SAN ANTONIO — It’s fun to believe.
But reality bites.
Eventually everybody tiptoes down the stairs one Christmas morning with the
knowledge that the fat man in the red suit is part of a myth.
The Spurs officially had the white beard pulled off their fantasy in the third
quarter Kevin Durant decided the game belonged to him.
However, it was over the moment that coach Gregg Popovich stepped forward at the
morning shootaround and announced that Kawhi Leonard would not play in Game 3.
Or when Tony Parker crumbled to the floor with a torn left quadriceps tendon in
Game 2 of the previous series against Houston. Or finally and indisputably, when
David Lee had to be taken off the court in a wheelchair when he hit the deck
before the end of the first quarter on Saturday night at the AT&T Center.
At the rate things are going, the star-crossed Spurs could run out of players
before they run out of games, which likely will be on Monday night when the
Warriors complete their sweep of the Western Conference finals.
“The fact is that it’s just too tough,” said the venerable Manu Ginobili.
Tough under any circumstances when you’re facing a Golden State team with four
All-Stars and more weapons than an armory that has lost only one game in just
over two months.
Virtually impossible when you have nothing with which to hit back.
Popovich had said all he wanted to see was some competitive belief from his
Spurs after they sleepwalked through a 136-100 drumming in Game 2. So they
fought and they scrapped and they battled in Game 3 and got a 120-108 sock in
the eye for their effort.
“Couldn’t have asked any more from them competitiveness-wise,” Popovich said.
“It’s just tough to pile up injuries this time of year,” Pau Gasol said. “It is
critical to have everyone healthy and we already have two key players missing.
So I hope David Lee gets good news tomorrow.”
The Spurs have become the basketball version of the Black Knight in “Monty
Python and the Holy Grail,” defiantly standing his ground when all of his limbs
are severed in a sword fight.
“Tis but a scratch,” said the Knight. “It’s just a flesh wound.”
The Spurs play on because the NBA says you can’t just call it a season at some
painful, broken point and go home.
Maybe Leonard, again an All-NBA First Team member and a finalist for the 2017
MVP award, could have tried to make it up and down the court with a badly
sprained left ankle.
But Popovich was not putting his premier player into such a situation. For one,
you can’t limp against the Warriors. For another, at 25, Leonard is the future
of the Spurs franchise as they go forward and the coach takes the long view.
Popovich made a similar choice back in 2000 when a young Tim Duncan of the
defending champs hurt his knee just before the playoffs. It was the type of
injury where the medical staff said he could play without doing further damage.
Duncan sat, the Spurs lost 3-1 to the Suns in the first round, but came back to
win consecutive MVP awards in 2002 and 2003 and led the team to four more
championships over a decade and a half.
“I think we do what every team tries to do,” Popovich said. “You take care of
your players, you do what’s best, hopefully, in the short run and the long run,
and it matches up. But sometimes you’ve got to make a tough decision. I think
our philosophy helps some players extend their careers. But it doesn’t mean that
the way we do it is the only way.”
Popovich’s way is to face reality head-on. He knew a huge feat in taking down
the Warriors was already tougher without his point guard Parker. And when
Leonard went down in the third quarter of the opener with the Spurs up by an
improbable 23 points, the giant boulder they had to roll up the hill became
enormous.
Even the ageless marvel from Argentina, the soon-to-be-40-year-old Ginobili,
virtually conceded the fruitlessness of it all. He turned back the clock, opened
a vein and practically bled 21 points in the loss, then shook his head at the
fix the Spurs are in.
“For us to win, we have to play at a 10 level,” Ginobili said. “And they have to
play at a seven.”
The Warriors sink to a seven about as regularly as a leap year and, even then,
there’s the embarrassment of riches that is Durant, Stephen Curry, Draymond
Green and Klay Thompson to take over and win a game with sheer individual
brilliance.
What are the levers or strings left now for the Spurs to pull?
“Hope to be more attentive to details, less mistakes, less turnovers and
hopefully more inspired offensively also,” said Ginobili. “Take better shots and
don’t let them run. So it’s going to be really tough, really difficult.”
Still, belief and competitiveness can only go so far.
“You have to feel good about yourself,” Ginobili said. “Feel good about
yourself, give everything you have and, if it’s enough, great. If it’s not, you
shake their hands and wish them good luck and go home, hug your kids, wake up
the following day and life goes on.”
That’s the reality that bites deep.
Fran Blinebury has covered the NBA since 1977. You can e-mail him here, find his
archive here and follow him on Twitter.
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