Eugene Fischer

Tag: San Antonio Spurs

NBA Finals: Spurs 3, Heat 1

Kawhi

Utter domination. The Spurs controlled the entire game and won by 21 points.  I’m running out of ways to express how well the Spurs are playing. So here is just a list of some facts.

  • Tim Duncan passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most postseason minutes played in NBA history.
  • Tim Duncan also passed Magic Johnson for most postseason double-doubles in NBA history, with 158. That is nearly two full seasons worth of playoff double-doubles.
  • Tim Duncan is 38 years old.
  • Kawhi Leonard had 20 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and 3 blocks. The last player to put up a line like that in a Finals game? Tim Duncan, in 2003.
  • Kawhi Leonard is only 22 years old.
  • Boris Diaw had 8 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists. Last player older than 30 to do that in a Finals game? Michael Jordan in 1997.
  • The Spurs join the 1960 Boston Celtics as the only teams in NBA history with three or more 15+ point wins in a Finals series.
  • The Spurs are the first team in NBA history to win two Finals road games by 19+ points.
  • The Spurs have won 11 playoff games by 15+ points, a record for a single postseason.
  • The Spurs are the first team in the shot clock era to shoot 55% or better from the floor in three games of a single Finals series.
  • Teams with a 3-1 series lead are 31-0 in NBA Finals history.

One more win. Go Spurs Go!

NBA Finals: Spurs 2, Heat 1

KawhiDuncan

I wasn’t able to watch this game live because I was stuck on a delayed airplane for the whole thing. But I watched it on video, and it was wonderful. The national coming-out party for Kawhi Leonard as a superstar. A fun note, given my comments on the BoxscoreGeeks show, is that Popovich declined to share what he said to Leonard before the game, citing, “family business.” Here’s the BBallBreakdown video for the game. As Arturo Galletti noted on Twitter, the Spurs are a couple missed free throws away from being up 3-0. On to game 4!

2014 NBA Finals: Spurs 1, Heat 1, I was there

There are worse things than attending a close NBA Finals game which your team loses by just two points. I’m sure I think of one in a minute.

I flew down to San Antonio for this one. The game was competitive, exciting, though not what I’d call “good.” The officiating was ludicrous, and not just in a my-team-lost sort of way. In the there-will-probably-be-people-fined sort of way. Even with that, the Spurs could have had it. But they only shot 60% from the free throw line and their offense turned to poo in the last few minutes of the game.

Meh. Here are some pictures. I got a cool hat. Bring on game 3.

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Tweek in Review

This week’s favstarred tweets.

https://twitter.com/ObiCynKenobi/statuses/472480567443726336
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2014 NBA Finals: Spurs 1, Heat 0

SASMIAgame1
Spurs win game 1. Tim Duncan shot 9 of 10, and had 21 points and 10 rebounds to lead his team in scoring. At age 38. He became the oldest player to do that since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it at age 40. And he’s now only one game behind Magic Johnson on the all-time playoff double-doubles list. Not bad for an old man. Next game is on Sunday, and I’ll be in the building for it. I expect to have no voice for days following.

I’m On the BoxscoreGeeks Show This Week

nerdnumbers-avatar-a8cf1fabc63d694052a10f5ed6a10818Andres Alvarez was kind enough to invite me to be the voice of Spurs fandom on the BoxScoreGeeks Show. We discussed the narratives of this postseason run, and take a historical look at the Spurs’ accomplishments over the last seventeen years. There are also podcast versions of the show you can subscribe to if you like. Here’s the link.

The Finals Begin June 5th

And this artsy Vine of Manu’s clutch 3 that ABC made to advertise them is fucking gorgeous.

For my part, I’ll be flying back to San Antonio to attend Game 2.

Two Tweeks in Review

I was at WisCon this weekend, so didn’t do my normal roundup of favorited tweets last friday. Here’s two weeks worth instead.


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San Antonio Spurs – The Beautiful Game

This video captures many of the things I adore about the San Antonio Spurs. [EDIT: The original video was taken down. I’ve switched it out with a mirror.]

What you wouldn’t learn from watching this wonderful video, though, is that for the first half of their era of dominance, the Spurs were thought of as offensively mediocre, but a defensive powerhouse. The reversal of perception over the last decade, despite having the same player core, is stunning. And it’s a credit to Gregg Popovich, who, as Nate Silver notes, has been “uniquely able to stave off regression to the mean.” Ian Levy picked up on that and observed that as his teams’ defensive effictiveness waned, it was nearly perfectly compensated for by increasing offensive prowess. (The trend lines in season ORTG+ and DRTG+ by season are perfectly parallel.) So it’s not just, as the video suggests, that the Spurs play perfectly executed team basketball. That’s what they do now, yes. But in the broader sense, what the Spurs under Gregg Popovich do, year after year, is play perfectly to their strengths while minimizing their weaknesses.

Tweek In Review


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