San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
A blast from the past and a taste of the future
After 2 years of getting torched, club almost top-10 defense again
When the Spurs go in search of golden moments for their end-of-season highlight reel, they will find no shortage of worthy candidates from Friday’s 119-109 victory over Denver.
There was Keldon Johnson, going body to big body with Nuggets All-Star center Nikola Jokic for a bucket at the rim.
There was Rudy Gay dishing a pair of nifty nolook assists. There was LaMarcus Aldridge, who is not a guard, driving the paint and kicking to DeMar
DeRozan, who is not a 3-point shooter, for a successful long ball attempt.
Then there was the moment that really got coach Gregg Popovich’s blood pumping: A possession in the third quarter in which the Spurs — get this — defended for a full 24 seconds without the Nuggets getting off a shot.
“I think as a whole the group understands that no defense, no wins,” Popovich said.
That has been the Spurs’ mantra for as long as Popovich has been the Spurs’ coach. Over the past few seasons it admittedly has been difficult to tell.
In the Spurs’ first two campaigns after two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Kawhi Leonard skipped town, the club dropped to 20th in defensive efficiency in 2018-19 and 24th in 2019-20.
Key to the team’s ongoing rebuilding project, the Spurs are knocking on the door of becoming a top-10 defense again.
They ranked 11th heading into Sunday’s game against Memphis at the AT&T Center, allowing 108.7 points per 100 possessions.
That marks an improvement of nearly four points from last season, when the sieve-like Spurs gave up 112.6 points per 100 possessions.
“It’s not like we have flipped a switch or anything like that,” guard Patty Mills said. “But we had to go through those seasons where we weren’t that good on the defensive end and have to figure it out. It’s a credit to going through that process, and now this is the result.”
Indeed, part of the Spurs’ advancement on defense can be traced to players gaining experience in the system. And part of it is related to an almost literal changing of the guard.
The Spurs have spent the past several drafts stockpiling long, rangy wing players who fit with the modern “positionless” style of play the NBA has adopted.
To thrive defensively, players must be able to switch screens and defend many types of players. In Johnson, Dejounte Murray, Derrick White, Lonnie Walker and Devin Vassell, the Spurs now have a cadre of players capable of doing just that.
“We’ve got some young kids setting the tone defensively,” Popovich said. “We are more athletic in that regard.”
Case in point:
For 143 games over the past few seasons, the Spurs started Bryn Forbes at shooting guard.
Forbes is plucky, fearless and an elite 3-point shooter. By hard work and force of will, he built himself into a bona fide NBA contributor after going undrafted out of Michigan State.
Forbes is also undersized at 6-foot-2 and a chops-licking matchup advantage for opposing teams to exploit on the defensive end.
Forbes is now in Milwaukee, having signed a free-agent deal to snipe 3-pointers off the bench for an NBA title contender.
In his place, the Spurs are starting Walker. He could be more consistent, but at 6-foot-5 he also has the baseline physical tools to hold his own as a defender.
The Forbes-for-Walker lineup swap alone has resulted in an automatic upgrade to the Spurs’ defensive ceiling.
“I just think this group has good focus on the defensive end,” Mills said. “You have to give credit to the work we have put in to get to this point. Now the guys get it, what we need to do on that end of the floor.”
Part and parcel to the Spurs’ increase in defensive activity has been an uptick in turnovers forced.
The Spurs’ opponents have been coughing up the ball 14.1 times per game, still in the middle of the NBA pack but an improvement from the past few seasons.
Two years ago, for example, the Spurs ranked last in the NBA in turnovers forced at 12.2 per game.
DeRozan said the trials of the past two seasons — including the eight games in the Orlando, Fla., restart bubble in August — have helped forged a more cohesive defensive unit.
“We made a lot of mistakes to learn from,” DeRozan said. “Sometimes you’ve got to make the mistakes to understand how to be better.”
In the fourth quarter Friday, the Spurs unleashed the full fury of their defense against a Denver team as difficult to guard as any in the league.
They swarmed Jokic with double teams, invaded passing lanes, helped and switched, and generally made life miserable for the Nuggets.
Denver committed eight of their 16 turnovers in the fourth quarter. One was a Dejounte Murray strip of Denver’s Jamal Murray in the backcourt, which led to a breakaway basket to put the Spurs ahead by 10 with 3:08 to go.
The Spurs held the Nuggets to seven points in the game’s final six minutes, transforming what had been a one-point game entering the fourth quarter into a near rout.
“It was one of those nights where we have to scramble, we have to rotate, we have to find guys at certain times,” Mills said. “We had to get them out of their comfort zone. When we needed to get stops, we got them.”
A precursor to the Spurs’ miserly fourth quarter came late in the third.
Jokic had the ball in the block. The Spurs brought a double team and eventually forced the big man toward the corner, while also covering up his best options for a pass.
When Jokic finally found Monte Morris on the far side of the court, it was too late to get off a shot.
As the shot clock blared, the entire Spurs’ bench exploded to its feet. Popovich applauded vigorously.
“Denver is one of the toughest teams to guard. They have such great movement,” Popovich said. “We were able to show some pretty darn good grunt and aggressiveness, good activity. So it’s a good step for us.”