The San Antonio Spurs turned in a unusual NBA box score against the Milwaukee Bucks last Wednesday. Four of their starters – LaMarcus Aldridge, Kawhi Leonard, Tony Parker and Danny Green – combined to make nine of 33 shots.
That is, to put it mildly, a bad night. If just about any other team sees four of their starting five shoot 27.2 per cent, they can be reasonably certain they will not even be close.
The Spurs, however, won this particular contest by 25.
They out-rebounded the Bucks by 10. They stole four more passes, blocked three more shots, turned the ball over five fewer times, committed eight fewer fouls and made eight more assists.
Most importantly, they held Milwaukee to a miserly 70 points.
These are the San Antonio Spurs: even when they look like they are not quite clicking, everything seems to keep humming under the surface.
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In this year of the still-perfect Golden State Warriors, the NBA landscape already is shaping up to leave San Antonio looking like the only real challengers.
The Spurs have the league’s best defence, which may be one of the few things that can bother Golden State’s league-best offence. At 92.9 points allowed per 100 possessions, they are holding opponents to two fewer points per 100 than the second-best Miami Heat. For reference, the Warriors led the league in points allowed per 100 last season – at 98.2.
That dispiriting defensive machine in San Antonio just might have to continue to be that good to put any doubt into the Warriors title defence. It is led by Tim Duncan’s increasingly suffocating play inside, Kawhi Leonard’s all-purpose menacing and a cast of characters including Kyle Anderson, Bois Diaw, Manu Ginobili and Patty Mills – even including nice work from the likes of LaMarcus Aldridge, David West and Tony Parker, who play cohesive, physical and smart team defence.
Not particular speedy or physically imposing, the San Antonio defence thrives on the same kind of movement that Golden State’s offence is best characterised by. The Spurs are adept at filling the open spaces the Warriors create. The synchronisation that makes the Warriors nearly un-guardable, the Spurs mimic to be near-untouchable.
The Warriors rank first in offence (114.0 points per 100) and fifth in defence (97.7 allowed per 100). The Spurs rank first in defence and ninth in offence (103.1 points per 100). They are, this season, shaping up to be nearly perfectly mirroring antagonists.
Which is a good thing for basketball, because otherwise Golden State might be able to sleep-walk to another championship.
The East is competitive, but does not yet have any elite teams. The Cleveland Cavaliers should get there, eventually, but with Kyrie Irving hobbled and other injuries affecting them here and there, they just aren’t in gear yet.
The Oklahoma City Thunder, at the moment the West’s third team, have dealt with injuries and inconsistency, too. The Los Angeles Clippers, Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets have all played maddeningly mediocre basketball, interspersed with some of the quality they were expected to show.
That leaves San Antonio alone to stand in way of a Golden State victory procession.
The teams do not meet until January 25, but the first few months of the NBA season have shown little reason to believe a third team will thrust themselves into consideration. Thus, Golden State versus San Antonio will feel like a Western Conference finals preview, which in effect will feel like a finals preview.
As Aldridge, the free-agent addition, comes along, the Spurs’ offence should round into an even more effective unit. And if they can maintain this level of defensive dominance, we may be treated to a battle for supremacy this season between unstoppable force and immovable object.
Everyone else, on the other hand...
Throughout the Western Conference, ignoring the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs, the pertinent question is this: what happened to defence?
The teams that looked, before the season, to be title contenders have, Spurs and Warriors aside, largely been defensively woeful. The other seven of the nine leading squads in points allowed per 100 possessions are in the East.
The Houston Rockets nearly played their way to the bottom of the conference with their defensive indifference to start the season. Even approaching .500 again, they are still fourth-from-last (106.0 points per 100 allowed) in defensive efficiency. The LA Clippers, allowing 101.8 points per 100, are just a tick better, at 18th, than the woeful 76ers (101.9).
Defence once was the calling card of the Memphis Grizzlies. Now, allowing 103 points per 100, they sit 22nd. The New Orleans Pelicans, expected to rise along with the meteoric Anthony Davis, are last in defence, allowing a dreadful 108.6 points per 100 possessions.
Even the Oklahoma City Thunder, who have been exceptionally reliable, compared to their Western peers, are just 15th, allowing 100.7 points per 100. That, though, is still good enough for fourth in their conference.
It is a curious trend, one that to some extent will probably normalise as the season progresses. It’s worth pondering, however, if in their attempts to emulate Golden State, some of these teams have skewed their balances and gone a bit haywire.
Perhaps the frustration of falling short led to some stylistic risks that simply have not paid off.
Whatever it is, for this collection of teams to contend again, it is not sustainable to keep hanging around with the dregs of the league, defensively.
jraymond@thenational.ae
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