Just eight months ago, the NBA witnessed one of its all-time greatest games during the NBA Finals.
Game 6 of that series between the Spurs and Heat was widely recognised as an instant classic thanks to its wild, championship-swinging final 20 seconds.
Miami were down five. Heat fans were trickling out of American Airlines Arena, surrendering to the unthinkable reality of, by that moment, an inevitable-seeming Spurs upset.
In that 20 seconds, though, LeBron James nailed a redemptive three-pointer (immediately following up his miss seconds earlier) to bring Miami within two and Kawhi Leonard hit just one of two free-throw attempts on the other end to extend San Antonio’s lead back to three.
Then, in one of the most memorable sequences in NBA Finals history, LeBron missed a game-tying three and Chris Bosh collected the rebound with just enough time to desperately dish to Ray Allen in the corner, who hit his three-point attempt to send it into overtime.
All with Tim Duncan only able to watch from the bench, subbed out so Spurs coach Gregg Popovich could run a smaller defensive line-up against the Heat.
Miami went on to win that game, and then won Game 7 and the series, thanks in no small part to Duncan missing a game-tying attempt from short range with about 45 seconds left.
Those events seemed almost scripted to mark a bittersweet end to the Popovich-Duncan-Parker-Ginobili-era San Antonio Spurs, winners of three NBA titles in a decade and advancing in age none too slowly.
But, once again this year, the Spurs have shown that reports of their death have been greatly exaggerated.
For the 14th time in the last 15 seasons, the Spurs are cruising to a top-three finish in the Western Conference, at 43-16 sitting two games ahead of the third-placed Blazers and three ahead of the following Rockets and Clippers. Just 1 1/2 games behind conference-leading Oklahoma City.
They dispatched Dallas, a possible first-round opponent in the play-offs, 112-106 on Sunday. Tony Parkers scored 22, Duncan scored 17 with nine rebounds and Manu Ginobili added 15 points off the bench.
This is just what the Spurs do. They chug along, quietly elite, proving countless doubters wrong along the way.
The Big 3 - Duncan, Parker, Ginobili – now number a combined 104 years old. The surrounding talent, led by Leonard and bolstered by Tiago Splitter, Danny Green, Patty Mills, Boris Diaw, Cory Joseph and Marco Belinelli, is good, but not great.
They continue to hold their place atop the West not by being the most talented, but by being the smartest guys in the room.
The Spurs score the ninth-most points per game (104) despite taking the 19th-most shot attempts per game (82.2) thanks to an efficient 48.8 shooting percentage that is second only to Miami.
They shoot a league-best 39 per cent as a team from three, despite Belinelli being their only real three-point specialist. They’re fourth in the league in free-throw shooting, at 78.6 per cent as a team.
They hold opponents to the sixth-least amount of points per game (98) even though their opponents get in more shot attempts per game (85.5).
San Antonio, basically, do everything well. Which is how they have the fifth-best total point differential in the league (plus-6.0 points per game) despite being one of the NBA’s oldest teams, despite having missed Duncan, Parker and Ginobili for various stretches this season.
Eight months ago, it once again looked like the Spurs would begin their fade after the title disappointingly, stunningly slipped from their grasp. And eight months later, the Spurs are once again making anyone who thought that look foolish.
Kevin Durant's Thunder are the odds-on favourites to represent the West in this year's NBA Finals, but only a man who wanted to look quite the fool in, say, another couple months, would disregard the possibility of a Spurs-Heat rematch.
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