sake of comparison: They’re winning the first quarter this season by an average of 8.7 points per 100 possessions.
But last night the Spurs overcame a third quarter in which they were manhandled 34-18 by posting a big fourth, winning the period, 30-14. They suffocated the muggy, star-less offense of the Pacers and snuck in enough second-chance points (6) to make up for poor shooting percentages (42.3) in the final 12 minutes.
Among the little things was a solid game from Parker (19 points and six assists) — though he did trail off in the fourth quarter — and 12 important points from Belinelli. Perhaps it doesn’t seem like much, but between injuries and players underperforming, San Antonio hasn’t been able to put all the pieces together yet this season. Parker and Belinelli have prominently factored into that problem, so seeing them play well is a good sign going forward.
It wasn’t pretty, but it was meaningful — both in the big picture and the small. First and foremost, it was a win when those have been uncommonly difficult for the Spurs to come by. They avoided an 0-2 start to the Rodeo Road Trip and gave panicking fans another night or two of respite. And in the grand scheme of things, 1,000 wins is an impressive benchmark achievement that groups Pop in with some of the All-Time greats in the sport, not that he needed an arbitrary number to put him in that place anyway.
I’d be lying if I said I remembered the first game Popovich coached. I was 11 years old, and probably couldn’t have cared less who was leading that mess of a team. But I sure as hell recall every step of the way since that time. It’s interesting to think about, too — will we ever see another guy like this again? As a relatively unknown general manager whose only head-coaching experience was at tiny Pomona-Pitzer, Popovich fired beloved Bob Hill and appointed himself to lead the struggling Spurs in a move that drew much criticism. Now look at what’s happened.
The NBA has become a league of former players, previously successful collegiate head coaches from schools much larger than Pomona, and retread after retread after retread. The likelihood we’ll ever see someone take the route Popovich did and become as successful as he has is slim to none.
For one night, the Spurs escaped another one of the many potholes that have lined the course of their season thus far. Whether this is a turning point or just a blip on the radar remains to be seen, but none of that matters for the moment, because they picked a hell of a night to find a way to win.
Screenshot and statistics courtesy of NBA.com.
Notes (courtesy of ESPN Stats and Info):
- Popovich took over as the Spurs head coach during the 1996-97 season. Since then, the Pistons and Wizards have had 12 head coaches, the most of any team.
- Popovich’s first win came on Dec. 14, 1996 against the Mavericks. At that point the Spurs had never won an NBA championship, LeBron James was only 11 years old, and the New England Patriots had never won a Super Bowl.
- Tim Duncan has played in 929 of Popovich’s wins, more than any other player. Their 929 wins together are the most for any player-coach duo in NBA history. Second-best is Karl Malone and Jerry Sloan, with 775 for the Utah Jazz.
- Belinelli is 5-of-10 on potential go-ahead shots in the final 10 seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime since entering the league in 2007. The element of surprise may have something to do with that, as he doesn’t figure to be the primary option for most teams in that sort of situation. The NBA average shooting percentage on those shots is a meager 25.5. The Spurs’ top three options for that situation — Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard — are a combined 6-of-24 since 2007.
