Aldridge has a ball, and a career high, as records fall left and right
For nearly 50 minutes Thursday, LaMarcus Aldridge put the Spurs on his back.
Possession after possession, time after time, Aldridge planted his backside into the block against some Oklahoma City beast or another, accepting both the ball and the responsibility of redeeming a night that at any moment seemed capable of going awry for his team. Possession after possession, Aldridge delivered.
When it was over, after Aldridge had accounted for more points in a game than even the great Tim Dun-
can ever had, spearheading a 154-147 double-overtime victory the likes of which the Spurs had never experienced, there was one more item of business. “Once the game was over,” Aldridge said, “I knew I was going to find the ball.”
It was an ironic ending for Aldridge on the night he scored a career-high 56 points.
For most of Thursday, the ball found Aldridge, mostly because he demanded it.
His teammates were in no position to argue.
“In the fourth quarter, we went to him just about every possession,” said Spurs guard Derrick White, who otherwise might have been the breakout star of the Spurs’ nationally televised victory. “He said, ‘Just keep giving me the ball.’ ”
The Spurs obliged, because why not?
Aldridge made 20 of his 33 field goal attempts and all 16 of his free throws. He scored 42 of his points after halftime.
By the end of the third quarter, Aldridge had 30. By the end of regulation, he had 43, a career high in reach.
“He had a hell of a game,” White said, and even that seemed an understatement. “He carried us.”
It was early in the first OT when Aldridge swished a 7-foot hook shot to get him to 47 points. That topped his previous career best of 46, set with Portland in the 2014 playoffs against Houston.
Early in the second overtime, Aldridge blocked Jerian Grant at one end, then sprinted to the other to finish a fastbreak layup from Patty Mills to put himself over 50.
By the end of the night, Aldridge had posted a point total eclipsed in Spurs history only by a pair of Mount Rushmore types — David Robinson and George Gervin.
His 56 were the most points scored by a Spurs player in front of a home crowd in San Antonio.
“He’s been a beast all year long,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “He did it last year and he’s doing it this year too.”
A funny thing about Aldridge’s first career 50-point game: If the Spurs had taken care of business earlier, it probably doesn’t happen.
His big night redeemed a back-and-forth, highdrama shootout that saw the Spurs make 16 of 19 3-pointers — including their first 14 in a row — and still almost lose.
It came in a game in which Russell Westbrook erupted for an ostentatious 24-point, 24-assist, 13-rebound triple-double, Paul George exploded for 30 points, and Oklahoma City got 49 points combined from role players Jerami Grant and Terrance Ferguson.
White notched a careerbest of his own with 23 points, and Marco Belinelli fired away for 19 off the bench.
Belinelli ran his own personal 3-point contest at the Thunder’s expense, hitting 5 of 5. He outshot teammates Davis Bertans (4 of 4) and Bryn Forbes (3 of 3) to win that mythical title.
“We always joke around when we get a lot of shots in a row,” said Mills, who was 3 of 4 from distance. “You never want to be the first guy to miss.”
White did the dubious honors, becoming the first Spur to misfire from long range at the 4:57 mark of the third quarter.
Later White would argue — correctly — that he was forced to take the shot because of an expiring 24-second clock.
Despite their sizzling shooting night, and despite Aldridge’s Superman turn, the Spurs needed nearly a full 58 minutes to finally put away OKC.
The Spurs had to dig deep, playing barely 24 hours after setting a season-scoring low in a 96-86 defeat at Memphis.
They seemed to have Thursday’s game sewn up at the end of regulation, but a Belinelli turnover gave way to a Grant lob from Westbrook that knotted the score at 130 with 5.6 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
“I almost screwed everything up,” Belinelli said. DeMar DeRozan had chances to win the game for the Spurs at the end of regulation and the first OT, but couldn’t connect on midrange jumpers.
It marked another rough shooting night for DeRozan, who finished 7 of 22 with 16 points, though he did rack up 11 assists.
For the most part, DeRozan watched Aldridge paint his career masterpiece with a mixture of awe and envy, recalling what it is like to be in such a scoring zone.
“You kind of feel every seam of the ball,” DeRozan said. “Your rhythm feels good. Everything you do feels good. You just keep wanting the ball.”
Aldridge did.
“Late in the game, I guess I had 40-something, and they were doubling,” Aldridge said. “I spun to the baseline and stepped back, and it went in and I was like, ‘Oh this is one of those nights where it feels good.’ ”
The Thunder were prepared to live with Aldridge taking contested jumpers, even if he made a few. The problem was he made more than a few.
“He got them all, no matter how good the defense was,” OKC’s Steven Adams said.
Aldridge also scored at the rim and on drives. When that didn’t work, he bullied his way to the foul line.
The Spurs needed every ounce of Aldridge’s best to get past an OKC team playing near the top of its game Thursday.
The play that ultimately gave the Spurs separation was not an Aldridge basket, but a pass. With the Spurs clinging to a threepoint lead with 2:38 left in the second OT, Aldridge beat an OKC double-team by hitting a cutting DeRozan for a layup.
When the final buzzer sounded, closing in on midnight, it felt like more than just another victory to the Spurs.
“These are the types of games that shape who we are, and it’s going to pay off down the road,” said Mills, whose team faces the Thunder in a rematch tonight at OKC. “It’s a good example of who we are.”
At the end of the night, Aldridge still wanted the ball.
After the horn, he hunted down the referee who had it and asked for it, cradling it in his arms as he left the AT&T Center court.
Half an hour later, the game ball rested in Aldridge’s locker, ticketed for his trophy case at home.
Aldridge did not come to work Thursday expecting to leave with a souvenir. The night simply dem» anded it.