San Antonio Spurs: Well-Rounded Dominance in Thrilling Win Over Dallas
By Cody Daniel
What a gut-checking finish to the NBA’s regular season opening game with the defending champion Spurs battling down to the last second over Dallas.
On the night that saw the Spurs being presented with their championship rings, San Antonio’s big three of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili ever-so-routinely led the way for the home team en route to a sloppy, but fundamentally savvy winning performance.
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In the same fashion the Spurs ended their NBA Finals winning 2013-14 campaign, they began 2014-15 by outworking, outhustling, outsmarting and outclassing their opposition in efforts to be on top at the end.
Twenty-three points for Parker, 20 points and six assists for Ginobili and 14 points and 13 rebounds for Duncan later and you have a hard-fought, game-winning effort by the Spurs, who outplayed Dallas through the fundamentals of the game.
San Antonio out-rebounded the Mavericks 38-33, threw more assists with 23 to Dallas’ 17 and cashed in more from beyond the arc, hitting 14 of 28 looks.
But by now, you should know the Spurs had other guys filling it up as well and they did with Marco Belinelli contributing 15 points and Danny Green shooting his way to 13 points. Dallas relied soley upon Monte Ellis’ 26 points, Dirk Nowitzki going for his usual 18 and Devin Harris stepping up and contributing 17 points.
But just as there is good news surrounding the Spurs’ season opener, there is some bad, although expected, sides of the story as well.
In any first game of the season, you’re going to have the usual turnover issues, but when you double your opponents turnover total with 20, the legendary Gregg Popovich will have just one more thing to frown on camera about as he looks out to his vets with higher expectation.
For the most part, San Antonio played the way we all expected them to. They displayed the chemistry that is going to continue to make them special throughout this season’s title run, the ability to overcome adversity and simply continued to play the brand of basketball that makes the Spurs so great.
Yes, it’s only the first game of the season, but in a rigorous western conference, each win matters and it helps the Spurs to be able to win their home opener.
Also, it’s worth mentioning Kawhi Leonard and Tiago Splitter were both unavailable due to injuries, which could or could not be a sign of how tough these guys will be to hang with even when they’re undermanned.