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San Antonio's ability to stay just ahead of Memphis could be a championship tell
Did the Spurs ask for this? Did they, like, order this? This feels like some sort of payoff, some gifted golden watch, for being good at basketball since the late 1980s. For turning in routine, championship-contending seasons (save for one season-long break in 1996-97, at a time when Jenny McCarthy somehow held the world’s fascination) for decades.
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San Antonio is up 3-2 in its series against its fitful, respectful little brothers from Memphis. An actual little brother, in the form of Spur Pau Gasol’s younger sibling in Grizzly Marc, is typical of this whole interaction: San Antonio has enjoyed this rapport for so long that the “younger” Marc is by this time in his 30s. With every advancing game the reminder hits harder and harder that Zach Randolph was drafted ever so long ago. Memphis even boasts the league’s oldest player, in 40-year old Vince Carter. Everything old thing San Antonio does, Memphis does older.
The Spurs have cribbed a commanding lead with the next game lined up for a Tennessee arena the Spurs have yet to win in this season, in a series that has tilted San Antonio’s way in too many ways to not be aware of the kick.
Again, it was as if they requested the pairing. The two clubs, third (Memphis) and fourth-slowest among 30 NBA teams during the regular season, have strangled the pace to even quieter degrees through these five games. San Antonio hasn’t dominated in every aspect, it has just been better than the Grizzlies by the degree that typically separates a No. 2 and No. 7 seed.
Barring a major Memphis comeback, the better team has been established. What’s significant from here on out, though, is how this outfits San Antonio better for what it hopes will be the first championship of its post-Tim Duncan era. Before the Spurs can worry about the second and hopefully third and fourth rounds, the team’s followers need to be reminded of the warming elements that have defined the first five games of the postseason.
Kawhi Leonard, for one, sustained his star turn in the postseason. That’s reason enough for a round on the house (which we’re sure may still happen in some bar, somewhere), but his accomplishments strike as deeper once you consider the opposition: Memphis, plus that miniscule pace.
Leonard still averaged 31.4 points via astounding efficiency through the first five games of the postseason, with 5.4 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.8 steals against the regular-season’s seventh-ranked defense. Better yet, he’s floated without doubt. Kawhi has taken on several different looks and feints from Memphis so far in the series with grace and eventual (after 22 seconds) precision. Baseball fans must love this guy.
Were they given mortal, human brains, just about every Spurs offensive possession would begin with both the San Diego State University product and his coaching staff engaging in a mild freak out. Wondering if this possession will indeed stand as THE PLAY that forces the MVP candidate into a rash of indecision in the face of the Grizzlies’ kitchen sink, and yet the guy plays on. Further on, too.
It’s hard to proclaim someone “indefatigable” through just five games, but for Leonard to increase his minutes by four per game and still rank as this artfully weighty presence on both ends (just fall in love with this man away from the ball) stands as something short of frightening.
San Antonio limited Leonard’s minutes all season even at age 25, and in a year that saw Kevin Durant tumble with injury and LeBron James lead the league in minutes per game (alongside nearly 44 minutes in the playoffs), any build on this stance – with Leonard working with March legs in May – could shift an entire season.
The Spurs know this, it is their job to become aware of this sort of information before acknowledging its benefits, and moving on.
Consider that Manu Ginobili’s “Grandpa Juice” hit for double-figures on only six shots in Game 5, the sort of no-muss special that grandfathers Ginobili’s age tend to expect. For significant stretches the big lineups (featuring Lee or the older Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge in a role that expertly suits him until, of course, the Spurs lose) are working in ways that have you considering what could be next for San Antonio after the first round.
As if this series had more in common with San Antonio’s toppling of a similarly-sound Dallas Mavericks squad in the 2014 title year, as opposed to its vanquishing of Stephon Marbury’s Suns in 2003, the Andre Miller-and-Carmelo Anthony-led Nuggets in 2005 and 2007, or a 1999 Timberwolves team that started Sam Mitchell for a first-round game.
They’ve already held off the Grizzles in San Antonio in a contest the Grizzlies had every right to expect to win, save for the part about the Spurs also expecting to win Game 5, and being better at this.
David Lee, who didn’t even hit a shot in Games 2 or 3, scored 11 points while pulling in eight rebounds to counter the nine-point, six-rebound outing for Randolph – an unfair trade. Tony Parker, also selected in the 2001 draft alongside Randolph, could not get in front of Mike Conley’s all-world contributions (26 points), but his 16 points and six assists were indispensable as San Antonio circled the wagons while the Grizzlies did their best in Texas.
Patty Mills is a fun player, but too often the 34-year old Parker makes his teammate’s sort of contributions seem more necessary than vibrant and enjoyable. In Game 5, Mills’ 20 points were both, lively throughout, as the team further steeled its focus.
None of that may not matter in the face of a proud Memphis Grizzlies team, playing at home in Thursday’s Game 6, though Memphis (defend when Conley isn’t playing, fellas, and please mind the defensive glass) has a fair amount of work to do to tidy up. Grizzlies coach David Fizdale chided his squad after Game 5 for not sharing San Antonio’s ability to “focus in chaos,” the sort of line a rookie head coach can get away with when staring down a group full of professionals (including a litany of famed 30 and even 40-somethings) like the Grizz.
It’s a line Fizdale can also get away with because he’s right. The San Antonio turnaround in Game 5 was brutal, reminding all of us that the Spurs are a bit more than whatever role they’re currently seen in, once again acting as the Grizzlies’ lead obstacle.
Memphis has what San Antonio already showcases, in spades. The Grizzlies have shown it before, they’re blood-related after all, but the Grit ‘n Grind drive can’t help but hit a wall here. Memphis’ habit of turning heady types with a role player’s mentality (coupled with an artisan’s array of skills) into stars or near stars has met its match in San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard, the Role Player That Also Tends to Play a Lot Like Michael Jordan.
Memphis wouldn’t be alone in this disadvantage, but it’s up to San Antonio to do something about this starting on Thursday night, in a place they haven’t won in since the last time they knocked the Grizzlies out of the playoffs.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
