Perhaps it was nervousness for being the first game with fans at the AT&T Center in over a year. Or maybe he was getting used to yet another confusing rotation, with Trey Lyles starting in place of DeMar DeRozan, who was away from the team to attend his father’s private funeral. Whatever the reason, the loyal fans who showed up waiting for the San Antonio Spurs to catch fire and give them a reward right off the bat would have to wait a little bit because that’s how this team rolls.
The final score may not indicate this, but that first quarter was same hard. With the Spurs coming home in a two-game losing streak, things didn’t look promising at first. Despite facing a severely reduced Orlando Magic team, the Spurs spent the first quarter looking nervous, insecure and not ready to play. Derrick White suffered two fouls in the first two minutes. Dejounte Murray had another cold game, going 1-6 on the pitch during his first stint on the court. The defense was awful, the selection of kicks left a lot to be desired, and just as the Spurs fell by 29-16 at the end of the quarter (and, frankly, luckily it was not more after a late Magic three was removed between the quarters once the video review found a breach of the firing clock).
However, if this team has taught us anything this season, it is not judging a book by its cover – or, in this case, a game by the first quarter. It has reached a point where you almost expect this team to fall in the first, and as previous games have shown, if you don’t do something, it will go wrong later. If it is a typical Spurs victory, the game will be more or less like this: first bad quarter, second world champion, third meh and a good / great quarter, and this is exactly how this ended.
The Spurs finally started to fight back as soon as the clock was reset to 12 minutes, and that was the game. White – who, as mentioned two nights ago, usually needs a game or something to find his balance after long layoffs – was desperate to see something fall, and finally fell in the form of two consecutive trios as part of a 10- 0 to tie things back. Murray left his funk with 10 consecutive points and 13 in total in the quarter. The defense became more tense, forcing 6 turnovers, and in general they overcame Orlando by 31-10 to take a 47-39 advantage in the interval.
Then comes the third quarter “meh”. The Spurs held on well into the second half and increased their lead to 14, but a SIXThe play of points (you read that right) rocked the momentum in favor of Magic, and they got three points in a 22-7 run. But the Spurs bench did what it did, thanks to two triplets from Devin Vassell and one a piece from Rudy Gay and Patty Mills, and the Spurs extended the lead to 74-64 leading to a fourth.
And now the good / great fourth quarter. The Spurs opened things up in a 9-0 run, including seven straight from Gay, and they never looked back or needed any crisis time miracles, as they overcame the Magic 30-13 for the comfortable explosion and allowed Gregg Popovich to empty his bank relatively early. This is how the four-quarter divisions emerged and, although the differences in the 2nd and 4th quarters are quite extreme, it still follows the classic Spurs victory trend this season:
- 1st: 16-29 (-13)
- 2: 31-10 (+21)
- 3rd: 27-25 (+2)
- 4th: 30-13 (+17)
They will have to continue to act like this against inferior opponents, especially with the daunting schedule to come. This is especially true this coming week, when Spurs will start on Sunday in Philadelphia, they will have five games in seven nights, all on the road and with trips between each game. They’re all against East Coast teams, and at least three of them must be very winnable (Pistons, Bulls and Cavaliers squeezed into the 76ers – who may be without Joel Embiid – and Bucks), but that will require everyone to be on deck and put teams out early so they don’t have to spend a lot of energy trying to catch up or avoiding races.
DeRozan is expected to return to the team for the trip, and the list should be as complete as possible throughout this season (without LaMarcus Aldridge). The challenge starts now, and they will need more team efforts at both ends of the court, like tonight, to keep pace. And if that requires waiting for a classic bad first period before they do the magic of the second quarter, then so be it. Just win and don’t take too long to get there.
Game notes
- The aforementioned six-point play began when Keldon Johnson was called in for a glaring foul early in the third quarter, after Chuma Okeke hit his foot in a three-point attempt. Contact was extremely minimal – if anything Okeke noticed and pulled his heel after barely touching Johnson’s foot, but made sure to fall to show there was contact – but as Spurs fans know very well, defenders just can’t stop it a player’s ability to land safely, without ifs, ands or buts about it. Okeke hit all three technical free throws, and then three others in possession of the ball that followed to achieve the six-point play. (This should be rare enough, but I would love to know how many players actually made one on their own, not through a “team” effort in which one player shoots the FTs and another hits the target).
- Second All-Star Nikola Vucevic was the only bright spot for the extremely shorthanded Magic, scoring 26 points in 12-18 shots and 2-2 in three. It’s like he wants to show everyone that he says he would be a repetitive talent for Aldridge wrong. He can also be seen talking to Pop after the game. Is there anything about that, considering there are rumors that Spurs are interested in it? Probably not, but it’s fun to speculate, since that’s all we have.
- Vassell was the last Spur to return from the COVID 19 protocols, and it’s hard to believe that it’s been almost a month since he last played: on Valentine’s Day against Charlotte Hornets. (There was something else going on that night – oh yes, that was when the White Walkers arrived in Texasfell and brought winter with them, and just like War of Thrones itself, everything went wrong from there. Wait, I got off the subject, back to Vassell.) Interestingly, Vassell’s three field goals in this game marked his first shot in exactly a month since he didn’t score in that Charlotte game, so you have to go back to Atlanta in 12 February for the last time it hit a bucket.
Next: Spurs at the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday, March 14. The tip will be at 17:30 CT on FSSW and NBA TV.