Popovich uses gentle touch as tough schedule nears end
One minute and 56 seconds into the second quarter Wednesday in Utah, Jazz forward Joe Ingles took a pass on the left arc and waited.
Five Spurs on the floor watched … and watched … and watched as one of the NBA’s best shooters lined up the most open 3-pointer he had seen since pregame warmups.
Ingles’ ensuing swish put Utah up by 20 points and set the ball rolling for another dismal night in Salt Lake City for the Spurs.
If coach Gregg Popovich wanted to rip his team a new one after its lackluster start, well, even he seemed too exhausted by the thought.
“Overall, it’s just hard to get away from the fact that our cup was pretty empty after some tough travel, some tough losses and the schedule,” Popovich said. “I have to have a little bit of empathy for that, even though excuses are hard to make.”
For those who were scoring at home — and the Jazz certainly were — the 126-94 setback the Spurs’ absorbed marked their second consecutive whipping at Vivint Arena.
The Spurs dropped a 11099 decision at Utah on Monday, in a game they trailed by as many as 25.
The Spurs’ fruitless twogame stand in Salt Lake ran their losing streak to five games heading into another road back-to-back in Sacramento and Portland on Friday and Saturday.
“It’s part of the NBA,” Spurs guard DeMar DeRozan said. “Nobody has a flawless year. You go through adversity, sometimes more than you’d like. With that, you can’t let it diminish your confidence.”
The Spurs are 31-34, in 10th place in the Western Conference and still stand a high chance of securing a spot in the play-in tournament that will determine the final playoff seeds.
There is no debating the past nine days have been rough, though.
Since earning a taxing 146-143 overtime win in Washington on April 28, the Spurs lost a hardfought five-point game at Miami, blew a 32-point lead before losing in overtime at Boston, dropped another overtime tilt against Philadelphia at home with three starters out and then got blasted by a combined 41 points in two games in Utah.
If the schedule softens from here, it is only barely.
Friday’s game against 29-37 Kings marks the Spurs’ final one this season against an opponent with a losing record.
After that, they close with six games in nine days, all against playoffbound teams.
“We understand we still have (seven) games left,” DeRozan said. “Still have (seven) opportunities to put ourselves in the position to keep playing after that. That’s how we have to look at it.”
The Spurs have been running on empty since the All-Star break, with 40 games crammed into the season’s final 68 days.
Popovich has been cognizant of the fact his team is running on fumes.
He saw no point in flogging players for another slow start in Wednesday’s rematch with the NBAleading Jazz. Late in the second quarter, Popovich had all but waved the white flag and emptied his bench.
That resulted in a combined 30 minutes of playing time for the Spurs’ three oldest veterans — Rudy Gay, DeRozan and Patty Mills.
“We weren’t going to win the game,” Popovich said. “So it wouldn’t make much sense to play Mr. Macho and keep them out there.”
Instead, Popovich transformed Wednesday’s game into something of a developmental opportunity for many of his younger players.
Second-year forward Luka Samanic logged 24 minutes, his second-most of the season, and led the team with a season-best 15 points.
Rookie point guard Tre Jones, who last week earned his first career start in the Spurs’ short-handed game against Philly, added a season-high 11 points with three assists and no turnovers in 24 minutes.
If Wednesday’s ragged defeat in Utah was unhelpful to the Spurs’ current playoff chase, there is hope it could provide the building blocks for a future one.
“Every day you step into the gym is good for them because they get to learn,” point guard Dejounte Murray said. “We can all learn from mistakes, and we can all get better. It’s something you have to do together.”
If DeRozan has empathy for anyone in the Spurs locker room, it is for rookies like Jones and Devin Vassell and other young players who are attempting to navigate an NBA season trying even for multiyear vets.
“A normal NBA season is tough,” DeRozan said. “It’s hard for them to understand what we’re really up against night in and night out. They may think this is normal, but it’s tough.”
If players were expecting Popovich the taskmaster after another brutal defeat against the Jazz, they instead got Popovich the empath.
Having been around the block for 12 NBA seasons, DeRozan understands his coach’s kid gloves approach.
“For us older guys on the team, we have to be that balance for the guys so they can understand the moment,” DeRozan said. “Pop is kind of being that balance as well.”
At least the Spurs are done with Utah, at least for the regular season. Their charter flight left Salt Lake City on Thursday bound for Sacramento and possibly better things.
There are still games to be played, which might be viewed as burden for a team with its gas tank on empty.
For a team with a play-in spot still within its grasp, it is also a blessing.
“It sucks,” DeRozan said after the dual beatings in Utah, “but the only way to get this feeling off is to redeem ourselves game after game.”