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It’s March. Gone are the Rodeo Trip, All-Star break, and Malik Rose. The Spurs have uncharacteristically done some mid-season shuffling to get ready for the long haul. Duncan is down with an ankle injury, Horry is playing on a broken leg, and Manu had been through his fair share of athletic tape. Yep, it’s that time again. It’s time to cover your eyes, flip on the air compressor, and blow that sawdust away from your sculpture to see what you have carved. You met the players during my Player Focus articles, now it’s time to meet the team. In round two of the Focus series, you will see what the Spurs have carved, where they stack up, and what chances they have at the ultimate goal: being the NBA Champions. It’s time to focus on the playoffs.<br>
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<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Playoff Focus: team chemistry</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br>
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by Samr<br>
SpursCentral.com<br>
March 7, 2005<br>
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Duncan starts by in bounding the ball under the hoop. Parker slowly takes it up court, getting intercepted around the three point line by the first line of defense. Per standard procedure, Duncan comes up and sets the screen on Parker’s man. Parker cuts from the right, then pitches the ball back out to Duncan, who is now open at the top of the key. Standard screen roll; you have seen it a hundred times. So has the opponent. Duncan shoots, they all run back to the defensive end of the court. No, not this time. Not this year. This time Duncan whips the ball into Robert Horry who is waiting patiently in the left corner. Without hesitation, Horry passes the ball to his right: Manu Ginobili’s waiting just to the left of the top of the key and Duncan has moved to the high right block. The defense runs out, determined to cut Manu off before he drives. The big man steps up to take position. The defense is spread. The play is working. Manu bullets an overhead pass at a downwards angle to a slashing Tony Parker, who has snuck into the space the opposing big recently occupied. He reverse-layups the ball off the backboard for two. Welcome, San Antonio, to your new bread and butter. <br>
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For a team once known for dumping the ball into Duncan then watching what happened, the Spurs have really improved. After supplying both Manu and Parker with long-term security, the Spurs quickly went after a shooter. The downfall, it was assumed, in the Lakers series was the lack of a pure shooter. The Spurs grabbed Brent Barry for four years and assumed the optimistic, championship stance. What proved to be more key, however, was the fact that all five starters were on the team from last year. In fact, only Brent Barry, Beno Udrih, and Tony Massenburg were the only newcomers who would see any significant minutes in the rotation, and they were backups. <br>
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After a sluggish and surprisingly laughable pre-season, the Spurs took off to a fast start. They were blowing by teams on their way up the standings. And once Parker learned to grow up and get over his new contract, the Spurs were even more deadly. Normally, the Spurs have been a defensive team. They would force opponents to the sideline, using an ingenious and amazingly effective strategy, then run their offense based off the tone their defense set. This season was not the case. The Spurs were quickly averaging over 100 points per contest and a win margin of well over 11 points a game. They were winning because of their offense. And it didn’t revolve around Tim Duncan.<br>
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If you are open, you are more likely to score than if you are guarded. Amazing concept, isn’t it? While Brent was not the deadly shooter his history had promised, he did bring with him a very contagious disease, and it wasn’t left patella tendonitis. This kid could pass. In fact, so could most of the team once they put their minds to it. The Spurs decided that they would allow the person most open to shoot instead of the person most in favor with Tim Duncan. With either Parker, Manu, or occasionally Bowen bringing the ball down court, the Spurs would set up in a motion offense. All it took was the person initiating the play to pass the ball to either the wing or to the post. Once there, the ball took on a path most accurately plotted by playing a game of pinball. The Spurs rotate the ball to the open man, who then re-assesses his situation upon receiving the pass. If he does not have the shot, he passes off again. Eventually, due to a simple matter of physics and probability, the Spurs would catch one defender not being able to make it back to his man. The result? A wide open shot. They were allowing the offense to come to them, and the points to come out of the natural flow of the offense as opposed to forcing the play and hoping the defense reacts in a preferable manner.<br>
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The Spurs returned their core group of guys. A team that parties together plays well together. They were all friends. Just like you will always play your best basketball with your brother by your side, teams will always play better if they are familiar with each other. Unlike in seasons past, there was no adjustment phase at the beginning of the season. There was no alarmingly slow start followed by the realization (maybe out of self-preservation instincts) that “oh yeah, they do this every year. Talk to me come May.” No, not this season. This season they bonded, they clicked, and thusly, they dominated. <br>
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Then Malik was traded. While the loss of a person, friend, and a teammate can cause momentary sorrow, it is just that: momentary. The Spurs went on to can their first game in the sans-Malik era while displaying an obvious lack of effort or intensity. Then they beat the Raptors while blowing a big lead. Then they barely beat the Jazz. Enough said. Now before your sphincter tightens and creates undesirable expressions on your face, relax. It’ll all be ok. What most of San Antonio is blaming on the loss of Malik, and thusly the cause of Popovich’s imminent death, is actually a disguise. The team chemistry, while an element may have been removed from the periodic table, is still intact. After a look at the pre-All Star Game schedule, one can easily see why the Spurs are struggling, and why they look tired. It’s because they are. They play like a beast of a machine until about halfway through the third quarter. Then they slow down, and the other team catches up. What results in a hard-fought win and a game in which the technique of “gutting it out” was applied liberally, is not a sign of a rift amongst the players. They are getting tired, and they are slipping. If they didn’t have chemistry, they wouldn’t have had a lead to lose. If they didn’t have chemistry, they wouldn’t have been able to lower their collective shoulder and bear the brunt of the attack, chugging along until the end.<br>
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Now with Nazr solidifying an already burdeningly deep bench, the Spurs are logistically set for the annual playoff march (no pun intended). When they went out this summer with their free agent scope set on a shooter, they had intended on solving their previous playoff problems. They found a solution, it was just mislabeled. The four-year contract, while obviously strengthening the core of the team, did not buy them that extra playoff weapon they needed. They already had their solution, they just signed them to long-term deals. In bringing back the nucleus of last year’s team, then simply mortaring in the holes with backups, the Spurs ensured team chemistry. They kept the same teammate familiarity which has proved invaluable in previous seasons. From this solid foundation, they actively fed steroids to their offensive scheme. The legal way. The result? They still shut down the opposing teams; they still predicate themselves and everything they do on defense. They just added some cannons on top of their walls. Let’s see if this castle is still standing in June.<br>
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Malik Rose: '97-'05 -Once a Spur, always a San Antonian. You will be missed</p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p204.ezboard.com/bsanantoniospurs62937.showUserPublicProfile?gid=samr@sanantoniospurs62937>Samr</A> at: 3/7/05 7:06 pm<br></i>
