I wrote two years ago that the Spurs loss in the 2013Finals, and in reality it was a choke in Game 6, was a rare ‘criticallyacclaimed’ loss, one that would actually bump up the legacies of the loser.
These are quite rare – I believe my own Devils had this type of loss in their
run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2012, a last hurrah for the great Marty
Brodeur. The Spurs loss was the same, coming years after their last trip to the
Finals, playing the best of the four Heat teams (by regular season calculations),
and playing them so well, including blowout wins in Game 3 and Game 5, only to
lose because superior talent won out. Somehow, someway, despite winning the
title the next year, entering the playoffs as a favorite in their 1st
round matchup, and losing in the 1st round as a defending Champion,
the Spurs might have had that type of loss again.
In reality, everyone knew coming in this was a
Conference-Finals worthy series in the 1st round. The Spurs and Clippers
had the 3rd and 2nd best point differentials in the NBA.
They should not have met in the 1st round, something the Spurs could
have avoided by beating the Pelicans in Game 82. Yet it happened, and we all
were given the classic series we deserved. Outside of a Game 1 semi-blowout and
a Game 3 real-blowout, we were given one good game (Game 4), one great game
(Game 6), and three incredible games (Game 2, Game 5 and Game 7). All of the
last three games played in Los Angeles were perfect examples of how great
basketball can be. There was strategy, there was coaching genius and coaching
blunder, there was clutch shot after clutch shot, and a little bit of
controversy (Jordan’s in-the-cylinder tip ruining Game 5 for the Clippers, and
the weird buzzer going off ruining Game 7 for the Spurs). In the end, given the
Spurs injuries to Parker/Splitter, the better team likely won – but like the
Heat in 2013, or the Thunder in 2012, it took a talented team playing at their
very, very best to beat the Spurs – in Year 18 of the Duncan-Popovich
relationship.
I really hope Popivich and Duncan do not retire. I am pretty
sure Pop is coming back for another year – coaches don’t really have an
expiration date, especially in basketball where staffs are as large as in the
NFL, but not as pressurized. For Duncan, I don’t know. He’s still playing well,
about as well as he was in 2010. He’s actually been healthier the last three
seasons than the three before it. He just finished a series where he had games
of 28-11, 22-14, 21-11, and 27-11. This is a guy who turned 39 in the series,
and not only played more minutes than normal, but held value across those
minutes. Tim Duncan can’t retire, he just can’t when he’s playing this good,
evidently still loving basketball, and still has that #6 in his head.
The Spurs have been doing this so long that they’ve actually
truthfully entered a Patriots/Barcelona/Yankees like status where despite their
amazing success and number of titles and playoff consistency, they’ve racked up
a bunch of heartbreaking moments. For the Pats, it is things like losing two
close Super Bowls, or blowing three home playoff games in 4 years. For the
Yankees, it is blowing the ’01 World Series, or losing up 3-0 in the 2004 ALCS,
or the embarrassing playoff losses to Florida (’03) and Detroit (’12). For
Barcelona, sure they’ve won La Liga eleventy-times, and won two Champions
Leagues, but they’ve also blown Champions League’s ties to Chelsea in 2012, or
been embarrassed by Bayern in 2013 (losing 7-0 on aggregate). It’s really that
if you get to the show enough times, you will eventually have stage-fright and
lose yourself.
For the Spurs, this loss goes right up there with losing the
0.4 second game in 2004, stopping them from taking a 3-2 lead in the series
(they would lose Game 6 in LA), or even the loss in 2006, when Ginobili fouled
Novitzki on a lay-up up 3 to send Game 7 into OT. Reverse those two things, and
there is a chance the Spurs win five straight titles from 03-07. This isn’t
blowing Game 6 to the Heat – nothing will top that for the Spurs, but this is
another epic game where they lost. Chances are the Spurs weren’t beating the
Warriors anyway – that team is on an epic roll right now, but it would have
been fun to see them try.
The other immediate takeaway from Game 7 was just how
incredibly well played a game that was. The two other classic games had some
factors that hurt them, like the hack-a-jordan slowing Game 2 down in the 4th
quarter, and the same and a few other officiating concerns impacting Game 5.
The final game had none of these. I believe the largest lead of the game came with
the Spurs up 19-11. The Clippers scored the next 9 points, and then it was back
and forth the entire time. I read a tweet that the record for lead changes in a
Game 7 was 11 – and in that game there were 31. I’m not sure if that’s true,
the 11 seems awfully low, but the 31 is about right. That was about as good as
basketball can be played. A true titanic 7-game series, the best series I’ve
seen combining great quality of play and great drama – at least since those
same 2013 Finals.
I don’t think the Spurs are done, but I think that their
ability to gain from these sorts of losses is one of their defining legacies.
Win or lose, the Spurs made the NBA enjoyable in the last 5 years following
their Great Awakening heading into the 2010-11 season. They become an offensive
juggernaut that year, and ever since it’s been an absolute joy to watch them
play. There are reports that if Manu retires they’ll try to finagle some cap
room to go after a LaMarcus Aldridge, or even a Marc Gasol (who probably fits
better), and that along with Kawhi will keep this team competitive, but there
was something so amazing about them never depending on outside free agents to
be one of the top-4 options.
I have no idea if that was the last game of the Spurs
dynasty, but if it did it went out the way it should, with a team who’s been
emboldened and driven to replicate what the Spurs themselves have done, beating
them at their own game. It was Chris Paul who hit the amazing shot, and the Spurs
who got flustered when the buzzer went off wrongly and then threw a
low-percentage lob play. It was the Spurs who couldn’t close game 7, and the
Spurs who lost Game 6 at home up 3-2, something they had never done. The
Clippers deserved that series, but the Spurs deserved to be so good to lose by
2 in a 7-game series against another great team.
From 1999 to today, 17 NBA seasons will have been played –
and in those 17 years, no team has won like the Spurs. But as importantly, no
team has lost like the Spurs. No team has been able to change our view of
basketball and our view of them in losing like the Spurs have. I’ve gone over
the major losses that will stand the test of time (’04, ’06, ’13, ’15), but the
Spurs also were on the other side when we finally saw Phoenix and Steve Nash
exorcise the demons in 2010, or when we saw the apex of the Durant-Westbrook
Thunder, when the Thunder won 4 straight in the 2012 Western Conference Finals.
Just remember, the Spurs showed how good they were in those 4-straight losses,
as those four games by the Thunder may have been the scariest four games a team
has ever played. It looked like they would never lose again.
Somehow, someway, three years later, the Spurs have made two
more Finals, and won one, and the Thunder haven’t gotten back. The NBA’s
strange like that. Nothing last forever, even the Spurs run. But enjoy it while
you can. Enjoy Tim Duncan turning back time – his patented bank shot going from
a sign of how boring he is to a sign of how brilliant he is. Enjoy Greg
Popovich being an irascible genius. Enjoy it all, because when it is gone, we’ll
maybe see another team that stokes to fire of basketball brilliance in the way
they win, but we’ll never see a team get so much credit and create so much
enjoyment in the way they lose.
