Tim Duncan Saves the Night as Spurs Bust-a-Smoove
HOUSTON — Even after fighting back from what had been a 13-point first-quarter deficit, San Antonio’s efforts to topple over the proverbial hump went unrewarded for much of a back-and-forth third quarter. Until Gregg Popovich started to Bust-a-Smoove.
The Spurs won the game, 104-103, after an unbelievable sequence of events, as Tim Duncan missed an open bunny at the rim before James Harden pulled up and hit a 3-pointer that bounced a foot in the air off the front of the rim and settled in the net. Manu Ginobili would then clumsily turn the ball over* and give Houston one more opportunity to win with six seconds left.
*The NBA later clarified Harden should’ve been called for the foul on Manu with 9.5 seconds left.
And man, you knew what was coming.
Harden received the ball and attacked the left side of the rim, as he often does. But Duncan was there, crossing from the help side to get a finger-tip on the layup attempt, deflect the shot, grab the rebound, and fling it out to Danny Green as the clock expired. The Toyota Center was enraged, and the Spurs jumped from sixth in the conference to third in the blink of an eye.
“It was a good opportunity for me to get redemption at the end. I had a layup to put it away and put us up six and I missed that and then we went down the last play. It was good team defense and a great win for us.
“All I thought was, ‘I got ball.'”
And he did. All of it.
I believe the person who originally snapped this and put it on Twitter was David Walker, so thanks for this, David Walker.
But before those fantastic final moments came the war of attrition that most viewers so despise. The Spurs opted to employ the “Foul the awful free-throw shooter as often as you can” strategy on Josh Smith, sending the Rockets’ big man to the line over and over again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
It was glorious.
Smith attempted a career-high 26 free throws, ALL IN THE SECOND HALF … and he made 12 of them. Before last night, the most he’d ever attempted in a game was 16 (twice), and he made 12 on one of those nights and 10 on the other.
What it led to was an exhaustingly slow tug-of-war between one offense that was struggling, and another that couldn’t do anything but watch a 51-percent free-throw shooter lob medicine balls toward the rim. The longer it continued, the more angry everybody became.
It’s funny, there’s a palpable build-up of perturbance in the arena as the Hack-a-Player crime is being committed. Smith’s first few trips to the line were met with mild annoyance, but then came the crescendo with every whistle, as Popovich ran up and down the bench the second the Rockets touched the ball, throwing his arms and pointing at Smith and pleading for the nearest Spur who could afford to give up fouls to go hug him.
First it was met with boos, then a few people started standing up with their arms in the air, then the whole building was up in arms, then came the random sounds of people throwing things on the ground really hard, then came local folks on press row kind of slamming their hands on the table. Every missed free throw was met with a louder groan of discontentment, while every make was met with a standing ovation. There’s nothing like it, it’s so funny/weird/fun/infuriating/dramatic/enjoyable for the people-watching aspect of the game.
That building had been rather tepid all night to that point, only getting up when Jason Terry would either A) do something good and, as a result, take off down the court pretending to be an airplane, as most 37-year-old men are wont to do, or B) cup his hands to his ears or toss ’em up to try and get the crowd involved. But when Bust-a-Smoove went down, it became hostile. At one point, it appeared as if James Harden was barking at Popovich before approaching him on the bench while the referees were reviewing a play that involved The Beard launching a deep 3-point attempt as Smith was being fouled in an effort to earn free throws.
There is a lot more to get to in this game (ya know, like Patty Thrills returning to the scene), but I want to talk about this for a second.
I remain steadfast in my opinion that these Hack-a-Player games are a lot of fun. At least for me, the mind games are super entertaining in that they add the element of more polarizing human emotion. On the other hand, I get why people don’t like it. It turns it into a totally different, more frustrating game to watch for most. Still, I have yet to see a legitimately good suggestion as a rule change. Some have come close, but have potential unintended negative consequences that come as part of the package.
Understanding that this stance makes me sound cliché or just old, I don’t know why we have to change a rule in order to protect bad free-throw shooters from performing a task inherent to the sport itself. Again, I know this is making me sound like “rub some dirt on it” guy or “analytics don’t work” guy or “I hate the 3-point line” guy or whatever, but if you just make the hot dang free throw it all stops. Just *POOF* it’s gone. That’s how we can get rid of it.
Oh yeah, PATTY MILLS!
As the fury surrounding the bricked-free-throw bonanza bubbled up into the Toyota Center rafters, Mills entered the game in what felt like a familiar spot — the Spurs couldn’t snatch the lead away despite going to the extreme to pull ahead in the game, and they needed an offensive spark.
When Patty checked in the game, they were down by four points. Six minutes later, San Antonio was up by five heading into the fourth quarter.
Mills scored 11 points in four minutes, including three 3-pointers, finally pushing the Spurs over the Houston speed bump (but it was one of those ridiculously big speed bumps that you have to basically prepare for by coming to a complete stop).
Last night was a reminder of what that guy can bring to San Antonio, in case anyone had forgotten. He’s an element for which no team really has an answer: a quick, backup scoring point guard who can shoot off the dribble or when spotting up, and plays annoying but effective full-court defense.
He’s just so much fun to watch when he’s right, and it’s a bummer this season has been such a drag.
“The difference is obviously, they were able to go in tonight. But the preparation, the mindset I think is no different then any other one,” Mills said after the game. “If there is, it was probably a little bit more focus on the defense and trying to make an impact defensively. I think that’s how it’s got to be anyway.
“I’ve come to learn you can’t rely on the jump shot. It’s all those little one-percenters I think that you can do a lot better job of without having to rely on that.”
But the jumper was there in this one, and the Spurs needed it. They might need a few more, too. By winning last night, San Antonio took the head-to-head tiebreaker away from Houston (for now) and put itself in position to win the third seed. It’s all very complicated, and there is still an amazing number of scenarios that can play out over the last week of the five days of the season, but the Spurs have a great chance at the second seed in the conference.
They’ll need some help in the form of losses from teams like the Grizzlies and, potentially, the Clippers, but the fact they’ve even made it to this point is astounding considering where they were. (A lot more on this here.)
“I didn’t know (the Spurs were the 3-seed), but yes it is (surprising),” Duncan said. “We’ve given away a bunch of games this year that we regret. It’s great to be where we are, but we’re playing right at the right time and that’s what you want.”
If it means you’ve got to Bust-a-Smoove to get things right, well, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Credit to @gazfather on Twitter for the Bust-a-Smoove line… it’s a pretty good one.
