When Will the Seriously Boring Spurs Finally Flip the Switch?
LeBron James’ last matchup against San Antonio ended with a result that set off a string of dramatic events, leaving the Miami Heat in a state of depression and the state of Ohio in a blaze of jubilation. After four consecutive trips to the Finals in South Beach, The King felt it was time to move on, to head back home and leave his title-winning teammates behind in the rubble of a historically brutal 4-1 wipeout at the hands of the Spurs.
Tonight, he’ll get a visit from Tim Duncan and Friends in ESPN’s marquee game, this time alongside Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers. This time, however, things just feel different.
Whenever and wherever LeBron is involved, the circus will always follow. The Cavs are a nightly focal point of all NBA coverage, especially as they try to make things work with a group of guys that isn’t quite jelling the way most expected. This James — one year older and a hell of a lot skinnier — isn’t the one that walked off the AT&T Center floor in solitude as the confetti fell around him, and this surely isn’t the team that helped him take the league by storm over the last four years.
Cleveland and its collection of offensive superstars is predictably scoring at a high rate — second only to the scorching Dallas Mavericks in terms of offensive efficiency. But on defense, the Cavs are a turnstile, trying mold a group of notably bad defenders into a serviceable unit by employing a strategy used by the Heat under Spoelstra. But Love and Irving aren’t even close to being the defenders Chris Bosh and Dwyane were with LeBron, and they’re struggling to keep opponents from scoring at will.
Only four teams are allowing more points per 100 possessions than the 108.3 Cleveland is giving up, and this is a problem for a team with eyes set on the Larry O’Brien trophy. Luckily for them, their opponent for this one, the offensive juggernaut from San Antonio, can’t figure out how to put the damn ball in the basket.
It’s been 11 years since the Spurs’ offense has looked this bad through the first 10 games of a season. San Antonio’s 98.9 points per 100 possessions is by far its worst in the first 10 games of a season since 2003, when they miserably trudged through November with an offensive rating in the low-90s. The shooting has been miserable thus far, the pace slower than normal — they’ve been freaking boring! Yes, they’re still without Tiago Splitter and Patty Mills, but they might get Marco Belinelli back this evening (he’s listed as doubtful, which is an upgrade from previous games). That would help at least a little for the team with the tenth-worst effective-field-goal percentage in the league.
But the Spurs are staying afloat, thanks in part to the third-best defense in the NBA. Even without Splitter and the underrated full-court defensive annoyance of Mills, San Antonio is allowing only 96 points per 100 possessions, a mark that’s about four points better than the one it posted last season as the fourth-best defense in the league, per NBA.com.
Both of these teams are expected to be right in the mix of contenders at the end of the season, and considering the résumés of those involved, it’d be silly to bet against that. For now, they’re relying on what they can control. We knew the Cavs would be offensively elite, and the difference in the Spurs over the last two seasons has been their top-five defense. Gregg Popovich knows his team will compete every night, so long as it’s focused defensively.
So tonight, it’ll be the Cavs’ explosive offense against the Spurs’ lockdown defense, and any little X-factor could go a long way in deciding an outcome. Then again, maybe it’s this sort of stage that can wake San Antonio from its sleepwalk. This team isn’t the type that gets super geared up for a regular-season game in November, even if it is against the LeBrons on national TV.
Every year has that moment, though, where a switch is flipped and energy is renewed. Maybe that’s tonight. Perhaps, just as LeBron surely remembers walking off that Finals floor without a third trophy under his arm, the Spurs remember the performance that ensured that was the case. Maybe, in the midst of a team-wide shooting slump, they remember the last time they simply couldn’t miss.
