Spurs’ end sheds light on Heat’s heights
First-round exit offers perspective on what Miami accomplished
MIAMI — Tim Duncan answered the questions quietly, almost glassyeyed.
It was a look similar to the one after Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals, and then, two days later, after that Game 7, when, with the flick of a wrist, Ray Allen seemingly had stolen the San Antonio Spurs’ soul.
Minutes earlier Saturday night, Gregg Popovich sat at the same table in the postgame interview room at Staples Center and spoke with similar resignation.
Winning a championship is hard. Repeating is even harder.
There will be no repeat NBA champion. All four of last season’s conference finalists are gone.
Earlier, as Duncan, Popovich and the rest of the Spurs attempted to counterpunch against the unstated hunger of Chris Paul and the fury of Blake Griffin, TNT analyst Chris Webber spoke of how competing in the past two NBA Finals and the previous three Western Conference finals might have been “wearing” on the Spurs.
After that, when Big Baby Davis snuck in to secure an offensive rebound off what had appeared to be a successful Hack-a-DeAndre Jordan effort by Popovich, Webber cited potential exhaustion for the Spurs.
Those moments, all of them over the previous two weeks against the Los Angeles Clippers, reinforced the perspective.
Winning a championship is hard. Repeating is even harder.
On a sports day that made it difficult to exhale, the potential sunset of the Spurs allowed for just such an exhale on the opposite coast.
Numerous times during this past season, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh spoke of the
collective wear, both physically and mentally, of the Miami Heat advancing to the previous four NBA Finals and winning titles in 2012 and ’13. Even in Cleveland, LeBron James found it necessary to take a twoweek hiatus at midseason.
Since the end of the Michael Jordan dynasty with the Chicago Bulls, only two teams have won repeat titles: the Los Angeles Lakers and the Heat. It is something Duncan’s Spurs, even with their five championships, have never accomplished.
The NBA schedule beats you down, a marathon so grueling that providing relief has moved to the top of Commissioner Adam Silver’s agenda. Then comes a postseason so intense that players say one playoff game results in the fatigue of two regular-season games.
We’ve already witnessed the attrition that ensues as the stakes are raised, the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday without Mike Conley, the Cavaliers on Monday without Kevin Love, the Clippers finishing Saturday with Griffin bruised and Paul barely ambulatory.
None of it makes it easier to accept a Heat offseason already entering its third week. But all of it makes it more apparent of just how much was achieved the previous four seasons, a ride for which the appreciation should only grow amid the Spurs’ demise.
Winning a championship is hard. Repeating is even harder.
In the wake of being sidelined since midseason with blood clots in his lung, Bosh spoke of the mentalhealth benefit of a protracted period away from the game. After the final buzzer sounded on a Heat season that produced only lottery hope, Wade spoke of his own impending exhale.
The voices of the Spurs sounded similar Saturday, Duncan unwilling to commit to a return that Popov- ich minutes earlier had hinted at, Manu Ginobili telling reporters that the end could be near, both in need of an exhale.
And yet, during the closing sequence of Clippers-Spurs that mustered more combinations than Pacquiao and Mayweather would offer later into the night, the NBA fraternity only wanted more.
“This is one of the best series I’ve ever seen!!!!” Bosh posted on his Twitter account.
That is the flip side of the equation. That not only must epic series run their course, but so must epic title chases.
Monday night, LeBron plays on, but in Cleveland, because for all the posturing of going home, he saw diminishing return with the Heat, greater possibilities with the Cavaliers.
Winning a championship is hard. Repeating is even harder.
In coming days, there will be plenty of reflection on what Popovich, Duncan, Ginobili and Tony Parker have accomplished, on what might have been, of whether this is the natural end of what began with the 1999 championship.
When you go out in the first round, the league gets two months to ruminate on the vastness of previous achievement. When you go out in the Finals, after four consecutive conference championships, perspective quickly gets pushed aside when the NBA draft and then a devastating loss in free agency immediately follows.
But Saturday night at Staples Center — after the Spurs’ run of conference finals ended at three and latest bid for back-to-back titles again came up short — was a moment perfect for reflection of how difficult sustained excellence in the NBA, regardless of conference or fortuitous bounces, can be.
“Either you win it all,” Popovich said, “or there’s 29 teams that go home.”
Winning a championship is hard. Repeating is even harder.