April brings Spurs’ sign of spring
Winning by 20 points a night during nine-game streak
You want to talk about your rites of spring?
There’s the Masters, there’s Opening Day, there’s rain.
And there’s the San Antonio Spurs exerting their influence on the NBA.
In what has to be seen as one of the most wide-open races in recent memory, the defending champions are right there — as they always seem to be — making a late charge that has everyone around the league sitting up to take notice.
How about a nine-game winning streak in which they’ve out-scored the opposition by an average of 19.9 points per game?
How about Kawhi Leonard, he of seven steals in a message-sending spanking of the Golden State Warriors this week, emerging as one of the very best players in the league after an injury-plagued season?
How about easy wins over the Warriors and then statement triumphs over Oklahoma City and Houston?
If the West is as jumbled as the East, with so many teams harbouring legitimate title hopes, last year’s champions are wearing the “Come get us” sign quite proudly.
As always, the Big Three of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are central to the lateseason resurgence.
Speculation abounds that this might be Ginobili’s last season in the NBA and if he goes, going with another deep run into the playoffs would be fitting.
Two years ago in the NBA Finals, he was written off as done after a horrible showing against the Miami Heat.
Last year he bounced back and was integral in San Antonio’s easy fivegame win in the rematch.
With those three now having played 730 games together — this week surpassing the record set of 729 by Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish with Boston in the 1980s — a serious run for a sixth NBA title would be fitting.
But there are other, more locally significant factors at work, too.
Cory Joseph has usurped Patty Mills as the primary backup to Parker and the Toronto product has been outstanding in the latest Spurs run.
According to the San Antonio Express-News, the restricted-freeagent-to-be has averaged 6.8 points, 3.3 assists and 4.2 rebounds in about 20 minutes per game in his last six games and his defence has, as always, been exemplary.
“He’s earned the spot,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich told the newspaper. “If I don’t play him it’s like, ‘What do I gotta do around here?’ You’ve got to reward a guy and let him get minutes.”
It won’t be an easy journey to the title for the Spurs or whoever comes out of the ultra-competitive West, where only 21⁄ games separate
2 second place from eighth place heading into Thursday night’s ac- tion.
But to bet against San Antonio is folly; when the games get tight and the series become more important, experience is a huge factor and no team in the league has as much of it as San Antonio.
AROUND THE LEAGUE
In the grand scheme of things, considering the more important races that are going on, the fight between Houston’s James Harden and Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook for the NBA scoring title means nothing. But it’s still historically close and bear watching a bit. Harden is averaging 27.61 points per game and Westbrook is averaging 27.49. The 0.12 difference is rivaling the closest race in history. In 1977-78, San Antonio’s George Gervin beat Denver’s
David Thompson by 0.07 points per game and needed 63 points in his team’s final game to do it. Why? Because Thompson had scored 73 for Denver that same day . . . Raptors fans are all over Lou Williams for Sixth Man of the Year and he is sure to get a lot of support from voters. But Boston’s Isaiah Thomas is averaging a league-best 19.4 points per game off the bench since the all-star break . . . Scoring at a different level but historic nonetheless: Toronto’s
Sim Bhullar made the first basket by a player of Indian descent when he scored in the dying seconds of Sacramento’s loss to Utah on Wednesday. The seven-foot-five Bhullar has played about a minute and a half in two games with the Kings since his callup from the D League . . .
DeAndre Jordan of the L.A. Clippers is trying to become just the second player in NBA history to win the rebounding title and have the highest field goal percentage of qualified players for two seasons in the row. The other was Wilt Chamberlain ... The tightest race in the final week of the NBA’s regular season is in the Southwest Division. Houston and Memphis are tied with 53-25 records and the San Antonio Spurs a half-game behind. At stake is a topfour seed and the chance to avoid the Golden State Warriors in the second round of playoffs.
RAPTORS THIS WEEK
Friday at Orlando; Saturday at Miami; Tuesday at Boston; Wednesday vs. Charlotte
It’s really quite simple: If Toronto runs the table, it guarantees itself third place overall in the East, regardless of what Chicago and Washington do. The first tiebreaker in those situations would be the Atlantic Division championship the Raptors have already sewn up.
But winning four games in a row — three of them on the road with two back-to-backs — is a rather tall measure and who knows if 3-1 would be enough to hold off the Bulls and Wizards.
Chicago finishes at Miami on Thursday night, is home to Philadelphia on Saturday, visits Brooklyn on Monday and returns home to face Atlanta on Wednesday. Washington? The Wizards are at Brooklyn on Friday, home to Atlanta on Sunday, at Indiana on Tuesday and at Cleveland on Wednesday.
The wild card? Which teams are resting players either because their seedings are settled (Atlanta and Cleveland) or because they are either in, or out of, the post-season (Brooklyn, Miami and Boston) race.