After a letdown in Game 1, the San Antonio Spurs put together back-to-back wins against the Los Angeles Clippers and are poised for another deep playoff run
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The San Antonio Spurs looked old, slow, injured and outmatched in Game 1 against the Los Angeles Clippers. Many began to write them off, ready to anoint the Clippers as a team that “finally put it all together.”
Instead, as we saw in Games 2 and 3, the Spurs proved us wrong. Again.
San Antonio regrouped, as they’ve shown the ability to do so gracefully in the past, and stole Game 2 on the Clippers homecourt — and then eviscerating them in Game 3.
Two games removed from that underwhelming showcase in Game 1, and it’s the Clippers that look like the team that is vastly overmatched.
And surprise, surprise. When the Spurs needed a game most, it’s Tim Duncan that stepped up to the plate refusing to go out quietly. If San Antonio was going to go out to a younger, more athletic team, Duncan was going to go down swinging.
Duncan backed that up with 28 and 11 in Game 2, resulting in the Spurs stealing a win in Los Angeles and homecourt advantage in the series. Most importantly, it swung the momentum. When the Spurs needed him most, especially with Tony Parker ailing, a 39-year-old Duncan came to play with 29-year-old legs.
Couple that huge Game 2 win with a dismantling of the Clippers in Game 3, buy the way of a 27-point win, and you kind of begin to get the same feeling we had last year and the year before — this is a Spurs team that might just win it all. Again.
While Duncan has the ability to occasionally turn the clock back from time to time, it’s Kawhi Leonard that should instill the most fear in the rest of the Western Conference.
San Antonio is kind of in this weird place where they need Parker to penetrate, Manu Ginobili to score and facilitate off the bench and Duncan to be Duncan on most nights in order to achieve success, but without Leonard they aren’t the championship contending team that we’ve come to know in the last three seasons.
Through the first three games of this series against the Clippers, Leonard is averaging 24 points and six rebounds per game on 63 percent shooting from the field. The Clippers simply don’t have an answer for the former NBA Finals MVP, and now Defensive Player of the Year.
Kawhi Leonard’s 2014-15 NBA playoffs shot chart:
By the way, if you hadn’t realized that yet, he’s pretty good on the offensive side of the ball, too. I’m sure the Clippers have.
A few days ago, many were already discounting the San Antonio Spurs. We keep waiting, hoping that this is going to be the year when they finally show their age. We’re probably going to have to continue to wait.
In the past two games, the Spurs have proved to us that they’re poised for another championship run.
As we entered the playoffs, it was the Clippers that had its eyes on changing their narrative. Chris Paul was finally going to win. Blake Griffin was going to take the next step and become a player known for more than just his athletic prowess. The Clippers, as a whole, were supposed to take the next step and actually win big in the playoffs.
Instead, the Spurs are changing their plans, just as they’ve been doing with Tim Duncan for what feels like the better-part of the last two decades. San Antonio has its eyes on another NBA Championship run.
The Clippers…well, they’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time.