Three Talking Points Ahead of a Tense Game 2

by Matthew Tynan

The San Antonio Spurs went into the final night of the regular season in the driver’s seat for the second seed and a matchup with the beat-up, dysfunctional Dallas Mavericks. By the end of the night, they had fallen to the sixth seed and into a series with the most efficient offense in the NBA.

So here we are, with the defending champs having taken an opening-round shot to the chin from Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and Friends, and facing the unenviable task of avoiding a 2-0 hole before heading back to the Alamo City.

You guys tense?! Let’s talk about a few things, shall we?

1. How will the Spurs get Kawhi Leonard untracked?

Leonard’s Game 1 stat line didn’t scream lack of production. Going for 18 points, six boards, three assists, and four steals is a solid night of work at first glance, as is a 7-of-12 shooting performance. But the four turnovers and trouble dealing with the Clippers’ double-teams were more impactful on a night where the Spurs were minus-21 with Leonard on the floor.

In this case, Leonard’s statistical output might not necessarily tell us how well he played. If Los Angeles’ first course of action on the defensive end is to stop Kawhi, he’s got to take what they give him and either attack his man immediately and not allow one of the Clippers’ big men to slide over and set up in a help position, or he’s got to keep the ball moving — it cannot stick in his hands.

Of course, some of the onus is on the Spurs to put him in positions to be effective. Maybe that means getting the ball to him on the move a bit more often, putting him in quick-hitting pick-and-rolls or dribble hand-offs, or drawing bigs away from the basket so he can clear space to post up against smaller defenders. San Antonio will come in with some different wrinkles, so it’s going to be interesting to watch how they maximize Kawhi’s clear mismatch with anyone who defends him one-on-one.

2. The tactical battle should be fun.

Los Angeles came in with a hell of a game plan, and they executed it incredibly well. It’s highly unlikely they shoot as well in Game 2 as they did in Game 1, and it’s also unlikely the Spurs shoot as horribly. This SHOULD be a much closer game, and I, for one, am intrigued by what kind of back-and-forth we’ll get from a coaching perspective.

The Clippers were very aggressive with their defensive rotations, something that can be very dangerous against a Spurs team that has mastered the art of ball-movement. If you’re a split-second too late or half-step slow, they’ll beat you. The ball moves faster than the body. But Doc Rivers’ squad seemed to nail every rotation the other night, forcing San Antonio out of its comfort zone and squeezing them into difficult shots late in the shot clock.

I can’t imagine they’ll change a whole lot heading into the game, but you know Gregg Popovich will have his team ready with a few counters. Once those counters reveal themselves, how will the Clippers respond?

3. Who will back up Tony Parker?

One of the major elements that made the Spurs’ bench so dangerous last season was a hyperactive Patty Mills launching rainbow 3-pointers from all over the court. His shot has mostly deserted him this season since coming back from rotator-cuff surgery on his shooting shoulder, but in recent weeks he’s shown glimpses of a bounce-back. The most recent evidence came in Game 1, and it helped spark a Spurs run that at least made things a LITTLE interesting in the third quarter.

Cory Joseph has been really solid, and when he usurped Mills as Parker’s primary backup over the last several weeks of the regular season, the San Antonio bench was handling the opposition quite well. But this is potentially the kind of series that calls for more explosiveness and a higher ceiling for offensive output, something Joseph does not provide the same way Mills does.

It’s difficult to put a ton of confidence in Mills right now, and again, things have gone well with Joseph in the game, but this might come down to a gut feeling from Popovich. This might be the series where he needs to go back to his Australian spark plug.

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