Busy second half looming for Spurs.
With roster taxed, Spurs aim to make most of breather
In any other year, there would probably be beach plans.
For NBA players who are not All-stars, that is the traditional modus operandi for how to spend the All-star break.
In the middle of a pandemic, a typical vacation seems unwise and, in some cases, might violate league COVID-19 protocols. For Spurs guard Patty Mills, the overriding goal of the upcoming break remains the same, coronavirus or no.
“The biggest plan is just to be able to give the body a rest and just get away from it mentally,” Mills said.
With a jam-packed secondhalf second looming, the Spurs would be well advised to store up all the rest they can get.
Once the team returns from the shorter-than-usual midseason hiatus for a game at Dallas on Wednesday, it begins a closing stretch that includes 40 games in 68 days and will test players’ bod
ies and minds.
“As tough as we might think the first half of this season was, it’s only going to get much worse,” Mills said. “We’ve definitely got to get away from it during this few days’ break and recharge.”
The Spurs did good work throughout the first half of the season to make the second half mean something.
In what might have come as a surprise to some across the league, the Spurs head into the break at 18-14 and in seventh place of the Western Conference. They are hanging in solid position in the playoff race despite a COVID-19 outbreak that shut them down in for 10 days in February.
The Spurs played the final five games of the first half with multiple players out stemming from the coronavirus flare-up. They went 2-3 in those contests.
They missed a chance to close the first half on a high note Thursday, squandering a 14-point lead in the second half of a 107-102 loss to Oklahoma City at the AT&T Center.
It marked the second loss to the struggling Thunder in eight days.
“No excuses, man,” guard Dejounte Murray said. “We wanted this win.”
It is not an exaggeration to say the Spurs gave Thursday’s game away.
The NBA’S stingiest team when it comes to handing out turnovers, the Spurs committed 19 on Thursday, leading to 26 points for OKC.
They gagged up seven in the third quarter alone, which the Thunder cashed in for 16 points.
That fueled a 17-2 run for Oklahoma City in the frame that helped the Thunder crawl out of a double-digit hole.
“The injuries and the COVID in the first half of this season, I think these guys have done a tremendous job,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “I think it finally caught up to us.”
Murray recorded a season-high five turnovers, after committing three combined in the previous three games. Demar Derozan matched his season high with four.
Of the 10 players who saw the court for the Spurs on Thursday, only one — Trey Lyles — managed not to contribute to the team’s turnover epidemic.
“That’s essentially the game right there,” Mills said.
Spurs coaches saw trouble brewing by looking at both the schedule and the club’s injury report.
Thursday was the Spurs’ third game in four nights, which Popovich called “your worst nightmare” when rolling with an undermanned roster.
“We are not a team that gives up 26 points on turnovers, so it’s a clear indication of being sloppy, being a little bit tired,” Popovich said.
In that sense, the Allstar break comes at a good time for the Spurs.
By the time the team returns to the court, there is a good chance the final three players still dealing with the aftereffects of COVID-19 protocols — Rudy Gay, Derrick White and Devin Vassell — will be ready to return as well.
The layoff should also offer forward Lamarcus Aldridge a chance to shake the stomach bug that kept him out for the final two games of the first half. “We are hoping we can get everybody back so we can be a little deeper, a little fresher,” Popovich said. “Because our second half is tougher than the first half with all games we are going to have to play.”
Though the Spurs were disappointed not to have an All-star representative for the second consecutive season — and Derozan certainly had a compelling case — perhaps it comes as a blessing in disguise for a team that will be taxed like no other when play resumes.
Once the second half begins, the Spurs are not scheduled to have multiple days off in a row until the season ends.
No team has more games remaining than the Spurs, who had five from the first half postponed because of COVID-19 issues.
“It’s been a brutal schedule,” Mills said, “and it’s only going to get worse.”
That makes rest during the next five days of utmost importance for the Spurs.
It will be a different kind of All-star break than players have experienced before.
Players not headed to Atlanta for the abbreviated All-star activities are allowed to take a vacation, but are prohibited from leaving the United States.
Translation: Cabo San Lucas and other tropical destinations popular among the NBA set are verboten.
Murray said he planned to spend his downtime at home with his 3-year-old daughter and try and erase the bad taste left from Thursday’s loss to the Thunder.
“I get to be with my baby girl,” Murray said. “I’m not going to dwell on it.”
Once the Spurs return from their five-day breather Wednesday, there will not be time to dwell on much of anything.
A second-half slog awaits, ready or not.