Spurs limp in last leg of season.
The cavalry arrived for the Spurs on Monday in the form of a tall man from Senegal.
Make no mistake. Gorgui Dieng, the veteran center plucked off the buyout market after his departure from Memphis, isn’t an All-star but should nevertheless prove an asset to the Spurs’ teetering playoff hopes.
The 31-year-old Dieng can rebound, shoot a 3-pointer and will provide depth off the bench at a position of need.
Dieng, however, cannot give the Spurs what they need most: a closing schedule that does not seem in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
“It’s not easy,” guard Derrick White said of a Spurs’ finishing slate of games concocted to crush them, “but it’s not going to change any time soon.”
Ever since returning from the All-star break in mid-march, the Spurs knew what they had coming. The second half of the season was to be a slog of 40 games in 68 days, with no more than a day off between any of them until the campaign ends.
Perhaps the physical toll the schedule has extracted was predictable. The Spurs might have underestimated the mental toll it has wrought.
The nine-game homestand meant to propel the Spurs down the homestretch has officially gone haywire.
They are 1-4 on it after Monday’s 132-115 loss to Sacramento, a team the Spurs face again Wednesday at the AT&T Center.
That slump has dropped the Spurs (23-21) from sixth in the Western Conference standings to eighth.
“We’ve just got to find a way to keep getting our body and mind and everything ready to play
each and every day,” White said. “The schedule is tough, but there’s not much we can do about it.”
Watching the Spurs on their homestand from Hades has been like taking in a sadistic game of Whack-a-mole. Just when the Spurs seem to get one problem solved, another pops up to doom them.
The Spurs have lost twice on the homestand by giving up more than 130 points. They have lost twice when giving up 100 points or fewer.
Against the Kings Monday, the Spurs posted their second-highest point total on the homestand, shot 50.5 percent and logged a 22-6 edge in second-chance points — and still lost by 17.
Sacramento made 18 of 36 shots from 3-point range to overcome all of the above. Buddy Hield made five of them on his way to 20 points for Sacramento, which got 24 points from De’aaron Fox and a 23-point, 12-rebound three-block opus from Richaun Holmes.
“We did the game plan. They were just hot,” said point guard Dejounte Murray, who scored 21 of his 23 points in the first half. “Man, they just made shots. They made a bunch of shots.”
And if the Kings make 18 3pointers again Wednesday, they are likely to leave San Antonio with a two-game sweep.
The Spurs did themselves few favors in trying to overcome Sacramento’s torrid shooting. The Kings picked up 21 points in transition and were remarkably efficient in transforming 11 Spurs turnovers into 23 points.
“If a team shoots 50 percent in the NBA, you are probably in a little bit of trouble,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “You can’t exacerbate that by giving up points on turnovers, points in transition.”
Popovich’s prescription for a correction in Wednesday’s rematch seems simple enough.
“Our transition defense has to be better,” he said. “We have got to handle the ball better. Maybe we will shoot better than we did and maybe they will shoot a little worse.”
It does not help that the Spurs appear to be catching Sacramento at the peak of its powers. Monday’s victory was the fifth in a row for the Kings, who are making a move toward 10th place in the Western Conference.
That would be enough to earn Sacramento a play-in berth and take another step toward its first full-on postseason bid since 2006.
“The goal through this season has been to make the playoffs,” Holmes said. “That’s what we’re focused on.”
The same goal is still an achievable one for the Spurs, despite a homestand that has exposed some cracks.
The Spurs still boast the NBA’S 10th-rated defense but have been 24th over the past five games, allowing 115.7 points per 100 possessions.
That includes a 100-98 loss to Charlotte and a 98-85 defeat against the Los Angeles Clippers in which defense was not the issue. Monday against Sacramento, it obviously was. The Spurs scored their most points in a defeat since a 122-117 loss to Dallas on Jan. 22.
“They definitely shot it well, but we kind of gave them a lot of good looks, too,” White said. “We’ve got to be better defensively.”
Dieng will help in that area eventually, providing rim protection for the 16 minutes or so starting center Jakob Poeltl spends on the bench.
Having not played in an NBA game since Feb. 28, Dieng’s Spurs debut might still be days in the making.
Popovich opted to keep Dieng inactive Monday against the Kings.
“It’s not about how many minutes I play,” Dieng said. “If I can contribute and help the team in a good way, he’s going to play me.”
There is little doubt Dieng will help the Spurs on the court — once he is finally on it.
For the solution to their biggest problem going forward, the Spurs would need to appeal to the NBA schedule-makers.