59-22.
What does that number represent? Oddly, it is one game off (59-23) to the
average record of the Spurs five title teams (when adjusting their 37-13 record
in the lockout-shortened 1999 season). No, but it also represents the run
the Spurs went on.
They
were down 22-6 just six minutes into Game 5 last night. The Heat were hitting
everything and the Spurs hit nothing, including Parker missing shots, Green
missing threes, and them looking very much like the team that couldn’t close
out the Mavs in the 1st round. Then came the run, punctuated by
back-to-back-to-back threes, all but one in transition, built around a block of
Dwyane Wade by Tiago Splitter, and built with neither Tim Duncan nor Tony
Parker on the floor. When it ended it was 65-44. The Heat got no closer than
14, and capitulated sitting LeBron with seven minutes to go in the Game down
18. 59-22 might very well be the lasting image of the Spurs dynasty. Their
Mangum Opus. This whole series felt that way. This was the crowning
achievement, responding from their worst defeat (blowing Game-6 in a most
un-Spurs like fashion) to dominate the 2-time defending Champs. It was their
crowning achievement, one 17 years in the making.
The
Spurs have been on those runs before, you know. They closed out both the
Mavericks in and Nets in the 2003 playoffs with giant 2nd half runs
(42-15 over the Mavs in Game 6, 22-4 in Game 6 of the Finals). They all
featured the same thing, a few blocks, and a lot of threes. It was Steve Kerr
and Stephen Jackson in 2003. Nothing really encapsulates the Spurs quite like
that, does it? The man who played the Patty Mills role for the 2003 Spurs is a
man who retired, became an analyst, then became a GM, then became an analyst
again, and has now been hired as a coach. He’s had a full post-player life… and
the Spurs are still winning titles.
The
Spurs never got the credit they deserved mainly because when they were on the
game’s biggest stage, the Finals, they and the East champ always disappointed.
They beat up on the woefully overmatched ’99 Knicks, and then beat the almost
as woefully overmatched ’03 Nets, with only Duncan’s ridiculous stat-lines
(21-20-10-8 in the clincher) fitting as a lasting memory. The played a dramatic
7-game series against the Pistons, but when you get the two best defensive
teams of the past 15 years at their peak against each other, it won’t be too
pleasing on the eyes. Then they beat up on the most over-matched of all the
opponents in 2007. Of course, hiding behind their boring Finals’ dominance was
a team that had to play in the better Conference year in and year out and was
part of some memorable series.
Let’s
remember the Spurs for being involved in probably the two most famous
non-Finals series of the past 10 years, the 2006 and 2007 Western Semifinals
against the Mavs and Suns. They played wildly entertaining games against those
run-and-gun Suns and Mavs back in the day, often outscoring them instead of
slowing the game down. The best example was the 2005 Western Conference Finals,
when they beat the 62-20 Suns in 5 games, scoring 100+ each time. They won the
first two games of that series, in the mad-house that was Phoenix at the time,
121-114 and 111-108. That was the brilliance of the Spurs, as that same season
in the Finals, they won games 84-69 and 81-74. They could play all styles.
They
still can. Lost in the talk of their incredible passing and pick-and-roll times
ten offense that they run to symphonic perfection, was their defense becoming a
Top-5 unit in the league again. In that epic 59-22 run the Spurs went on to
close out the last vestiges of hope the Big Three had, the more impressive part
was the ‘22’. They held the Heat, whose offense itself had been on a ridiculous
roll in these playoffs, to 22 points over 24 minutes. They held them with great
team defense. Duncan was everyone, looking like he did back in 2005. Kawhi
Leonard was Bruce Bowen, but bigger and stronger. Ginobili was at his pestiest.
Boris Diaw played the Robert Horry roll. On one end of the floor, they were the
2005 Spurs. On the other, they were the 2014 unit, a beautiful offensive
machine.
While
that win takes the bad taste of 2013 out of the mouth of many Spurs fans (and
Heat haters), in a way it makes it worse. They were one play away from finally
winning back-to-back titles last night, for Duncan and Popovich to tie the six
titles that Phil and Michael won together. For the Spurs to tie the Bulls for 3rd
place for most titles. Five titles is nice, but five titles just matches Kobe.
Six is a different planet. There’s only two player-coach pairings to ever get
six. One was Russell and Auerbach, in a very different NBA with far fewer
teams. The other was, as mentioned, Michael and Phil. Now, admittedly they did
it in 8 years while the Spurs would have taken 16, but winning is winning.
The
Spurs also did an amazing thing last night, they made the Heat seem pitiable.
We are used to the Spurs doing that to the Western Conference minnows. When
they blew the doors of Dallas in Game 7, or Portland in Games 1, 2 and 5, it
was old hat. It was the Spurs playing perfectly against a team that couldn’t
keep up anyway. These last three games? This was something we have never seen.
It has been a long time since a Finals was this uncompetitive. The Heat weren’t
an ordinary team. Sure, signs were there all season long that this was the
worst version of the Heat since ‘The Decision’. They had the worst record and
worst scoring differential, and Wade and Bosh had their worst seasons, and
somehow the bench got increasingly worse as the years wore on. Still, this Heat
team rolled through the East playoffs. They scored on Indiana, the league’s
best defense, at an inhuman rate. They were still the Heat, the two time
Champs. It was almost unsettling to see them outscored 59-22.
I
actually felt bad for the Heat. Champions should not go down this way. I may
hate the Heat. I may still hate LeBron for choosing what I took as the easy way
out back in 2010, for leaving Cleveland behind because he wanted a Championship
given to him. But the Heat didn’t have it given to them. They faced many
different points where they could have lost out on any titles. They were down
3-2 with a Game 6 to be played in Boston in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals,
and LeBron delivered one of the great performances in recent years. They were
then down 1-0, losing late in Game 2, to the Thunder in the Finals before
pulling it out and rolling a Thunder team that was the best in the
Durant/Westbrook era (mainly because of the presence of that 3rd
guy, Mr. Harden). They had to play a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Finals
last year, and didn’t quit when in an almost impossible situation last year
against the Spurs. And of course, they lost the Finals in 2011.
Even
in those 2011 Finals, and I rewatched the super-entertaining Game 5 of that
series, the Heat seemed to at least have answers. The Mavericks won that Game
and the series because LeBron was passive, and because the Mavericks outplayed
them in critical moments (Game 6 was the only game in which the Heat did not
have a 4th-quarter lead). The 2014 Finals were different. The Heat
were just worse. There were no late-game situations that the Heat blew. In fact,
discounting Game 1 because of the Cramps/AC-Gate, the Heat were the team that
made plays down the stretch of the one game that was close in the 4th
quarter. They stole Game 2 because the Spurs missed 4-straight freethrows. The
Spurs made sure they were never in that position again.
It
is hard to really say what the best Spurs performance was of the last three
games. Was it Game 3, with their 71 first half points? Was it Game 4, with
their excellent play throughout on both sides of the ball against a team that
had to win it? Or was it Game 5, with a slow start but a dominant middle the
likes we rarely see? Who knows, really. The Spurs give so many moments.
In
a weird way, a great comparison to the Spurs is Rafael Nadal in one sense:
their ability to play a starring role in some incredible games and series.
Despite being hailed by their critics as boring (and I’m talking about the
1999-2010 Spurs here), both are one-half of some of the best contests in their
sport. I’ve already mentioned the 2006 and 2007 Western Conference Finals, but
they also played a highly entertaining 6-game series against a good Sonics team
in 2005, and a great series against the New Orleans Hornets in Chris Paul’s
should-have-been-MVP season. The Spurs have played in some fantastic games,
with flawless execution by highly skilled players. They may never get the
credit they deserve because only a few have been in the Finals, but they’ve
been the team that should be most associated with this post-Jordan era of
basketball in every way, not just in their ruthless excellence.
We
will never see a team like the Spurs again. We may see a team that wins five
titles, or more titles. We may see a team that is this dominant, that strings
together a long run of 50-win seasons, that can run a team off the court in the
finals like that. We may see all those things. What we won’t see is a team do
that in that particular way. We won’t see one of the Greatest Players Ever stay
17 years in one city, particularly a city that isn’t known for being the most
exciting. We won’t see a team be able to nail late draft pick after late draft
pick. We won’t see a team be able to keep their main stars in affordable
contracts forever. And we won’t see a coach like Gregg Popovich come in and
stay two steps ahead for the league for an entire decade.
The
Spurs did things their way. That way included no one saying anything, staying
out of the media spotlight (aside from Tony Parker’s extra-marital
engagements); it included a coach who became more openly prickly yet more
openly respected over time. It also included getting three players to subjugate
themselves for the team for years and when the top guys buy-in, the lesser guys
have no real option to not do the same. The Spurs did everything pretty close
to perfect for the past 15 years. They got their ‘One for the Thumb’ to finish
things as well.
I
don’t know what the lasting memory of the Spurs will be. I guess it depends
what you really think the takeaway message is. If you think it is how great Tim
Duncan is, I guess it will be his 21-20-10-8 performance in Game 6 to close out
the Nets in 2003 (or the half dozen other absurd games he had that postseason). If you think it is about their unending success on defense (which it was this year as well), maybe it will be their defensive masterpiece against the Pistons in '05. If you think it was about them being the scourge of basketball in the mid-2000's, maybe you think it was Robert Horry checking Steve Nash into the boards. If you think it was about beautiful basketball, maybe it was their tic-tac-toe possession that ended in a Diaw three in Game 6 against the Thunder.
There are endless supply of memories. The Spurs have supplied the NBA with more great games and great moments and 'Oh My God, How Good Are They' plays to account for 10 teams. But honestly, what I will remember is how the Spurs reacted to losing. Arguably their three worst playoff defeats were when they were beaten by eh 2002 Lakers (a team they were better than) losing the last two games ever at the Alamodome, when they fell victim to Derek Fisher's shot with 0.4 seconds left, when Ginobili fouled Dirk up 3 in Game 7 in '06, and the million things they did wrong in last year in Game 6. How did they follow up those disappointments: title, title, title and title.
In fact, the last four years of Spurs basketball are the best evidence. They surprised everyone by going 60-22 in 2010-11, but were knocked off by Memphis in the 1st round. They responded by going 50-16 in the lockout season, and winning 20 straight games heading into Game 3 of the Conference Finals. The Thunder then proceeded to run them off the court. How did they respond? By making the Finals. Then, they blow the Finals in teh worst way possible, and respond by winning it in such dominant fashion that Miami sat LeBron with half the 4th quarter left in Game 5.
The Spurs never repeated (they might next year), but they endured. They endured the game changing, the players changing, Super Teams getting built and then falling apart. They endured so many years of playoff losses (10 times they've lost in the playoffs in 15 years), but always came back stronger. That is what I'll always remember about the Spurs. They fought, they won, in any and every way possible.
