San Antonio Spurs: Things To Know From Loss To Pelicans
By Cody Daniel
While top ranked matchups across the college football landscape dominated television throughout the country, those of us basketball-crazed individuals were focused on some thrilling finishes across the NBA, including a old school vs. new school battle between the upstart New Orleans Pelicans and defending champion Spurs in San Antonio.
Within what turned out to be a game that when down to the final shot, there were plenty of storylines to keep up with, and just in case you weren’t able to catch the Pelicans win over the Spurs, I’ve got you covered with everything you need to know.
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There was a point with about four minutes remaining in the game and San Antonio found themselves trailing the Pelicans by 10. It all seemed over and the Spurs were as good as finished. Anthony Davis continued to dominate and Gregg Popovich kept Tim Duncan and Tony Parker watching from the sidelines.
But then, the group on the floor of Cory Joseph, Kawhi Leonard, Boris Diaw, Danny Green and Aron Baynes began doing what we’ve grown so accustomed to seeing the Spurs do and fought their way back into the game with selfless offense and a few lucky defensive stops.
But what made this comeback so interesting is regardless of how close to breaking even with New Orleans as the clock continued winding down, Popovich never reached back into his bench as put Tony Parker and Tim Duncan back out to save the day.
Rather, Popovich showed a tremendous amount of trust in the guys he already had out there, and although it may seem minuscule, these are the types of things that make up a championship team. That specific group ultimately took a 99-98 lead before Davis took the lead back with 6.6 to play.
Pop then put his starters back in and Kawhi Leonard missed two looks to win at the buzzer, but the fact that Popovich let his group of three bench players help carry San Antonio back when he has future Hall of Famers lining the bench speaks volumes towards the trust and confidence in the entire unit that echoes throughout the roster.
On a more positive note for Spurs’ fans, although Duncan would say he doesn’t matter without going home with a win, the Spurs’ long-tenured power forward recorded his 800th career double-double, which is just an unreal feat that speaks to the greatness of Duncan’s career.
But outside of Popovich trusting in his bench and Duncan recording his 800th double-double, this loss by San Antonio now drops them to 2-3 on the season, but before everybody gets too worried and starts the criticisms of the less than ideal start to the season, remember this is the defending champion Spurs with a legendary coach we’re talking about here.
They will be just fine.