New world, same goal for Spurs.
Playoffs remain focus as grueling second half begins
The opponent was the same. The world, however, was not.
One year ago Wednesday, the Spurs earned a 119-109 victory over Dallas at the AT&T Center they hoped would provide a bit of CPR to their failing playoff hopes.
Instead, the entire NBA shut down a day later.
“COVID really changed the game, I guess you could say,” Spurs guard Lonnie Walker IV said.
Wednesday, the Spurs head to Dallas to open the second half of a 2020-21 campaign unlike any other.
Three-hundred and sixty-five days ago, no Spurs player had ever received a test for the COVID-19 virus. Now it is a staple of everyday life in the NBA.
Over that time, the Spurs and other teams have endured quarantines and game postponements and travel restrictions and a forced vacation to Disney World to finish last season.
“Going into it, I did not expect what was going to happen or what was going to change,” Walker said.
From now until mid-may, when the regular-season schedule ends, the Spurs’ overriding goal is to make all the hassle worth it.
The Spurs (18-14) open the second half in seventh place in the Western Conference. If the season ended today, their streak of missing the playoffs would end at one.
The season, however, does not end today.
It ends 68 days from now, over which time the Spurs will play a grueling 40 games.
The overstuffed slate — padded with five games the Spurs had to make up from the first half due to coronavirus-related postponements — features 11
back-to-backs and zero stretches of more than one day off.
Six of the Spurs’ first seven games to start the second half are on the road, beginning with Wednesday’s trek to Dallas.
Given the jam-packed schedule, it is likely Tuesday’s practice that welcomed players back from the All-star break will be the team’s last of the regular season.
“We’re still hungry,” forward Keldon Johnson said. “We still feel like we’ve got something to prove. We’re going out to compete and win.”
The Spurs should at least benefit from something approaching a full roster as the second half concludes.
Just before the break, Johnson returned from a 15-day layoff as one of five Spurs players on the NBA’S health and safety protocols list.
Three other players formerly on the list — Rudy Gay, Derrick White and Devin Vassell — practiced Tuesday. Gay and White are expected to be available Wednesday against Dallas, while Vassell has been ruled out to continue reconditioning.
The fifth player among the recent batch of protocols participants, secondyear guard Quinndary Weatherspoon, has returned to action in the G League.
That depth is going to continue to be important if the Spurs hope to successfully navigate the rigors of what is to come.
“We’re definitely going to need everybody,” Johnson said. “I think everybody is ready to step up and get to it.”
If there was an upside to the Spurs’ bout with COVID-19, it is that it forced coach Gregg Popovich to use every inch of his bench.
The Spurs played the final five games of the first half with multiple players in health and safety protocols, and went 2-3 over that stretch.
The team got important minutes in stretches from little-used players like Luka Samanic, Keita Bates-diop and Trey Lyles.
Lyles started each of the five games and averaged 12.2 points.
“I think it just goes to show we have a lot of depth,” Lyles said. “We are able to play guys who usually don’t play, but they are ready. It just goes to show that we stay prepared in the gym and ready for the moment.”
With a second half looming in which fatigue will play a factor, the Spurs are planning to rely on that depth like never before.
“There were spurts over the last few games where you saw that growth together,” guard Patty Mills said. “Everyone is feeding off each other and you have that contagious energy, especially with these young guys. If we can dial that in whenever we get everyone else back, it’s a good opportunity.”
That opportunity begins Wednesday night in Dallas.
In a twist of coincidence, the Spurs are facing the Mavericks for the second March 10 in a row.
Last year at this time, the COVID-19 virus had reached United States shores, but not yet the NBA.
New protocols were already in place for the March 10 game at the AT&T Center. Media members were no longer allowed in the locker room, with interviews taking place from a carefully measured 10-foot distance.
Even so, the Spurs left their arena that night thinking more about the resounding win they had posted over the Mavericks, which they hoped would serve as a launch pad for a postseason push.
“We were trying to figure some things out,” Walker said. “That was going to be a stepping stone of ‘let’s get together, let’s keep picking it up.’ ”
The next day, Utah’s Rudy Gobert registered a positive coronavirus test before a game at Oklahoma City. The NBA came to a halt for nearly five months before rebooting in Orlando, Fla., in August.
“It’s crazy to think it’s been a year,” Lyles said.
Little across the league or the country or the world has been the same since.
On the list of things that have not changed since the Spurs’ last March 10 game against the Mavericks: Their goals.
“We have very high expectations, trying to make the playoffs day by day and game by game,” Walker said. “We just want to win. We want to get to the playoffs and play how we usually play.”